Heroes, Rebels and Radicals of Convict Australia

In Heroes, Rebels and Radicals of Convict Australia, Jim Haynes examines the reasons why it was decided to transport convicts to Australia from Britain and how the convicts generally coped in their new country. This book provides a readable introduction to the story behind transportation to Australia

For 270 years Britain transported prisoners from British gaols to different parts of the world. Transportation of convicts to Australia took place from 1787 when the first convicts left on ships for New South Wales and 1868 when transportation to Western Australia ceased. Prior to this, many of the prisoners were transported to America until the American War of Independence 1775 to 1783. As prisons and prison hulks were rapidly becoming overcrowded it was considered necessary to find another location.

Many possible locations were discussed until it was finally decided to send convicts to the other side of the world to serve their term and establish a new colony to prevent the French from taking possession of what was eventually to become Australia. Jim Hayes discusses a variety of reasons the transportation to Australia was considered necessary.

Jim Hayes looks at the attitudes in general to transportation and how transportation to Australia differed from transportation to the Americas. He then writes about men who advocated transportation to Australia including Joseph Banks and James Mario Matra. The next chapters are about a selection of people involved in the transportation of convicts including Surgeon John White on the First Fleet and Captain John Hunter on HMS Sirius. Other chapters concern the lives of a selection of convicts including Mary Reiby, Henry Lovell, John Donohoe who became a bushranger, Sappy Lovell and William Westwood who also became a bushranger. Jim Haynes also includes chapters about the Australian Aboriginal, Permulway, Lieutenant William Dawes, Elizabeth Fry who supported female convicts as did Lady Jane Franklin, wife of the Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land.

The Remarkable Mrs Reiby

Mary Haydock was arrested for stealing a horse in August 1791. Fourteen months later she was aboard the convict ship, Royal Admiral, on her way to Sydney Cove. In 1794, Mary married seaman, Thomas Reiby, and they moved to the Hawkesbury where they been given land to farm. 

They started a cargo business transporting goods on the Hawkesbury River between Sydney and the new settlement where they now lived. Mary became involved in operating the family business as well as looking after their growing family of seven children, especially when her husband travelled overseas for more cargo.

When Thomas Reibey died in 1811, Mary was in control of a successful business which she operated from the heart of Sydney. She was more than able to compete with the other traders in the colony and became a wealthy businesswoman and landowner.

As well as telling Mary's story in The Remarkable Mrs Reibey, Grantlee Kieza provides vivid descriptions of life in the colony of New South Wales at the time both in Sydney and at the Hawkesbury, politics, trade, Rum Corps, other merchants and living as a former convict in the settlement. When some of her family settle in Van Diemen's Land descriptions are also provided of life in that colony. One of Mary's neighbours in Sydney was Simeon Lord whose name appears quite often in the book.

Mary Reibey has been remembered with her image appearing on the Australian $20 note.

 

The book has detailed endnotes and a bibliography.

Botany Bay the story of the convicts transported from Ireland to Australia 1791-1853

Around 45,000 Irish convicts were transported to Australia between 1791 and 1853. Most of them were transported in the 212 convict ships which sailed mainly from Dublin or Cork. In Botany Bay, Con Costello provides some of the background to the story of these Irish convicts - what were the conditions in Ireland at the time, trial of prisoners, imprisonment and transportation and what the convicts could expect in their new land. My special interest is in the convicts involved in the 1798 uprising in Ireland which is covered in chapter 2.

James Hardy Vaux's 1819 dictionary of criminal slang

The full title of this work is James Hardy Vaux's 1819 dictionary of criminal slang and other impolite terms as used by the Convicts of the British Colonies of Australia with additional true stories, remarkable facts & illustrations by Simon Barnard. It is two hundred years since the first publication of Vaux's work and with twelve convicts in the family prior to 1808 this was an obvious work to borrow from the library.

The alphabetical listing of terms provides a short explanation of the term.
For example: Kelp: a hat; to kelp a person, is to remove your hat to him.

A more detailed explanation to the use of the term with examples of use and how it came to be is usally then provided by Simon Barnard.
For example: Kelp is a pun on cap. According to an eighteenth-century treatise on thieving, 'pinchers' bumped into their victims and picked their 'cly' when they raised their hands to secure their 'kelp'. etc (p129)

A cly is a pocket.

