How the Paranormal Uncovered a Royal Cover-Up.

Everywhere I looked the evidence was not there.

Vital papers had been burned.

Identities were anonymous.

The truth had not been told.

As if they were nobody.

I knew they were Royalty.

Sure, that was 250 years ago.

In Regency times.

In England.

But, incredibly, involving the very early days of British settlement in New South Wales (Australia) and New Zealand).

Who would know?

Certainly not the official line.

Not recorded history.

But I had the paranormal clues.

And they gave me enough, like the smoke, that is evidence of there being a fire.

In the end, after considerable research, I found enough smoke to show there must have been a fire.

The Prince of Wales had his position – and his head – on the line,

All good reason for the cover-up.

I understand.

Now, 25 years later, someone wants the truth to out.

Which is where my story becomes truly paranormal.

I can’t claim proof.

That’s been cleverly destroyed.

I can claim evidence like the smoke that gives away a fire.

Read my 236 page book and judge for yourself.

You’ll enjoy the fun and entertaining read.

You’ll ponder the spiritual wisdom as the Truth comes out.

In this sense, it’s a mind/body/spirit story (as well as an historical exposure).

With some romance along the way.

Reader’s Digest said, “You have discerned an amazing story.”

“It’s got everything it needs to be a blockbuster,” they said.

A Royal cover-up which, as you will see, all started with a ghost.

A ghost who appears at Chapter 3 – The Ghost of Granny Fitz’.

Buy the book ‘The Great Royal Cover-Up’ here and enjoy the great read.

Love and peace.

Neil the Smith
My Author Page

PS. Illustrated above. an anonymous painting of the ‘Mary Ann’ the only all-female convict to sail from England to New South Wales in 1792 with the Third Fleet.

Have I Found Australia’s Secret King?

I’ve written a book revealing clues to a secret hidden until now in the Third Fleet of female convicts sent to the new colony of Australia.

The ship was named the ‘Mary Ann’.

Here is the cover of my true story showing a painting of a small boat with secrets being smuggled ashore even before she offloaded her cargo of suffering female convicts.

So what was the big hurry?

This rare unknown painting shows a small boat leaving the ‘Mary Ann’, the only all-female convict ship and one of eleven to sail to Australia from England in 1791 as the Third Fleet.

She sailed hastily a month ahead of the rest “under strange circumstances”.

“You have discerned an amazing story.” – Writer’s Digest

Right from the start there’s a paranormal mystery.

Why did the ‘Mary Ann’, the only all-female convict ship among the Third Fleet of convicts to Australia, leave England in 1791 in such a hurry before the rest of the fleet and “under strange circumstances”?

Who was the Commander of the ‘Lady Nelson’ and what was his true shocking identity?

Have I found the unsuspected unknown missing children of George IV?

Even legitimate children.

What happened to them?

Maybe I know.

ORDER your copy o this explosive new book HERE.

Best wishes.

Neil.

Ghost Busts 200 Year-Old Royal Cover-Up.

Was granny really a ghost on a mission?

Did she live 200 years ago as a wife of the Prince of Wales?

Was her story desperately covered up in the interests of the politics of the day?

And of saving the Prince of Wales’ head?

Read the full story in my book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’ (click here).

At a time of serious anti-Catholic sentiment, of the Gordon riots, even the memory of her deceased late husband who died from injuries he suffered in the riots, was the cover-up in the greater interests of the country, the Parliament . . . and the throne?

Has she returned to state her case for justice?

And legal rights and, as she would claim, a legitimate right to her place in history?

Okay, it’s merely conjecture, but read ‘Dr Desailly’s Secret’ and ‘Florence & The Ghost’ and you may wonder about what really happened 200 years ago.

A time when the Prince of Wales and the wife of a secret marriage, were living in dangerous times.

A time when even the fact that the Royal heir might have married a Catholic as well as against the wishes of the King, George III.

In a letter to the Prince of Wales, Whig politician and leader of the opposition Charles James Fox:

“warned that her situation as well as that of the Prince would be perilous if they went through a ceremony of marriage.”

But they did.

And not only that.

At first she refused all suggestion of marriage.

Then she changed her mind.

Could it be that she was having his child?

And was this child legitimate?

In the chapter ‘The Secret Marriage’ I present the evidence that there was a child.

There were rumours on the couple’s two summers in Brighton.

“It is said she is with child,” wrote a Mrs Talbot.

Could this have been the secret reason for their extended holidays in the seaside resort of Brighton?

