Editing Rum Rebellion (section)

==Overthrow of Governor Bligh==
[[File:Government House Sydney 1809.jpg|thumb|left|Watercolour drawing of [[First Government House, Sydney]], ca. 1809]]
On the morning of 26 January 1808, Bligh again ordered that Macarthur be arrested and also ordered the return of court papers, which were held by officers of the New South Wales Corps. The Corps responded with a request for a new Judge Advocate and the release of Macarthur on bail. Bligh summoned the officers to [[First Government House, Sydney|Government House]] to answer charges made by Atkins, and he informed Johnston that he considered the action of the officers of the Corps to be [[treason]]able.<ref name="SLNSWBlighBanks"/>

Johnston, instead, visited the jail and issued an order releasing Macarthur, who drafted a [[petition]] calling for Johnston to arrest Bligh and take charge of the colony. This petition was signed by the officers of the Corps and other prominent citizens but, according to Evatt, most signatures had probably been added only after Bligh was safely under [[house arrest]]. Johnston  consulted with the officers and issued an order stating that Bligh was "charged by the respectable inhabitants of crimes that render you unfit to exercise the supreme authority another moment in this colony; and in that charge all officers under my command have joined." Johnston went on to call for Bligh to resign and submit to arrest.<ref name="AustEncI"/><ref>Dando-Collins, ''Captain Bligh's Other Mutiny'', 2007, p xiii</ref>

At 6:00 pm, the Corps, with full band and colours, marched to Government House to arrest Bligh.<ref name="AustEncI"/> They were hindered by his daughter and her [[parasol]],<!-- Does this need an explanation? --><ref name="DuffySMH"/> but [[Captain (United Kingdom)|Captain]] Thomas Laycock finally found Bligh, in full dress uniform, behind his bed where he claimed he was hiding papers.<ref name="AustEncI"/> Bligh was painted as a coward for this action, but Duffy argues that if Bligh was hiding, it would have been to escape and thwart the coup.<ref name="DuffySMH"/> In his book ''Captain Bligh's Other Mutiny'', [[Stephen Dando-Collins]] agrees and suggests that Bligh was planning to escape to the Hawkesbury River and to lead settlers there who were strongly supportive of him.<ref name="BlighMutiny">{{cite book | title=Captain Bligh's Other Mutiny | author=Stephen Dando-Collins | publisher =Random House | location= Sydney | year=2007 | author-link= Stephen Dando-Collins}}</ref> During 1808 Bligh and his daughter were confined to Government House under house arrest. Bligh refused to leave for England until lawfully relieved of his duty.<ref name="SLNSWBlighBanks"/>

Johnston took control with the rank of [[lieutenant-colonel]] on 25 April 1808{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} and appointed [[Charles Grimes (surveyor)|Charles Grimes]], the Surveyor-General, as Judge Advocate. He ordered Macarthur and the six officers be tried; they were found not guilty.<ref name="AustEncI"/> Macarthur was appointed as Colonial Secretary<!-- By whom? Court or Crown? --> and effectively ran the business affairs of the colony.<ref name="AustEncII"/>

Another prominent opponent of Bligh, Macarthur's ally Thomas Jamison, was appointed as the colony's Naval Officer (the equivalent of Collector of [[Customs]] and [[Excise]]) and also reinstated as a magistrate. This enabled him and his fellow legal officers to scrutinise Bligh's personal papers for evidence of wrongdoing. In June 1809 Jamison sailed to [[London]] to bolster his business interests and give evidence against Bligh in any legal prosecutions that might be brought against the mutineers. He died in London at the beginning of 1811, however, so could not testify at Johnston's court martial in June of that year.<ref name=adb>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography|last=Parsons |first=Vivienne |year=1967|id=A020012b|title= Jamison, Thomas (1753? – 1811)|access-date=2007-10-05 }}</ref>

