James Shairp

James Maitland Shairp (died 1795) was an officer in the British Marines and a member of the First Fleet to Australia.

Commissioned as a Marines officer in 1778, Shairp volunteered for Australian service in 1787 and spent two years as second in command at the inland settlement of Rose Hill, New South Wales. He returned to England in 1792 and resumed his service with the Chatham Division of Marines. He was promoted to captain in 1795 but died later that year.

Early life
Shairp was initially commissioned as a second lieutenant, 55 Company, Portsmouth Division on 12 June 1778. On 25 October 1780 he was promoted to first lieutenant and transferred to the 57 Company, also headquartered at Portsmouth. He was removed from active service and placed on half-pay from February 1783, as part of a nationwide reduction in military forces following Britain's cessation of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War, but returned to full pay a year later as an officer in the Chatham Division of Marines under the command of Major-General Carruthers.

Australian service
On 20 December 1786 Shairp volunteered for service with Botany Bay Marine detachment. Three weeks later he embarked aboard the convict transport Alexander for the voyage to Australia, arriving as part of the First Fleet on 18 January 1788.

In November 1788 he was named second-in-command to Captain James Campbell for the expedition to found the colony's first inland settlement, at Rose Hill, leading a party of twenty-five marines and seventy convicts. Campbell, Shairp and fellow Marine lieutenant John Johnson remained at Rose Hill for the following eighteen months, overseeing the garrison and ensuring construction of a redoubt with barracks for officers and a hundred soldiers. Barracks construction was completed in April 1790, several months ahead of similar works in Port Jackson.

Criminal Court Affair
In addition to his duties as a Marine, Shairp and his fellow officers had been designated assistant judges for the colony's Criminal Court, acting in place of a jury. As a consequence of this service, Shairp became an unwilling participant in the "Criminal Court Affair" of April 1789, placing him in direct conflict with both his superior officer Captain Campbell, and the Marine commander Major Robert Ross. Ross had consistently objected to the appointment of Marine officers to the Court, considering it a civil institution and not something that the military could be bound to serve upon. In April 1789 and at Ross' urging, Captain Campbell wrote to the colony's Judge Advocate David Collins, refusing to serve on the Court in retaliation for what he considered to be Collins' insulting attitude in not prosecuting a particular convict for perjury against a Marine.

Ross then called a meeting with three junior officers: Shairp and Johnson from Rose Hill, and lieutenant John Poulden from Port Jackson. At the meeting, Ross strongly implied that the officers should join Campbell in refusing to serve on the Court. The officers refused, instead writing to the colony's Governor Arthur Phillip that the Collins-Campbell dispute was a "private disagreement." Their view was upheld by a subsequent Court of Enquiry largely comprising Marine officers sitting as assistant judges, after which Ross chose not to pursue the issue and Campbell resumed his court duties as a "volunteer." Ross' attempt to influence Shairp and others against civil duties such as court participation, were part of the reasoning behind colonial Governor Arthur Phillip's decision in 1790 to seek replacement of the colony's Marine detachment with a regular army unit sent from Britain.

Return to England
Shairp's three year commission in New South Wales expired in 1791 and he departed Australia aboard HMS Gorgon (1785) on 19 June 1792. His experience serving under Major Ross had engendered a lasting hostility towards that officer, which manifested itself in Shairp's offer to appear as a witness for the defence in the court-martial of a fellow New South Wales Marine, Captain James Meredith, who was facing charges of "improper conduct" brought by Ross following the "Criminal Court Affair" three years earlier. Shairp and others gave evidence against Ross in September 1792, with their testimony being described in the judgement as "very respectable" and accepted "unreservedly" by the court. The verdict on 18 September acquitted Meredith and found the allegations by Major Ross to be both groundless and maliciously brought, a finding that crippled Ross' subsequent career.

Shairp thereupon resumed his service with the Chatham Division of Marines, earning promotion to captain-lieutenant of the 13 Company on 9 May 1795. On 7 November and despite failing health, Shairp was further promoted to captain of the 74 Company at Chatham. Sickness prevented Shairp from taking up the post. He died at Chatham less than two months later, in December 1795.