Was this a good reason for the distraction of the building of the Royal Pavilion there.

The Pope declared the secret marriage valid.

Read my evidence in ‘The Secret Marriage’ in my book of revelations ‘Man Steps Off Planet’.

Writer’s Digest thinks it’s a blockbuster and “an amazing story”.

At the time all of the evidence was destroyed.

This hasn’t stopped speculation as to whether there were children and, more to the point, where are they?

What happened to them.

I very much doubt, however, if anyone found the evidence I have offered in my book.

This was the time of the historic First Fleets to Australia of mostly convicts sent to start a new colony in the antipodes.

Read the full story in my book ‘Man Steps Off Planet’ (click here).

What a perfect opportunity to disappear an unwanted child and an embarrassment to the Prince of Wales.

I have considered, for example, the fortunate timing of a child with the migration to the end of the earth on one of the First Fleets.

On the same morning that the first ships of the First Fleet sailed for Botany Bay (Australia) on 13 May 1787 carrying 737 convicts, the Prince of Wales was discussing his debts with the Prime Minister, William Pitt.

It’s interesting to note that the Second Fleet two-and-a-half years later carried 22 children and one free person.

It’s impossible to identify who the children were.

This can be found in the chapter ‘The Mystery of the Mary Ann’.

But then we also have three secret messages which point to an interesting man, an unsung hero from that time, with many clues to his identity as a possible child of this Royal couple.

His name is Lieutenant James Simmons.

For a time of great significance to us he was Acting Commander of the brig ‘Lady Nelson‘.

Read the chapters ‘The Lady Nelson’, ‘The Lieutenant Without a Past’, and ‘The Sailor King’.

With this ship he sailed the waters around south-eastern Australia founding Hobart and Launceston in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).

He developed a close friendship with the colony’s first Chaplain, the Reverend Robert Knopwood.

He fostered friendly relations between the Governor of New South Wales and New Zealand when others before him provoked disaster.

All is revealed in ‘Chief Ti-Pahi & The Maori Episode’.

It’s an interesting read.

One reviewer called it “fun and entertaining”.

I hope you will too.

To order your copy click here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Neil Walter John Smith started his career as an advertising copywriter working on creative accounts like Volkswagen, Herbert Adams and Clark’s Shoes. He won an award for Adams meat pies commercials in the Best TV Campaign for the year. For 10 years he worked freelance as a one-man creative director for some of Melbourne’s hottest creative shops. He then moved to the country to work as an author of non-fiction books. Today he lives in a small picturesque fishing village across the bay from the city of Melbourne close to his 2 beautiful daughters and 3 adorable granddaughters.

To follow my blog scroll down and click the Follow button.

Illustration by nicobou at Deviantart

Who was the secret legitimate heir sent to the antipodes 200 years ago?

 

Portrait of  Mrs Maria Fitzherbert (1756-1837), secret wife of George IV (1762-1803)

Was this forgotten man, Acting Commander of the Tall Ship ‘Lady Nelson’  from 1803, a secret legitimate royal heir to the British throne?

I have found convincing evidence that he was.

I’ve written an account of how the evidence unfolded for me, day by exciting day, a story full of unexpected discoveries and endless twists and turns, in my book ‘Back to the Wall’.

When my back was to the wall.

Being an ex advertising copywriter this was a story I simply couldn’t ignore.

Okay, what’s this “amazing story” I have discerned (according to Writer’s Digest*)?

Clues left by secret messages – and a ghost – led me to the ‘Lady Nelson’, one of the sailing ships that arrived in Australia soon after the Third Fleet comprising 11 ships that sailed from England to Australia in 1791 to start a penal settlement on the other side of the world.

And significantly to an enigmatic Commander who, at just 24, took over in an emergency.

Was Lieutenant James Simmons (or Symons)  the legitimate heir sent to the antipodes and out of the way?

Was a secret marriage between the Prince of Wales, King George IV, and a Catholic widow, Maria Fitzherbert,  legal?

The Pope said it was!

Join me as I share every moment of my fun and entertaining romantic world adventure chasing the clues that led me to uncover surprising revelations from my historical research in Australia, Regency England and New Zealand.

It’s an unexpected adventure across five countries and you can share my emotions and the events that emerged as I followed my instincts – always with nothing.

I was broke, bankrupt.

My back was to the wall.

Read my story of survival together with the fun and the drama as I describe every moment as it unfolded.

It’s a blast.

To order your copy now CLICK HERE or from Amazon CLICK HERE.