Shortly after the coup, a watercolour by an unknown artist, illustrating Bligh's arrest, was exhibited in Sydney at perhaps Australia's first public art exhibition.<ref name=Australiana>{{cite journal|last=Neville|first=Richard|title=The Arrest of Governor Bligh: Pictures and Politics|journal=Australiana|date=May 1991|volume=13|issue=2|pages=38–42}}</ref> The watercolour depicts a Corps soldier dragging Bligh from underneath one of the servants' beds in Government House, with two other soldiers standing by. The two soldiers in the watercolour are most likely John Sutherland and Michael Marlborough, and the other figure on the far right is believed to represent Lieutenant [[William Minchin]].<ref name=Australiana /> This watercolour is Australia's earliest surviving [[political cartoon]].<ref name=100Objects>{{cite web|title=Governor Bligh's Arrest, 1808|url=http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2010/onehundred/100-objects/Exhibit-026.htm|access-date=8 March 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015162122/http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/events/exhibitions/2010/onehundred/100-objects/Exhibit-026.htm|archive-date=15 October 2013}}</ref> The Corps regarded themselves as gentlemen and in depicting Bligh as a coward, the cartoon declares that Bligh was not a gentleman and therefore not fit to govern.<ref name=100Objects />

The origins of the watercolour derive from a dispute between Bligh and Sergeant Major Whittle about Bligh demanding Whittle to pull down his house as it was halting improvements to the town.<ref name=Australiana /> It has been suggested Whittle either commissioned the painting or had painted the watercolour himself, but some think neither is likely as Whittle was [[illiteracy|illiterate]]. But it is hard to fathom what bearing his ability to read and write had on his ability to paint or commission a painting.<ref name=Australiana />

===A new governor is appointed===
[[File:Ln-Governor-Lachlan macquarie.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Lachlan Macquarie]], c. early 1800s]]
Following Bligh's overthrow, Johnston had notified his superior officer, [[Colonel (United Kingdom)|Colonel]] [[William Paterson (explorer)|William Paterson]] of events. At the time, Paterson was in [[Van Diemen's Land]] (now called [[Tasmania]]) establishing a settlement at Port Dalrymple (now [[Launceston, Tasmania|Launceston]]). He was reluctant to get involved until clear orders arrived from England. When he learned in March that Lieutenant-Colonel [[Joseph Foveaux]] was returning to Sydney <!-- from where? -->with orders to become acting [[Lieutenant-Governor|Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales]], Paterson left Foveaux to deal with the prevailing situation.<ref name="AustEncIIp">{{cite book | title=The Australian Encyclopaedia Vol. II | editor=A.W. Jose| pages = 278–279 | publisher=Angus & Robertson | location=Sydney | year=1926|display-editors=etal}}</ref>

Foveaux arrived in July and took over the colony as lieutenant-colonel on 28 July 1808, which annoyed Macarthur. Since a decision was expected from England, and feeling that Bligh's behaviour had been insufferable, Foveaux left Bligh under house arrest. He turned his attention to improving the colony's roads, bridges and public buildings, which he felt had been badly neglected. When there was still no word from England, he summoned Paterson to Sydney in January 1809 to sort out matters.<ref name="AustEncIf">{{cite book | title=The Australian Encyclopaedia Vol.I | editor=A.W. Jose| pages = 485–486 | publisher=Angus & Robertson | location=Sydney | year=1927|display-editors=etal}}</ref> Paterson sent Johnston and Macarthur to England for trial, and confined Bligh to the [[barracks]] until he signed a contract agreeing to return to England. Paterson, whose health was failing, retired to Government House and left Foveaux to run the colony.<ref name="AustEncIIp"/>

In January 1809 Bligh was given the control of HMS ''Porpoise'' on condition that he return to England. However, Bligh sailed to [[Hobart]] in Van Diemen's Land, seeking the support of Lieutenant-Governor [[David Collins (lieutenant governor)|David Collins]] to retake control of the New South Wales Colony. Collins refused to support him<ref name="SLNSWBlighBanks"/> and on Paterson's orders, Bligh remained cut off on board ''Porpoise'', moored at the mouth of the [[River Derwent (Tasmania)|River Derwent]] south of Hobart, until January 1810.<ref name=" AustEncII"/>

The Colonial Office finally decided that sending naval governors to rule the New South Wales Colony was untenable. Instead the New South Wales Corps, now known as the 102nd Regiment of Foot, was to be recalled to England and replaced with the [[73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot|73rd Regiment of Foot]], whose commanding officer would take over as governor. Bligh was to be reinstated for twenty-four hours, then recalled to England; Johnston sent to England for court martial; and Macarthur tried in Sydney. Major-General [[Lachlan Macquarie]] was put in charge of the mission after Major-General [[Miles Nightingall]] fell ill before departure. Macquarie took over as governor with an elaborate ceremony on 1 January 1810.<ref>''The Australian Encyclopaedia Vol.II'', p. 15</ref>