About the Author

Sarah Bakewell was born in southern England and grew up in Sydney, Australia. She now lives in London, where she spent several years as curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library. Her first book, The Smart, about an amazing eighteenth-century con-trick, won wide critical acclaim.

About the Book

This gripping nineteenth-century adventure stars Jorgen Jorgenson, a Dane who made Britain his adopted country. Restless for adventure, he came to London, and began his career by sailing to establish the new colony of Tasmania. Twists of fortune then found him captaining a ship for Napoleon before travelling with British traders to Iceland where he found his moment of glory: ruling the country for two months after staging an outrageous coup.

Much lay ahead, from imprisonment in the hulks, patronage by Joseph Banks, to travels in Europe as a British spy. But Jorgensen was dogged by his own excesses, and ended up transported as a convict to the very colony he helped to found. Here he reinvented himself again as an explorer, and, despite his sympathy for the people, was caught up in the terrible Aboriginal clearances. Using unpublished sources and letters, Sarah Bakewell tells his extraordinary tale with dazzling verve.

Acknowledgements

Foremost among those I would like to thank are Anna Agnarsdóttir and Dan Sprod, who were both extraordinarily generous with their time and expertise. I am also grateful to Jette Nielsen for her fantastically patient and helpful work on translations from the Danish, and to my mother Jane Bakewell for bibliographical research.

Special thanks are due to Lesley Albertson, J.M. Bruce, Stephanie Burbury, Jørn Dyrholm, Alan Magnusson, Kim Peart, Axel Pedersen, Chandak Sengoopta, Sigurður Hjartarson, Hanne Tylén, and to Inga Lara Baldvinsdóttir of the National Museum of Iceland; also to Steffen Heiberg and Irene Falnov of the Frederiksborg Museum, Mette Bruun Beyer of the Københavns Bymuseum, Lucy Waitt of the National Maritime Museum, Roxanne Peters of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Kathy Wilkinson of the Council for World Mission, and Jora Johannsdóttir of Iceland’s RUV television archives. As always, the staff in all the libraries and archives I’ve used have been most helpful, and I am particularly grateful to Michele Losse of the Library and Archive of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew), Judith Magee of the Natural History Museum’s Botany Library, Lesley Price of the University of London’s SOAS Library, Palle Ringsted and Bodil Østergaard-Andersen of Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Henrik Stissing Jensen of Rigsarkivet, Marian Minson of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Fiona Macfarlane and Robyn Eastley of the Archives Office of Tasmania, Carmel McInerny of the National Library of Australia, Warwick Hirst of the Mitchell Library (SLNSW), Tony Marshall and all the Heritage Collections librarians of the State Library of Tasmania, Gail Davis of the State Records of New South Wales, and Jill Rosenshield of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Memorial Library.

Finally, thanks to my zestful agent Zoë Waldie, to Alison Samuel and to my terrific editor Jenny Uglow at Chatto & Windus, to Ray Bakewell for the close reading and to Rowan Taylor for the dashes. Above all, to Simonetta Ficai-Veltroni, for the whole ambaradan.

ALSO BY SARAH BAKEWELL

The Smart: The Story of Margaret Caroline Rudd and the Unfortunate Perreau Brothers

Bibliography

Jorgenson’s Main Works

 

‘Aboriginal Languages in Tasmania’, in Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, v. 1, no. 4, 1842, pp. 308–18. (Jorgenson is credited as the main source in the opening words of the text.)

An Address to the Free Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land, on trial by jury, and our other constitutional rights. By Publicola. ([Hobart]: Andrew Bent for the author, 1834)

The Adventures of Thomas Walter. Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2066

The Copenhagen Expedition traced to other causes than the Treaty of Tilsit; with observations on the history and present state of Denmark. By a Dane. (London: T. Harper, jun., and sold by W.H. Wyatt, 1811)

Description of the Kingdom of Shandaria and Adventures of King Detrimedes. Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2069

The Duke d’Angiens. Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2069

Efterretning om Engelændernes og Nordamerikanernes fart og handel paa Sydhavet. (Kiobenhavn: A. Seidelin, 1807)

— English translation: Observations on Pacific Trade and Sealing and Whaling in Australian and New Zealand Waters before 1805. (Tr. Lena Knight, ed. Rhys Richards) (Wellington, NZ: Paremata Press, 1996)

Historical Account of a Revolution on the Island of Iceland in the Year 1809

— [Version 1] Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2067

— [Version 2] Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2068

— A composite edition of the two versions is published in Sprod, Dan, The Usurper (Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 2001), pp. 146–282.

