Adlib Internet Server 5

Select

412905

Title
Collection 03: Ralph Clark journal kept on the Friendship during a voyage to Botany Bay and Norfolk Island, and on the Gorgon returning to England, 9 March 1787 - 31 December 1787, 1 January 1788 - 10 March 1788, 15 February 1790 - 2 January 1791, 25 January 1791 - 17 June 1792
Creator
Ralph Clark, 1755-1794
Call number
Safe 1/27a
Level of description
sub-fonds
Date

1787-1788, 1790-1792
Type of material
Textual Records, Clippings
Reference code
412905
Issue Copy
Digitised : This item has been preserved and digitised as part of the Nelson Meers Foundation Benefaction, 2002.
Physical Description
4 volumes of textual material (2 boxes) - manuscript
Clippings
ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY

Ralph Clark, 2nd Lieutenant of Marines (promoted First Lieutenant in February 1789 in New South Wales), had undertaken the voyage to New South Wales in the hope of gaining promotion.
The facts of Clark's life are few and elusive. We know his birthday - 30 March - because he mentions it in his diary, but we do not know the precise year of his birth though it was around 1755. He married Betsey Alicia Trevan in 1784 and they had a son, Ralph Stewart. Clark made several unsuccessful attempts to gain permission to be accompanied to NSW by his wife and child.
Clark was attached to the Friendship, one of the convict transports for female prisoners. His journal covers the voyage out and first weeks in Australia, from 13 May 1787 till 10 March 1788. Then there is a gap until 15 February 1790, just before he leaves for Norfolk Island on board the Sirius, until 19 November 1791, then 6 January until 17 June 1792, the homeward voyage on the Gorgon.
Clark had a relationship with a convict woman, Mary Branham, with whom he had an illegitimate daughter born on 23 July 1791.
Neither Clark, Betsey Alicia nor young Ralph lived long after Clark's return to England in 1792. The family died in 1794. Betsey Alicia died in childbirth early in the year. Clark died of yellow fever on 18 June, his son followed on 29 June, both while serving on the same ship. It is possible that Clark did not even know of his wife's death. (see Mollie Gillen, The founders of Australia; Australian Dictionary of Biography).
Scope and Content
Volume 1: 9 March 1787 - 31 December 1787
Volume 2: 1 January 1788 - 10 March 1788
Volume 3: 15 February 1790 - 27 December 1790
Volume 4: 28 December 1790 - 17 June 1792
Includes newscutting from the Sydney Morning Herald, 26 September, 1891.
Finding Aids
Read the transcription here: archival-classic.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2017/D00018/a262.html
Published Information
Published in transcription: Paul Fidlon and R.J. Ryan (eds), The journal and letters of Lt Ralph Clark, 1787-1792 (Sydney: Australian Documents Library, 1981).
General note

This journal was purchased as three separate volumes. They were disbound in the Mitchell Library during the 1920s, the pages window mounted and rebound as a single volume. In 2002, as part of the Nelson Meers Foundation Benefaction, its pages were removed from the mounts and rebound into soft vellum covers in four volumes. This is believed to be the original format as indicated by the stitching holes and other physical evidence.
The journal has been transferred from Mitchell Library call no. C 220.

An unpublished transcription, prepared by F.A. Trevan, great nephew of Clark, is located at ML C 219 (Microfilm copy available at CY 584).

Photocopy available on open access in the Mitchell Library Reading Room at CY Safe 1/27 (xerox copy made from microfilm).
Photocopy available on open access in the Mitchell Library Reading Room at CYC 220 (photostat copy of Safe 1/27a).
Microfilm copy available at CY 136, frames 129-447
Digital order no: Album ID : 823869
Subject
Transportation of convicts.
Botany--Norfolk Island.
Norfolk Island--Discovery and exploration.
Norfolk Island--History--1788-1851.
Shipwrecks--Norfolk Island.
Friendship (Ship).
Gorgon (Ship : Captain = John Parker).
Place
Norfolk Island
Exhibited in

Dare to know : the art and science of Pacific voyages - State Library of New South Wales (1 June - 28 November, 1998)
Nelson Meers Foundation Heritage Collection - State Library of New South Wales (Jan 2003 - Mar 2004)
Artist colony: drawing Sydney’s nature - State Library of New South Wales. Applies to: a262177
UNESCO Six - State Library of New South Wales (October 2018 - May 2019)
Open Rosetta viewer
IE1607861