Challenge - Non-Philatelic Sydney 1828 Cds - Can You Identify The Source?

Sometimes circular datestamps are 'on piece' or documents that are non-philatelic but certainly interesting.

This is one such item, found on a document online, that so resembles a postmark that it might be of interest to members here.

I will reveal the document type after some time has passed for members to add their guesses/knowledge as to the source:

No idea here.
Australia in 1828

The first two possibilities that popped into my head were a convict Ticket of Leave or a NSW Lands Office document, but I'm not sure if the latter was even in existence in 1828.

Edit: It's the first Sydney datestamp. See White p.43.

That said, I'm wondering if FDS has found this marking on a non-postal article.

Non-postal is correct, Bobby De La Rue.
Your first guess is on the right track.

A postal/money order perhaps?

The first Sydney datestamp, as identified by Bobby De La Rue - but what document is it used on?

A little more.....

Found it, but will not spoil the thread.
Not the first datestamp BTW the first was 16th February.
(thereby creating the very first FDC)
Interesting, was a first for me.............

Further consideration of this historical page and the timing of the first Sydney datestamps leads me to considering that perhaps this page wasn't 'within' the documents as I first thought (the canceller merely used to date the official document) but perhaps folded on the outside of the contents and posted between the destinations shown.

i.e. contrary to my first post - in fact postal?

In the Bruce collection, he notes that he had not seen any of these cancellations prior to 1829.

This may well be the earliest recorded. (Edited after seeing Rod222's post above)

A name provides another clue...

Nice watermark...

The source I found were all postal, and from 1 source (I think)
Lovely watermark.

Something to do with the courts or police. The straight line Bathurst postmark is intriguing. It's also from the same year Bathurst Post Office was opened. The PO in those days was conducted out of the police office.

A second watermark.

The biggest clues from this sheet, as to the contents within, are the time period, the horizontal and vertical lines seen through the paper and the signature.

Convict returns?

Convict - yes.
Returns - no.

Frederick A. Hely
Superintendent of Convicts


Now what other documents about convicts might be set out with these lines?

Yes I'd worked out Hely. Might the signature in Rod's image be Nicholas Devine?

So if not returns or tickets of leave, might it be marriage banns? Records of assignment? Savings bank ledgers? Punishment records? Disembarkation records?