1. John Thomas Bigge was an English judge and royal commissioner.
31 Facts About John Bigge
1. 2.
John Bigge is mostly known for his inquiry into the British colony of New South Wales published in the early 1820s.
3.
John Bigge's reports favoured a return to the harsh treatment of convicts and the utilisation of them as cheap agricultural labour for wealthy sheep-farming colonists.
4.
John Bigge was born at Benton House, Northumberland, England, the son of Thomas Charles John Bigge, High Sheriff of Northumberland in 1780.
5.
John Bigge was called to the Bar in 1806 and was appointed Chief Judge of Trinidad in 1814, a post he held for the next four years.
6.
In 1819, John Bigge was appointed a special commissioner to examine the government of the Colony of New South Wales by Lord Bathurst, the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies.
7.
John Bigge's brief was to determine how far the expanding colony of New South Wales could be "made adequate to the Objects of its original Institution", which were understood to be purely to be a penal colony.
8.
John Bigge was to come to Australia to investigate all aspects of the colonial government, then under the governorship of Lachlan Macquarie, including finances, the church and the judiciary, and the convict system.
9.
John Bigge finished gathering evidence February 1821 and on 10 February, sailed back to England aboard the ship Dromedary.
10.
John Bigge extensively praised Macarthur and advocated for his policies of providing large assignments of convicts to 'men of real capital' in order to labour upon their sheep stations.
11.
John Bigge outlined that the concentration of convicts in the employ of the government in Sydney was indulgent, expensive and enabled convicts to readily access alcohol and entertainment.
12.
John Bigge noted that convicts viewed transportation to the colony more as emigration than as a punishment.
13.
John Bigge recommended that the convicts have their usual seven year sentences increased and be mostly assigned as cheap labour to wealthy land-holders in more regional areas.
14.
John Bigge wrote that convicts in the employ of the government was unnecessary and too costly, while assigning them to poor settlers was 'very pernicious'.
15.
John Bigge strongly reproached Macquarie for his appointment of ex-convicts to official posts such as magistrates, solicitors and assistant surgeons.
16.
John Bigge argued that these appointments diminished the respect for these roles and that the emancipists had a 'low moral character' and did not have the necessary skills and 'pretensions' for the positions.
17.
John Bigge argued that the appointments were in fact an 'act of violence' to colonial society.
18.
John Bigge consulted almost exclusively with the colonial 'men of capital' as to what should be done with the convicts in New South Wales.
19.
John Bigge praised the 'perseverance and intelligence' of John Macarthur and promoted his view that the most skilled convicts be assigned to the large sheep farming estates of not less than 50 acres belonging to the wealthy away from the towns.
20.
John Bigge wanted the convicts to have no set payment for their labour on the large estates and advised they only be adequately clothed, sheltered and fed by the colonists they were assigned to.
21.
John Bigge wanted a crackdown on the number of pardons and early releases given, and that no land grants be offered to emancipated convicts, who should instead form the basis of a future class of landless labourers.
22.
John Bigge thought these policies of promoting emancipists by Macquarie to be 'inexpedient and dangerous'.
23.
John Bigge used an incident where three trespassers were summarily punished by Macquarie to accuse the governor of a 'sudden imposition of extraordinary power'.
24.
John Bigge recommended an entire separation of the judicial administration of Van Diemen's Land from that of New South Wales.
25.
John Bigge thought wool growing to be the only clear source of profitable industry for the colony.
26.
John Bigge advocated to the British government the policy of Macarthur to provide large grants or sales of land to rich colonists and make available to these settlers three convicts per 200 acres.
27.
John Bigge approved large land grants to rich and well-connected colonists, including a contract of a million acres to a consortium of entrepreneurs led by John Macarthur known as the Australian Agricultural Company.
28.
From 1823, John Bigge was given similar appointments to examine the government of the Cape Colony, Mauritius and Ceylon.
29.
John Bigge continued in poor health and was too indisposed to accept a position to report on clerical establishments in 1832.
30.
John Bigge never married and lived a solitary life in retirement until his accidental death on 22 December 1843 at the Grosvenor Hotel in London.
31.
John Bigge was buried as directed by his will "without ceremony or superfluous expense".