In April 1840, the Colonial Secretary, by command of the Governor, did himself the honour to acquaint the Commandant at Moreton Bay that the schooner John had been engaged by the Commissariat to bring 15 prisoners to work for that department in Brisbane. The men had been transported earlier that year – 13 in theContinue reading “The Convicts from Mauritius”
Tag Archives: Transportation
A Transportation Procession
As imagined by the Windmill Reporter. 1850 was drawing to a close, and the population of Brisbane Town – estimated at some 2000 souls – was contemplating how best to make a success of the settlement. That is, the part of the population that thought about such things. Most people were wondering where their nextContinue reading “A Transportation Procession”
A Man Apart.
CONVICT SNAPSHOTS: EDWARD STEELE Imagine being a person of colour in 1808. Now imagine being a person of colour in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1808. Your skin colour would be the first, and often the only, thing anyone noticed about you – a situation that did not change through your whole life, no matter whereContinue reading “A Man Apart.”
New Countries, New World
Convict Snapshot: John McDowall New York, 1771 John McDowall was born in New York in North America in 1771, a subject of the English Crown, like all New Yorkers at the time. As a little boy, he could explore the countryside and farmland of Manhattan, at least until the Revolutionary War and pre-war skirmishes madeContinue reading “New Countries, New World”
Habeas Corpus and a Sudden Visitation of God
Convict Snapshot: George Baxter George Baxter had led a law-abiding and successful sort of life until he got a job with rules he didn’t fully understand. He was a veteran of the 95th Regiment, and part of the Royal Veterans’ Company formed to populate New South Wales with useful, non-criminal settlers once their service wasContinue reading “Habeas Corpus and a Sudden Visitation of God”
A Notorious Rogue and Vagabond
John Longbottom FIGHTS THE LAW At York in January 1817 a young sailor was convicted of burglary and sentenced to seven years’ transportation to New South Wales. Even for a man accustomed to sailing, the prospect of a journey to the other side of the planet would have boggled the imagination. The fact that aContinue reading “A Notorious Rogue and Vagabond”
Incipient Signs of Rowdyism in the Streets.
In the late 1840s, colony of Moreton Bay and its surrounding districts had been open to free settlers for several years, but was struggling with the need for labour, institutions and infrastructure. The convict buildings left about the place had deteriorated, and there was little economic stimulus to create new facilities for the town. TheContinue reading “Incipient Signs of Rowdyism in the Streets.”
Moreton Bay and More 