Mirroring the official format, the Piper Family Crest is set between two sprigs of leaves

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Literature
George Innes, whose name appears on this plate, was the younger brother of Major Archibald Clunes Innes, who in 1825 was appointed the aide -de-camp to the Lieutenant Governor of NSW. Young Innes obviously had important connections through his brother because in 1821 he was favoured by Governor Brisbane with a ‘ticket of occupancy’ for 2000 acres at Bathurst on which to graze livestock. He established the ' Yarrows Homestead' on the holding when it was converted to a full land grant in 1823. Captain John Piper, a well-connected Sydney landholder, whose name also appears on the plate, established a permanent homestead, ‘Alloway’ on his 2,000 acres when his temporary right to graze livestock on vacant Crown Land was also converted to a full land grant 2,000 in 1823. Piper had arrived in the Colony in 1792 as an ensign in the N.S.W. Corps. He had narrowly avoided a court-martial in 1801 when he acted as a second for his friend John Macarthur in a duel with Major Patterson, his commanding officer, but he had redeemed himself through years of government service to be appointed a magistrate by Governor Macquarie in 1819. By 1825, he had risen to the position of chairman of directors at the Bank of New South Wales. Through savvy land grants and acquisitions, he has accumulated 190 acres at Eliza Point which he renamed Point Piper, as well as other valuable land holdings including 475 acres at Vaucluse, 1130 acres at Woollahra and Rose Bay, 295 acres at Petersham, 700 acres at Neutral Bay, 80 acres at Botany Bay, 300 acres in Van Diemen's Land, an acre of prime city land in George Street, Sydney as well as the aforementioned 2,000 acres at Bathurst. Piper's fortunes experienced a swift decline from the mid 1820’s, first with his resignation from the Bank of New South Wales in 1827 after Governor Darling ordered an inquiry into the bank’s practice of favoured loans. Simultaneously he was suspended from his post as the Colony’s Naval Officer responsible for collecting customs duties, excise on spirits and harbour dues due to gross maladministration. These dual setbacks grossly affected his income and precipitated the sell-off of most of his major Sydney landholdings to clear personal and Government debt, and by 1828, he had retired to one of his last remaining properties at Bathurst. 1823 was the central year in the Bathurst Frontier War between indigenous Australians and the British settlers. The native uprising had been simmering since 1822 when the first bloody skirmishes broke out between the settlers and the Wiradjuri people whose way of life and customs were under threat from the encroachment of grazing properties on traditional Aboriginal lands. Up until the early 1830’s it remained the right of the Governor to bestow the title of King on a chosen native with whom authorities could liaise, and so Captain Piper when adding his name to the Innes plate created a new title of ‘Constable’ relying on his role as a magistrate. To add gravitas, he followed the official government format by placing the Piper family crest between two sprigs of leaves. The bestowing of this plate to an unknown aborigine would date to around 1823 to 1824, and like Governor Brisbane’s Kings, ‘Cap’n Piper's Constable’ would have been tasked with helping to subdue the warring Wiradjuri tribes. This is acknowledged in a letter written to Major J. T. Morisset, the Commandant at Bathurst after the lifting Martial Law in December 1824, where he authorised a £50 reward to be shared between the aboriginal police aides, such as ‘Cap’n Piper’s Constable, who helped in the tracking of the Wiradjuri people.