Tag: Van Diemen’s Land

  • The point of no return.

    The point of no return.

    This was one panorama you did not want to experience on your visit to Van Diemen’s Land — back when it was Van Diemen’s Land.

    A small speck of terror amid the rolling canopy of green.

    Fire has cleansed it of much of it’s horror, so now it is Tasmania’s number one tourist destination once again for completely the opposite reason.

    The convict James Dyson was never sent to Port Arthur, but I’m sure he was threatened with it on more than one occasion.

    There’s a distinct possibility that the soldierly father-in-law of one of his children in Western Australia had served as a prison guard at Port Arthur in the past. That must have made the after-dinner conversations interesting.

    Truth be told, there’s no good reason for this post, other than I wanted an excuse to look at my images from Port Arthur from my visit there, back in 2017. Time is running out so this will be the last post of 2024.

  • The One that Got Away

    The One that Got Away

    There was one frustrating absence from all the convict documents digitised and available through the Libraries Tasmania site that directly pertain to the convict James Dyson. The link to the General Correspondence File of the Colonial Secretary’s Office (CSO1) tells you what it is, but not what it contains.

    Much as I would dearly love to visit Tasmania again and wallow amongst the microfilm, that’s not going to be possible any time soon. Then, thanks to a lead not affiliated with any of the “official” sources of knowledge, I learnt that a certain religious sect have in their possession the entire lot on microfilm and offer it free on their web site.

    These images are catalogued on familysearch, but give no searchable clue what these scans contain. The Tasmanian Archive’s site gives you slightly more than a clue but refuses to connect to the scans the Mormons have published. Or even let you know this source exists at all!

    5 November 2024 Update:

    Beware of the Leopard

    The scanned CSO documents are on the Library Tasmania web portal. Its possible they may always have been, but were so difficult to find they may as well not have been.

    Here is the permalink to CSO-1-1 on the James Dyson, Convict page.

    https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/CSO1

    Its necessary to scroll a loooooong way down before you reach

    https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/CSO1-1-719

    The Convict Ship Moffatt arrived in Hobart Town on 9 May 1834 carrying convict James Dyson. I’ve managed to piece together a pretty detailed narrative of the voyage by piecing together contemporary newspaper articles, The Surgeon-Superintendent’s report (translated from the Latin), the way the voyage was supposed to proceed (according to Thomas Braidwood Wilson’s book and Lieutenant Governor Arthur’s evidence to a parliamentary committee), and what actually happened (according to the diary of a private passenger onboard ship.)

    The hitherto un-transcribed dossier of letters from the Colonial Secretary’s Office have proved to all be about the arrival of the Moffatt at Hobart and I’m relieved to find that I seemed to have got most of the facts straight — working it out the hard way. You, the potential reader of Dyson’s Swamp will have to endure many fewer “possibly’s” or “probably’s” when I review this chapter.

    What makes me happiest is that it confirms to me that Thomas Braidwood Wilson (R.N) Esquire, Surgeon Superintendent in charge of the welfare of every Convict on board the Moffatt was as full of shit as I always suspected him to be.

    I am also delighted to discover Captain William Moriarty plays an additional role in James Dyson’s history – it turns out he was the first new face he ever saw in Van Diemen’s Land.

    Sir
    I have the honor to acquaint you that agreeably to your request I have inspected the Transport Ship Moffatt arrived in this Port on the 9th Instant and have mustered the Convicts on board of her.
    The appearance of the vessel was creditable and cleanly, and that of the men healthy. I individually interrogated them as to the treatment they met with during the passage, and they expressed themselves perfectly satisfied thencewith, in regard to their provisions and in every other respect.
    Four Hundred Prisoners were embarked on board this Vessel five of whom have died during the passage, one drowned, and one absconded since his embarkation *
    I do myself the honor of forwarding herewith the papers called for by your instructions A. the Surgeons Superintendent with the
    exception of No. 4 which as Dr Wilson had [not?] closed his Accounts was not yet ready and Which he has promised to forward on Monday the 12th Inst