History of the Origin, Rise, and Progress of the Van Diemen’s Land Company (London: Robson, Blades, 1829). Originally published serially in fuller form in Colonial Advocate, and Tasmanian Monthly Review and Register, from May to Oct. 1828. Also reprinted in facsimile with added folded map of north-western Tasmania. (Hobart: Melanie Publications, 1979)

‘A Narrative of the Habits, Manners, and Customs of the Aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land.’ Manuscript in Braim papers at State Library of New South Wales’s Mitchell Library: A614. Edited version later published in Plomley, N.J.B., Jorgen Jorgenson and the Aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land. (Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 1991)

Observations on the Funded System: a summary view of the present political state of Great Britain and the relative situation in which the colony of Van Diemen’s Land stands towards the mother country (Hobart Town: H. Melville, 1831). Originally published serially in the Colonial Times, 15–29 June 1831

The Religion of Christ is the Religion of Nature (London: Joseph Capes, 1827). With biographical preface by H.D.M.

— Printed prospectus for above ‘In the press and will be immediately published, a work entitled The religion of Christ is the religion of Nature, by Jorgen Jorgenson, a prisoner in Newgate’ (18 July 1825)

‘Report of Mr Jorgen Jorgenson of a journey undertaken for discovery of a practicable route from Hobart Town to Circular Head, dated 8th November, 1826’, in Van Diemen’s Land Company: Report made to the third Yearly General Meeting . . . (London: Robson, Blades, 1828), pp. 63–81

Robertus Montanus, or The Oxford Scholar. Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2069

A Shred of Autobiography’, in Ross’s Hobart Town Almanack, and Van Diemen’s Land Annual for 1835 [pt 1] and The Hobart Town Almanack, and Van Diemen’s Land Annual for 1838 [pt 2]. Later published as A shred of autobiography ([ed. James Dally]) ([Adelaide]: Sullivan’s Cove, 1981).

State of Christianity in the Island of Otaheite, and a defence of the pure precepts of the Gospel, against modern Antichrists, with reasons for the ill success which attends Christian missionaries in their attempts to convert the heathens. By a foreign traveller. (London: J. Richardson, 1811)

Travels through France and Germany in the Years 1815, 1816 and 1817, comprising a view of the moral, political, and social state of those countries. Interspersed with numerous historical and political anecdotes, derived from authentic sources. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1817)

Manuscript and Archival Sources

 

British Library

Ms. Add. 8100, ff. 141–4: Magnús Stephensen to Banks, 8 Aug. 1812

Ms. Add. 32439, v. 1, ff. 311–2, ff. 336–9: Hooker to R. Brown (3 letters), 1810

Ms. Add. 38356, ff. 39–48, Banks, ‘Remarks concerning Iceland’, 30 Jan. 1801

Ms. Eg. 2067, ff. 193–229: Count Frédérik Trampe’s submission to Lord Bathurst, bound with Jorgenson’s Historical account of a revolution [Version 1]

Ms. Eg. 2070: Letters from Jorgenson, mainly to W.J. Hooker, 3 Oct. 1809 to 26 Oct. 1825, with two sermons and the printed prospectus for The religion of Christ

 

British National Archives

ADM 1/692: Savignac to Nott, 13 June 1809

ADM 1/1995 (Cap.J.7): collection relating to Iceland revolution, 1809

ADM 1/3899: documents on Iceland after the revolution

ADM 2/893: Admiralty correspondence relating to Iceland

ADM 51/1726 (Sappho), ADM 51/1940 and ADM 52/4630 (Talbot), ADM 51/1954/3 (Rover), ADM 51/4019 and 52/4170/3 (Lady Nelson): ships’ logs

ADM 99/204: Transport Board register noting Jorgenson petition, 16 Aug. 1810

ADM 103/01: Chatham Entry Books

CO 286/49: Jorgenson petition and affidavit, 29 Aug. 1834 and 12 Sept. 1834

CO 280/76: documents on Ross and Bryan affairs, 1833–5. (See also Mitchell Library and Archives Office of Tasmania.)

