"Clowns of no account"? Reflections on the involvement of four Irishmen in the commercial life...

Introduction

We use the lives of four Irishmen as a lens to provide a foundation of knowledge upon which to build further understandings of Irish influences on the development of commercial activity in the British colony in New South Wales (NSW), from its founding in 1788 through to 1818. The paper contributes to our understanding of accounting's past through an exploration of accountants in that past as well as the influences which shaped them and their accounting handiwork. This is consistent with the suggestion by Carnegie and Napier (2002) that the identification of pioneers (such as the "first accountant") and early accounting artefacts (such as the "first ledger account") can contribute significantly to accounting literature and to the understanding of the diffusion and dissemination of accounting.

The four Irishmen we examine (John Kenny, Michael Hayes, Jeremiah Murphy and John Thomas Campbell) came to the attention of the first author during the writing of his biography of John Croaker - the convict embezzler who established the first double-entry accounting system in Australia, at the Bank of New South Wales, in 1817 (Booker & Craig, 2000). This paper draws from, and extends, biographical data and related materials provided by Parker (1982), Craig and Jenkins (1996), and Craig (1998a, 1998b, 2000) and introduces new biographical information, mainly sourced in Ireland. The four Irishmen we examine represent a wide cross-section of background and experience. Examination of their lives allows us to explore their claims to notoriety; to obtain a keener understanding of the potential significance of Irish "hedge schools" in teaching bookkeeping to Irish convicts and settlers, and to reflect upon the accuracy of conventional stereotypes of the Irish in colonies such as NSW.

Generally, the view of the Irish held by colonial citizens in early nineteenth century NSW seems to have been that they were poor, urban, usually drunk, obsessively Catholic, illiterate, raucous, emotional and erratic. Reece (1989, p.2), for example, cites a contemporary description of the Irish in NSW as "passionate, priest-ridden idiots" and "barbarous simpletons". A contemporary account by the Judge Advocate of NSW, Collins (1798), argues that the Irish were a "race of beings (for they do not deserve the appellation of men) so extremely ignorant and so little humanised". O'Farrell (2000, p.22 and 24) contends that the first image of the Irish in the colony was that they "were fools, simpletons, clowns of no account - and lazy as well" (italics applied) and that Irish convicts "were a pack of dangerous, low, Papist rebels". Whittaker (1994, pp.33-6) refers to the prejudice of the English and their characterisation of the Irish in NSW as variously stupid, violent, depraved, wild, ignorant and savage.

The evidence we adduce about our four persons of interest is consistent, in part, with this stereotype (for example, fondness for alcohol, obsession with Catholicism). However, the present paper contributes a substantially more nuanced view of the early Irish in NSW. The four Irishmen we discuss are significant in both tone and substance and contrary to conventional stereotypes of the Irish. These are not "clowns of no account": Kenny left behind one of the earliest surviving advertisements as a teacher of accounting, Hayes is described as "Australia's first accountant", Murphy opened the first bank account and left behind the first surviving T account in NSW, and Campbell was the first President of the Bank of NSW.

While the contribution of the Irish to the colonial life of early Australia has been well-documented (for example, Waldersee, 1974; O'Farrell, 1986 and 2000; Moore, 2000), this paper adds to our understanding of the contribution of the Irish to early accounting and commerce in the NSW colony through both artefact and action. Much of the earlier histories focus on political and geographical aspects of the Irish in NSW - the Irish as rebels and settlers, respectively. This paper provides a sketch of the Irish as would-be accountants and teachers of accounting, as a banker and as the first customer of the Bank of NSW. Therefore, the paper uses newly-discovered material from archives in Ireland to add further richness and colour to the picture that is traditionally painted of the early Irish in NSW. O'Donnell (2003, p.619) suggests that "it was during the 'Macquarie era' that the substantial, if increasingly diluted, United Irish community established themselves as an integral part of colonial society and were to display impressive feats in the fields of business, surveying, construction and exploration". While O'Donnell does not elaborate, this paper puts flesh on the bones of this suggestion by tracing the character and context of four Irishmen who made a contribution to the early commercial life of the NSW colony. As such, it initiates a potentially broader understanding of Australian and Irish accounting in a pre-professional period, using the four Irishmen as case histories to aid our understanding of the broader historical, commercial and colonial context of the time.

