Tasmania's convicts: How felons built a free society

345 Pages·2010·3.09 MB·English

by  Alison Alexander

Tasmania’s
Convicts
H O W F E L O N S B U I L T
T
C
a
o A F R E E S O C I E T Y
s
n
To the convicts arriving in Van Diemen’s
m
v Land, it must have felt as though they’d
been sent to the very ends of the earth.
‘Alexander has written a book which sparkles with a
i In Tasmania’s Convicts Alison Alexander
n fascinating anecdotes and incidents; taken together
mo c tells the history of the men and women
y Ri they give us a wonderful and enriching insight into n transported to what became one of Britain’s
Wend the workings of the convict system.’ ti most notorious convict colonies.
HENRY REYNOLDS sa Following the lives of dozens of convicts and
Dr Alison Alexander is a seventh-
their families, she uncovers stories of success,
generation Australian, with convict ’
failure, and everything in between. While
s
ancestors in the first, second and third ‘Tasmania’s convict ancestors, so long figures of shame
some suffered harsh conditions, most served
fleet. She has worked as a freelance
to their descendants, are examined here in rich and their time and were freed, becoming ordinary
historian and as a lecturer and tutor in
and peaceful citizens. Yet, over the decades,
unprecedented detail. In showing us what kinds of
history at the University of Tasmania.
a terrible stigma became associated with the
people the convicts really were, Alison Alexander AA
Alison is editor of the Companion to convicts, and they and the whole colony
Tasmanian History and has written dispels many myths. A landmark work.’ LL went to extraordinary lengths to hide it.
seventeen commissioned histories of EI
CHRISTOPHER KOCH S The majority of Tasmanians today have
Tasmanian institutions. She has also X
convict ancestry, whether they know it or
O
written biographies of authors Mary A not. While the public stigma of a convict past
Grant Bruce and Marie Bjelke-Petersen, N
N has given way to a contemporary fascination
and a combined biography of governors’
with colonial history, Alison Alexander
wives and mistresses in early Van D
debates whether the convict past lingers
Diemen’s Land. E
deep in the psyche of white Tasmania.
R
Cover design: Pfisterer + Freeman
Cover image: Vue de la rade de Hobart-Town,
Ile Van-Diemen (1833) by Louis Auguste
ALISON ALEXANDER
de Sainson (1801–1887). Courtesy Allport
Library and Museum of Fine Arts. AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

Sing! for the hour is come!
Sing! for our happy home,
Our land, is free!
Broken Tasmania’s chain;
Wash’d out the hated stain;
Ended the strife and pain!
Blest Jubilee!
Anthem sung in Launceston to celebrate
the end of convict transportation, 1853

First published in 2010
Copyright © Alison Alexander 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in
writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows
a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater,
to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes
provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given
a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.
Allen & Unwin
83 Alexander Street
Crows Nest NSW 2065
Australia
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.allenandunwin.com
Cataloguing-in-Publication details are available
from the National Library of Australia
www.librariesaustralia.nla.gov.au
ISBN 978 1 74237 205 1
Map by Guy Holt
Set in 11.5/15 pt Adobe Garamond by Post Pre-press Group, Australia
Printed in Australia by McPherson’s Printing Group
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my children
Jude, Cathy and Ted
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Map ix
Introduction 1
1 Birth of a convict colony 5
2 Convicts in Britain and on the high seas 14
3 Convicts under assignment in Van Diemen’s Land 34
4 Convicts after sentence 49
5 Convict and free 71
6 The transportation debate 90
7 The convict stigma 112
8 Initial efforts to defeat the convict stigma 134
9 Forgetting the past 155
10 For the Term of His Natural Life 169
11 The One Forbidden Subject 183
12 ‘A thing of which we may well feel proud’ 207
13 Paving the way 228
14 Out in the open 249
Appendix 1: How many convicts left Van Diemen’s Land? 266
Appendix 2: Selected people mentioned in the text 268
Acknowledgements 276
Notes 279
Select bibliography 300
Index 305
This page intentionally left blank
N
Flinders Island
W E
Circular Head
S
Smithton
Burnie
Penguin George Town
Devonport Port Sorell Scottsdale
Castra Tamar River Myrtle BankRingarooma
South Esk River
Launceston
Westbury
Deloraine Perth
Longford Evandale
MI
D
L
A
ND Avoca
Tasmania HI
G
HW Campbell Town
The AY
Midlands
Ross
Queenstown
Swansea
Woodbury
Macquarie
Harbour
Sarah Island Oatlands
Bothwell Schouten
Ouse Island
DerKempton Orford Maria Island
went RiveBragdad Brighton
Sorell
Bream Creek
HOBART Bellerive
F
GeeHveustDoonnovviellre EntrecasteaCuxhannelStorm BayH ekncriyr eBder APrtohPrutorEinTatCga lPseamhupaeea rwnPk iPl lNeanrei cnksula
D’ ay Wedge Bay
D Jerusalem Southport Bruny Island
PontvilleMIDLHIAGNHWAY Tea Tree Recherche Bay
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 km
Mount Dromedary Bridgewater Richmond
Derwent River HerCdosmvean’s
New Norfolk
Risdon Cove
Glenorchy
New Town Clarence
Plains
Bellerive
HOBART
0 2 4 6 8 10km Rokeby