Maurice Charles O'Connell

Sir Maurice Charles Philip O'Connell (also known as Maurice Charles O'Connell), KCH (1768 – 25 May 1848) was a commander of forces and lieutenant-governor of colonial New South Wales.

Maurice Charles O'Connell was born in Ireland in 1768. He had had a distinguished career in the army.

In 1809, he came with the newly appointed Governor of New South Wales Macquarie to Sydney in charge of the 73rd Regiment of Foot. There, in May 1810, O'Connell hastily married widow Mary Putland, the daughter of the deposed former governor William Bligh, shortly before Bligh's return to England.

O'Connell also had a commission as Lieutenant-Governor, and so acted when Macquarie was absent in Tasmania in the latter part of 1812. O'Connell was then on good terms with Macquarie, who, in November of that year, strongly recommended that his salary should be considerably increased.

Although William Bligh had departed, his daughter, now Mary O'Connell, had not forgiven those who had deposed her father, creating tensions between her husband and others in the colony. O'Connell became involved in the quarrel and in August 1813 Macquarie in a dispatch to Lord Bathurst stated that, "though lieutenant-colonel O'Connell is naturally a very well disposed man . . . it would greatly improve the harmony of the country . . . if the whole of the officers and men of the 73 regiment were removed from it".

On 26 March 1814 O'Connell and his regiment were transferred to Ceylon. He attained the rank of major-general in 1830 and was knighted in 1835.

In 1838, Maurice O'Connell returned to Sydney in command of the forces. He was senior member of the executive council when, the question of the rights of Bligh's daughters to certain land granted to Bligh in 1806 having been again raised, Governor Gipps found himself in an extremely delicate position. The matter was settled by compromise in 1841.

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