FO 22/69: Foreign Office correspondence regarding Jorgenson, 1814

FO 22/86: Foreign Office correspondence regarding Jorgenson, 1820

FO 40/1: Banks and Foreign Office correspondence regarding Iceland revolution, 1809–10

FO 83/2293: Foreign Office documents on Iceland, 1810

FO 95/648: miscellaneous Jorgenson material, 1810–13, including fragment of his Report to the Foreign Office on Portugal and Spain, 1813

HO 13/37 (entry 391): pardon on condition of self-transportation, 21 Oct. 1821

HO 17/53/1 Ih07: Jorgenson petition to Lord Sidmouth with covering letter from Sheriff Garratt, 24 Nov. 1821

PRIS 1/27, PRIS 1/28, PRIS 3/14 (Fleet Prison commitment and discharge books)

PRIS 4/25 (King’s Bench discharge books)

 

Library and Archive of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Directors’ correspondence (DC): vols 1, 49, 72, 73, 76

Miscellaneous correspondence: Jorgenson to Sir John Franklin, 26 Oct. 1839

Banks letters, v. 2, no. 334: W.J. Hooker to Banks, 20 June [1810]

 

Botany Library, Natural History Museum, London

Banks correspondence, Dawson Turner transcriptions: vols 1, 12, 17, 18

 

School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London)

CWM South Seas Journals, Box 2, no. 26

 

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, Bedford

Whitbread papers, nos. W4831–4848, 4949–50, 5518, 5718

 

Det Kongelige Bibliotek (Royal Library), Copenhagen

NBD IX 8, Haandskrift Afd. 163: Jorgenson to Fritz Jürgensen, 11 Sept. 1835

 

Rigsarkivet (National Archives), Copenhagen

RTK 373.133: ‘Akter til Jörgen Jörgensenske Usurpations Historie 1809–10’

Samlingspakke no. 2679: Privatarkiv, Anna Jørgensen, f. Leth Bruun. Letters from Jorgenson to his mother, 1822–5. (Copies of originals in Odense Regional Archives)

 

Landsarkivet for Sjælland (Zealand Regional Archives)

Church register of St Nikolai, Copenhagen

 

Thjóðskjalasafn Íslands (National Archives of Iceland)

Jörundarskjöl XLV

Stiftamtmanns-Innkomin Bref, no. 266, 267, 268, Ar. 1808–9

 

Landsbókasafn (National Library of Iceland)

ÍB 382

JS 111 fol. (miscellaneous, including copy of Trampe’s submission to Lord Bathurst, with attachments)

Lbs 168 fol. (ditto)

Lbs 197 fol.

Lbs 4186 4to: Jörginsáttur Gísla Konráðssonar

 

National Library of Australia

Ms. 5831: Hooker to R. Gunn, 30 Dec. 1833, and Jorgenson to John Price, 15 March 1840, both bound with Gunn’s copy of Hooker’s Journal of a Tour in Iceland, v. 1

Ms. 4213: Nan Kivell Collection: Jorgenson to Anstey, 23 June 1829, with Anstey’s note and Jorgenson’s reply to the note

 

Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

A605: Calder papers, pp. 513, 555, 795–80: J.E. Calder’s notes on Jorgenson for his Tribune article, 1878

A614: Braim papers: includes the manuscript ‘Narrative of the habits, manners, and customs of the Aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land’, later attributed to Jorgenson

A1059/2, p. 188: indent of Woodman, 29 April 1826

A1214: documents on Ross affair, 1833–4. (See also British National Archives and Archives Office of Tasmania.)

A1442: Alexander accounts, 1801–6

A1976: King papers, v. 1, pp. 28–9: Lady Nelson pay list for 1 July to 31 Dec. 1801

A2015: King letter books, ff. 306, 394, 482–4: letters from King to Foveaux, 11 Sept. 1803, 31 May 1804, 1 May 1805

A2209: Sir George Arthur papers, v. 49: Letters from Jorgenson to Arthur, Anstey and others, 1826–37; also Noble to Dundas, 18 Nov. [1825?]

