The Curious Case of Commissioner Bigge’s Will

 Commissioner John Thomas Bigge (1780–1843) arrived in New South Wales in September 1819, charged with conducting a wide-ranging inquiry into Lachlan Macquarie’s administration. Bigge was highly critical of the Governor’s championship of ex-convicts and his “wastefully expensive” building program. The resulting report contributed to Macquarie’s resignation, and he died in London in 1824 while trying to defend himself against Bigge’s charges.

When John Bigge left Sydney for England on February in 1821 he travelled aboard the Dromedary, the same ship that had brought Lachlan Macquarie to New South Wales in 1809. After his inquiry was completed, Bigge was appointed to head a similar inquiry at the Cape of Good Hope. While there, he seriously injured his leg in a fall from a horse, and never fully recovered. A report in an English newspaper (on June 16, 1825) mentioned that the Cape inquiry had been delayed due to Bigge’s “illness”. There is a strange story (probably apocryphal) that he was treated by a quack doctor who turned out to be a woman impersonating a man.

Bigge was a lifelong bachelor. He retired to England in 1829 and settled in the port of Dover, where he no doubt hoped the sea air would be beneficial. His entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography states that he died in an unexplained “accident” in 1843, while a guest at a London hotel. But what sort of accident? Did he fall downstairs, hampered by his old wound? Or could there have been a fire?

I eventually found the answer in an account published by the London Times (February 27, 1845) of a court case involving Bigge’s will. He had amassed a fortune of some ₤40,000, and apparently filled his days worrying how to dispose of it after his death. As the Times reported, “He had, at various times, made different wills, being in the language of these courts, a ‘willmaker’.”

Between July and December of 1843 Bigge was constantly in touch with his solicitor about changing the will he had made less than three years earlier. On December 16 he travelled to London to confirm the final details. He was staying at the prestigious Grosvenor Hotel and it was here he died, though not as a result of an accident. On December 20 he was suddenly taken ill, passing away two days later at the age of sixty-three. Appropriately for the man famous for accusing Governor Macquarie of unwonted extravagance, Bigge asked to be buried “without ceremony or superfluous expense”. Nor did he show the slightest sentiment over the disposal of his remains, asking to be buried in the churchyard or burial ground nearest to where he should happen to die. Accordingly, he was interred in All Saints cemetery, London, one of the city’s first private cemeteries.

It is interesting to compare Commissioner Bigge’s will with that of Lachlan Macquarie (dated 1815). Macquarie’s greatest concern was to make provision for his only son, and to ensure the name of Macquarie was perpetuated. He also instructed that if he should die in New South Wales his remains were to be “preserved in a leaden coffin or spirits” and transported to his estate on Scotland’s Isle of Mull. Like John Bigge, the old governor died in London (on July 1, 1824). Following a grand funeral procession, Elizabeth Macquarie fulfilled her husband’s wish by taking his body back to Mull for interment.

Surprisingly, it was some time before John Bigge’s will could be found. Eventually it turned up in a red document box, along with an unfinished draft of the revised will. The box was described as “one of the official ones”, traditionally used to convey important government documents. It is intriguing to think it may previously have held papers relating to the inquiry into Macquarie’s administration.

Under the provisions of the 1840 testament, John Bigge’s sister was named as the main beneficiary. His elder brother Charles (a banker) received no benefit except the cancellation of the considerable debts he owed to John.

In 1812 Charles Bigge had built an enormous mansion in Northumberland called Linden Hall. One possibility is that he borrowed from his bachelor brother to help finance the project. Charles too, had suffered a fall from a horse, resulting in an unnamed but “agonizing and disturbing complaint”. Nevertheless, he left his wife and family at Linden Hall in 1843 and set off on a world tour. It was during this long absence that John died. Charles returned in 1844, having purchased a king’s ransom of souvenirs.

If Charles was financially embarrassed, he would have been disappointed by the terms of John Bigge’s will. However, close inspection of both the 1840 and 1843 documents gave him hope that he may yet inherit the bulk of his brother’s estate. Managing to overcome his grief and physical ills, he took legal action.

It appeared the old will had been torn in half. Charles contended that his brother had deliberately destroyed it, and that since the new will was unsigned he had died intestate. This being the case, John’s personal property would have been divided three ways, with Charles and his sister each receiving ₤15,000 and the final portion being divided between the children of another (deceased) brother. According to the laws of inheritance at that time, Charles Bigge would also have inherited John’s considerable freehold real estate.

The case was heard in February 1845. Lawyers supporting the legitimacy of the will argued that the paper was brittle and glossy and that it had merely “parted asunder by wear and frequent unfolding”. The impression is of a rather pathetic and lonely John Bigge worrying interminably over his estate. The lawyers also commented that Bigge had been a professional man and that if he had intended cancelling the will he would have avoided any ambiguity by removing its seal or erasing his signature.

Charles Bigge’s lawyers maintained that the deceased had effectively cancelled the old will by intentionally tearing it in half. The judge was not convinced, stating in his conclusion:

it is probable that the deceased had this paper frequently under his consideration … I do not think it a natural presumption that the paper was torn by the deceased intentionally for the purpose of revoking it. I think it more probable that its condition was the result of wear and tear.

The validity of the torn will was thus upheld. Charles Bigge, who John may have considered an even worse “spendthrift” than Governor Macquarie, had to be content with the cancellation of his debts.

Two other beneficiaries under the will were the sons of John’s late brother Thomas. At the time of their uncle’s death Francis and Frederick Bigge were graziers on a property called Mount Brisbane, in Queensland.

There was an interesting reference to New South Wales in John Bigge’s will. One of his lifelong friends was Lord Colborne, who had an impressive art collection at his home in London’s Berkeley Square. Bigge bequeathed Lord Colborne “a picture which I caused to be drawn of the native dog of New South Wales”. The artist was not named, although one possibility is the ex-convict Joseph Lycett, employed by Bigge to make drawings to accompany his report. An embittered Governor Macquarie might have described the picture as a portrait of his old adversary!

The drawing was the only item specifically mentioned in Bigge’s will. Lord Colborne bequeathed eight of his most valuable artworks to London’s National Gallery, but sadly the whereabouts of the Australian picture is a mystery.

Pauline Conolly wrote the article “Loving Legacies”, on Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie,
in the March issue.