|
Deaths Under
Sentence
Profiles
The Flash
Mob
Disposal on Arrival
In Service
Female Assigned
Servants
A Love Letter
Adopt a Convict
Newspaper Articles
Convicts'
Families
Marriage
Convicts
in Hospital in 1846
Muster
Rolls
On
the Town
Riots
& Insubordination
Catherine
Bartley, transported per Duke
of Cornwall in 1850 |
|
Female
convicts were a varied bunch. They
ranged in age from children to women in
old age, but most were in their twenties
or thirties. Many were single, but
some were married and some were widowed.
A small proportion brought children with
them on their journey of transportation.
Most left family behind in their homeland.
Some were transported with family members,
or family members had come before them,
or came after them.
Many
of the crimes for which they were transported
are considered minor offences by today's
standards. The most common crime was
stealing — food, clothing, money, household
items — nothing worth more than £5.
Relatively
few of the women were transported for a
first offence. A few of the women
even courted transportation — deliberately
committing crimes such as arson in order
to be transported. Perhaps a few were
wrongly accused, but the majority, according
to the laws of the day, deserved to be transported
to the other side of the world, away from
kith and kin.
The
Female Factory Research Group is compiling
a
database
of all female convicts who spent time in
Van Diemen's Land. Can you contribute?
|
A
list of female convicts who died whilst under sentence
between 25 November 1845 and 5 July 1874 was compiled
by the Female Factory Research Group for the Female
Factory Muster held in November 2004.
View
the list
here.
Inquests
were sometimes held for the women who died under sentence,
and these were often reported in the local newspapers.
On 4 February 1843 (p2 c3) the Cornwall Chronicle
reported on the inquest of Ann Thompson. This was
possibly Ann Thompson per Hindostan.
CORONER'S
INQUEST.—An inquest
was held at the Court House, on Wednesday afternoon,
upon the body of Ann Thompson, who died at the
Female Factory, on Tuesday morning. The nurse
at the hospital in the Female Factory, deposed
that the deceased had been a patient there for
a fortnight; and had been complaining of her
head for some time; she was seen by Drs. Benson
and Maddox, once or twice every day whilst there;
a blister was applied to the back of her head
on Monday; she was restless during the night,
and at daylight became more quiet; a change
suddenly came over her, and she expired in presence
of witness. Dr. Maddox stated, that the death
of deceased was occasioned by a cancer in the
brain. Verdict—"Died by the visitation
of God." |
The
Cornwall Chronicle of 13 May 1843 (p2 c5)
reported on the inquest of Jane Stewart per Emma
Eugenia 1842.
CORONER'S
INQUEST.—An inquest
was held at the Court House on Monday last,
before P. A. Mulgrave, Esq., on the body of
Jane Stewart, who died in the female house of
correction [Launceston Female Factory] on the
Friday previous. It appeared from the evidence,
that the deceased had been taken in labour on
Friday, and the case being one of difficulty,
had been attended by Drs. Benson and Maddox,
as also by Mr. Corbould. Notwithstanding every
attention paid by the medical gentlemen, she
expired in a few hours of extensive hemorrhage.
After a patient investigation, the jury returned
a verdict of "Died by the Visitation of
God." |
The burials
of convicts who died under sentence in or near Launceston
and were Protestant, were recorded in the St John's
Anglican Church burial records up until mid-1845.
The burials
of convicts who died under sentence in or near Hobart
and were Protestant, were recorded in the burial records
of St David's Anglican Church up until the beginning
of 1844. Both before and after this time, burials
were recorded at Trinity Anglican Church, Hobart,
though there was a break between mid-1845 and the
beginning of 1848.
Profiles
of Female Convicts
Profiles
of 12 female convicts were compiled for the
Female
Factory Muster held in November 2004.
Find out what these girls got up to!
Margaret
Galvin (uxor Coghlan), transported on the
Arabian, was tried and hung for murder of
her husband in 1862. Click
here for information on her crime.
|
The
Flash Mob - image
by
Chris Downes |
The
Flash Mob was a sub-culture of the female
convicts, most noticeably in the female
factories. Bethell referred to the
Flash Mob in his writings about the
Launceston Female
Factory in The Story of Port
Dalrymple.
|
There
was, however, a hard core of those
who were irreclaimable.
They were known as the "Flash
Mob" and, if rumour spoke
true, owing to the negligence
of turnkeys they often slipped
out of the factory at night to
roam the town. However badly
these women behaved, little could
be done to punish them.