This paper argues that the significance of these men is not serendipitous. The backgrounds of our four Irishmen, each of whom contributed to the commercial life of the new colony (as a would-be teacher, a small businessman, an opportunist soldier and a loyal civil servant) are traced, exposing character traits which, in their variety, are consistent with Ireland of the eighteenth century and contrary to the "Irish stereotype" (for example, the Irish "obsession" with mathematics?). Further, the paper indicates that such representations are central to a setting that is "primarily imperial" (Said, 1993, p.66), reproducing old power in a new world. The paper concludes by briefly placing the lives of our four Irishmen in the general context of colonisation, arguing that the manner in which their backgrounds in Ireland fashioned their experiences in the Colony of New South Wales suggests that they are a metaphor of colonialism.

John Kenny (Co. Carlow) (c.1771-1807): first teacher of double-entry accounting?1

John and James Kenny were young Irish catholic convicts from Carlow who were transported to NSW in 1793 in the Boddingtons.2 In the Sydney Gazette of 6 October 1805 they announced their intention to open a school in The Rocks area of Sydney, offering instruction in a range of subjects, including "book-keeping according to the Italian mode": that is, double-entry bookkeeping. This was the first of about 20 advertisements3 placed in the Sydney Gazette between 1804 and 1816, by 11 individual schools offering instruction in "bookkeeping", "bookkeeping according to (or after) the Italian mode" or "merchants accompts".4

Contemporary sources in Ireland offer fresh insights to the origins and backgrounds of James and John Kenny. Court reports in Finn's Leinster Journal (Wednesday, 17 August to Saturday, 20 August, 1791, p.4d) and in Faulkner's Dublin Journal (Saturday, 27 August to Tuesday, 30 August 1791, p.4c) indicate that James Kenny "was transmitted to Carlow, to take his trial there, for the robbery of Mr Moran, of Leighlinbridge". (Leighlinbridge is a village approximately five miles south of Carlow town.) Finn's Leinster Journal of Wednesday, 12 October to Saturday, 15 October 1791 (p.4d) reported that "James and John Kenny, who were confined to Carlow jail since last assizes, under sentence of transportation, found means last night to effect their escape from hence, and have not since been heard of". The Kennys, evidently, were subsequently recaptured as they were transported to NSW in 1793 in the Boddingtons. While approximately 10 per cent of the Irish transported to NSW in the 1790s were political convicts (Reece, 1990), the Kennys appear to represent the relatively under-researched, non-political majority who were transported as common criminals. Similar to the majority of Irish convicts deported to Australia (Reece, 1990; O'Farrell, 2000), their background was rural.

Considerable doubt has been cast on whether students were taught double-entry bookkeeping at the school conducted by the Kennys (Craig & Jenkins, 1996, p.223). Indeed, Craig (2000, pp.94-5) has argued that "no class lists, enrolment registers, work books, text books, or information regarding the employment placements of successful students has been found to sustain argument that doubleentry bookkeeping was taught". But this argument should be acknowledged as imposing a modern test on historical circumstances. The fact that the Kennys did not maintain records or a roll may not be significant as it was not the norm of the time. It was not a practice followed in the Irish "hedge school" system and, given their age at transportation, it seems reasonable to conjecture that if the Kennys knew accounting, they probably learned it in the Irish hedge schools of the time.

"Hedge schools" were common in Ireland from the seventeenth century. Penal laws in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century forbade schoolmasters to teach and consequently, they were forced into a peripatetic existence, teaching in secret, out of doors, and often out of sight behind hedges. When enforcement of such laws was relaxed in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, "hedge schools" were also held in barns, huts or similar buildings. They were an important form of education in the Irish countryside until the formation of the more formal national school system in 1831 (Daly, 1979).5 Bowling (1968), Adams (1998) and McManus (2002) all argue that the hedge school system was relatively sophisticated with a curriculum that was sometimes wide-ranging - including arithmetic, Greek and Latin as well as, in some cases, bookkeeping. (The latter subject matter is important because we enter conjecture later that the Kennys' alleged expertise in bookkeeping had been obtained in "hedge schools".) There was undoubtedly great variety in the quality and context of hedge schools. However, Daly (1979, p. 151) suggests that the accounts of Dowling and others "seem excessively eulogistic" as "many contemporary observers described (hedge schools) as places of squalor and educational anarchy. The truth, no doubt, lies somewhere in between".