A7056, A7058, A7060, A7063: G.A. Robinson papers, vols 35, 37, 39, 42: letters from Jorgenson to Robinson, 1832–6

Aj 19/2: Petition from Jorgenson to Arthur, 4 May 1829

Aj 19/3: Jorgenson to A. Stephen, 10 May 1829

Aj 19/4: Jorgenson to Forth, 17 Oct. 1837

Aj 19/5: Jorgenson to T. Anstey, 27 July 1828

C125: Jorgenson’s journals of his explorations for the Van Diemen’s Land Company, 1826–7

C672: Jorgenson’s presentation copy to T. Anstey of his The Religion of Christ . . . with inscription and extensive Ms. notes

C813: Jorgenson’s presentation copy to Sir John Franklin of his Observations on the funded system, with letter to Franklin’s secretary A. Maconochie, 27 Aug. 1837

ML Doc 60: Jorgenson to Anstey, 23 June 1829 (copy of original in NLA: Nan Kivell Collection), with typescript notes by Phyllis Mander Jones, 7 Sept. 1962

 

State Records of New South Wales

Accession A4110, Jorgenson to A. Macleay, 27 Jan. 1827 (formerly in Mitchell Library as Aj 19/1)

 

State Library of Tasmania

Crowther Pamphlet Q.CRO.PQ 920.JOR: three letters from Jorgenson to Charles Swanston and one to F. Roper, 1838–40

Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts: Jorgenson: ‘Report to Thomas Anstey, of an expedition from Oatlands to Waterloo Point . . . 24 May–3 June 1829’, 4 June 1829

 

Archives Office of Tasmania

CON 23/1, CON 23/3, CON 31/1, CON 31/6, CON 31/23, CON 31/38, CON 40/1: convict registers and records

CSO 1/316/7578

CSO 1/320/7578: reports of roving parties. Vol. 7, Section D for Jorgenson’s reports

CSO 1/332/7578

CSO 1/378/8600: Jorgenson and Norah’s petition to marry, 7 Sept. 1830

CSO 1/426/9583: Jorgenson petition to Arthur [30 April or 1 May 1829]

CSO 1/763/16363: Jorgenson to Colonial Secretary, 24 Oct. 1834

CSO 19/2: letters from Jorgenson to Forster, 1839–40

GO 1/18, GO 1/19: documents re. Ross and Bryan affairs, 1833–5 (See also British National Archives and Mitchell Library.)

GO 2/9/29: Lefevre to Arthur, 25 Jan. 1834, enquiring about Jorgenson

LC 83/1, LC 219/1: arrests of Jorgenson and Norah

LSD 1/6/239: Jorgenson to George Frankland, 26 April 1837

MM 71/5 20/255: Edward Curr’s instructions to Jorgenson, 2 Sept. 1826 (copies of originals in Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales)

NS 23: Van Diemen’s Land Company archives

NS 489/1: marriage register (entry 65: Jorgenson and Norah’s wedding)

NS 690/26: W.H. Hudspeth file on Jorgenson

NS 1052/53

POL 452/1

RGD 35/1

VDL 5/1

 

State Library of Victoria

Australian Manuscripts Collection: Calder papers, p. 211: Jorgenson to J. Spode, 9 Dec. 1828

Ms. 8222, Marcus Clarke papers. Box 455/10(a): clippings. Undated clipping from the Herald, signed T.F.M., responding to Clarke’s article on Jorgenson

 

State Library of South Australia

York Gate Library, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australia Branch: M/F Reel 1 (174). Banks, Sir Joseph: ‘Notes on Iceland 1807–1809’, including ‘A brief recital of some of the enormities lately committed in Iceland . . .’ (ff. 40–50)

 

Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Ms. 3: correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks

Periodicals

 

British:

Edinburgh Review, v. 28 (Aug. 1817), pp. 371–90

Gentleman’s Magazine, v. 97 (2) (1827), pp. 518–20

Household Words, v. 14 (20 Dec. 1856), pp. 529–32

London Gazette, 1–5 March 1808

The Morning Chronicle, 27 July, 30 July 1825

The Republican, v. 12 (14) (7 Oct. 1825), pp. 446–7

 

