© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY

Lancelot Threlkeld

Frontier “justice” in the Hunter Region, 1827

In August 1826 a British soldier, Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe, of the 40th regiment, was charged with murdering an Aboriginal man at Wallis Plains (now known as Maitland). It was extremely unusual for a white to stand trial for a crime against a native, and to say the odds were stacked in the defendant's favour would be an understatement. Indigenous Australians were not allowed to give evidence in court, so if the only witnesses to a crime were Black, then there was effectively no crime. But even if there were white witnesses to a crime against a…

Continue ReadingFrontier “justice” in the Hunter Region, 1827
Read more about the article Lancelot Threlkeld’s labour of language
Lancelot Threlkeld in his later years and one of the volumes of his reminiscences

Lancelot Threlkeld’s labour of language

When Christian missionary Lancelot Threlkeld first arrived in the colony of New South Wales he observed that many whites insisted that the Blacks had no actual language but simply made noises. He remarked that: This was a convenient assumption, for if it could be proved that the Aborigines of New South Wales were only a species of wild beasts, there could be no guilt attributed to those who shot them off or poisoned them as cumberers of the earth. While he was at Newcastle Threlkeld borrowed a tent in which, every day at first, he met…

Continue ReadingLancelot Threlkeld’s labour of language
Read more about the article Lancelot Threlkeld: advocate for justice
Lancelot Threlkeld, circa 1815

Lancelot Threlkeld: advocate for justice

Of all the characters I've read about from Newcastle's early colonial history, one of the most interesting is the remarkable missionary, Lancelot Threlkeld. Lancelot Threlkeld wanted to be a stage actor, but he became a missionary instead. This remarkable character established the first mission to Australian Aboriginals, at Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, in 1825. And although the mission itself can scarcely be rated as having been a success, it enabled Threlkeld to leave a precious legacy to future generations. Threlkeld set out to learn the language of the people he planned to preach to and convert…

Continue ReadingLancelot Threlkeld: advocate for justice
×
×

Cart