The temptation to put the Kennys on a pedestal as the first teachers of double-entry bookkeeping in Australia should be resisted in the absence of evidence to indicate that they had any previous "direct experience in accompting, clerical or mercantile pursuits, either before or after their arrival in NSW in 1793" (Craig, 2000, p.94). Nonetheless, the Kennys were part of an increasingly educated Irish Catholic under- and middle-class, thereby at least attaching some possibility to their claims.6 Furthermore, their advertisements echo similar ones for "City Academies" in Ireland at about the same time (Dowling, 1968).7 In the Kennys' home county in Ireland (Carlow), Clifton (1964, p. 18) estimates that there were up to one hundred hedge schools in 1824 (based on the Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry in that year). Several of these, for example, James Tallon at Rathoe and James Lyons at Ballontraine taught "reading, writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping, mensuration, surveying, dealing, geometry, trigonometry and English grammar" (italics applied).

There was an expanding bookkeeping tradition in eighteenth century Ireland and many Irishmen were exposed to Continental European bookkeeping practices acquired in Spain, France and Italy. Cullen (1990, p.78) has suggested that "apprenticeship abroad in an Irish counting house" was a source of employment for the sons of Catholic families. Wall (1989, p.80) mentions that in 1789, Patrick Bellew (of the Bellew gentry family of County Louth) "sent a son to Rouen to learn French and figures to prepare him for that calling (as a merchant)".

John Kenny seems to have been more likely to possess expertise in accounting - a conclusion strengthened by the fact that James Kenny's new school near Sydney (which James operated alone from 1806 to 1815 (Goodin, 1950)), did not advertise the availability of instruction in "bookkeeping" or "accounting". The quality of instruction in "bookkeeping according to the Italian mode" either of the Kennys would have been capable of offering is questionable. If John Kenny did teach accounting, he should not be promoted as a role model. He was a volatile, violent man who had a propensity for getting into trouble and ultimately met a gruesome fate.8 According to Craig (2000, p.95): "Overall, the sum of evidence on the Kennys evokes considerable doubt whether their school in the Rocks ... actually provided instruction in double-entry bookkeeping or operated seriously at all".9 But is such a conclusion warranted? What is the case in support of the claims of the Kennys? The corpus of information available on the Kennys suggests they were literate and numerate - although we have no reliable primary evidence of this. Such a conclusion sits fairly comfortably with the estimation by O'Farrell (2000, p.25) that about 60 per cent of Irish males transported to Australia could read and between 40 and 50 per cent could also write. While there may be no direct evidence of bookkeeping having been taught in a school conducted by Kenny in Sydney, it would not have been unusual for a member of the Irish underclass to be well-versed in arithmetic and, potentially, bookkeeping.10 McManus (2002, pp. 133-4) draws attention to opinion that the hedge schools provided "a fine education ... in reading, writing and bookkeeping, even to the poorest child" (italics applied). Whether Kenny was a product of the Irish hedge school system is unknown. His age at the time of transportation (21 years) seems to make him too young to be a former hedge schoolmaster. Nonetheless, one should not ignore the fact that hedge schoolmasters varied in age, ability and erudition such that "anyone from the highest attainments to the lowest could open a school and hope to attract pupils" (Adams, 1998, p. 109)." The possibility that John Kenny attended a hedge school or was a former hedge schoolteacher cannot be dismissed.

Whether Kenny was legitimately qualified to teach accounting or not, his story leaves a footprint of the pre-professional pattern of accounting in early NSW. If he was exaggerating his abilities in accounting, it suggests that accounting was a currency worth counterfeiting in the very early years of the colony. However, it was not of sufficient value to release him from the constraints of colonialisation and his convict past. Kenny, the convict, was brought out of Ireland. However, Ireland - and all its connotations in the world of imperial Britain - could not be brought out of Kenny. In this regard, Reece (1989) and O'Farrell (2000) distinguish between those deported for petty crimes (such as Kenny) and those deported for political crimes, arguing that the latter were generally better educated, of a higher socioeconomic background and received better treatment - and better opportunities - than their convict counterparts. In that context, Michael Hayes provides an interesting example of the political criminal: the Wexford merchant who was first to advertise in NSW for work as an "accountant".