Best wishes,

Neil

PS. If you found this post interesting scroll down or up to the top of the sidebar and click the FOLLOW button to receive future posts in your email.

* “You have discerned an amazing story. It’s got everything it needs to be a blockbuster: romance, history, the paranormal and the story of a narrator finding his way in the world. Big stories like this are difficult to tell.
The writer has to sift the really important facts from those that don’t keep the story moving. Keeping the reader oriented – and engaged – in a story with twists and turns like this is no small feat either.” – Judge, Writer’s Digest 21st Annual Self-Published Book Awards

First Fleets Mystery.

The First Fleet entering Port Jackson (Sydney) January 26, 1788

What untold secrets did they take with them? They sailed from Portsmouth, England, between 1787 and 1791 to an unknown world with a cargo of mainly convicts to start an experiment in self sufficiency in a strange new land on the other side of the planet already inhabited for maybe 80,000 years by the Australian aborigine.

They had nothing except for what they brought with them on sailing ships which, in many cases, were not up to the trip. Nor were many of the passengers. They left behind families and loved ones, for good.

They set out on a long up to 11 month long voyage at sea into the unknown.

They were going for life.

Many died on the voyage.

Only now I have learned of the mystery.

Actually, more than one mystery.

One concerns an all female convict ship the ‘Lady Juliana’.

Another is the ‘Mary Ann’.

Yet another is the ‘Lady Nelson’, not part of the First Fleets arriving in Port Jackson (Sydney) 9 years later.

The biggest mystery of the lot involves the enigmatic Commander of the ‘Lady Nelson’ who took over in an emergency at the age of just 23 or 24.

Who was he, what was his mysterious past and what was his explosive secret?

Was he, I wonder, a legitimate son to Maria Fitzherbert and the Prince of Wales, King George IV?

The evidence is all there in my fun and entertaining romantic historical mystery ‘Back to the Wall’.

To buy now CLICK HERE or on Amazon HERE

In the book, full of twists and turns, you can read how the mystery unfolded for me as I chased the clues across three countries as well as here in Australia and New Zealand.

You’ll read of Australia’s only military coup, of confrontations with the Maori Chief Ti-Pahi, of drama on the High Seas with equipment and men washed overboard, lost anchors and torn sails, of convicts who escaped from early settlements to live with the aborigines, of a secret royal wedding, of a King’s physician banished to the colonies for life because of what he knew, of another little-known mutiny against William Bligh of ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ fame and of his return to England to face court marshal, and more.

Then there’s the ghost that started this all off. But that’s another story you’ll read in the book.

“You have discerned an amazing story”, said the Judge of the Reader’s Digest 21st Annual Self-Published Book Awards.

It’s a non-stop adventure with twists and turns from cover to cover.

To buy now CLICK HERE or on Amazon HERE

Best wishes

Neil

Have I Stumbled Upon A Secret Royal History Of Australia?

The First Fleet entering Port Jackson (Sydney) Jan 26, 1788

What a co-incidence that an explosive Royal affair was going on in England at the very time that the First Fleets were leaving Portsmouth with a cargo of convicts for the unknown south land known to the Dutch as New Holland (Australia).

A very convenient co-incidence.

The First Fleets sailed from England between 1787 and 1791 bound for New South Wales, as Australia had been named by Captain James Cook, in the land called New Holland by the Dutch (who first landed here in 1606), which some two thousand years ago had been referred to by the Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy as Terra Australis Incognita, the Unknown South Land.

The name ‘Australia’ first appeared on explorer Matthew Flinders’ map (1801-3) of the first circumnavigation of the continent.

This marked the beginning of a quiet invasion of an already inhabited land by hapless settlers, mostly convicts (often guilty of the pettiest crimes) banished from a homeland of overcrowded jails and hulks on the Thames that cared not of their unknown fate.

They left behind their families and loved ones knowing they would never see them again. Two seventeen year-old girls were transported for fourteen years for stealing ten yards of printed cotton. It’s said one woman died of a broken heart even before her ship sailed.

On the other hand it’s said that many were pleased to be leaving the awful conditions of the jails and hulks behind for a new land of fresh air and open spaces.

All the same many would die in shackles on the terrible journey which took nine months or more around the Cape of Good Hope and across the Roaring Forties.

These human lives were of no great concern to those sitting in the Parliament in London or, for that matter, to those on or close to the throne of England.

Except, perhaps, those whose only concern was to remove an unfortunate consequence of a certain secret Royal affair.

