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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 41 | October 1999


The collections

Convict dramas in manuscript form

Documents in the hand of early Australian convicts are rare, and creative works are even rarer. The Library has recently acquired the original manuscripts of two plays by James Tucker. The manuscripts join the original draft of a novel, Ralph Rashleigh, by the same author that was acquired by the Library in 1995.

It is believed that James Tucker was born in Bristol, England in 1808. Under the name James Rosenberg Tucker, he was sentenced to transportation for sending a threatening letter to a cousin, James Stonyford Tucker. Arriving at Sydney in 1827, he served his sentence first at Emu Plains Agricultural Establishment, then in the Colonial Architect’s Office. After winning and losing two tickets of leave, he was convicted of forgery in 1844 and transferred to the penal settlement of Port Macquarie.

The three manuscripts now in the Library’s collection are believed to have been written in 1845 while Tucker was at Port Macquarie. Jemmy Green in Australia, a comedy in three acts, was written by ‘the author of “Nix”’ while The Grahame’s Vengeance, a historical drama in three acts, was written by ‘Otto von Rosenberg’. This last pseudonym was altered slightly when ‘Giacomo di Rosenberg’ wrote Ralph Rashleigh or the Life of an Exile, a novel of crime and punishment.

The provenance and authenticity of the manuscripts since their creation have been painstakingly pieced together by the literary scholar Colin Roderick, who presented them to the Library. According to Roderick’s research, the manuscripts were bequeathed by the author to a friend, Alexander Burnett. In 1920 a descendant of Burnett lent the manuscripts for an exhibition organised by the Royal Australian Historical Society. Charles Bertie, of the Society, purchased all three and sold them to Angus and Robertson. The publisher preserved the manuscripts on Roderick’s behalf until 1970, when he bought them.

A bowdlerised version of Ralph Rashleigh was published by Jonathan Cape in 1929. After considerable research, Roderick produced a re-edited text that was published by Angus and Robertson in 1952. This novel has since gone through 14 editions.

The play Jemmy Green in Australia was published in 1955 by Angus and Robertson, having been performed by the ABC in 1953. The other play, The Grahame’s Vengeance, was published by James Cook University in 1996 and performed by the Tropic Line Research Theatre in the same year.

It has been contended that Tucker merely copied works by another author. However, in the absence of evidence to support this assertion, the claims to authorship, documented by Roderick through years of research, remain convincing. What cannot be disputed is that the manuscripts are valuable not only for their literary merit but also for their intrinsic social comment.

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: lkirwan@nla.gov.au

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