Anthony Fenn Kemp - Years in Van Diemen's Land

Years in Van Diemen's Land

Kemp returned to Australia in 1816 and settled in Van Diemen's Land. He received a grant of 700 acres (2.8 km2) at Green Ponds, north of Hobart. He received further grants in 1829 and also purchased or obtained leases on further land. Kemp become a leading figure among graziers, merchants, importers and shippers in the area. He bred sheep and, according to his biographers, apparently helped pioneer the Tasmanian wool industry. He was also the first to import red deer into Tasmania. Kemp was a director and also at one time chairman of the Van Diemen's Land Bank, and set up various mercantile and shipping businesses based in Hobart.

In that year 1817, Kemp was appointed a justice of the peace (commonly known as a magistrate at the time). He was involved in a series of quarrels with Lieutenant Governors Thomas Davey and William Sorell. He circulated notice around the settlement that Sorell was living with a married woman not his wife (which he was). He later wrote to Lord Bathurst, as well as the Bishop of London, and Governor Lachlan Macquarie about these matters. Eventually, Sorell suspended Kemp and made a report to Macquarie. Macquarie confirmed the suspension, but cautioned Sorell not to take Kemp to a court of law. Macquarie said to Sorell that if the "wily and obsessive" Kemp's economic interests were threatened, he was likely to react with "explosive violence". Kemp was a critic of Sorell, but later changed his mind. It may have been when one of Kemp's daughters married one of Sorell's sons. Or, it could have been a realisation that the next lieutenant-governor might not be as generous with land grants. Kemp was even to become the chair of a committee of petitioners to have Sorell's term extended, but this petition was declined by London.

Kemp continued to have problems with the administration, and had run-ins with the next Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur. Kemp was re-appointed a justice of the peace by a subsequent lieutenant-governor John Franklin in 1837.