"Clowns of no account"? Reflections on the involvement of four Irishmen in the commercial life of the Colony of New South Wales, 1788-1818

Abstract

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.

Surveying the landscape: The first 15 years of Accounting History as an international journal

“…From the twenty-first century onwards in AH, the research subjects and settings typically the focus of "firsts" have been investigated in more refined contexts within the complex of institutional, professional, political and social forces of the relevant time and place (e.g. Carnegie & Williams, 2001;Parker, 2002;Craig et al, 2004;Clarke, 2005;Rodrigues et al, 2004Rodrigues et al, , 2007Romeo & Rigsby, 2008).…”

“…In contrast, the call for more biographical research appears to have been taken on board by scholars publishing in AH (e.g. Walker, 1996; Pitts, 2001; Anderson, R.H., 2002; Parker, 2002; Craig et al , 2004; Vollmers & Tyson, 2004; Clarke, 2005; Bocqueraz & Walton, 2006; Cooper, 2008; Romeo & Rigsby, 2008; Virtanen, 2009a; Talbot, 2010). Other methods focused on apprehending the experiences of the person have also been adopted in studies appearing in AH.…”

“…Unusually, there are in aggregate slightly more articles about accounting in the USA and Australia that are set, in all or part, in eras prior to the nineteenth century (e.g. Scorgie & Reiss, 1997; Wootton & Moore, 2000; Craig et al , 2004; Fleischman et al , 2004; Hollister & Schultz, 2007; Bloom & Solotko, 2004, 2008; Bisman, 2009a) than there are similar articles set in the UK. For other nations, articles vary more widely across the temporal landscape, with those about accounting in Italy spanning the fourteenth to twentieth centuries, from the sixteenth century onwards concerning Spain, and in ancient times in Africa (e.g.…”

“…Lippman and Wilson (2007) examined the culpability of accounting in the Holocaust during World War II, connecting with other themes of accounting and the military, and accounting and religion. De Loo and Davis (2003) exposed that racism, together with accounting and management issues, played a part in the demise of an African-American small business, while Craig, Ó Hógartaigh and Ó Hógartaigh (2004) challenged unflattering, prejudiced and stereotypical views of the Irish during the first 30 years of British colonial New South Wales.…”

A progressive traditionalist: Sir Edwin Van-Der-Vord Nixon CMG, Accountant, (1876–1955)

“…Paradoxically, the Australian biographical record for the same period is surprisingly strong for accounting personalities variously labelled the ‘less illustrious’ by Walker (2000: 318), ‘those beyond the limelight – the unconnected, the humble, the suppressed, the unqualified and the rogue’, (Carnegie and Potter, 2000: 305), and those engaged in ‘inglorious moments in accounting history’ (Shelton and Jacobs, 2015). These lesser lights include early authors of accounting texts, John Scouller (Goldberg, 1977, 1984), Edward Wild (Carnegie and Varker, 1995), James Dimelow (Carnegie and Parker, 1994), William Yaldwyn (Carnegie and Parker, 1996) and Francis Vigars (Carnegie et al, 2006); the first chartered accountant émigré, John Ogilvy (Carnegie et al, 2000); two early female members of the profession, Mary Hamilton (Cooper, 2008) and Harriet Amies (Hronsky et al, 2015); fraudster, William Chinnery (Scorgie, 2007); and four Irish rogues and transportees, John Kenny, Michael Hayes, Jeremiah Murphy and John Campbell (Craig, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c; Craig et al, 2004).…”