The Mountstuart Elphinstone arrived in Moreton Bay on 01 November 1849, with transported convicts and convict exiles on board. The local burghers went out to meet the ship, and selected the best (or least worst) of those on board to work on stations and in businesses about South East Queensland. The convicts were then disembarked, and, surprisingly for a colony that had been founded on a penal settlement, nobody quite knew what to do about them. They were apparently trusted to go out and find their new employers in a strange, rough tropical town.
The good people of Brisbane Town, a free settlement of only seven years’ standing, were horrified by the drunkenness and alarmed by the presence of convicts in their midst. Clearly, memories were short.
The Mount Stuart Elphinstone convicts had an immediate impact on Brisbane Town, its drinking establishments, policing establishments and sadly, one cockatoo was lost in the affray.
The Convicts per Mount Stuart Elphinstone
The convicts already landed are chiefly young, healthy men; they have all been sent off to Ipswich, en route to the stations of their various employers; with the exception of a very few, hired about the town.
We wish we could speak as favourably of their conduct as of their health. During the time that they remained in Brisbane the place was completely in an uproar. It was impossible for our miserably slender police to keep them in order, and this day’s publication records a few of the consequence. We have heard of cases of respectable females having been insulted, by some of these fellows in the streets but the blame does not fall so much upon the men as upon the system.
To turn loose nearly two hundred criminals, whose only short probations have been passed in situations where they could not have committed any outrages; however they might have been inclined – to let loose numbers of such characters as these in a place where no facilities existed for restraining them, was a height of folly that could only be equalled by the smallness of the consideration manifested for the safety of the inhabitants.
The authorities here had no means at their command to keep the prisoners safely until they were forwarded to the bush. The old barrack was not sufficient for the purpose, nor were there sufficient men in the police to guard them. The wonder is that no worse consequences ensued. These men have arrived here with passes, and such of them as are of good character are to receive their tickets-of-leave when they are settled in their respective services; but what is to become of the bad characters? Who is to restrain and keep those who do not choose to go to their stations, or whose pleasure it may be to run away directly they arrive? We should like an answer to the question.
At present it appears that those men – who are not yet holders of tickets-of-leave – are rather better off than if they were so. Many of these prisoners have money in the hands of the authorities, but it is not to be given over to them until an authority for that purpose shall be transmitted through their employers, together with the receipt of the prisoners for the money.
Caution to Publicans
The Police Magistrate took occasion, from the Bench, on Wednesday last, to caution publicans against harbouring or giving intoxicating liquors to any of the prisoners recently arrived, as they might thereby subject themselves to penalties, tickets-of-leave not having been yet granted to the men, The advice was very good, and we hope that it will be followed; but we should like the Principal Superintendent of Convicts to tell us what class these men belong to if not to the ticket class, and also why they are turned adrift.
Employment for the Bench
The under mentioned convicts, by the Mountstuart Elphinstone, exclusively of those whose names appear in other parts of this issue, have been dealt with at the police-office. It must be remembered that the first of the men only landed on Sunday last. On Monday, John Brockie was sentenced to fourteen days, Thomas Saville to seven days, and James Lambert to eight days’ solitary confinement on bread and water, for drunkenness and disorderly conduct in the streets. On Thursday, John Williams was sent for ten days, Joseph Stevens for seven days, and William Lorrens for seven days, to the cells, for similar offences; John Sharpe was sentenced to twenty-four hours confinement for attempting to carry spirits to the prisoners; and William Conlon to two months’ hard labour in Sydney gaol, with a recommendation that his ticket be cancelled, for drunkenness and assaulting the police.
But the most extraordinary incident took place in South Brisbane, and occasioned the death of a beloved pet, and a donnybrook that occupied the Courts of Brisbane and Sydney for nearly two months, and cost the Government a tiny fortune.
Aggravated Case of Assault
ASSAULT.-Mr. Thomas Ayerst, of Darling Downs, and three convicts, named respectively James Walker, William Walker, and Henry Cummins, appeared before the Police Magistrate and Dr. Ballow, at the Police-office, on Wednesday last; the convicts being charged with having violently assaulted Mr. and Mrs. Orr, at South Brisbane, on the previous Monday.
Mr. Ayerst had engaged the three convicts, with others, on board of the Mount Stuart Elphinstone, and after bringing them to Brisbane, gave them some provisions and ale in a yard at South Brisbane, preparatory to taking them away from the town. It appeared that one of the men having been absent when Mr. Ayerst was ready to start, the prisoner Cummins was sent in search of him.
Shortly afterwards Mrs. Orr saw Cummins near, her house, trailing on the ground a favourite cockatoo, her property, and on going out with her daughter, she found that the cockatoo was dead. She remonstrated with Cummins (who confessed that he had killed the cockatoo) and told him that he would repent having done so.