Michael Hayes (Co. Wexford) (1767-1825): first to advertise for work as "Accountant" 12

Hayes was the son of a "merchant and agent", with a home address "Opposite Mount Street, Wexford".13 He arrived in Sydney aboard the Friendship II in 1800. He was a 31 year old, well-educated, industrious young man, "lame of one hand". After a trial in Wexford in July 1798, he was transported to NSW for life for administering the United Irishman's Oath during the Irish Rebellion. Claims by Hayes that his actions were motivated by desire to "protect lives and property" appear to have substance. He allegedly saved "the lives of the Protestant Loyalists on the day of the Massacre on Wexford Bridge" - for several days he protected lieut. Rudd of the Enniscorthy Cavalry in his house before sending "him from that in disguise". The Guinness Book of Australian Firsts (Robertson, 1987) claims that Michael Hayes was Australia's first accountant.

As the eldest son of a family of eight, Hayes held the lease on the family home in Wexford.14 Sweetman (1998, p.42) suggests that it is "highly probable" that Michael Hayes "had been engaged in distilling in Enniscorthy or Wexford" before his transportation to NSW. His family background and the context of his time suggest that he was part of the burgeoning and increasingly politicised Catholic middle-class.15 His brother, Patrick, operated a distillery (this will become significant later) and a family grocery in Dublin and later became a partner with Mr Sparrow in a large distillery near Enniscorthy, County Wexford (Giblin, 1950). Another brother, Richard, joined the Franciscans and became prominent in the Catholic veto controversy that reached its peak in the 1810s. Richard was educated by the Franciscans in Wexford and was described by a contemporary as "the greatest wit that ever left Ireland. He is but 23 years of age, and is perfectly qualified to teach Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages, French, Italian, the mathematics, geography and history".16

It seems likely that Michael Hayes (who, according to O'Farrell (2000, p.32) "had Latin and Greek"), like his brother Richard, also received his early education with the Franciscans in Wexford. Michael, in a letter to Richard in 1812, requests that "if any of the old friars are living, I beg you will remember me to them" (Giblin, 1950, p.65). Michael Hayes also seems to have been well-connected: "when Michael went there (to Australia) first he was a bondsman and only saved from slavery by recommendations and certificates from influential friends" (Giblin, 1950).

Hayes' prominence arose through his advertisement in the Sydney Gazette of 28 August 1803 (reproduced below and repeated on 11 September and 9 October 1803) seeking employment as an Accomptant. It evidences one of the earliest written uses of the term "Accomptant" (or "Accountant") in the NSW colony (Craig, 1998, pp.68-9; Craig, 2000, p. 100). But this is not surprising because, as the eldest son of a merchant family in Wexford, it is likely that Hayes would have had some exposure to bookkeeping before his transportation to Australia.

A Situation Wanted

Michael Hayes, from an Indulgence granted him, is desirous to engage as an ACCOMPTANT in a Mercantile Situation:-

OR IN

The Brewing and Malting Business,

Which would be the most Lucrative to an Adventurer, of any Branch that could be conducted in this Colony. Also, it would tend to the General Interests of the Colonists, from the encouragement it would hold out to Cultivators and the rearing of Stock.

A Line addressed to the Care of the Printer of this Paper, will be immediately attended to.

Sydney Gazette, 28 August 1803

The "Indulgence" mentioned is Hayes' Conditional Pardon, received in June 1803. Hayes obtained employment managing the substantial business affairs of Charles Bishop and George Bass between March 1804 and September 1805. His duties included the furnishing of "Quarterly Accounts" and he was described by Surgeon Thomas Jamison as having "conducted himself with the greatest propriety and rectitude".

Michael Hayes seems to have taken more than a passing interest in his brother Patrick's operation of distilleries. As part of a crackdown on the operation of illicit stills in Sydney by Governor King in September 1805, a search of Hayes' house revealed a large working 40 gallon still tended by a prisoner, Michael Wallis, an employee of Hayes. It was no fly-by-night operation, for also found were 13 casks containing 1700 gallons of fermenting liquor, three 15 gallon kegs containing "singlings" and assorted implements, including tubs, buckets, a funnel, a quart pot, two piggins, and two iron mauls. Despite this physical evidence, Hayes denied any knowledge of the still or of employing Wallis to operate it. When magistrates asked Hayes "whether it was possible for any person to place the Casks and the Still in a house belonging to him without his knowledge", he responded that he knew "nothing whatever about it".