Arthur had abolished the spiked
iron collar, common in Sorell's
day, and had substituted a yellow
garb and the shearing of the hair.
This punishment, though unpopular,
had little effect.
James
Bonwick, in his Curious Facts
of Old Colonial Days, gives
us a Hogarthian word-picture of
these women, of the horrors of
the sea-voyage and of their moral
abandonment. In the factories,
he says, the atmosphere was polluted
by the fumes of tobacco-smoke
and the walls echoed with the
shrieks of passion, peals of foolish
laughter and oaths of common converse.
|
|
The
following article about The Flash Mob was reported
in the Colonial Times on 10 March 1840 (p5
c3).
|
Female Factory -
The Flash Mob!
On more than one occasion, as our readers
may recollect, have we directed the attention
of the proper authorities, to the laxity
of discipline, which is practised at the
Female House of Correction, near this town
[Hobart]. Did nothing further result
from this heedlessness, than a winking at
certain harmless pastimes, indulged in by
the inmates, we should not again bring forward
the subject, thus prominently; but information
has reached us of so flagrant and revolting
a character, that we cannot, under any consideration,
remain silent.
We
have appended to the title of this article,
the term "Flash Mob;" that
this term is technical, is sufficiently
obvious; but few of our readers,—few, indeed,
of any who possess the ordinary attributes
of human nature, can even conjecture the
frightful abominations, which are practised
by the women, who compose this mob.
Of course, we cannot pollute our columns
with the disgusting details, which have
been conveyed to us; but we may, with propriety,
call the notice of the proper Functionaries
to a system of vice, immorality, and iniquity,
which has tended, mainly, to render the
majority of female assigned servants, the
annoying and untractable animals, that they
are.
The
Flash Mob at the Factory consists, as it
would seem, of a certain number of women,
who, by a simple process of initiation,
are admitted into a series of unhallowed
mysteries, similar, in many respects, to
those which are described by Göethe, in
his unrivalled Drama of Faust, as
occurring, on particular occasions, amongst
the supposed supernatural inhabitants of
the Hartz Mountains. Like those abominable
Saturnalia, they are performed in
the dark and silent hour of night, but,
unlike those, they are performed in solitude
and secrecy, amongst only the duly initiated.
With the fiendish fondness for sin, every
effort, both in the Factory, and out of
it, is made by these wretches, to acquire
proselytes to their infamous practices;
and, it has come to our knowledge, within
these few days, that a simple-minded girl,
who had been in one and the same service,
since she left the ship,—a period of nearly
six months,—very narrowly escaped seduction
(we can use no stronger term) by a well
known, and most accomplished member of this
unholy sisterhood. This practice constitutes
one of the rules of the "order;"
and we need not waste many words to show
how perniciously it must act upon the "new
hands," exposed to its influence.
Another rule is, that, should any member
be assigned, she must return to the Factory,
so soon as she has obtained (we need not
say by what means) a sufficient sum of money
to enable herself and her companion
to procure such indulgences, as the Factory
can supply,—or, rather, as can be supplied
by certain individuals, connected with the
Factory. This sufficiently accounts
for the contempt, which the majority of
female prisoners entertain for the Factory,
while it shows, also, why the solitary
cell is considered the worst punishment.
Presuming
that neither the Superintendent of the Female
House of Correction, nor the Matron, can
be cognizant of these things, we have thus
publicly directed their attention to them;
while we cannot but remark, that their want
of knowledge can only originate in direct
and palpable negligence. In more than
one sense, is this place deserving of the
title of the "Valley of the Shadow
of Death;" and, in reflecting upon
what we can vouch to be true, we do not
know, whether horror or indignation prevails
most in our mind. Good God!
When we consider that these wretches in
human form, are scattered through the Colony,
and admitted into the house of respectable
families, coming into hourly association
with their sons and daughters, we
shudder at the consequences, and cannot
forbear asking the question: "Are
there no means of preventing all this?"
Is the Superintendent of the Female House
of Correction (!) afraid of these harpies?
Or is he too indolent and too good-natured
to trouble himself about the matter?
