It is no wonder poor Nathaniel committed suicide if he had to deal with this wretch.

Or perhaps Greenway was capable of murder as Olivia accused him.

OUR STRANGE PAST by GEORGE BLAIKIE

CONVICT WITH A HOUSING PROBLEM

It is fashionable these days for right thinking people to shout -hooray for good old Francis Howard Greenway, convict architect and genius."

Every time one is lucky enough to l handle a $10 note one finds the said F. H. Greenway peering proudly out from the place of honour on the front, while innocent local poet Henry Lawson has to be content with a spot on the flip side.

It was a bit different a century and a half ago when the now applauded genius was collecting more jeers than cheers in Sydney town. While it was accepted that the convict architect had a fine flair for designing nice buildings. it was also considered that be was the most cantankerous cuss as ever got transported for his sins, in this case forgery. –

Several overworked governors were to suffer from the fact that Greenway considered himself many cuts above the average crim. and therefore entitled to kid glove treatment.

He arrived in Sydney in 1814, aged 37, and his wire and children manage to arrive soon after. Governor Macquarie gave him a job as an architect.

Macquarie, a kindly man, arranged that the Greenway’s family should find protection from the elements by living in an old house in George Street. The rent was free and with free rent went a fee of three shillings a day for the architect, plus rations for the entire family.

Many a married convict would have considered that a pretty good deal.

Not so M r. Greenway. He thanked no one for living rent free from 1814 until 1822 and made many a protest about other rewards for his services to the government.

Governor Brisbane, in 1822, decided that he had had enough of Greenway's crankiness and sacked him from his post as architect. That meant the ex-forger had to leave his rent-free house in George Street. At least, that was the position in theory.

In fact, Greenway defied anyone to shift him and his wife and his children and his chickens and was still happily living in George Street in 1825, when some bright-eyed observer tipped the wink to the Surveyor-General, Mr OxIey, that Greenway seemed to be planning to start additions to the government house he was supposed to have vacated.

A stern note was sent to Greenway telling him to vacate the premises quick smart because the government needed them urgently.

It can't be said that Greenway moved a hair. Apparently he had been anticipating such a move by the authorities and he was ready for it. He protested that the long re-tired Governor Macquarie had given him the premises in return for services to the colony.

More than that, he claimed, Macquarie had said it would be OK for him to improve the site by building on it.

Naturally proof was demanded. Greenway promptly produced documents which included a plan dated August 22, 1820. and bearing the legend: "Approved. L.. Macquarie.'

As far as Governor Brisbane could discover, Macquarie had intended the George Street house to remain government property by putting the King's mark on it. He ordered further investigation.

GREENWAY was still firmly in possession or the premises when Governor Darling tried to sort out the problem in 1826. Greenway insisted that he had given conclusive documents to Governor Brisbane who, by then, was far, far away. No documents could be found in government records.

But stay! Greenway produced a letter signed by J. M. Gill, Macquarie's engineer, stating that His Excellency had directed that Greenway should have the house in question.

Engineer Gill had long left the colony. Experts, on examining the Gill letter, insisted that it had been written in Greenway's distinctive style, right down to the punctuation marks. It was further stressed that the letter carried an address never used by J. M. Gill and was signed in a style never used by Gill.

As for that notation on the plan, "Approved, L. Macquarie," it was claimed that Macquarie had always approved documents with the words "Approval L. Macq."

There were some critical characters who insisted that a bit of forgery had been going on. They pointed out that, oddly enough, the convict architect Francis Howard Greenway had been transported after having been found guilty of FORGERY!

Governor Darling concluded that Greenway was not telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the matter of his title to the George Street house and ordered him yet again to get out.

Greenway stood fast. Writs were taken out against him. He still stood fast and remained in possession of the government property until 1832 when his faithful and long suffering wife. Mary, passed her reward.

By that time the architect had convinced himself, if no one else, that he owned the house and land that he had been occupying. He was in urgent need of ready cash. To raise some he offered for sale some of the land on which sat the house he occupied.

A smart lawyer named Unwin, who knew prime property when he saw it and did not worry too much about documentation of ownership, paid 5300 for the bit of land.

Unwin was told he had been sold a pup but elected to fight for what he considered to be his rightful property. Finally he was obliged to pay the government $5640 to retain the land for which he had paid Greenway a mean $300.

As for Greenway, he continued to five in the George Street house. He occupied the place for 21 years in all before the authorities managed to evict him. Officials got him outside the gate and then arranged that he could go back in again as bailiff for the Crown -- a sort of caretaker.

To make sure that the architect didn't get the idea he really owned the house, the Crown forced him to share the premises with a police sergeant and a yard keeper.

Greenway, claiming he needed money, also rented out a bit of the George Street building to a young married couple.

Greenway brought the contentious issue to a close in 1837 when he died, aged 60.

Maybe he didn’t win the battle for the George Street house. But who ended upon the front of the modern Australian $10 note?

It wasn’t Governors Macquarie, Brisbane or Darling. It wasn't Surveyor-General Oxley or the police sergeant or the yard keeper. It was the convict who outwitted the lot of them.

Francis Howard Greenway.