University solves mystery of valuable hand-written archive

Wednesday 9 August 2006

The University of Newcastle has unravelled the mystery surrounding an unusual antique hand-written manuscript, revealing the authors as a leading French general of the Napoleonic era, and a pioneer settler in Port Macquarie.

After six months of intensive research in the Auchmuty Library Cultural Collections, Emeritus Professor Ken Dutton has identified the writing in the volume as that of two authors: General Francois Jarry, a leading French general of the Napoleonic era, and Lieutenant Colonel Charles George Gray, one of the pioneer settlers in the Port Macquarie district.

The French manuscript consists of over 300 pages on military fortifications and the mapping of battlefields. But when turned upside down and opened at the other end, it is written in English and is the working diary of a settler near Port Macquarie in the second half of 1839.

Professor Dutton said there was no indication in the text as to its authorship. The only clue was on the spine with the words JARRY TOM 1.

"Solving the mystery involved eliminating a number of military men of the period," said Professor Dutton. "Extensive investigation identified the author as General Francois Jarry, who had headed Frederick the Great's military school in Berlin. Jarry later fled to England at the time of the French Revolution and in 1799 founded a private college for army officers at High Wycombe, later to become the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.

"Samples of Jarry's handwriting obtained from the British Library and compared with the diary held in Newcastle provided conclusive evidence that the French text was in Jarry's own hand.

"Final confirmation of the work's second author came when a bookplate inside the diary's cover was found to correspond to the arms of the Gray family.

"Lieutenant C.G. Gray had probably acquired the volume while a student at High Wycombe in 1809 and brought it to Port Macquarie where he kept it as a diary."

Gray was born in Edinburgh in 1786 and fought Napoleon at Waterloo before settling in Port Macquarie, and later building himself a residence which he called Huntington House. Gray later moved north where he became the Police Magistrate at Ipswich, and Queensland's first Parliamentary Librarian and Usher of the Black Rod in 1860. He died in 1873.

"The volume is of exceptional value," said Professor Dutton. "It gives us an unusual picture of what an officer would have learned at a British military academy in the early years of the 19th century, and a vivid snapshot of the severe life of assigned convicts in an early Australian settlement."

For interviews with Professor Ken Dutton, contact Media and Public Relations on 02 4921 5351. Images available from media@newcastle.edu.au