George Barrington

George Barrington (14 May 1755 – 27 December 1804) was an Irish-born pickpocket, popular London socialite, Australian pioneer (following his transportation to Botany Bay), and author. His escapades, arrests, and trials were widely chronicled in the London press of his day. For over a century following his death, and still perhaps today, he was most celebrated for the line "We left our country for our country's good." The attribution of the line to Barrington is considered apocryphal since the 1911 discovery by Sydney book collector Alfred Lee of the 1802 book in which the line first appeared.[1]

For other people named George Barrington, see George Barrington (disambiguation).
George Barrington
Born(1755-05-14)14 May 1755
Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland
Died27 December 1804(1804-12-27) (aged 49)
Parramatta, New South Wales
OccupationPick pocket
Criminal charge(s)Theft
Criminal penaltySeven years' transportation
Partner(s)Yeariana

Personal life
George Barrington caught picking the pocket of Count Orlov, Covent Garden Theatre

Barrington was born at Maynooth in County Kildare, son either of a working silversmith named Waldron, or of Captain Barrington, English troop commander.[2]

At some point in the 1785–1787 period he married and the couple had a child, but the names of the wife and child, and their eventual fates, are not known.[3]

While enjoying the beginnings of his prosperity in Australia, Barrington romanced and cohabited with a native woman, Yeariana, who soon left him to return to her family. Barrington said that Yeariana possessed "a form that might serve as a perfect model for the most scrupulous statuary."[4]

Career

Pickpocketing
George Barrington being tried at The Old Bailey, 17 September 1790

In 1771 he robbed his schoolmaster at Dublin and ran away from school, becoming a member of a touring theatrical company at Drogheda under the assumed name of Barrington. At the Limerick races he joined the manager of the company in picking pockets. The manager was detected and sentenced to transportation, and Barrington fled to London, where he assumed clerical dress and continued his pickpocketing. At Covent Garden theatre he robbed the Russian Count Orlov of a snuffbox, said to be worth £30,000. He was detected and arrested but, as Count Orlov declined to prosecute, was discharged, though subsequently he was sentenced to three years' hard labour for pocket-picking at Drury Lane theatre.[5]

On his release, he was again caught at his old practices and sentenced to five years' hard labour, but influence secured his release on the condition that he leave England. He accordingly went for a short time to Dublin, and then returned to London, where he was once more detected pocket-picking, and, in 1790, sentenced to seven years' transportation.

At Botany Bay

One account states that on the voyage out to Botany Bay a conspiracy was hatched by the convicts on board to seize the ship. Barrington disclosed the plot to the captain, and the latter, on reaching New South Wales, reported him favourably to the authorities, with the result that in 1792 Barrington obtained a warrant of emancipation (the first issued), becoming subsequently superintendent of convicts and later high constable of Parramatta.[5]

Barrington died at Parramatta in 1804.[5]

Latter-day renown

Whatever doubts may exist about the authorship of the "Prologue," its most famous line has become an iconic part of Australian culture (for example, it is quoted in the film Breaker Morant and provides the title of the play Our Country's Good). It begins:

From distant climes, o'er wide-spread seas, we come,
Though not with much éclat or beat of drum,
True patriots all: for, be it understood:

We left our country for our country's good.

Works

Barrington employed the artist and engraver Vincent Woodthorpe to illustrate these works,[6]

  • A Voyage to New South Wales. In two volumes, the first of which is "A Voyage to Botany Bay." London, 1795 and 1801.
  • The History of New South Wales. London, 1802 and 1810.

See also

Notes
  1. Lambert 1930, pp. 246–247.
  2. "Barrington, George (1755? – 1804)". Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1. MUP. 1966. pp. 62–63. Retrieved 23 August 2007.
  3. Lambert 1930, p. 145.
  4. Lambert 1930, pp. 234–235.
  5. Serle, Percival (1949). "Barrington, George". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Retrieved 2 October 2008.
  6. Olsen, Penny (2015). Australian Predators of the Sky. National Library of Australia. p. 194. ISBN 9780642278562.

References
  • Box, Sheila. The real George Barrington?: The Adventures of a notorious London Pickpocket, later Head Constable of the Infant Colony of New South Wales. Melbourne, Victoria: Arcadia, 2001.
  • Garvey, Nathan. The Celebrated George Barrington: A Spurious Author, the Book Trade, and Botany Bay. Potts Point, NSW: Hordern House, 2008.
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Barrington, George" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • Australian Dictionary of Biography which in turn cites:
    • Historical Records of Australia, Series I, vols 1–4
    • Lambert, Richard S. Prince of Pickpockets. London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1930.
    • Petherick, E.A. (ed). The Torch and Colonial Book Circular, vol 1,. no 3, 1888
    • Ferguson, J.A. 'Studies in Australian Bibliography', Journal and Proceedings (Royal Australian Historical Society), vol 16, part 1, 1930, pp. 51–80
    • Bonwick transcripts, biography (State Library of New South Wales).
  • Lambert, Richard S. Prince of Pickpockets. London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1930.
  • The book Prince of Pickpockets prominently featured in Robert Bresson’s 1959 film “Pickpocket”.
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