Hayes was found guilty of "illicit distilling of spirits" and was transported to Norfolk Island in September 1805. There he married Elizabeth Huffnell and worked as an agent for several Sydney merchants, especially Thomas Jamison, "for whom he recovered many debts". Upon his return to Sydney in September 1808, he was granted a free pardon, operated a shop and boot factory in Pitts Row in 1809, and was licensee of a hotel in George Street in 1811-1812. Hayes was granted 120 acres at Airds along the Nepean River in 1812, marked on the grant as "Hayes' Farm".17 In the same year, he wrote to his brother Patt (a merchant in Dublin) that he could not return to Ireland "from this distant land" as:

... some money concerns which extend to the different settlements in this country, entrusted to me as factor for Messers, (sic) Bass, Bishop, Jamison & Co., to whom I am responsible for all outstanding debts, are obstacles that will take some time to surmount ... after a departure from this there is no possibility of recovering debts or obtaining any remuneration.18

This suggests a foray by Hayes beyond his role as "Sydney store- and hotel-keeper" (O'Farrell, 2000, p.28) to factoring, debt collection and, as discussed later in the context of Campbell, banking. Later in this same letter Hayes writes (with spelling and grammar from the original):

A Mr Jamison, who was surgeon-general of this territory, was also principal agent and co-partner in an investment from England sent to this place. The net proceeds of it was taken by him to England to the amount of some thousands paid by me and a Mr Lord as factors for the sale. Bass was lost with the ship on the coast of Peru; Bisshop is a lunatic and Jamison died without fairly accounting for the money entrusted to him ... . How farr it can effect us as factors, I believe it impossible as Jamison (letter torn here) the money and remitt to London.

This episode precipitated financial problems for Hayes and, thereafter, his fortunes "apparently declined, owing to speculation and bad debts". In 1816, he reluctantly wrote to his brother Richard that "I have experienced a great depression in my affairs in this colony. My circumstances is verry (sic) much reduced, partly instigated by bad debts and some speculation in purchasing wares etc ... . This impedes any progress I endeavour or attain here".19

Michael Hayes was a devout Catholic and was prominent in lobbying for the appointment of Catholic priests to the Colony. It was largely through his "persistent pleading" in letters to his brother, Richard (by then a prominent Franciscan priest in Rome) that two Catholic priests, Fathers Conolly and Therry, were sent to NSW in 1820. Hayes was a member of the original committee which "negotiated the location and construction" of St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney. A Mass celebrating his contributions to the Catholic community in colonial Sydney was held at St. Mary's Cathedral on 8 September 1985.

Hayes was found drowned, in mysterious circumstances, in Sydney's Darling Harbour in September 1825. The Sydney Gazette described him as "a very old inhabitant of the Colony (he was only 58!), and once rather in affluent and respectable circumstances" and claimed "it is feared the poor man destroyed his life (committed suicide) in a fit of despondency". He was a complex person, alleged by descendants to be an innocent victim of the duplicity and manipulations of others. But he was also "possibly something of a prude" (Reece, 1989, p. 13); "conscious of liberal civilising class ... (and also) ... deferentially disposed towards authority ... and shamed by the stigma of criminality" that he had acquired through his actions in the Irish Rebellion (O'Farrell, 2000, p.32). He was a passionate Irishman who longed frequently to return to his homeland.

O'Farrell (2000, p.32) suggests that Hayes "is an excellent illustration of the 'Australianisation' processes at work on 'gentlemen' rebels". For example, he is cited in Waldersee (1974), O'Donnell (1996) and Moore (2000) as part of a group of "Irish rebels" who were granted lands in south-west Sydney and there established "enclaves of Irish settlement" (Moore, 2000, p.39). None of these, however, allude to his significance as the first to advertise as an accountant in colonial NSW. Hayes also reflected the trend towards politicisation and prosperity that was part of eighteenth century Ireland. In Ireland, he was part of the burgeoning Catholic middle-class20 and he brought the characteristics of that class with him to NSW. He was a Catholic activist in Ireland and continued in that vein in NSW too. He was a merchant in Wexford, and it was not surprising that he conducted small businesses in Sydney. His letters have the markings of a man on the make: accounts of opportunities for export of agricultural merchandise from Ireland, and repeated advice to his siblings in Ireland concerning the 2,700 acres of land in Athlone bequeathed to them by John Reddington in 1816. Hayes represents those transported convicts who were unwilling to let the grass grow under their feet - and who, in their own mind, "were not heroes but failures who had deserted their families and (this) caused them great distress, and they were determined to make amends" (O'Farrell, 2000, p.32).

