Design and Art Australia Online

draughtsman, ornamental, scene, sign, house and ship painter and forger, was sentenced in London on 6 April 1796 to seven years’ transportation for an unspecified crime. He reached Sydney in the Barwell on 18 May 1798 and found employment painting 'scenery &c.’ for a 'company of comedians (soldiers)’ presumably connected with Robert Sidaway’s Sydney Theatre, the first public theatre to be opened in Australia (on 16 January 1796). The theatre was closed by Governor Hunter in 1800, allegedly because of riots, but Lancashire’s association with it was even briefer. Early in 1799 he was in gaol, under sentence of death for forgery. In a petition for a reprieve addressed to Hunter, Lancashire stated: 'That your Excellency’s unfortunate petitioner is a youth of honest, respectable and worthy parents, who ever lived in affluence’. He claimed that he had worked as a captain’s clerk aboard the Mars until quitting the service due to ill-health, then had lived in London 'for some considerable time’ with his uncle Robert Williams, a banker who employed him as a cash clerk. By way of contrast, he was officially described in 1806 as 'about 5’4” [162 cm] high, sallow complexion, brown hair, a little marked with the small pox, of an emaciated appearance and by trade a painter [i.e. house painter]’.

Hunter granted Lancashire a reprieve pending pleasure of the king. On 13 June 1802, Governor P.G. King granted him a conditional pardon but was to regret his action several years later, writing that Lancashire was 'possessed of every art of cunning that human nature could turn to the worst of purposes’. He continued to be in trouble with the law, usually on charges of forgery. His glib tongue and artful defence, however, often saved him from punishment. In July 1803 he was again accused of forgery and acquitted, although his mistress, Elizabeth Fielder, was sent to gaol. The following month Lancashire auctioned his Parramatta residence and within a few weeks had set himself up in Chapel Row (now Castlereagh Street), Sydney, as a draughtsman, glazier and painter of houses, ships and signs, also professing skill as an ornamental painter. Despite having stated that he intended to remain in the colony for but a short period, in December 1803 he moved to 1 Back Row and advertised that he was continuing 'painting in all its various branches as usual’.

Lancashire’s only known painting is VIEW of SYDNEY Port Jackson. NEW SOUTH WALES. TAKEN from ye ROCKS on the Western Side of the COVE (c.1804, w/c, ML). In true primitive style, every detail is of equal value and rendered with earnest fidelity to nature, but with little respect for the laws of perspective. Its rather static quality is highlighted by the artist’s inability to convey any sense of depth, but the sharp focus and bright colours give it an almost hypnotic intensity.

In order to survive in Sydney’s utilitarian society Lancashire had to establish other priorities than view painting for which there was little demand. He chose to concentrate on perfecting 'by indefatigable exertion’ an oil paint 'equal in quality to a Linseed or Paint Oil, a scarce commodity in this Colony’ (for houses and ships, however, not artists’ canvasses). As well, he claimed, his exceptional 'supply of fine Varnishes & Colours’ allowed him 'to execute the Coach & Herald Painting [superior to] ... those that have but little pretension to the profession, and are thereby only remarkable for an extravagant use of Oil and Colour, which turns out at the end to have been thrown away’. These artistic aspirations proved profitable. By mid 1805 the business was successful enough for Lancashire to acquire Patulla Gardens, 22½ acres on the eastern side of Brickfield Hill; he was advertising wheat for sale from it in August. In September he was charged with illegal distilling (rum presumably being another product of the farm) but the case was never heard, possibly because numerous officials, particularly magistrates, were widely known to engage in the same sideline. By the following March there were 100 fruit trees, 500 poultry and a weatherboard cottage on the farm, as well as the frame of a new house. He also owned a schooner, the Margaret , possibly named after Margaret Silk with whom he appears to have been living.

Early in January 1806 Lancashire was again charged with forgery and acquitted. This time he counter-charged his gaolers with mistreatment, but a full bench of magistrates found that 'from the prisoner’s notoriously bad character, and having once broke out of gaol, he had not been treated with inhumanity’. Fearing the revocation of his pardon or arrest for perjury, he advertised his cottage and orchard for sale in March and attempted to flee the colony in the Tellicherry with two other men. He was caught, tried on 5 April, sentenced to 100 lashes and three years’ hard labour, and despatched expeditiously to Van Diemen’s Land aboard the Venus .

On 17 June 1806, while the Venus was anchored off Port Dalrymple (Launceston), Lancashire was among the group of convicts and crew who took control of the ship and sailed to New Zealand. The following April the Sydney Gazette reported that he had been found with the Maori chief Te-Pahee at the Bay of Islands, taken prisoner and placed on board the Brothers . But when the ship reached Sydney, on 6 April 1807, there was no sign of Lancashire.

Writers:

Hackforth-Jones, Jocelyn
Lennon, Jane

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011