Some other persons gathered round about this time. Mr. Ayerst came up on horseback and ordered Cummins to go away about his business. Mrs. Orr insisted upon Mr. Ayerst detaining the man, to answer the charge of maliciously destroying her property. Mr. Ayerst still ordered the man away and Mrs. Orr sought to detain him. According to the evidence this witness, it appeared that Mr. Ayerst then ordered Cummins to “run her down” with his (Mr. A.’s) horse, which she was holding by the bridle at the time; and that he also called out to his men to “come up and do their duty,” and he would stand between them and all danger.” The prisoner James Walker then struck her in the face with his fist, and she fell senseless. She could not say how many times she was struck. (Mrs. Orr’s face exhibited a fearful contusion around each eye.)
When the witness recovered, she saw her husband lying on the ground, with two men upon him. Miss Orr corroborated this evidence and stated further that when her mother had hold of Mr. Ayerst’s bridle, he said that he would ride her down if he had his spurs on. Mr. Orr came out after his wife was struck, and seized one of the Walkers, but on being informed that Cummins was the man who had killed the cockatoo, he let Walker go, who instantly struck him and knocked him down. (This witness had also a black eye.)
Mr. Orr then caught hold of Cummins, and Mr. Ayerst tried hard to ride him down, calling out to his men to do their duty, and he would stand the consequence. Mr. McCabe, Charles Urquhart, and William Paley corroborated the above particulars in most points, but there was some discrepancy in the identification of the prisoner who struck Mrs. Orr; Urquhart declaring that it was William and not James Walker who did so. Mr. McCabe was not certain on this point. This witness was of opinion that Mr. Ayerst had been desirous of getting his men off quietly, but a great crowd had assembled, and all parties were much excited, Witness was too much occupied in endeavouring to make peace, to notice accurately all that occurred. Paley declared that it was William Walker who struck the prosecutrix. He saw the blow and saw Urquhart run to her and raise her from the ground and wipe the blood from her face with his apron.
The prisoners William and James Walker, in defence, stated that, having been drinking too much, they went towards the place where the disturbance was, and were seized by Mr. Orr, and ill-treated by the crowd, without provocation. They had no recollection of having struck anybody. (James Walker had a black eye, and a mark on the breast, which he said had been caused by some butcher, who had kicked him.) A fellow prisoner, named Cooper, was called, who stated that he saw William Walker struck and kicked, but nothing further of the case.
Cummins stated that, when sent by his master in search of the man who was absent, he found him chasing a cockatoo; he (Cummins), thinking that the bird was wild, followed in pursuit, and caught it. It bit him in the hand, and he then struck it on the head, and killed it. On being informed by Mis. Orr that the bird belonged to her, he expressed his sorrow, and offered to pay for it. When Mr. Orr seized him, his master ordered him to resist, and “not go with that man, as he was no constable;” but he declined to make any resistance, as he thought that such a course would make things worse, he had not intended anything wrong in killing the bird. Mr. Ayerst cross examined the witnesses, but he didn’t elicit any contradictions.
In defence, this gentleman stated that his men had gone away from his charge, and had got intoxicated, and that, when trying to get them together, he found that a number of people were treating the two Walkers in a most brutal manner. Believing that he was their proper protector, he had interfered. He stated further that he had offered compensation for the cockatoo.
The whole of the parties charged were committed to take their trials at the adjourned Court of Quarter Sessions at Sydney, on the 11th December next, and the witnesses were bound over to prosecute.
The matter then went to Sydney, and suffice it to say, Sydney was decidedly unimpressed.
Mr. Thomas Ayerst, of Brisbane Water, and Henry Cummins, William Walker, and James Walker, pleaded Not Guilty to an, indictment for an assault committed upon Janet Orr, in November last. They were defended by Mr. Holroyd.
It was proved by the witnesses for the prosecution that Cummins and the two Walkers were exiles, and had been hired by Mr. Ayerst from the Mount Stuart Elphinstone on her arrival at Moreton Bay. As they were passing through Brisbane, Cummins killed Mrs. Orr’s cockatoo; and, upon her attempting to give him in charge to the police, Mr. Ayerst rode up and ordered him and the other men to go on their road, and, as she strove to prevent them, he told the men to do their duty, which James Walker interpreted by knocking Mrs. Orr down.
The jury found Mr. Ayerst and James Walker guilty — the one was fined £10, the other sentenced to six months in Sydney. Cummins and William Walker were acquitted and discharged. [In this case, no less than eleven witnesses were brought up from Moreton Bay at an expense of between £40 and £50. It is high time that some alteration took place in the mode of administering justice. The magistrates ought to have decided this affair in their own district.]
Well, quite.
District and Supreme Court Assizes were held at Brisbane as a matter of course not long after this.
Sources:
Moreton Bay Courier (Brisbane, Qld. : 1846 – 1861), Saturday 10 November 1849, page 2.
Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer (NSW : 1845 – 1860), Saturday 15 December 1849, page 2
Images of Mount Stuart Elphinstone and Cockatoo are from Wikipedia
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