Danish:

Dagen, 4 July, 15 Sept., 18 Sept., 7 Oct., 11 Dec., 18 Dec., 19 Dec., 29 Dec. 1809

Kjøbenhavns-posten, 18 Oct., 25 Oct., 27 Oct., 30 Oct., 24 Nov. 1832

 

Australian:

The Advocate (Burnie), 16 Aug., 23 Aug. 1975; 8 Aug. 1981; 12 May 2001

Austral-Asiatic Review, 16 April 1833; 1 Dec. 1840

Bent’s News, 14 April 1838

Colonial Advocate, and Tasmanian Monthly Review and Register, 1 May–1 Oct. 1828

Colonial Times, 12 Jan., 19 Jan., 11 May, 6 July 1827; 15, 22, 29 June, 20 July, 10 Aug., 28 Sept. 1831; 20 Nov. 1832; 17 March, 21 April, 12 May 1840

The Colonist, 22 July 1834

Cornwall Chronicle, 30 Jan. 1841

The Examiner (Launceston), 6 April 1867–17 Oct. 1868

Hobart Town Advertiser, 22 Jan. 1841

The Hobart Town Almanack, and Van Diemen’s Land Annual for 1838

Hobart Town Courier, 24 May, 6 Dec. 1828, 14 March, 4 April, 23 May, 13 July, 5 Sept. 1829; 16 Nov. 1832; 7 June 1833; 1 Jan., 13 May 1836; 28 Feb., 1 May, 27 Nov. 1840; 26 Jan. 1841

Hobart Town Gazette, 6 May, 11 Nov., 18 Nov. 1826; 9 June, 16 June, 23 June, 30 June, 7 July 1827; 24 May, 12 July, 11 Dec. 1828; 19 July 1833; 25 Dec. 1835; 16 Sept. 1836

The Independent (Launceston), 22 Oct. 1831

The Mercury, 6 Nov. 1968; 22 April, 4 May 1976; 15 Aug. 1987; 1 Feb. 1988; 28 Aug. 2003

The Mercury Westerner, 24 April, 22 May 1986

Ross’s Hobart Town Almanack, and Van Diemen’s Land Annual for 1835

Sunday Mail (Australia), 16 May 2004

The Sunday Tasmanian, 3 June, 10 June, 17 June 2001

Sydney Gazette, 16 Dec. 1804; 6 Jan., 10 Feb., 11 Feb. 1805; 24 May 1826; 7 May 1828

The Tasmanian, 12 Dec. 1828; 5 April 1833

The Tasmanian Mail, 16 Sept. 1980

The Tribune (Hobart), 24, 26, 27, 29 July 1878

True Colonist, 15 May 1840

The Weekender, 18 April 1987

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Allan, Mea, The Hookers of Kew, 1785–1911 (London: Michael Joseph, 1967)

Anderson, R.C., Naval Wars in the Baltic 1522–1850 (London: Francis Edwards, 1969)

Anna Agnarsdóttir, Great Britain and Iceland, 1800–1820 (PhD thesis, London School of Economics) (London: 1989)

— ‘Sir Joseph Banks and the exploration of Iceland’, in Banks, R.E.R., et al. (eds), Sir Joseph Banks: A Global Perspective (Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, 1994)

— ‘Centre and periphery in wartime: Iceland and Denmark during the Napoleonic wars’, in Ingi Sigurðsson and Jón Skaptason (eds), Aspects of Arctic and Sub-Arctic History: Proceedings of the International Congress on the history of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Region, Reyjkavík, 18–21 June 1998 (Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press, 2000), pp. 101–112

— ‘Hundadagadrottningin heldur út í heim, 1812–1814’, in Kvennaslóðir: rit til heiðurs Sigríði Th. Erlendsdóttir sagnfræðingi. (Reykjavík: Kvennasögusafn Íslands, 2001), pp. 123–39

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An Authentic Account of the Siege of Copenhagen, by the British, in the Year 1807 . . . (London: W. Faden, 1807)

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Bjerring, Claus, Fritz Jürgensen (København: C. Ejler, 1999)

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— His Natural Life (Melbourne: G. Robertson, 1874)