We cannot think that either is the case;
for we believe Mr. Hutchinson to be a righteous
man, and not likely to tolerate such rank
abomination. If he be ignorant of
the practices to which we have referred,
we will willingly afford him all the information,
that we possess. In concluding this
painful subject, we may observe, that a
favorite resort of this Flash Mob, when
any of its members are out of the Factory,
is the Canteen of a Sunday afternoon, and
the Military Barracks of a Sunday night,
where comfortable quarters may be procured
until the morning! The whole
system of Female Prison Discipline is bad
and rotten at the very core, tending only
to vice, immorality, and the most disgusting
licentiousness. |
The
following report is Appendix D of the Inquiry in to
Female Prison Discipline held 1841–1843 (AOT,
CSO 22/50 pp.420–422).
When
was the practice of sending females direct from
the ship to the Factory discontinued? |
As
a general practice on the arrival of the Gilbert
Henderson in May 1840. |
To
what places were they sent? |
Such
as could be conveniently sent to the services
to which they had been assigned in Town were
so—the remainder to the Factory excepting
those for Launceston who were placed on board
a Government vessel in order to their immediate
removal to that place. |
What
was the number of women in each ship who went
direct into assigned service?
|
Ship
Gilbert Henderson
Navarino
Mary Ann (Irish)
Rajah
Garland Grove (1)
Mexborough (Irish)
Emma Eugenia
Hope (Irish)
Royal Admiral
Waverley (Irish)
Garland Grove (2) |
Number
Hobart
42
55
49
47
52
36
72
28
43
none
40 |
What
number went to the Brickfields or Receiving
House?
|
Ship
Gilbert Henderson
Navarino
Mary Ann
Rajah
Garland Grove (1)
Mexborough
Emma Eugenia
Hope
Royal Admiral
Waverley
Garland Grove |
Number
95
124
71
54
47
50
58
109
78
149
68 |
What
number went from each ship to Launceston?
|
Ship
Gilbert Henderson
Navarino
Mary Ann
Rajah
Garland Grove (1)
Mexborough
Emma Eugenia
Hope
Royal Admiral
Waverley
Garland Grove (2) |
Number
47
none
none
79
80
57
60
none
81
none
77 |
How
many of those went at once into assigned service?
|
Ship
Gilbert Henderson
Navarino
Mary Ann (Irish)
Rajah
Garland Grove (1)
Mexborough (Irish)
Emma Eugenia
Hope (Irish)
Royal Admiral
Waverley (Irish)
Garland Grove (2) |
Number
Launceston
47
none
none
73
69
41
31
none
28
none
24 |
Were
the women sent to Launceston kept separate in
a ward, or mixed with the others? |
They
were always kept separate until once assigned. |
| |
Josiah
Spode
Principal Superintendent |
On
24 September 1842, the Royal Admiral arrived
in Hobart carrying 200 female convicts. The
Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land, Sir John
Franklin, wrote the following despatch to Lord Stanley
regarding its arrival on 1 January 1843 (AOT, GO 33/44
pp.1-7).
|
My
Lord,
I
have the honor to report to you Lordship
that the ship "Royal Admiral"
arrived here on the 24th September last
with 202 Female Convicts, two of those who
were received on board in England, and who
are named in the margin [Susannah Harvey,
tried at Stafford 19 Oct 1841; Mary Jackson,
tried at Launceston 6 Dec 1841] having died
on the passage. The remaining Females
have been distributed in the usual manner.
Having
reason to believe that it is the intention
of the Owners of this ship to make an application
for compensation on the score of demurrage,
I deem it right to put Your Lordship in
possession of all the facts connected with
the passage and arrival of the "Royal
Admiral".
Mr.
Roberts the Surgeon Superintendent states
that he received the Despatches for
this Colony and the Master's instructions
to proceed, on the 4th May, and that the
Vessel sailed from Woolwich on the 5th.
They were compelled to put into the Cape
of Good Hope by the deficiency of water,
which Mr. Roberts attributes to the very
leaky state of the Casks and arrived here
on the 24th September.
Owing
to the crowded state of the Female penitentiaries
here, some little delay occurred before
the women could be landed - those however
who were intended to remain on this side
of the Island were landed on the Seventh
day after their arrival - and the remainder
were trans shipped as soon as a Vessel was
at liberty to convey them to Launceston,
which was on the 8th October.
When
therefore Your Lordship takes into consideration
the great and rapid increase which has taken
place in the number of the Female Convicts
under the charge of this Government, an
increase with which it has been quite impossible
for the provisions of extended accommodation
to keep pace, Your Lordship will perceive
that every despatch was used by the Officers
upon whom that duty devolved, to discharge
the ship here without delay.