Pinch: To purloin small articles of value in the shops of jewellers, etc; while pretending to purchase or bespeak some trinket. This game is called the pinch - I pinch'd him for a fawney, signifies I purloined a ring from him; Did you pinch any thing from that crib? Did you succeed in secreting any thing in that shop? This game is a branch of shoplifting; but when the hoist is spoken of, it commonly applies to stealing articles of a larger, though less valuable, kind, as pieces of muslin, or silk handkerchiefs, printed cotton, etc. See: Hoist (p185)

Pinch-Gloak: A man who works on the pinch

Many hours could be spent following these terms.

'Is that bum trap missing a flesh-bag?' article in The Guardian 20 August 2019

The Tin Ticket

The subtitle of this book, written by Deborah J Swiss, is 'The heroic journey of Australia's convict women'. The Transportation Act, that allowed prisoners to be sent overseas to serve their term and in reality spend the rest of their life in a new country, was passed in 1718. In this book the author looks at how transportation affected the lives of four women who were transported to Tasmania.

The 'tin ticket' refers to the small piece of tin stamped with the number that was hung around the neck of a female convict transported to Tasmania. The convict women studied in this book are Agnes McMillan and Janet Houston from Glasgow who were transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1836, Ludlow Tedder transported, with her young daughter Arabella, in 1839 and Bridget Bailey, from Ireland, transported in 1851. As well as describing the conditions the women faced on arrival, especially life in the Cascades Female Factory, the life of the women when freed has been traced. Leaving their convict past behind, these women and their families helped build Australia.

This book is essential reading for anyone who has female convicts in their family who were sent to Van Diemen's Land. It would also be a useful book for anyone interested in the convict period in Australian history. 

Botany Bay

Subtitle: The story of the convicts transported from Ireland to Australia 1791-1853. Author is Con Costello.

Two hundred and twelve convict ships sailed from Dublin or Cork to Australia between 1791 and 1853. Forty-five thousand Irish men and women were transported on these ships. One of these convicts was my great (x3) grandfather, John Pendergast (1769-1833) who was transported to Sydney Cove aboard The Minerva arriving in January 1800. John had been involved, possibly on the fringe, of the the Rising of the United Irishmen in May 1798.

Con Costello writes about the transportation of these convicts, social and political conditions at the time leading to imprisonment and eventual transportation to another country plus conditions encountered by Irish Catholics, particularly in the early years of the settlement.

Chapters include: First sailings, 1791-1797; United Irishmen, 1798-1799; Priests and rebels, 1800; A sherrif and a general, 1801-1802; Dr Trevor and Michael Dwyer, 1803-1812; Preparations and passage, 1813-1817; Gaelic speaking Rockchoppers, 1818-1820; Defenders and Whiteboys, 1821-1824; Bushrangers and Balladeers, 1825-1832; Nuns and other females, 1833-1838; The Famine victims, 1839-1848; Young Irelanders, 1849-1850; Fenians, 1851-1876.

The book therefore looks not just at political and social unrest in Ireland but also at the reception of these convicts in Australia. In some chapters the author concentrates on the experiences of one or two transportees while others are more general in nature.

The book does not have an index but there is a bibliography. There are also some illustrations from publications of the time.

The Soldier's Curse

A series of crime novels set in 1820s New South Wales has been written by Meg Keneally with her father, Tom Keneally. The first book in the Monsarrat Series is The Soldier's Curse, published in 2016.

Set in the convict settlement at Port Macquarie the novel provides detailed description of life in a convict settlement including the demarcation between convicts, former convicts and the free (usually soldiers).This convict settlement is for those who have been convicted twice for offences. Hugh Monsarrat has been assigned as a clerk in the office of the Commandant of the settlement while he awaits his ticket of leave and transcribes the many documents relating to the management of the settlement. Working at Government House he befriends the house keeper, Mrs Mulrooney, as well a a young soldier who regularly visits the house.

The plot centres around the gradual decline in health and eventual death of the Commandant's wife, Honora. When the housekeeper is accused of murdering her mistress Monsarrat is left with the task of exposing the killer.

At times I suspected that the authors were not sure whether they were writing primarily about life in the convict system or writing a crime novel as the plot is intertwined with detailed descriptions of convict life. Being the first book in a series it also contains copious back stories providing information about the main characters which slow down the unravelling of the story. Hopefully other titles in the series will concentrate a little more on the plot if they are meant to be crime novels.

The book does provide an interesting fictional account of convict life in New South Wales. The second book in the series, The Unmourned, published earlier this year is set in the Parramatta Female Factory. Hopefully the storyline will move a little faster than in The Soldier's Curse. It will be interesting to watch the development of this series.

Review in The Australian 27 February 2016