CONVICT LIFE
IN AUSTRALIA
G'day folks,
Did you know that Australia was founded as a penal colony? That explains a lot of things I guess to those who have not been here, but have met some Aussies. Seriously though, transportation continued in small numbers to Western Australia. The last convict ship, the Hougoumont, left Britain in 1867 and arrived in Western Australia on 10 January 1868. In all, about 164,000 convicts were transported to the Australian colonies between 1788 and 1868 on board 806 ships.
Port Jackson, Feb 6 1790. Scenes of riot and debauchery after the disembarkation of the women convicts tonight transformed Sydney cove into something resembling a gin palace attached to a brothel.
All this took place at night during a violent storm with lightning bolts which, at one place, split a tree in half, killing five sheep and a pig that were penned below it.
The licentious merriment began when some merchant seamen requested some grog from their captain. No doubt the man had good reason to comply, in the relief at getting rid of the last of his convicts, as he had faced a penalty of £40 for every convict missing.
Soon the sailors and convicts were in and around the women's tents, some queuing for sex, others making love with women they had forged attachments on the voyage. Others were swearing, fighting or singing.
While the scene was deplorable no action by the Governor nor his officers. Presumably they thought that intervention would have provoked a serious riot, and that it was best to wait for the morning to re-establish order.
The women, cooped up on the voyage and for another 10 hot and intolerable days outside Sydney Cove, had not too many chaste figures among them.
Letter by unknown convict published in London newspapers in 1791
‘Oh! I you had but seen the shocking sight of the poor creatures that came out in thethree ships, it would make your heart bleed; they were almost dead; very few could stand, and they were obliged to fling them as you would goods; and hoist them out of the ship, they were so feeble; and they died ten or twelve of a day when they first landed; but some of them are getting better. They died in their way, on board the Neptune, 183 men and 12 women, and in the Scarborough 67 men, and in the Surprize 85, they were not so long as we were incoming here, but they were confined and had bad victuals and drinking water. The Governor was very angry, and scolded the Captains a great deal; and I heard, intended to write to London about it; for he said it was murdering them. It was, to be sure, a melancholy sight.’
Reports on trading convict women
London, Sept 28, 1798. Disturbing reports have been arriving of the degrading treatment of female convicts sent to New South Wales.
There have been descriptions of dreadful scenes upon convict vessels arriving in port.
The decks have been crowded with both settlers and male convicts alike, picking and choosing the women them as though they are no more sheep or cattle.
Some settlers want women for servants or wives, while the convicts are looking for wives.
Some women not chosen on the spot are then taken in open boats up the river to the settlement of Parramatta, where another selection process takes place. Those not chosen for particular purposes are then given the free will to go with whomever they prefer.
Those who do not go with one man are assigned to take care of huts in which there are from two to ten men.
A gallows lament by young convict
Sydney cove, June 24. Samuel Payton, a 20-year-old convict, who will die on the gallows tomorrow for attempted robbery, has sent a most moving letter to his mother.
"My dear mother! With what agony of soul do I dedicate the last few moments of my life, to bid you an eternal adieu! My doom being irrevocably fixed, and ere this hour tomorrow I shall have quitted this vale of wretchedness. I have at last fallen an unhappy, though just, victim of my follies.
Banish from your memory all my former indiscretions and let the cheering hope of a happy meeting hereafter console you."
A woman convict is hanged for robbery
Sydney Cove, Nov 23 Ann Davis has been hanged, the first women in the colony to be "turned off" by the executioner.
She was found guilty of stealing clothing and goods from the house of convict Robert Sidaway, who co-habituated there with Mary Marshal. Davis was in the habit of calling by and smoking a pipe with them.
When they were away on November 14 she gained access through a window. After upsetting a tub of water in the house, she made off with her booty. It was later found in her possession.
Convict woman writes of life in 'this solitary waste of creation'
Norfolk Island, Nov 19 The plight of convict women has been described in a letter which has been privately sent in a ship today.
A convict woman writes of "our disconsolate situation in this solitary waste of creation."
"The inconveniencies... suffered for want of shelter, bedding etc are not to be imagined by any stranger. However, we have now two streets in four rows of the most miserable huts you can possibly conceive of deserve that name."
The women are "deprived of tea and other things.... and as they are all totally unprovided with cloths, those who have young children are quite wretched."
"Several women, who became pregnant on the voyage, and are since left by their partners, who have returned to England, are not likely to form any fresh connections."
"We are comforted with the hopes of a supply of tea from China, and flattered with getting riches when our settlement is complete."
"Our Kangaroo rats are like mutton, but much leaner; and there is a kind of chickweed so much in taste like our spinach. Something like ground ivy is used for tea; but a scarcity of salt and sugar makes our best meals insipid."
"The separation of several of us to an uninhabited island was like a second transportation. In short, everyone is so taken up with their own misfortunes that they have no pity to bestow on others."
Deaths and Mutiny on convict vessels provoke a scandal
Sydney, August 9. Despite the past disgraces of convict ships, and the regulations and warnings designed to improve their condition, two more vessels have arrived at Sydney in deplorable state, and with awful death rates.
The Hercules arrived on June 26 with the news that 30 convicts had died on the voyage and another 11 had been killed during a mutiny, with two dying later of their wounds and a third being summary executed by the captain.
The Atlas arrived on July 6, having lost 68 people through scurvy and dysentery.
Governor King described the ships as being "filthy beyond description. Some convicts were lying dead with heavy irons on, while many more died as they were coming to the hospital."
