Thanks, Garstonite for pointing out the discrepancy in the birth/death of that James. It looks like it must be another. It's seven years since I made the original post, and about twenty seven or more years since I did much research in that quarter. Back then, one did ones research by peering at microfiches in council libraries, or at indexes at the archives reading room in the Sydney CBD (now moved to western Sydney), and copies of anything were done by Xerox. Also by writing letters to the State Archives, enclosing a cheque, and popping the letter into those red boxes which used to be on street corners. Computers ran an operating system called CPM, Wordstar was the only word-processor worth talking about, and the internet was dial-up.
However, as to whether his name was James Sidebottom at all, I remain reasonably sure that it was, so he must be another. Unfortunately, there are quite a few. The correspondance with Governor Macquarie is fairly definite, and it would have been a very dangerous game to try to delude Him, and get a pardon under false pretences. You would need to like the feel of a rope around your neck to try that on.
On the subject of his character, an attitude of John Smith bashing seems to have developed in recent years, mostly coming from some authors at the Newcastle Uni, and distributed by the Maitland Council Information service. What is obvious is that there was considerable jealousy from members of the "establishment", most of whom were not doing as well as Smith was. A number of recent publications completely ignore the fact that he was also guilty of philanthropy!!! There exists a public letter from several of his tenants thanking him for remission of a quarter's rent, after a flood. There are numerous cases where he had a hand in improving the quality of roads, or farming practices. A correspondent of mine, a descendant of James, his eldest son, informed me that on one occasion, when some relative of their's was bankrupt and all his possessions were being sold off, John Smith bought up the property at a bargin basement price, then when the man had made a recovery some years later, sold it back to him at the price he had given at the bankruptcy sale. Then there is the very substantial assistance he gave to Caroline Chisholm.
Any view on his "crimes" should also consider the social structure which existed in the early 1800's, all the 1700's and earlier. The members of the "establishment", called the "quality" by the great unwashed, could commit murder and get away with it, at worst a hurried departure to the Continent and few years exile was sufficient. This is well illustrated by the complete failure of the attempt by some to bring the captain of the "Hell Ship" the 'Neptune' to justice. Conversely, the theft of a scrap of cloth by one of the common herd was sufficient for a death sentence. Conversely in another direction, it was entirely possible to committ a social solecism of such magnitude that the offender was cast into the outer darkness, particularly if the offended person was in high places.
Tina, I will contact you via the private message system when I have scanned the Will' It's 10 or more pages, and very complicated. It may be a few days before I get to it as we are rather busy at present.
Heywood, thank you for your interest. I think I have everything which has survived regarding the earlier trials. An academic cousin of mine, who hangs out at Oxford, was pushed by her mother into doing an extensive search. She sent me a number of newspaper reports, and the prosecutor's bills, but was told by Lancaster archives that the documents of the actual court proceedings had been stored in a cellar during WWII to protect them from German bombers, and the cellar had been flooded, and the contents pulped. Unfortunately, that is just the material which could have told us the crucial details about our James Sidebottom.
Regards, Brutus