The National Archives blog

Posts by Daniel Gilfoyle

I'm one of the Diplomatic and Colonial Records Specialists at The National Archives.

Fri Mar

2013

Impressions of St Helena – the early 19th century

Posted by Daniel Gilfoyle in Records and research

As early as the 17th century, St Helena’s position in the South Atlantic made it important to shipping between Western Europe and the east – a useful place where ships could take on water and supplies. Its cliffs and volcanic outcrops must have presented a fairly bleak view to sailors approaching after a long voyage.

Approaching St Helena, circa 1906 (reference CO 1069/766)

The East India Company controlled the island from the 1650s through to 1815 (with brief Dutch interludes), when Napoleon was exiled to the island and the British government temporarily took direct control.

Sat Jan

2013

Alexander Sutherland – a colonial intellectual

Posted by Daniel Gilfoyle in Records and research

Alexander Sutherland, Australian polymath

Alexander Sutherland (reference CO 1069/593)

Alexander Sutherland (born 1852) was the son of Scottish immigrants to Australia who settled in Sydney during 1864. Sutherland trained as a schoolteacher and had successful careers in teaching and journalism, during which he was particularly associated with Melbourne, where his family had moved.

In spite of his busy working career and relatively early death in 1902, Sutherland emerged as a colonial intellectual and important local cultural figure. He co-wrote a standard school text, A History of Australia, which was published in 1877 and retained currency into the 20th century. Apart from producing other historical and biographical material, Sutherland published in 1898 The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct. Here he sought to associate the development of human morality with Darwinian evolutionary theory.

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