There has been an inquiry as to whether the masters had contravened their charters as convict carriers. The Governor noted that the Atlas was carrying liquor.
Description of an old crawler
Tasmania 1872 He had always been escaping, always rebelling, always fighting against authority and always being flogged. There had been a whole life of torment such as this, forty two years of it, and there he stood, speaking softly, arguing his case well and pleading while the tears ran down his face for some kindness, for some mercy in his old age. 'I have tried to escape, always to escape', he said, 'as a bird does out of a cage. Is that unnatural? Is that a great crime?'
Escape foiled in Timor
Koepang, Oct 5. Captain Edward Edwards has made a remarkable catch. He has captured a party of 11 convicts, led by William and Mary Bryant, which escaped from Sydney Cove on March 28.
These escapees, despite having navigational skills, suffered incredible hardships before arriving in Timor.
The story they told of their 3,254 mile journey over 69 days, was equally memorable.
It appears that they first got the idea of heading so far north after hearing about the success of Captain William Bligh who sailed across the pacific in a longboat after the Bounty mutiny.
Ironically, Captain Edwards, aboard the Pandora, had been commissioned to hunt the mutineers. After his vessel was wrecked he took longboats to Timor, putting him on the scene to take custody of the convict group.
On the way north up the coast, the convicts met hostility from local aborigines, and were caught in a great gale, which whipped up the oceans "mountains high". At times, though, they were able to land safely to rest, eat fresh food and replenish their fresh water.
The exact points of their landings are uncertain, but it is believed they sailed to the mouth of a fine river, and discovered deposits of coal.
They eventually crossed the Arafura Sea, passed the southern part of Timor to Koepang.
They told the local authorities that they were survivors of a shipwreck and were given fine hospitality by the Dutch Governor.
But one talked to much and the Governor arrested them. They are in chains awaiting their return to England.
One convict describes the aftermath of a flogging:
unless it were at the meal Hours or at Night he was immediately sent to work, his back like Bullocks Liver and most likely his shoes full of Blood, and not permitted to go to the Hospital until next morning when his back would be washed by the Doctor's Mate and a little Hog's Lard spread on with a piece of Tow, and so off to work...and it often happened that the same man would be flogged the following day for Neglect of Work.
Floggings deplored by Aborigines
May 30 1791, the ferocity of British justice has shocked the Aborigines. The Governor wants to prove to them that their possessions are to be respected, and that any convict stealing from them can expect a harsh penalty.
Only this month a convict who stole fishing tackle from Daringa, wife of Colbee, was severely flogged in the presence of as many Aborigines of both sexes as could be assembled. The reason for the punishment was explained to them.
The Aborigines expressed abhorrence of the punishment, and sympathy for the sufferer.
Humanists deplore floggings
March 31 1823, the more humane members of the colony are horrified by the continuing practice of Convicts being flogged until they confess to alleged crimes. The latest among a large number of prisoners known to be treated thus is Henry Bayne, who has been sentenced to receive 25 lashed every morning until he tells "where the money and property is, stolen from the house of William Jaynes". Bayne insists he is innocent.
Concerned people are planning to report the practice to the authorities in Britain, in the hope it will be investigated.
Unique class system keeps the colony divided against itself
Jan 31 Deep divisions exist within New South Wales, greatly adding to the burden of being a people isolated at the bottom of the world, and therefore needing more than ever to live together in harmony.
Historically, the greatest rift has been between the "exclusives" and the "emancipists". The first group believe that anyone who has come to the colony in penal servitude is never capable of complete redemption. These people, who tend to be among the wealthy landowners, thus see themselves as a superior class. For their part, the emancipists, who are all ex-convicts, are concerned with equality of human rights.
Governor Macquaire, much to his peril, supported the emancipist cause, despite opposition from the forces which believed it would end respect for the law by allowing ex-convicts the normal rights of British citizens.
Since the Bigge inquiry, though, the colony has been re-established much more firmly as a prison rather than for reform, which has only worsened the tension.
As well, the emancipists are divided, between those who committed crimes at home, and in Australia.
This reflects a third division, being "Sterling", a name for the British-born, and the "Currency", the home-grown population.
"There was two floggers, Richard Rice and John Jonson, the Hangman from Sidney. Rice was a left handed man, and Jonson was right-handed, so they stood at each side and I never saw two trashers in a barn moove their stroakes more handeyer than those two man killers did .... as it happened I was to leew'rd of the floggers and I protest ........ Next was tyed up paddy galvin, a young boy about twenty years. He was ordered to get 300 lashes.
He got one hundred on the back and you cud see his back bone between his shoulder blades, then the doctor order him to get another hundred on his bottom. He got it, then the doctor order him to be flog on the calves of his legs. He never gave so much as whimper. They asked him where the pikes were hid, he said he did not know, and if he did he would not tell. "You may as well hang me now," he says for you will never get any musick from me". So they put him in the cart and sent him to the hospital."
Journalist describes flogging
The floggings are hideously frequent. On flogging mornings I have seen the ground where the men stood at the triangles saturated with blood, as if a bucket of blood had been spilled on it, covering a space three feet in diameter, and running out in various directions, in little streams two or three feet long....
Clancy's comment: I loved studying this when I was a kid. I also loved checking out old houses and buildings where convicts were kept. In all of my readings about early life in Australia, I often wondered how the convicts felt when they arrived on the driest continent on earth.
I'm ...
A photograph taken for a cover of a future book I'm working on:
"Irish Gold'
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