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— (ed.), Mortmain: a collection of choice petitions, memorials and letters of protest and request from the convict colony of VDL . . . collected and transcribed from the originals by Eustace FitzSymonds [i.e. James Dally] (Hobart: Sullivan’s Cove, 1977)

— (ed.), Jorgen Jorgenson’s Fiery Breeches displayed in Hobart Town by Mr Henry Melville, M.DCCC.XXXII (Adelaide: Sullivan’s Cove, 1993)

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Grant, James, The Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery, performed in His Majesty’s Vessel the ‘Lady Nelson’ . . . in the Years 1800, 1801, and 1802, to New South Wales (London: T. Egerton, 1803)

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A note on the name

It is difficult to decide what to call the subject of this book. His original Danish name was Jørgen Jørgensen, or Jürgensen, but Anglophone biographers mostly use the form Jorgen Jorgenson or the hybrid Jorgensen. He himself used ‘Jorgenson’ in the majority of his publications; in 1834, he noted in an affidavit that he had changed it because of his ‘long intercourse with the English’. Following his authorial choice, and for the sake of consistency, I have called him Jorgen Jorgenson throughout, except occasionally in his early boyhood.

And a note on Icelandic names

Most Icelanders’ names work differently from most other European ones: the second name is a form of patronymic rather than a surname, and is not used in isolation. Thus Ísleifur Einarsson would often be referred to as Ísleifur, but not as Einarsson. Alphabetization is applied accordingly, so most Icelandic authors appear under their first names in the bibliography.

Jorgen Jorgenson, aged around 28

A contemporary view of Østergade, the Copenhagen street where Jorgenson was born. His house, no. 77, is the third on the right.

Sullivan’s Cove, later the site of Hobart, in 1804. The ship in harbour is probably the Ocean, which assisted the Lady Nelson in transferring Lt.-Gov. Collins’s colony there.

The Lady Nelson, in which Jorgenson sailed for three years, outlasting all other crew members and rising in rank from common seaman to first mate.

A watercolour by Jorgenson, depicting the double shipwreck of the Porpoise and Cato in 1803. He was a talented artist: his many early travel sketches do not survive, but in 1810 he presented his friend William Jackson Hooker with a series of striking watercolour drawings, including this one.

The British bombardment of Copenhagen with incendiary rockets in 1807. The Jørgensen house is visible on the right in Østergade, on the other side of the square.

The encounter in 1808 between Jorgenson’s Danish privateer Admiral Juul (right) and Britain’s HMS Sappho. Two Danes were killed and both ships were severely damaged before Jorgenson struck his colours and surrendered.

William Jackson Hooker, Jorgenson’s best-loved friend, as a young man in 1811, two years after Jorgenson met him on the journey to Iceland.

A view of Reykjavík in 1810, the year after Jorgenson’s revolution.

The fifth and most radical of Jorgenson’s revolutionary proclamations, opening with the royal phrase ‘We, Jorgen Jorgenson’, and marked with his Protector’s seal (‘J.J.’).

Count Frédérik Trampe, Iceland’s Danish governor: he was easily captured and deposed without bloodshed by the 1809 revolutionaries.

Magnús Stephensen, Iceland’s Chief Judge and, after Jorgenson’s removal, its temporary co-Governor with his brother Stefán.

‘Oh! my wig’, a mischievous watercolour by Jorgenson depicting an alleged mishap at a Reykjavík ball. The lady is Mrs Vancouver: she and her husband had opposed the revolution and secretly assisted Count Trampe. This picture is Jorgenson’s revenge.

Another Jorgenson watercolour showing the British hulk Bahama, in which he was imprisoned after the Icelandic adventure.

‘Liberty triumphant’: the long-suffering hero receives his reward after tyranny and oppression have been overcome.

A copy of Jorgenson’s Travels through France and Germany, inscribed to William Jackson Hooker. The title page carries a contemptuous extra note by Hooker’s son Joseph: ‘Died a ticket-of-leave man in Tasmania’.

Hobart in 1840, much transformed from the 1804 camp shown in Plate 2.

The Ross Bridge in Tasmania, with decorations carved by creative convicts in the 1830s. Jorgenson appears here as the King, with his wife Norah as his companion, the Queen.

