John D'Ewes came to
Vancouver Island from Australia, where he had been a police magistrate, commissioner of crown lands,
and deputy sheriff in the gold fields of Ballarat,
Victoria, Australia. While magistrate, and shortly before riots broke out there in 1854, he
allegedly accepted loans from various people, causing Governor
Sir Charles Hotham to remove him from office.
D'Ewes was nevertheless able to obtain a letter of introduction from
Sir Edward Lytton in the Colonial Office, and proceeded to
Vancouver Island where
Douglas appointed him acting postmaster in
Victoria. When the mistake was discovered,
Lytton directed another letter to
Douglas to alert him to D'Ewes past history. In October 1861 D'Ewes suddenly disappeared
from the colony, along with £1000 in post office funds. D'Ewes showed up in England
on 17 November, followed about six weeks later by his wife and children.
The press criticized
Douglas for not pressing an investigation into D'Ewes's activities. In April 1862, the
British Colonist reported that D'Ewes had committed suicide in Germany.
British Colonist, 17 October and 2 November 1861; 13 January, 30 April, and 1 December 1862.; D'Ewes
to Lytton, etc etc.; C. M. H. Clark,
A History of Australia, 6 vols. (Carlton, Australia: Melbourne University Press, 1980), 1: 68-69. Nancy
Keesing, ed.,
Gold Fever: The Australian Goldfields 1851 to the 1890s (Australia: Angus and Robertson, 1967.)
Lytton to Douglas, 11 September 1858, CO 398/1, p. 100.