The Convict King: Being the Life and Adventures of Jorgen Jorgenson

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Cambridge University Press, Jun 30, 2011 - Biography & Autobiography - 266 pages
James Francis Hogan (1855-1924) wrote several histories of Irish colonisation in Australia. His family emigrated to Melbourne in 1856 where he became a respected author. After returning to Britain in 1893 he was elected a Member of Parliament, and he later became Professor of Irish History at University College Cork. This book, first published in 1891, retells the extraordinary life of Jorgen Jorgenson (1780-1841), a Danish adventurer, accomplished fraudster, amateur playwright and freelance preacher, who once declared himself the ruler of Iceland and eventually became Constable of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Working from Jorgenson's autobiography (originally printed in the Van Diemen's Land Annual 1835 and 1838), Hogan describes his early adventures as a sailor, his 'liberation' of Iceland from Denmark in 1809, his employment as a British spy, his imprisonment at Newgate and arrival in Tasmania as a convict, and his participation in the infamous Aboriginal clearances there.
 

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Contents

INTRODUCTION
1
CHAPTER I
40
CHAPTER II
54
CHAPTER III
67
ContinentThe Penniless GamblerA Desperate
82
CHAPTER V
97
CHAPTER VI
114
CHAPTER VII
126
CHAPTER VIII
140
CHAPTER IX
155
CHAPTER XI
189
JORGENSONS PUBLISHED WORKS
203
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