Jeremiah Murphy (Co. Cork) (1787-1820): first bank depositor21

Colour Sergeant Jeremiah Murphy of the 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot was the first person to open (and close) a bank deposit account at Australia's first bank, the Bank of New South Wales (in Sydney in 1817). Murphy is also the first person in Australia in respect of whose affairs a ledger account prepared within a double-entry accounting system has been found. But he was not the only Irishman to be prominent in the opening of the Bank. John Thomas Campbell of County Armagh was the Bank's first President; John Harris of Money more, County Londonderry was a founding director; and Owen O'Connor, an Irish carpenter, was among the first four customers granted the first loans made by the bank on 6 May 1817 (Bank of NSW, Minute Book No. 1; Irish Link, 36(3), p.3).

Murphy represents a long "tradition"22 of service by the Irish as soldiers in foreign fields (see, for example, Murtagh (1996)). By the late eighteenth century the demands of "total war" rendered an army career increasingly attractive: wars had become "labour-intensive and territorially-extensive" (Bartlett, 1993, p.68). The army represented a well-paid job and indeed became a safety valve for discontented, under-employed Irish males (Hanham, 1973). From the 1770s onwards, Irishmen joined the British Army in increasing numbers to service the manpower needs of the Napoleonic Wars: "there was a belief that Ireland and Irish resources - especially human resources - were vital to the war effort" (Bartlett, 1993, p.79). Irish recruiting produced 90,000 men between 1800 and 1815 and, by 1830, there were more Irish than English in the British Army. The Irish by that time represented 42 per cent of the British Army. Those who joined did so for a range of reasons: escape from "haunts of dissipation and inebriation" (Edmondson, 1902, p.5), family tradition (Karsten, 1983), the consequences of the law, amorous indiscretions or impulse (Spiers, 1996, pp.336-9).

Regimental records (WO 25/395, pp.24-5) describe Murphy at the time he enlisted in Killarney in 1810, as 23 years old, 5 foot 6 inches, a former labourer, with a "round visage, swarthy complexion, grey eyes and brown hair". He is described as having been born in Cork and as being from the parish of Creagh. Murphy proved to be a good soldier. He achieved rapid promotion to colour sergeant (in 1816). He arrived in NSW in 1814 where most of his time was spent in Sydney, although for several months in 1816 Regimental Muster Rolls describe him as "on duty in pursuit of natives".

Murphy was a resourceful character, capable of succeeding even when confronted with highly unfavourable circumstances. The NSW Governor, Macquarie, rewarded him personally on two occasions. In May 1816, Murphy was in command of 16 soldiers responsible for "protection of the stockmen and cattle, and to keep the communication open between Sydney and Bathurst". A party of soldiers led by Murphy is said to have succeeded, on foot, in rounding up cattle running wild in that area "with neither horse nor dog nor the benefit of a fence to run cattle to". During this posting, a grammatically correct letter in Murphy's handwriting, and signed by Murphy (Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825, Reel 6047, 4/1739, p.226), clearly reveals that he was literate. For his meritorious service, Macquarie awarded Murphy 5 "as a gift for his vigilance and attention in the performance of his duty" (Lachlan Macquarie, Diary, 27 July, 1816. CY Reel 301, A773, p.32, Mitchell Library, Sydney). In August 1817, Macquarie awarded Murphy a further 13.11.6 for his excellent work, in the absence of stonemasons and suitable tools, in "superintending" the construction of the Macquarie Lighthouse near the entrance to Sydney Harbour.

The Bank of New South Wales was scheduled to open at 10 am on Easter Tuesday, 8 April 1817. Yet, curiously on Easter Saturday, 5 April 1817, Sgt. Jeremiah Murphy is recorded as having made the first deposit - of 50. The ledger account in which that deposit is recorded is reproduced below.

1.

Dr. Jeremiah Murphy Sergt 46th Regt. Cr.

Sgt. Murphy's ledger account is the first in the accounts ledger of the Bank of NSW, thereby explaining the number "1" in the top left hand corner of the page. The Bank used an accounting system common in English banks at the time. From a Day Book (or chronological daily record of transactions) periodic postings were made to ledger accounts. The number "3" in the second column from the right indicates that the details of the deposit on 5 April were taken from page 3 of the Day Book. Murphy's ledger account was balanced on 30 June 1817 and that balance was carried down to form the opening balance on 1 July for the forthcoming accounting period. On 11 September 1817, when Murphy's departure from Sydney with his regiment seemed imminent, he withdrew the total amount he had deposited, 50.

