Arthur Phillip

Arthur Phillip was the commander of the eleven-ship First Fleet that carried convicts to Australia in January 1788. The fleet’s arrival established New South Wales as a British convict colony, placing Phillip at the head of the expedition that brought the Cable family to a new setting for their transportation and the dispute over their missing goods.

Command of the First Fleet

In the wake of American independence, British authorities could no longer send convicted criminals to the American colonies. After rejecting West Africa as too deadly for Europeans, they chose Australia’s eastern seaboard. Phillip commanded the fleet sent there: eleven ships packed with convicts, including the Alexander, which carried Henry and Susannah Cable and their young son.

Establishment of New South Wales

On January 26, 1788, the fleet set up camp at Sydney Cove, the heart of modern Sydney, and called the colony New South Wales. The landing turned Australia from a distant proposed destination into the site of an actual penal settlement. Phillip’s command connects the British government’s search for a place to transport convicts with the colony’s founding, though the account gives no further detail about his decisions or actions after the landing.

The Cables and the limits of convict rights

The Cables arrived as a family only after a campaign by Lady Cadogan reversed the prospect of their separation: Susannah had been selected for transportation, while Henry had not. Lady Cadogan secured their joint passage and raised £20 for goods they were to receive in Australia. On arrival at Botany Bay, however, the parcel had disappeared, or so Captain Duncan Sinclair claimed. The account emphasizes that convicts could not own property, sue, or give evidence in court under British law, leaving the family with little legal recourse against the captain.

Phillip’s role in this episode is defined by command and arrival rather than by a reported intervention in the missing-parcel dispute. The contrast is between the convicts’ near-total lack of rights under British law and the possibility that the affair would not simply end there in Australia: the passage turns to a writ issued to judge advocate David Collins. Thus the fleet’s arrival begins not only a system of transportation but also the circumstances in which the limits of that system could be challenged.