The memorial plaque to Jorgenson outside Oatlands police station, Tasmania.

Notes

Abbreviations:

 

(a) Archives and libraries

 

AOT Archives Office of Tasmania (Hobart)

BL British Library (London)

BLARS Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service (Bedford)

BNA British National Archives (London)

KB Det Kongelige Bibliotek (Copenhagen)

ML Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales (Sydney)

NHM Botany Library, Natural History Museum (London)

RA Rigsarkivet (Copenhagen)

RBG Library and Archive of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London)

ThÍ Thjóðskjalasafn Íslands (Reyjkavík)

 

(b) Jorgenson’s works

 

AFC An Address to the Free Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land, on Trial by Jury. . .

ATW The Adventures of Thomas Walter

CE The Copenhagen Expedition . . .

HA1 Historical Account of a Revolution on the Island of Iceland . . . [Version 1]

HA2 Historical Account of a Revolution on the Island of Iceland . . . [Version 2]

HVDLC History of the . . . Van Diemen’s Land Company

NHMC ‘A narrative of the habits, manners, and customs of the Aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land’, N.J.B. Plomley’s edition

OFS Observations on the Funded System . . .

OPT Observations on Pacific Trade . . . (English translation of Efterretning . . .)

RC The Religion of Christ is the Religion of Nature

RJJ ‘Report of Mr Jorgen Jorgenson . . .’ in Van Diemen’s Land Company: Report made to the third Yearly General Meeting . . .

SA Shred of Autobiography, J. Dally’s edition

SC State of Christianity in the Island of Otaheite . . .

TFG Travels through France and Germany . . .

 

Full publication details of other references can be found in the bibliography.

A note on the name

1 Jorgenson’s affidavit: 12 Sept. 1834, enclosed with Arthur to Lefevre, 17 Sept. 1834, BNA CO 280/49, ff. 156r–v.

Jorgen Jorgenson on a bridge

1 Norah on the bridge: Greener and Laird pp. 167, 125.

2 Damper an excellent thing: SA p. 56.

3 Description of Jorgenson from his entry in Tasmanian convict register: AOT CON 31/23.

4 Tasmanian commemoration: The Advocate (Burnie), 12 May 2001, p. 30; The Mercury, 6 Nov. 1968, p. 32; The Mercury Westerner, 22 May 1986, p. 30(B); The Mercury, 1 Feb. 1988, p. 8 (letter from F. Bradshaw).

5 Crown Prince Frédérik’s wedding speech (14 May 2004): Sunday Mail (Australia), 16 May 2004.

5 Literary comparisons: Phelps (1817) p. 60; Haygarth, N., A view to cradle (Canberra: the author, 1998), p. 14; L. Huxley in Hooker, J.D., v. 2, p. 483; Oehlenschlæger v. 1, p. 53; http://www.adventourers.com; The Mercury, 28 Aug. 2003, p. 22; Ibsen p. 8.

6 ‘Rudderless barque’ etc.: Hogan pp. 37–9.

6 ‘What a list!’ Villiers p. 99.

Chapter 1: A Danish boy

7 Birth: church register of St Nikolaj, Landsarkivet for Sjælland. Jorgenson celebrated his birthday on 29 March and gave that as his date of birth in official documents throughout his life: see his affidavit of 12 Sept. 1834, BNA CO 280/49, ff. 156r–v; JJ to Anna Jørgensen, 22 March 1825, RA Samlingspakke no. 2679; JJ to Hooker, 4 Dec. 1840, RBG DC v. 76, no. 47; Sprod pp. 1, 632.

7 Roaring: ATW p. 23, where he writes as ‘Thomas Walter’, in a work mixing fantasy with genuine autobiography.

7 Father and house: JJ to Hooker, 22 July 1820, BL Ms. Eg. 2070; Fritz Jürgensen to JJ, as translated and quoted by the latter in JJ to Forster, 31 March 1840, AOT CSO 19/2 pp. 195–8; Sprod pp. 4, 634. Jorgenson’s father’s clocks can be seen at Frederiksborgmuseet in Hillerød, Denmark, and in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

8 Father, mother and wet-nurse: ATW pp. 21–5.