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In which James Squire hits the presses for the first time
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On March 5, 1803, the Sydney Gazette was printed for the first time. The colony’s first newspaper, it was published by the government, and editor Robert Howe acknowledged that would limit what would appear in its pages – though he did try and put a positive spin on it.
“The utility of a paper in the colony, as it must open a source of solid information, will we hope, be universally felt and acknowledged,” Howe wrote in that first edition.
“We open no channel to political discussion or personal animadversion [that’s “criticism” to you and me]. Information is our only purpose.”
It took our man Squire four months to get a mention in the Gazette. But they made up for it by mentioning him twice in the same issue – July 3, 1803.
While he would become known as a man who did many great things, in that first mention he is a victim. On June 26, 1803, someone stole two of his oars and a boat sail. They seem like odd items to pinch, until you realise someone else’s boat went missing that same night. And that a number of convicts suspiciously went missing at the same time.
“It is suspected these depredations have been committed by a party of offenders, consisting of five men now absent from labour at Castle Hill, and J Duce, cockswain of the government long boat,” the Gazette reported.
The second mention in that same issue was because an escaped convict by the name of Jonathan Horral was caught on his farm.
As for those oar thieves, they were caught days later after trying to smuggle themselves aboard a schooner named the Francis. When they faced trial, the magistrate dismissed the charges of stealing the boat and Squire’s oars and sailcloth because it was too hard to get the boat – which would have been the evidence – back to Sydney. Instead they were sentenced with trying to escape.
All were found guilty with the ringleader Duce getting 500 lashes while the others a somewhat less painful 300 lashes each. It is doubtful Squire ever got his oars and sailcloth back.