What if this co-incidence was used to conceal the evidence on the other side of the world?

Did a British Royal, and then legitimate heir to the throne, set foot on Australian soil as early as 1788?

I explore the evidence in my controversial non-fiction book (not a historic novel) ‘Back to the Wall’.

Order your copy here.

Best wishes

Neil

 

What Was The Mystery of the All Female Convict Ship the ‘Mary Ann’?

The ‘Mary Ann’ was a convict ship, the only ship of the First Fleets to Australia to carry an all-female cargo.

It’s said she sailed “under strange circumstances”.

Interesting.

One hundred and fifty female convicts were brought to the ‘Mary Ann’ from counties and cities throughout England. An article in The Reading Mercury and Oxford Gazette describes a Court Session at the Old Bailey in 1789 when the sentence of Death was first handed down to some of the women who were later transported on the ‘Mary Ann’.

The Judge at the Old Bailey passed sentence of death upon 26 capital convicts. He stated that it was a circumstance much to be lamented, and too plainly deplored the increasing depravity of the times, to have so many wretched criminals standing at the bar to be prematurely cut off from society for their several offences.

The boys, eight in number, and the seven women presented a most dreadful spectacle; they continued several minutes in the bar, some on their knees, filling the Court with their lamentations and cries for mercy.

It is the determination of Government, that all future pardons shall be on condition of transportation for life. And as a further means of clearing the country of thieves and vagabonds the destination of all felons convicted on transportable offences, is to be New South Wales (as Australia was called then).

Over fifty-two years from 1788 to 1840 when transportation of convicts came to an end, more than 12,000 women were transported to New South Wales. A woman transported on the ‘Charlotte’ in 1788 could potentially have been great grandmother to one of the last sent on the ‘Surry’ in 1840.

“With a devil-may-care attitude aided by subterfuge, coquettishness, prostitution or redemption, many in their own way embraced their new life.” (www.jenwilletts.com)

Of the female convicts sent on the ‘Mary Ann’, Susannah Bray was sentenced for 7 years for stealing a bedsheet, Mary Brown to Life for shoplifting (commuted to 7 years), Sarah Donnelly to 7 years for stealing 10 yards of silk ribbon.

The ‘Mary Ann’ was the only ship in the fleet to carry exclusively female, and no male, convicts. Although officially one of the Third Fleet the ‘Mary Ann’ sailed independently of the rest of the fleet, leaving England forty days before the first of the other ships.

I wonder why?

Under the command of her part-owner, Mark Munroe, the 298 ton vessel sailed from England on the 16 February, 1791, arriving in New South Wales on 9 July. This was the fastest voyage yet made by any ship of the three fleets. Bateson in ‘The Convict Ships’ reports a cargo of 150 female convicts but the records of ‘Shipping Arrivals & Departures, Sydney, 1788-1825’ show this to be incorrect. The ‘Mary Ann’ (officially) carried 141 female convicts, six children and one free woman.

There were a number of indications of a hasty departure. As reported by Collins, the Master of the ship “had not any private papers on board (but what added to the disappointments everyone experienced), he had not bought a single newspaper, and having been but a few weeks from Greenland before sailing for this country, he was destitute of any kind of information.” (“An Account of the English Colony of New South Wales” by David Collins)

After a gruelling 143 days at sea “possibly because she called at only one port en route to refresh her prisoners with fresh provisions” a very strange thing happened. “The Master landed a boat in a bay on the coast about 15 miles to the southward of Botany Bay; but no other observation of any consequence to the colony, than that it was a bay in which a boat may land.” (Collins)

How odd.

There’s more.

“Of the ten sail of transports [the Third Fleet] lately arrived, five, after delivering their cargo, were to proceed on the southern whaling fisheries – the ‘Mary Ann’, ‘Matilda’, ‘William and Mary’, ‘Salamanda’ and ‘Brittania’. Two of the whalers, ‘Matilda’ and ‘Mary Ann’, came in from the sea the day on which the others arrived. The former found a boat in a bay on the coast six miles to the southward of Port Stephens …” (‘The Convict Ships’ by Charles Bateson)

First, a boat was landed in a bay apparently before offloading the sick and dying women passengers. Then, later, a boat was found in a bay south of the main settlement.

What were these boats up to?

Read about this all female convict ship and other strange but true mysteries in my acclaimed book.

Best wishes

Neil Smith

PS. To read the whole story of the ‘Mary Ann’ and of my chasing the clues to the mystery around the world click here.