A plausible explanation can be offered for Murphy's deposit being made three days before the bank's official opening. The 46th Regiment was required to post a sentry at the Bank. Orders outlining the sentry's duties were issued on the day of opening. It seems reasonable conjecture that a senior sergeant of the Regiment (such as Murphy) visited the bank on Easter Saturday to confer with Bank staff and directors about security arrangements and to clarify the duties of the sentry. Murphy, an enterprising and opportunistic character, might have taken advantage of this visit to inveigle (successfully) upon Bank staff to accept his deposit of 50.

Murphy did not leave Sydney for India with the main body of his Regiment in 1817, but sailed for England later that year (WO12/5810). He is described as "on furlough in Europe" for much of 1818. On 13 February 1819, he "marched for embarkation" to India from Canterbury (WO 12/5811/5812). Whereas life had been kind to him in NSW, fate did not smile on him in India. He served in Poonamallee and Fort George and died at Bellary, Madras on 23 November 1820, aged 33, after spending about two months in the regimental hospital (WO 12/5813). His effects were willed to his wife, Honour, who was said "to be with the Regiment". He left no debts and the "credits" paid to his wife amounted to 2. 6. 3 (WO25/1809).

Murphy appears to have been an efficient and reliable soldier. The record of his bank deposit on 5 April 1817 is the earliest located artefact of the operation of a simple, but coherent, system of double-entry accounting in colonial Australia. It seems a curious oddity that an Irish soldier serving in the British Army would be Australia's first bank depositor. One might have expected that honour to be accorded to a merchant, a dealer or scion of the Sydney business community of the time - one of the subscribers to the bank perhaps23, one of whom, John Thomas Campbell, provides an interesting counterpoint to the soldier Murphy.

John Thomas Campbell (Co. Armagh) (0.1770-1830): first President of the Bank of NSW24

Campbell was the eldest son of Reverend William Campbell, Church of Ireland Rector of Newry, and his wife Mary. He was born "in that part of the town of Newry in County Armagh across the Newry River from County Down" (Irish Link, 36(3), p.3) and is part of an Anglo-Irish tradition which "as a group has been so neglected in the writing of Australian history" (Forth, 1992, p.128).25 Lord Caledon, Governor of the Cape Colony recommended Campbell to NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie and he was appointed as his secretary (Ritchie, 1986, p. 117). Campbell was "well-informed, with experience in banking, (and) gave every appearance of gentility". Macquarie commented that Campbell offered a "contrast to the troublesome gentry of New South Wales" about whom he had heard "vapourish tales".26 Together with Governor Macquarie, and the Judge Advocate, John Wylde, Campbell was one of the principal promoters of the Bank of NSW and was the bank's first president. The 59 clauses of the Bank's founding charter were largely the work of Wylde (Butlin, 1968, p. 114; Holder, 1970, p. 15), probably aided by Campbell.

Campbell is said to have had significant experience in the operational side of banking and to have provided Governor Macquarie with first-hand expertise in the long run-up to the establishment of a bank. As Booker and Craig (2000, p.87) report:

Campbell had served briefly with the Bank of Ireland, where he was a "runner" in 1793 and an assistant in the discount office in 1795.27 Later he "had a principal part in the Establishment and conduct of the Bank at the Cape of Good Hope" (Historical Records of Australia, Part 1, Vol.9, p.220).

It seems unlikely that Campbell would have been responsible for instituting the bookkeeping procedures of the bank. Only by serving a banking apprenticeship would Campbell have acquired sufficient knowledge of the discipline of bank bookkeeping. But his training at the Bank of Ireland was not in that area. His expertise in NSW was probably applied in determining the bank's terms of reference, and its procedures for discounting bills of exchange and promissory notes. Further, the facts of Campbell's first-hand association with banking, especially at the Cape, are not without challenge: the standard history of South African banking (Arndt, 1928) does not refer to him. His biographer, Holder (1970, p.7, p.21), admits that Campbell's past was "obscure", and that the historical record of his background might be unreliable and exaggerated. Nonetheless, if Campbell was exaggerating his banking background, in contrast to Kenny, for example, his religion and class carried him to the centre of the colonial administration. Class rather than qualification was the key to good standing in colonial life.