I
may add that at the time when the "Royal
Admiral" entered this Port, the workmen
of the Royal Engineers Department were actively
engaged upon an additional building in this
Town (the
Brickfields
Barracks) for the reception of Female Convicts
which was completed on the 1st October,
and that in the Female House of Correction
there were at that time confined Seven Hundred
Females and Children.
It
will be recollected that more than the accustomed
number of Lay days had been expended prior
to the "Royal Admiral" leaving
the last English Port, after which the detention
at the Cape originated in a defect on the
part of the Owners of the Ship and was not
in any manner occasioned by the Officers
of the Government.
A
further cause of delay was the disorderly
conduct of the Crew who rendered it necessary
for the Master to obtain assistance from
the Police of this Town before he could
bring the Ship up the River.
Under
these circumstances which can in part be
corroborated by Mr. Roberts the Surgeon
Superintendent I think Your Lordship will
arrive at the conclusion that the Owners
can have no claim upon the Government for
demurrage. I would however venture
to submit for Your Lordship's consideration
the propriety of causing express provision
to be made in all future charter parties
for reserving a certain number of Lay Days
after each Ship's arrival in this Port,
in order that time may be allowed for the
discharge of the Convicts after their arrival.
I
have the honor to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient
Humble Servant,
John Franklin |
The
Principal Superintendent of Convicts, Josiah Spode,
wrote to the Colonial Secretary on 14 September 1838
(AOT, CSO 5/140/3376 p.285) detailing the distribution
of 133 female convicts received from England per ship
Nautilus. 120 were assigned (from Hobart),
2 were forwarded to Launceston for assignment, 5 were
not fit for assignment, 3 were sick, 1 died on board
(Jane Brown) and 2 were unassigned (vacant).
During
both the assignment period and the probation period,
female convicts were placed in service, both in Hobart
and, what was called, the interior. During the
probation period the women were paid wages — they
were engaged to service for a period of no more than
12 months and engaged for no less than £7 per year
in wages.
The
following article on female convicts in service appeared
in The Independent on 25 May 1831 (p2 c4).
|
Female Assigned Servants
It
is acknowledged on all sides that the greatest
hindrance to the comfort of a family in
this colony, is found in the difficulty
first of procuring and then of keeping female
assigned servants. In Launceston,
and throughout this county, this evil is
felt in, we may almost safely say, a tenfold
greater degree than on the other side.
Whether this is to be accounted for, by
their not being held in such strict surveillance
in the factory here—at George town, a distance
of FORTY MILES! we mean—as at Hobart Town,
or the reluctance on the part of the inhabitants
to send away their servants, we cannot say.
But it is really a matter of doubt, when
a servant is sentenced to be confined in
the factory for a breach of good behaviour,
whether it is the servant or her mistress
that is punished. A case in point—Some
time ago, a resident in the country a few
miles from town, found it necessary to the
peace and comfort of his family that one
of his female assigned servants should be
brought up to town, before the Police bench.
The sitting magistrate sentenced her to
six months' confinement in the factory.
Upon her return from thence, when she was
reproved for some misconduct, she replied,
"Oh send me to the factory! I
had much rather be there than here!
Plenty there to eat, and very little to
do." According to the representation
of some of our correspondents, the women
are partly employed in washing, mending,
and making clothes for the George Town gentlefolks,
J.P.'s, &c. But be this true or
false, it is fit that some employment should
be found for the numbers of women so—according
to our opinions injudiciously, to
say the very least possible—confined in
factories; but that employment should be
stated, and a failure in the performance
thereof, unless in case of sickness, should
be met with a proportionable punishment.
(We do not mean, however, such ridiculously
cruel punishments as the cutting off that
natural ornament, on the possession of which
it is well known women most pride themselves—their
long hair, and shaving their heads, and
other similar nonsense.) There should
be a factory (if such a thing is
considered desirable) built within a moderate
distance of the principal place for which
it is required, the town of Launceston;
when there, the inmates should be classed
according to their several characters and
grades in crime—they should be rationed,
not all alike and equal, but in proportion
to the rank of the class to which their
merits may entitle them—and some kind of
labour, more or less severe, expected from
all of them. Bad as many of them undoubtedly
are, we are still glad to get them, and
consider it a great oversight of the home
government, that they send us out so comparatively
very few. However, we hope, that the
subject will be taken up by the authorities,
and some remedy provided for the disadvantage
we have pointed out as falling to the lot
of those requiring servants of this description. |
Many female convicts
absconded from their masters/mistresses. On 22 July
1850, Mary Conroy per Kinnear absconded
with two male convicts from the Circular Head district.
