Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.
Admiral Phillip Parker King
13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856
Phillip Parker King
King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Josepha King née Coombe, and named after his father’s mentor, Arthur Phillip. King was sent to England for education in 1796, and he joined the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth, in 1802. King entered the Royal Navy in 1807, where he was commissioned lieutenant in 1814.
King was assigned to survey the parts of the Australian coast not already examined by Matthew Flinders, and made four voyages between 1817 and 1822. Amongst the 19-man crew were Allan Cunningham (botanist), John Septimus Roe and the aborigine Bungaree. The first three trips were in the 76 tonne cutter HMS Mermaid.
The Admiralty instructed King to discover whether there was any river ‘likely to lead to an interior navigation into this great continent’. The Colonial Office had given instructions to collect information about topography, fauna, timber, minerals, climate, and the natives and the prospects of developing trade with them.
In 1818, the coast was surveyed as far as Van Diemen’s Gulf and there were many meetings with Aboriginals and Malay proas. The Mermaid visited Timor and then returned to Sydney. Then King surveyed the recently discovered Macquarie Harbour in Van Diemen’s Land and sailed in 1819 for Torres Strait. King took John Oxley as far as the Hastings River, and continued on to survey the coast between Cape Wessel and Admiralty Gulf. King returned to Sydney in early 1820.
King’s fourth voyage was undertaken in the 154 tonne sloop HMS Bathurst. The ship headed north, through Torres Strait and to the north-west coast of the continent. Further survey of the west coast was made after a visit to Mauritius.
King had been promoted to commander in 1821, and in 1823 returned to England. He subsequently commanded the survey vessel HMS Adventure, and in company with HMS Beagle, spent five years surveying the complex coasts around the Strait of Magellan.
The result was presented at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in 1831. His eldest son, also named Philip Gidley King accompanied his father and continued as a midshipman in HMS Beagle on the continuing survey of Patagonia under Robert FitzRoy, in the company of Charles Darwin. King owned a property at Dunheved in the western suburbs of Sydney where he entertained Charles Darwin on Darwin’s last night in Sydney in 1836.
In 1839, King was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council, and in April the same year, was appointed resident commissioner of the Australian Agricultural Company, a position he held for ten years. In 1855 King was promoted to Rear admiral on the retired list. King was a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Leave a comment