Scottish-born landowner and author.
Mudie, offered free passage to Australia for himself and his four children by Sir Charles Forbes, arrived in Australia in 1822, where he established a large, productive estate, called 'Castle Forbes' on the Hunter River. Mudie also served as a magistrate, in which role he was known for the severity of his punishment of even petty criminals.
In 1833, after six of Mudie's convicts workers at Castle Forbes revolted and ran away, Mudie was heavily criticised for his mistreatment of his workers (although the convict workers themselves were executed, bar one who was sent to Norfolk Island). Furious at the criticism, Mudie returned to London, where he published The Felonry of New South Wales, a ferocious attack on his critics.
Mudie returned to Australia once more in 1840, but found that the publication of his book had stripped him of any remaining supporters. Indeed, the Australian Dictionary of Biography notes that he was publicly horsewhipped in Sydney by John Kinchela, the son of a judge who had been maligned in the book, and that public sympathy rested entirely with Kinchela.
Mudie returned permanently to England in 1842.
