James Mudie
Mudie's life in the military properly began in 1799, when he was appointed second lieutenant in the 69th company of the Royal Marines at Portsmouth, England.
However, Mudie was given the opportunity for a new life when Sir Charles Forbes offered him (and his four children) free passage to New South Wales, Australia.
Mudie claimed that he dealt these harsh punishments in part to counter the soft and lenient policies that Governor Bourke entertained.
After a suitable number of signatures had been taken down, the petition was, according to Bourke and some of his associates in 1834, sent to England 'for circulation in quarters where it is hoped an impression unfavourable to my Government may be produced.'
During Mudie's absence from Castle Forbes around November 1833, six convicts had revolted, robbing his stores and taking some of his possessions before escaping into the bush.
Despite the fact that justice had been served and the matter had been cleared, John Hubert Plunkett and Frederick Hely were dispatched by Governor Bourke to investigate the treatment of the servants at Castle Forbes.
While no charges were elicited on Mudie or Larnach, they both were criticised greatly for the amount of rations they supplied to their workers, and the overall treatment of the convicts stationed there.
After overcoming several complications involving Governor Bourke's refusal to send the protest to London, Plunkett and Hely printed Vindication of James Mudie and John Larnach, from Certain Reflections … Relative to the Treatment by Them of Their Convict Servants, a protest against Larnach and Mudie, and the way they treated the workers at Castle Forbes, which they sent directly to the Colonial Office.
It soon became apparent that Hely and Plunkett were not the only people opposed to Larnach and Mudie's actions: soon after Plunkett and Hely's protest had been printed, William Watt, a ticket-of-leave convict who was under the employment of the Sydney Gazette, published Party Politics Exposed, a pamphlet attacking Mudie for his treatment of convicts and forcing labour.
