Proclamation, 24 February, 1810

Orders forming legislation in the new colony

Immorality and Vice

Lachlan Macquarie assumed the Governorship of New South Wales on 1 January 1810. He had been instructed, among other things, ‘to improve the Morals of the Colonists’ and ‘to encourage Marriage’. This proclamation had some success: the marriage rate increased and more people went to church. The convicts in Government employ were forced to attend church, which was, of course, the Anglican Church, even when they did not subscribe to that denomination.

Macquarie, though, was just as concerned with legal rights as morality. De facto relationships meant that women and their illegitimate children had no inheritance rights.

This is the only known copy of this significant proclamation. It was printed by George Howe, the Government Printer, on the printing press which had been brought out on the First Fleet.
Display item Proclamation, 24 February, 1810

 

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