Joseph Foveaux (1767 – 20 March 1846) was a soldier and convict settlement administrator in colonial New South Wales, Australia. He was also a sheep grazier and breeder, being the largest landholder in New South Wales by 1800.

Early life

Foveaux was baptised on 6 April 1767 at Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England, the sixth child of Joseph Foveaux and his wife Elizabeth, née Wheeler.

Foveaux was an ensign in the 60th regiment and then joined the New South Wales Corps in June 1789 as lieutenant, became a captain in April 1791 and reached Sydney in 1792. There he was promoted to major in June 1796 and, as senior officer between August 1796 and November 1799, he controlled the Corps at a time when some of the senior officers were making fortunes from trading and extending their lands. By 1800 he had become the largest landholder and stock-owner in the colony.

Joseph Holt, a general during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, was imprisoned at Norfolk Island from 1804 to 1805. Holt wrote about the overjoyed inhabitants of the island upon Foveaux's departure, and said, "If I could have bought or borrowed a pistol, the world, I think, would soon have been rid of this man-killer, Foveaux, and with as short a warning as he gave to the two men he hung without trial."

In September 1804, Foveaux left Norfolk Island for England to attend to his private affairs and seek relief for the asthma that affected him. In 1814 he married Ann Sherwin, Foveaux had an adopted daughter, born Ann Noble Rose in 1801.

Foveaux died at New Road, London on 20 March 1846 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery. named after the Surrey Hills in Surrey, England. The main east–west street through the suburb is Foveaux Street from Bourke Street to Elizabeth Street, which gave its name to Kylie Tennant's 1939 novel Foveaux about inner city slum life.

References

Further reading

  • Whitaker, Anne-Maree (2000), Joseph Foveaux: power and patronage in early New South Wales, Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0868405558]
  • Wright, Reg, (1999), 'The Most Flourishing Spot out of Old England', Tasmanian Historical Research Association Papers and Proceedings, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 135–149.