The following letter was written by Chief Police
Magistrate Francis Burgess to authorities in Sydney,
Adelaide and Melbourne to notify them of their escape.
(Ref: ML, CY 3065)
| Police
Department
Van Diemen's Land
10th August 1850
Sir
I have
the honor to inform you that the Prisoners
of the Crown named in the margin [Thomas Gardiner
"Susan", William Whitehouse "Agincourt",
Mary Conroy "Kinnear"] absconded
from their authorised places of residence
viz at Circular Head in this Island and are
now illegally at large.
They are
supposed to have escaped on the 22 ultimo
in the Vessel "Emergency" bound
from Circular Head to Melbourne and with a
view to their apprehension I enclose Warrants
and descriptions of their several persons.
I have the
honor to be Sir
Your very obedient servant
(signed) F Burgess
CPM |
Life as a female
convict servant was not always
easy. The following anti-transportation article
appeared in the Cornwall Chronicle on 26
May 1852 (p.332 c.3).
| Prisoner
servants and their employers.—In
a letter to the H.T. Advertiser,
the following is relatedof the treatment of
a servant of this class received from her
mistress; it seems to argue the probability,
if not certainty, that such cases
are more common than is, perhaps, generally
(supposed ?) or at least admitted; ergo,
the fault is not always on the side
of the prisoners, and furnishes another proof,
if another were necessary, of the necessity
for doing away with the white slavery,–called
Transportation. "I happened to call on
business to the house of a farmer well known
to me, not twenty miles from Jerusalem, when
I was much surprised to hear a great altercation
within doors, and having frequently been there
before, knew all the parties of which the
family consisted. I was not, therefore, long
in conjecturing from whence the row proceeded.
The first expression which caught me was from
the mistress, who said "You Irish convict
bitch I'll split your head open," and
many such expressions were made use of and
repeated during the short stay I made. However,
I could not help remarking the harsh words
made use of, when she turned round upon me.
I told her it would be doing an act of justice
to report the case in some public journal,
just to let people see how many of the unfortunate
prisoners (especially women) are treated by
persons permitted to have passholders, but
who do not know how to behave to them properly.
She told me I was not game to publish it in
the papers."
|
A
love letter from a male convict, Henry Mooney, to
a female convict, Ellen Malone, was recently bought
at auction by Richard Watson. He has kindly
given permission for us to reproduce the text of the
letter.
| Malcumbs
Huts March 29 1846
Dear
Elen this comes with my kind love to you
hoping this may find you well my dear girl.
I write to inform you that I was talking
to my master conserning our marrage and
he asked me how long I had known you.
I told him that I lived fellow servent with
you at Mr Bakers the bilder in Liverpool
[St] for 18 monthes and I told him that
I had recived letters from you while you
was at the
Hanson
doing your probation. He is cming
to see you on Munday and I hope you will
tell him the same, and likewise tell your
master the same if he should ask you.
Dear Elen I hope you will stay at home to
day if you possable can I want to see you
to morrow it may be to late.
I
ham your verry Truley
Haffectionate
Henrey
Mooney |
We
have not, as yet, been able to determine anything
about Henry, but we do know that 'Dear Elen' is Ellen
Malone transported per Phoebe arriving in Hobart
on 2 January 1845. Henry sent the above letter
to Ellen at Mr Cotham's at Tea Tree. It would
seem that Ellen never received the letter. The
day after the letter was written, Ellen was tried
for being absent without leave from Mr Cotham's and
sentenced to three months hard labour at the
Cascades Female Factory.
Ellen later married William Coulson.
Even
though Ellen was tried in Dublin City and was of Irish
extraction, she was born in the West Indies.
Adopt
a Convict
If
you wish to adopt a convict for Christina Henri's
Roses
from the Heart Project, please contact Christina
directly - email
Christina.
Newspaper
Articles on Female Convicts
Articles
on female convicts and children of convicts appeared
regularly in VDL newspapers during the first half
of the 19th century. Some of them
have been transcribed and are available here.
Hobart Town Gazette,
September 1829 p201
GOVERNMENT
NOTICE
No 210
Colonial Secretary's Office,
September 23, 1829
APPLICATIONS
being frequently made for the Marriage of
Female Convicts without adverting to their
eligibility for the indulgence solicited;—It
is hereby notified, that no such applications
will be received until the Female shall have
conducted herself properly in service for
the period of at least one year, without any
fault being recorded against her.
|
Colonial Times,
23 March 1827 (p4 c3–4 & p2 c3, incomplete):
Letters
regarding the enticing away and harbouring of female
convicts in sly grog shops (brothels).
Cornwall
Chronicle, 25 March 1843
(p2).
FEMALE
PRISONERS.—There are at present immured
within the walls of the factories of this colony,
eleven hundred and forty women and children.
If His Excellency Sir John Franklin desires
to put an end to the commission of the most
horrid crimes, which the unnatural imprisonment
of so large a number of the “softer sex”
occasion, he will adopt some means to lessen
the number in the factories which can be readily
done without in the slightest degree endangering
the security of the free inhabitants. |
Cornwall
Chronicle, 22 April 1843
(p3).
FEMALE
PROBATION.—It is asserted by the Panier
Carrier, that the female prisoners in this colony,
and those to arrive, are to be probationized!!
At the recommendation of His Excellency. Now
we have had some little experience with the
class of women who, for the most part, comprise
the prisoner population, having commanded a
ship which conveyed into the sister colony a
couple of hundred of them, and we are puzzled
to know by what means His Excellency purposes
to carry out his plan of probationism. Men may
be made to submit to this new fangled system,
but Sir John Franklin will find that females
are not to be drilled into discipline, and coerced
with the cat and irons. A probationary system
for female prisoners is, in our opinion, a more
Utopian measure than Captain Maconochie’s
at Norfolk Island. How are women to be probationized?—that
is the question. If they cannot be managed or
controlled within the four walls of a factory,
is it plausible to suppose they can be controlled
or managed in comparative liberty? We tell His
Excellency the general opinion is, that the
best means he can adopt to probationize the
female prisoners would be to turn them adrift—by
so doing he would save a considerable expense
to the country, and assist in a trifling degree
to equalize the sexes.—His Excellency
would check the evils which exist in the Factory
to a degree almost beyond credibility, and be
discharging one of the first and chiefest duties
of a Governor. The probationizing of women is
humbug—the suggestion is worthy of Sir
John Franklin’s administration. |
Launceston
Examiner, 22 July 1846 (p460 c1).
WATCHHOUSE.—Only
a day or two since, we had the pleasure of recording
that for two nights, the watchhouse was all
but untenanted; with regret, we now publish
a fact we hope equally without precedent; on
Monday night, there were twelve charges, and,
let it not be read without a blush, nine of
the inmates were females! The spectacle presented
by the miserable creatures as one by one they
were brought before the bench, was really appalling. |
Convicts' Families
Members
of convicts' families sometimes spent time in institutions,
apart from gaols, probation stations and penitentiaries.
These included:
|
|
|
New
Town Charitable Institution: for women (1874–
); for men (1879– ) |
|
Brickfields
Invalid Depot: for men (1859–1882) |
|
Launceston
Invalid Depot (formerly old Military Barracks):
for women and men (1868–1895) |
|
Launceston
Benevolent Asylum (formerly Launceston Invalid
Depot): for women and men (1895–1915) |
|
Port
Arthur Invalid Depot: for men (1855–1877) |
|
King's/Queen's
Orphanage: for children (1828–1879) |
|
Girls'
Industrial School: for girls (1865–1945) |
|
Boys'
Industrial School (Kennerley Boys' Home): for
boys (1869– ) |
|
Girls'
Industrial School, Launceston: for girls (1878)
|
|
St
Joseph's Orphanage: for children (1879–1980) |
|
Girls'
Training School (Reformatory): for girls (1881–1898) |
|
|
|
Boarded
Out System (Fostered): for children (1865–
) |
This
list has been compiled courtesy of Joyce Purtscher.
Marriage
From 1829 to 1857,
convicts in Van Diemen's Land were required to seek
permission to marry from the Lieutenant Governor,
even if only one of them was a convict (which included
those holding a Ticket-of-Leave). In most cases it
was the man who applied to marry the woman, but those
applications listed in the AOT, CON 53 register are
where the woman applied to marry the man (see AOT
Index to Convict Applications for Permission to Marry
for further information).
