Dr Henry Cowper – Moreton Bay and More

The Health of the Colony – the Convict Era

The Convict Hospital When the Moreton Bay penal colony closed for business in 1842 and became a town, the official records dispersed, mainly to Sydney. Many were lost, some fetched up in unusual places, but a remarkable number of documents survived the ensuing 200 years. The records of the Moreton Bay Hospital have largely survivedContinue reading “The Health of the Colony – the Convict Era”

Henry Cowper, Moreton Bay’s First Doctor.

Henry Cowper was 25 when he came to Brisbane to take up the role of Assistant Colonial Surgeon at Moreton Bay. (Assistant was just part of the title – he was the only medical officer at the settlement.) He arrived at the same time as Captain Patrick Logan became Commandant, to a couple of hutsContinue reading “Henry Cowper, Moreton Bay’s First Doctor.”

Charles McManus: Let my fate be a warning to you.

Charles McManus (per “James Pattison”) and John Norman (per “Atlas”) were quite alike. They were both about 30, both 5 feet 7 ½ inches tall, both had sallow complexions with brown hair and hazel eyes. Both were sentenced to Moreton Bay for reoffending in the Colony of New South Wales, and both travelled from SydneyContinue reading “Charles McManus: Let my fate be a warning to you.”

Murder at Moreton Bay – Henry Muggleton

“Be Quick” Sometime between 3 and 4 in the morning of 19 February 1830, in the Prisoners’ Barracks at Moreton Bay, a voice whispered, “be quick”. It was a bright moonlit night, nearing dawn. Some of the prisoners were awake, others oblivious. The Barracks were quite full – almost 100 men – and prisoners bunkedContinue reading “Murder at Moreton Bay – Henry Muggleton”

Murder at Moreton Bay – William Johnson

On 11 December 1827 at about 8 am, a prisoner named John Stones was working at the Moreton Bay settlement making bricks, when a fellow convict William Johnson approached him with the startling announcement “Morris Morgan has threatened to knock my brains out many times, and I hit him with an axe.” Morris Morgan wasContinue reading “Murder at Moreton Bay – William Johnson”