A further interesting observation with regard to the Bank of NSW concerns Michael Hayes. Hayes knew Campbell through their mutual dealings with the pioneer Catholic clergy in the colony.28 Intriguingly, Hayes wrote to this brother Patt in December 1816 that "we have established a bank here (in NSW) with the sanction and the protection of government; a fund of 20,000 is raised in shares of 50."29 The expression "sanction and protection of government" represented an interesting confluence of interests for Hayes, the merchant and one-time rebel, and Campbell, the loyalist public official. Furthermore, the use of the collective "we" suggests a pride in the progress of the new colony indicative of Hayes' involvement and integration into Australian society.

Discussion and Conclusion

The story of Michael Hayes is typical of the "Australianisation" (O'Farrell, 2000, p.32) of the transported classes - a phenomenon observed (if indirectly) with Kenny and Campbell. Hayes' letters illustrate an opportunism that was characteristic of the day and that, ultimately, stretched and broke his fortunes. Our four men (would-be teacher, small businessman, resourceful soldier and loyal civil servant) represent a cross-section of members of the population of NSW. They were part of a society that struggled to cope with the distant new landscape in a colony that represented a tabula rasa of opportunity. Kenny, Hayes, Murphy and Campbell were dexterous in exploring that open landscape as best they could. They are, in a sense, prototypes of a pre-professional period - a period before professional regulation and "credentialism" (Walker, 1995) circumscribed descriptions of teacher and accountant. Hence, they shed further light on an era of unregulated accounting, a later period of which is well-documented by Carnegie (1997). The evidence outlined here is also a lens through which we can better understand the early colonial context of the past of accounting through the people of accounting.

While Kenny, Hayes, Murphy and Campbell represent a process of Australianisation, they were also of Ireland. This is important in two respects. First, their heterogeneous origins, religion and activities defy the representation of the Irish as stereotypical and homogeneous, and as a populace of "passionate, priest-ridden idiots" (Reece, 1989, p.2). Although we find they had character traits consistent with such conventional stereotypes (for example, proneness to violence, penchant for liquor, Catholicity), they were much more than this. They also exhibit compassion, resourcefulness, opportunism, efficiency and educational attainment. They were far from being accurately described as "clowns of no account". This is unsurprising for, according to Reece (1989, p.9), analysis of the Irish population in early Australia "points to the likelihood of difference". The activities of Kenny, Hayes, Murphy and Campbell represent such difference at the micro-level: they mirrored their native land and the sectarian and class divisions that had given rise to the circumstances which found them in NSW.

Our four Irishmen were of Ireland because they brought their backgrounds with them to NSW. All four were transported and transplanted in the new colony with both baggage and equipment. The baggage was weighed down by the conventional, contemporary stereotype of the Irish and labelled with epithets such as "lazy", "fools" and "simpletons". However, they also carried with them the equipment of eighteenth-century Ireland, an Ireland which was increasingly multidimensional in its educational and political backgrounds. Hence, the Irishman Kenny claimed to be a teacher of bookkeeping in Sydney, and the possibility that he had been taught bookkeeping in hedge schools in Ireland should not be dismissed. However, ultimately, Kenny the criminal in Ireland was Kenny the criminal in Australia. Hayes, the son of a Wexford merchant, the brother of a distiller and of a Franciscan, became Hayes the illicit distiller, the "Sydney store- and hotelkeeper", and the devout Catholic lay activist. Murphy represented the Irish tradition of soldiers who sold their service for pay and were peripatetic in their search for opportunity. Campbell, the son of an Ulster Protestant minister, remained loyal to King and Governor and maintained his sense of his class and his wariness of "Popery" in the new colony.

These four Irishmen were, in a sense, metaphors of colonialism: their opportunities were constrained by their origins and their consequent positions in the hierarchy of colonial society. Kenny and Hayes in particular were transported and transplanted to a new world in the garb of the world they left behind in Ireland. They represent the "sameness and circularity" (Said, 1993, p.127) which confirmed old power in a new world. "To some extent", as O'Farrell (2000, p.36) argues, "the success stories among the Irish in New South Wales replicated gradations in the Irish world left behind: those who came with experience of initiative and enterprise tended to make the best use of new opportunities" - and, presumably, vice versa. This was no different for Kenny, Hayes, Murphy and Campbell - four Irishmen in a distant colony.