Borthwick
versus Bingle
A Squatter's Feud
in Colonial NSW
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In colonial NSW "squatting" was the practice of settling on "unoccupied" rural land & staking a claim to it, unofficially, by erecting some boundary indicators or just by asserting ownership of a certain area. Perhaps later the squatter would become the official occupier by taking out a licence. The lands were known as "runs".
In 1846 a Mr John Bingle, searching for land, moved onto part of the "Auburn Vale" run (near what is now Inverell, NSW) causing William Murray Borthwick to make a speedy complaint to the Commissioner of Lands at Armidale. The correspondence regarding this matter provides some insight into the early years of the Borthwick family's life in Australia.
On 26 December 1846 William Murray Borthwick signed a letter to the Commissioner, which is written in another hand, perhaps that of his solicitor or a member of his family, then signed by him. The letter says in part:
I sat down on this run in 1839 after being in service two years with William Cox, Esq of Hobartville, & two years with the late Colonel Dumeresq, together with my three sons & two daughters. This I was enabled to do through the kindness of Henry Dangar Esq & in three years afterwards found myself all but ruined by Mr Ward Stevens. Mr Dangar again enabled me to bear up & through the extraordinary industry of myself & family was emerging fast to easy circumstances. I had in the course of 8 years apended [sic] on improvements on my station about 250 pounds, when Mr Bingle thought fit to harass me by sitting down on my cattle run & frightening six or seven hundred of them into the mountains, which it will be long ere I recover again & indeed never will recover again if Mr Bingle is allowed to remain there.
In subsequent proceedings before Commissioner McDonald William Murray Borthwick tried to have Mr Bingle removed from the run but the Commissioner apparently responded that no boundaries of "Auburn Vale" had ever been authorised by him. In correspondence to his superiors in Sydney the Commissioner said that he doubted whether Mr Borthwick himself knew the extent of his station as returns over the previous seven years had been different each time, varying from 4 miles by 6 miles in 1840 to 10 miles by 12 miles in 1846.
Eventually the dispute was settled in the Supreme Court & Mr Bingle was permitted to have only the area on the south side of Copes Creek. (I have not yet located any Supreme Court records.)
Some References:
*
Elizabeth Wiedemann, World of
Its Own, Inverell Shire Council & Devill Publicity, 1981
*
NSW Archives Office, ???
Copyright: Ann Carson 2001
All rights reserved.
Created: 10 February 2001
Updated: