I was going to write a quick post about the Moreton Bay prisoners who were born far from the United Kingdom, and found their way to the settlement. I’ve decided to make this Part 1, because of the sheer number of extraordinary stories that I came across.
AFRICA
Francis Andrews, born about 1796 in Africa, and entered in the A-Z of Prisoners as “a Blackman”, was sentenced to Moreton Bay twice. He was transported for life in 1820, and received his first Colonial transportation in 1826, when he was convicted of stealing wearing apparel, served three years, and returned to Sydney in August 1829. He seems to have been extremely foolhardy, or longed to return to the warm weather, because..
In October 1829, Andrews was sentenced to seven years at Moreton Bay for Stealing in a Dwelling House, and remained there until his release in November 1836. There are no recorded attempts by Andrews to escape the penal settlement.
NORTH AMERICA
Frederick Barnes of New York. Alias Frederick Burns. He was a 43-year-old mariner, who had arrived in Australia as a free man. He was 5 feet 4, had a sallow complexion, brown hair and one blue eye. On 06 June 1829, he was sentenced to Moreton Bay for life for stealing in a dwelling house. He passed away here on 29 February 1832.
George Baxter of Boston: George Baxter came to Australia as a member of the Veterans’ Corps, a free man. He was 46 years old, 5 feet 7, with a fair complexion and grey hair and eyes. On 27 August 1827, he was convicted of robbery, and sent to Moreton Bay for 7 years. He returned to Sydney on 02 April 1829.
Patrick Collins, North America: Patrick Collins, born just prior to the American Revolution, had also been a soldier, but arrived as a convict in 1821, having received a life sentence in Bombay. He was 55 years of age, 5 feet 3, with a ruddy complexion, brown hair and grey eyes. In 1826, he was convicted of Larceny and received an 18-month sentence, returning from Moreton Bay in September 1827.
William Coss of New York. African-American William Coss was born in New York around 1806. He arrived in Australia in 1825 as a convict, having been received a sentence of transportation for life in Cornwall in 1824. He was convicted by the Bench at Penrith in 1830 for “Incorrigible bad character and threatening to shoot his master in the event of getting punished”, and served the 2 years, returning to Sydney in September 1832.
Thomas Jackson of Boston: “A man of Colour” in the Register, aged 29 and a Barber by trade, Jackson came free to Australia. He was convicted at the Sydney Quarter Sessions of Larceny and sentenced to Moreton Bay for 7 years. He returned to Sydney on 15 August 1833.
John McDowell of New York. Born in 1763, in pre-Revolutionary America, John McDowell was transported for life to Australia in 1813 by the Middlesex Gaol Division. A Cook and Servant, he was 64 years old, 5 feet tall, with a sallow complexion, dark brown hair and hazel eyes. In 1826 he received 3 years at Moreton Bay for stealing wearing apparel. He returned to Sydney in 1829.
Ephraim Montgomery of Philadelphia. An African American man born in 1808 in Philadelphia, Ephraim, a cook, received a life sentence in Lancaster, England. He was sentenced to 3 years for running from a chain gang in 1828 and was returned to Sydney from Moreton Bay in January 1831.
Edward Steele of Halifax, North America. Edward Steele was an African American seaman who received a sentence of transportation for 14 years for housebreaking in Glasgow. He was convicted of house robbery and being a runaway at Penrith in 1828, serving 3 years at Moreton Bay. He was returned to Sydney in 1831.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
James Thomas aka Thomas James, a “coloured man” from Santo Domenico. Born in what is now known as the Dominican Republic and a sailmaker by trade, Thomas received a sentence of transportation for life at London in 1814. In Sydney in 1825, he received the death sentence for rape, which was commuted to transportation to Moreton Bay for seven years. The Sydney Gazette of 29 December 1825 hints as to why the sentence was commuted: “the Attorney General had out of Court communicated to him some circumstances that had transpired relative to the character of the prosecutrix… they should be made the ground of an appeal to the clemency of His Excellency”. He returned to Sydney in 1832.
Incredibly, another James Thomas, or Thomas James apparently also of Santo Domenico and a “coloured man” was sent to Moreton Bay. This James Thomas was a barber by trade, and his journey began in the same London Court in 1823, with a sentence of transportation for life. This gentleman was convicted in 1828 at Sydney for eighteen months, for Attempting to Escape the Colony. He returned to Sydney in 1829. The other James Thomas was still in residence during this James Thomas’ time.
The newspaper reports of the second James Thomas or Thomas James’ hearing in Sydney in 1828 speaks of “an American black”, rather than a Caribbean gentleman:
SYDNEY POLICE: A man named Thomas James, an American black, was brought up by O’Meara the Constable, for attempting to effect his escape from the Colony. The prisoner, it was stated upon this Constable’s affidavit, had clandestinely gone on board one of the vessels in port which was cleared out for sea, and had stowed himself in the middle chains. On being taken from his hiding place, he declared himself to be a free man. That he came to the Colony free, and understood not what the terms ” Convict or a runaway prisoner of the Crown” meant. The Constable however, notwithstanding the strong asservations made by the prisoner to the contrary, detained his person, suspecting him to be anything but what he had represented himself to be. The Constable shortly recognized the man to have been once before in his clutches, for absconding from one of the Government stations in the Interior. At Mr. Hely’s office he was identified to be a prisoner of the crown from the Liverpool Barrack. Mr. Stannard of that office deposed to the prisoners’ identity, and that by the record books, he was a prisoner of the Crown for life. The Bench thought this a case, in which it was proper to mete out the full extent of punishment they were empowered to do; this they did accordingly, by passing upon the prisoner a sentence of three years transportation to a penal settlement.
Monitor (Sydney, NSW : 1826 – 1828), Wednesday 21 May 1828, page 8
Next time – the East and West Indies, Poland, Sweden, France and more!
Moreton Bay and More 