Sarah Bakewell - The English Dane: From King of Iceland to Tasmanian Convict

Sarah Bakewell was born in southern England and grew up in Sydney, Australia. She now lives in London, where she spent several years as curator of early printed books at the Wellcome Library. Her first book, The Smart, about an amazing eighteenth-century con-trick, won wide critical acclaim.

This gripping nineteenth-century adventure stars Jorgen Jorgenson, a Dane who made Britain his adopted country. Restless for adventure, he came to London, and began his career by sailing to establish the new colony of Tasmania. Twists of fortune then found him captaining a ship for Napoleon before travelling with British traders to Iceland where he found his moment of glory: ruling the country for two months after staging an outrageous coup.

Much lay ahead, from imprisonment in the hulks, patronage by Joseph Banks, to travels in Europe as a British spy. But Jorgensen was dogged by his own excesses, and ended up transported as a convict to the very colony he helped to found. Here he reinvented himself again as an explorer, and, despite his sympathy for the people, was caught up in the terrible Aboriginal clearances. Using unpublished sources and letters, Sarah Bakewell tells his extraordinary tale with dazzling verve.

Foremost among those I would like to thank are Anna Agnarsdttir and Dan Sprod, who were both extraordinarily generous with their time and expertise. I am also grateful to Jette Nielsen for her fantastically patient and helpful work on translations from the Danish, and to my mother Jane Bakewell for bibliographical research.

Special thanks are due to Lesley Albertson, J.M. Bruce, Stephanie Burbury, Jrn Dyrholm, Alan Magnusson, Kim Peart, Axel Pedersen, Chandak Sengoopta, Sigurur Hjartarson, Hanne Tyln, and to Inga Lara Baldvinsdttir of the National Museum of Iceland; also to Steffen Heiberg and Irene Falnov of the Frederiksborg Museum, Mette Bruun Beyer of the Kbenhavns Bymuseum, Lucy Waitt of the National Maritime Museum, Roxanne Peters of the Victoria & Albert Museum, Kathy Wilkinson of the Council for World Mission, and Jora Johannsdttir of Icelands RUV television archives. As always, the staff in all the libraries and archives Ive used have been most helpful, and I am particularly grateful to Michele Losse of the Library and Archive of the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew), Judith Magee of the Natural History Museums Botany Library, Lesley Price of the University of Londons SOAS Library, Palle Ringsted and Bodil stergaard-Andersen of Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Henrik Stissing Jensen of Rigsarkivet, Marian Minson of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Fiona Macfarlane and Robyn Eastley of the Archives Office of Tasmania, Carmel McInerny of the National Library of Australia, Warwick Hirst of the Mitchell Library (SLNSW), Tony Marshall and all the Heritage Collections librarians of the State Library of Tasmania, Gail Davis of the State Records of New South Wales, and Jill Rosenshield of the University of Wisconsin-Madisons Memorial Library.

Finally, thanks to my zestful agent Zo Waldie, to Alison Samuel and to my terrific editor Jenny Uglow at Chatto & Windus, to Ray Bakewell for the close reading and to Rowan Taylor for the dashes. Above all, to Simonetta Ficai-Veltroni, for the whole ambaradan.

The Smart: The Story of Margaret Caroline Rudd and the Unfortunate Perreau Brothers

Aboriginal Languages in Tasmania, in Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, v. 1, no. 4, 1842, pp. 30818. (Jorgenson is credited as the main source in the opening words of the text.)

An Address to the Free Colonists of Van Diemens Land, on trial by jury, and our other constitutional rights. By Publicola. ([Hobart]: Andrew Bent for the author, 1834)

The Adventures of Thomas Walter. Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2066

The Copenhagen Expedition traced to other causes than the Treaty of Tilsit; with observations on the history and present state of Denmark. By a Dane. (London: T. Harper, jun., and sold by W.H. Wyatt, 1811)

Description of the Kingdom of Shandaria and Adventures of King Detrimedes. Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2069

The Duke dAngiens. Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2069

Efterretning om Engelndernes og Nordamerikanernes fart og handel paa Sydhavet. (Kiobenhavn: A. Seidelin, 1807)

English translation: Observations on Pacific Trade and Sealing and Whaling in Australian and New Zealand Waters before 1805. (Tr. Lena Knight, ed. Rhys Richards) (Wellington, NZ: Paremata Press, 1996)

Historical Account of a Revolution on the Island of Iceland in the Year 1809

[Version 1] Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2067

[Version 2] Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2068

A composite edition of the two versions is published in Sprod, Dan, The Usurper (Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 2001), pp. 146282.

History of the Origin, Rise, and Progress of the Van Diemens Land Company (London: Robson, Blades, 1829). Originally published serially in fuller form in Colonial Advocate, and Tasmanian Monthly Review and Register, from May to Oct. 1828. Also reprinted in facsimile with added folded map of north-western Tasmania. (Hobart: Melanie Publications, 1979)

A Narrative of the Habits, Manners, and Customs of the Aborigines of Van Diemens Land. Manuscript in Braim papers at State Library of New South Waless Mitchell Library: A614. Edited version later published in Plomley, N.J.B., Jorgen Jorgenson and the Aborigines of Van Diemens Land. (Hobart: Blubber Head Press, 1991)

Observations on the Funded System: a summary view of the present political state of Great Britain and the relative situation in which the colony of Van Diemens Land stands towards the mother country (Hobart Town: H. Melville, 1831). Originally published serially in the Colonial Times, 1529 June 1831

The Religion of Christ is the Religion of Nature (London: Joseph Capes, 1827). With biographical preface by H.D.M.

Printed prospectus for above In the press and will be immediately published, a work entitled The religion of Christ is the religion of Nature, by Jorgen Jorgenson, a prisoner in Newgate (18 July 1825)

Report of Mr Jorgen Jorgenson of a journey undertaken for discovery of a practicable route from Hobart Town to Circular Head, dated 8th November, 1826, in Van Diemens Land Company: Report made to the third Yearly General Meeting... (London: Robson, Blades, 1828), pp. 6381

Robertus Montanus, or The Oxford Scholar. Manuscript: British Library Ms. Eg. 2069

A Shred of Autobiography, in Rosss Hobart Town Almanack, and Van Diemens Land Annual for 1835 [pt 1] and The Hobart Town Almanack, and Van Diemens Land Annual for 1838 [pt 2]. Later published as A shred of autobiography ([ed. James Dally]) ([Adelaide]: Sullivans Cove, 1981).

State of Christianity in the Island of Otaheite, and a defence of the pure precepts of the Gospel, against modern Antichrists, with reasons for the ill success which attends Christian missionaries in their attempts to convert the heathens. By a foreign traveller. (London: J. Richardson, 1811)

Travels through France and Germany in the Years 1815, 1816 and 1817, comprising a view of the moral, political, and social state of those countries. Interspersed with numerous historical and political anecdotes, derived from authentic sources. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1817)

British Library