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This paper reflects on the involvement of four Irishmen in the commercial affairs of the fledgling British colony in Sydney, New South Wales (NSW), between 1788 and 1818. They are John Kenny, a felon transported from Carlow (allegedly the first teacher of double-entry accounting in Australia); Michael Hayes, a Wexford rebel (the first to advertise in the Sydney Gazette for work as an accountant); Sergeant Jeremiah Murphy, a native of Creagh serving in the British Army (the first customer to open a bank account in Australia); and John Thomas Campbell, an Ulster loyalist (the first President of the Bank of NSW). We find representations of the Irish that are partly in accord with, and yet partly very much removed from, conventional stereotypes of the Irish. While accounting was a currency worth counterfeiting in early NSW, it did not unlock new opportunities given the constraints of the colonial context.

This paper compares and contrasts the conceptualization of “profession” in history and accounting. Professional history and, to a more limited extent, professional accounting have their 19th century origins in notions of scientific method and objectivity as well as in motives of “closure” and exclusivity. The paper argues that these “scientific” origins of both history and accounting rendered them exclusive not only in membership but in methodology. As scientific approaches relied on documentary evidence, various rich, if less reliable, sources of evidence were excluded. This resulted in the representation of a limited and flawed “reality” in both history and accounting which led to 20th century threats to their legitimacy. The paper concludes that exploration of the interfaces between history and accounting offers new perspectives on both disciplines as we enter the 21st century.

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