There are instances
of convicts already married (mostly in their homeland)
marrying again in Van Diemen's Land without the death
of their former spouse being approved. However, at
times, the law did not 'turn a blind eye' to bigamy
as the following case shows.
On 2 March 1841, Sarah
Nichols, free, was tried at Hobart Supreme Court for
bigamy and sentenced to transportation for 7 years.
On her conduct record, her statement of offence reads:
"Bigamy, my first husband prosecuted me, Thomas
Soles was the name of my second husband, had been
married to him 5 months prior to this prosecution
and 2 years to my first husband Nichols." She
was sent to Cascades Female Factory for 12 months
and then was to be assigned in any District removed
from the residence of either of her husbands. She
gained her Certificate of Freedom on 14 December 1850
after twice having her sentence extended for 12 months
for absconding.
The Hobart Town
Courier summarised her court case on 5 March
1841 (p2 c4–5). She was tried at the Criminal
Sittings of the Supreme Court before His Honor Mr
Justice Montagu and a Common Jury. On Tuesday, 2 March
Sarah Nichols pleaded guilty to a charge of bigamy
and was remanded for sentence. She was brought up
for sentencing on Wednesday, 3 March.
Sarah
Nicholls was brought up for sentence, when his
Honor observed, that although this was the first
case for bigamy which had come before that Court,
it was a very bad one; she had married her first
husband in 1839, and while he was absent whaling,
she had married another man, and even made a
matter of jocularity of it as she returned from
church! His Honor was very glad that the Attorney-General
had prosecuted the prisoner, for bigamy was
by no means unfrequent in this colony, in consequence
of the impunity with which it had been hitherto
permitted. The sentence that he should pass
was, that the prisoner be transported for seven
years, and he hoped that the publicity which
would be given to this sentence would have the
effect of putting a stop to so bad a practice. |
Female
Convicts in Hospital in 1846
In the British Parliamentary
Papers for 1849 (Vol.9 Encl.2 No.13) there appears
a list of convicts in Hobart and New Norfolk Hospitals
during the year 1846. A list of the female convicts
is provided here.
Female
Convicts in Hospital in 1846
Muster
Rolls
The Australian Joint
Copying Project microfilms contain some muster rolls
for Tasmanian convicts. These list all of the convicts
mustered across the colony on a certain date, giving
their police number, name, ship, and service or employment
(including, for example, if they are married, holding
a Ticket-of-Leave or absconded).
1841
Muster Roll - Female Convicts
An analysis of the
1841 muster roll shows the following breakdown for
the female convicts:
|
28%
holding a Ticket-of-Leave, holding a Conditional
Pardon, Free by Servitude, married or absconded |
|
29% institutionalised
at a female factory, gaol, prisoners' barracks,
nursery or hospital |
|
1% dead |
|
42% in service
to masters/mistresses or at Government House |
On the Town
A stereotype which
has persisted about female convicts since the days
of transportation is that they were prostitutes. We
have several ways of determining if female convicts
were prostitutes prior to transportation. Gaol reports
sometimes noted that a female convict was a prostitute.
More commonly, however, the comment "on the town"
was noted on the indent and/or conduct record with
the amount of time spent working as a prostitute "on
the town" recorded. For Irish convicts, those
convicted of vagrancy were generally working as prostitutes—women
could not be convicted for prostitution, but in Ireland
they could be convicted for vagrancy, and this law
was often used to arrest and charge prostitutes.
Depending on when
a ship arrived and where the convicts on board came
from, the proportion of convicts who had worked as
prostitutes prior to transportation varied—see
the table below.
Ship |
Percentage
of Convicts
"On the Town" |
Percentage
of Convicts
charged with Vagrancy
(ships from Ireland only) |
Arabian
1847 |
40 % |
12 % |
Atwick
1838 |
29 % |
n/a |
Australasia
1849 |
20 % |
0.5 % |
Elizabeth
& Henry 1847 |
32 % |
n/a |
Garland
Grove 1841 |
26 % |
n/a |
Harmony
1829 |
43 % |
n/a |
Rajah
1841 |
26 % |
n/a |
Riots,
Disturbances & Insubordination
Female convicts were
sometimes involved in riots, disturbances and other
acts of insubordination in the female factories, gaols,
hiring depots and probation stations. A list of these
events is being compiled and is available here.
List
of Riots, Disturbances and Insubordination
An acount of the riot
at New Town Farm Probation Station in January 1844
is available here. |
