Thirteen letters by Newton Fowell, mostly to his father, including detailed reports on the first convict voyage of HMS SIRUIS to Australia, one addressed to Captain George Ourry in Devon, November 1786 to July 1790; One autographed letter signed by Captain John Hunter, to Captain Palmer (Surgeon on HMS PERSEUS), SIRIUS, 27 February 1787; Two letters by J. Nicolls from the SIRIUS, to G. Ourry, August 1787, June 1788; Three letters by Sir Evan Nepean, Under-Secretary of State (two autograph, one in a copy) to Mr and Mrs John Fowell, c.1787-1788; Related documents comprising a note by John Fowell about prize money owed to his son and a note about Newton Fowell's death, no date.

Administrative / biographical background
Born in Devonshire, England, Newton Fowell had been recommended to Captain Arthur Phillip by Evan Nepean and he quickly impressed Phillip. He was befriended by Philip Gidley King who, during the voyage to New South Wales, confided his appointment as Lieutenant Governor of Norfolk Island. He was promoted Second Lieutenant in December 1789. Fowell’s letters to his family describe the voyage to New South Wales and the founding years of the colony, discipline in the colony and on Norfolk Island, the flora and fauna, local Aborignal people, food shortages and public buildings. Interestingly, in a long letter dated 12 July 1788, he recorded that Phillip named the settlement Albion rather than Sydney on 4 June 1788, the King's birthday. In April 1790, prevented by bad weather from landing at Norfolk Island as had been planned, Fowell was forced to continue to Batavia on the Supply on a mission to procure supplies. In Batavia, he contracted fever and died at sea on 25 August 1790. His last letter, written to his family on 31 July 1790, reached England in December 1790. His letters were preserved in the family home, Blackhall in Devon, until 1987 when they were acquired by the Mitchell Library.