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The first full-length autobiography written in Australia
VAUX, James Hardy.Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux, a swindler and thief, now transported to New South Wales for the second time, and for life. Written by himself.  Second edition. London, William Clowes for Whitaker, Treacher, & Arnot, 1830. 12mo. Green cloth with title and author's name lettered in gold on spine. (2), XXIV, 288 pp. James Hardy Vaux (1782 1814?), convict and author, was born on 20 May 1782 in England. At 14, according to his own account, he persuaded his grandfather to apprentice him to a linen draper in Liverpool and it was here that he began the loose living which led to his downfall. Dismissed by his employer, he convinced his grandfather to let him go to London, where he became a copying clerk in a legal firm but again lost his job owing to dissipation. Many other kinds of employment followed including a spell in the navy: he volunteered in December 1798 and served in the frigate Astraea in the North Sea, according to the muster as an ordinary seaman, but originally as a midshipman by his own account. He deserted at Yarmouth next August and returned to his old life in London. After working for an attorney and for a Covent Garden clothing firm he was arrested in April 1800 for pilfering from the latter. He was acquitted but was by this time a professional thief, and in September he was sentenced at the Old Bailey to transportation for seven years for stealing a handkerchief, valued by the jury at eleven pence so that the accused might escape a capital sentence. Vaux reached Sydney in the Minorca in December 1801 and worked as a clerk at the Hawkesbury, in Sydney and in Parramatta. Despite a term in the road-gang after he forged Governor King's initials to commissariat orders he succeeded in ingratiating himself with the Parramatta chaplain and magistrate, Samuel Marsden, and with the governor, who agreed to take him home in the Buffalo in 1807. When the ship reached Portsmouth Vaux deserted and resumed his old activities in London. February 1809 he was sentenced to death at the Old Bailey under the alias James Lowe for stealing from a jeweller's shop in Piccadilly. This sentence was commuted to transportation for life and he reached Sydney in December 1810. During his previous spell there Vaux had compiled a slang dictionary for the use of magistrates, and he was now encouraged to write this famous Memoirs of the First Thirty-Two Years of The Life of James Hardy Vaux, A Swindler and Pickpocket; Now Transported for the Second Time, and For Life, to New South Wales. The manuscript came into the hands of Barron Field who arranged for its publication in London by John Murray, along with the slang dictionary, but Murray's imprint does not appear on most extant copies. The book was dedicated by Vaux to Thomas Thompson, captain in his Majesty's 46th regiment, commandant of Newcastle, dated Newcastle, 30 March 1816. The Memoirs were republished by John Hunt in 1827 and reprinted in 1829 and 1830. Although Vaux is the only convict known to have been transported three times to New South Wales he was probably not unique in this respect, nor was he an outstanding criminal. What does distinguish him is his Memoirs, which were republished (edited and with an introduction and notes by Noel McLachlan) in 1964. Our edition was published as vol. 13 in the series: Autobiography. A collection of the most instructive and amusing lives ever published, written by the parties themselves. As the first full-length autobiography written in Australia the book provides a fascinating picture of criminal life in London and the penal system, while the Vocabulary of the Flash Language, probably the first dictionary compiled in Australia, gives a valuable glossary of London slang. In 1827 the London Magazine described the work as 'one of the most singular that ever issued from the press'. Good uncut copy with the bookplate of Thomas Parkin and with a manuscript entry of Thomas Parkin.
A. F. Fink, 'James Hardy Vaux, convict and fatalist', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 48 (1962); idem, 'Vaux, James Hardy (1782 - 1814)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2, (1967), pp. 552-3; Spence, A bibliography of selected early books and pamphlets relation to Australia, p. 77.
Related Subjects: 19th Century Australia & New Zealand Criminology Add to Shopping cart |
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All items are offered subject to prior sale. Prices are nett and in (€) EURO. VAT/BTW, postage, and insurance are not included.
Free shipping for orders over € 2,500. EU customers: if applicable, please quote your VAT number when placing orders.
Preferred mode of payment: by credit card through our secure online payment service, which is facilitated by Ogone. If you wish to make other arrangements, please contact us. Terms of sale
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