    I have the honor to be
    Sir
    Your very Obedient Servant
    Wm Morriarty
    Port Officer

    Jno Burnett Esq
    Colonial Secretary

    CSO1/1/719 Page 15674 no 39, 40

    * Then there was this glorious annotation to the report by the Colonial Secretary obviously on the behalf of an incensed Colonel Arthur:

    Prepare a letter to Dr Wilson R N The Surgeon Supt requesting him to state the particulars of this man’s escape & where & when it took place

    CSO1/1/719 Page 15674 no 40

    Wilson’s reply from onboard Moffatt proves once and for all that a medical man’s handwriting is always borderline unreadable (at least it was not in Latin this time). My interpretation of this scrawl is underneath the image (I’m not quite that much of a bastard). —

    N.B. the original scans on a certain web site are of a much higher resolution.

    Sir
    I have received your letter of this day’s date requesting me to state for His Excellency’s information, the particulars relative to the escape of a prisoner from this ship.
    On the 3rd Jany about 6 A.M. it was reported to me that a prisoner named J. Davies was missing.
    This man was one of a party who assisted in getting water from the hold & consequently was always on deck at daylight.
    On the morning of the above mentioned date, the prisoner went into the drop[!] on pretence of being unwell, the next person who had occasion to go there found the prisoners apparel & half of his chains near the privy.
    A boat with a non commissioned officer & party of the guard was immediately depart south to search all the Vessels in the sound & another to examine the lee Shore. Information was given to the proper authorities at Plymouth. & I also wrote to the Home office on the Subject & I enclose Mr Cappers answer No fault can be attributed to the guard nor to any other person

    I have the honor
    to be Sir your
    most Obedient Servant
    [Mostly Illegible signature]

    CSO1/1/719 Page 15674 no 41

    So this is it. Probably the last post of 2022. A year I discovered this site still banned on Western Australian government filtered servers for reasons of … pornography. I am guessing this is down to my use of a certain … word. When I discovered this some years ago I removed what I thought was the offending word on a certain page. As I seem to be permanently on a black list with no obvious way of appealing the ban or even finding out on what grounds my domain was banned in the first place, I may as well use what words I feel like without filtering myself.

  • Four days with the VDL Establishment

    Four days with the VDL Establishment

    This particular entity was the New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land Establishment, established 1825. After they failed to acquire any land in NSW for their venture into large scale farming in the colonies, it was rebranded as The Cressy Establishment, Cressy Company, or (most obscurely of all) the Van Diemen’s Land Establishment.

    Useful description of the VDL Establishment (aka: The Cressy Company).

    This Establishment should not be confused with the Van Diemen’s Land Company, ALSO founded at the same time and operated in both NSW and VDL. Most internet searches for the Establishment will return matches for the VDL Company instead, by virtue of the latter still being a going concern today (2022). The Establishment was over by 1855.

    Useful description of the VDL Company.

    The VDL Company‘s estates were located in the north western corner of VDL, while the Establishment lands were located south of Launceston on the Norfolk Plains, around the towns of Longford and what would later be named Cressy.

    Longford was initially named Latour after one of the seven gentlemen investors in the Establishment. Colonel Peter Lautour would later on destroy at least two investment and colonisation schemes in the Swan River Colony, which would directly impact the future of a VDL convict who was yet to be assigned to his VDL properties, before seeking a fresh start in Western Australia.

    It’s all very convoluted.

    Convict James Dyson was assigned to work for the Van Diemen’s Land Establishment all of four days between 2 and 5 October 1837. The magistrate he was hauled before on that final date was James Cubbinston Sutherland, who farmed on the Isis River south of Cressy. Sutherland was a JP for the adjacent Campbell Town Police District, and that was where Dyson was sent for his next dose of condign chastisement.

    Imperfect map with Cressy on it. Sutherland’s land is located centre bottom.

    The manager of the VDL Establishment on these dates was James Denton Toosey. What is unascertainable by me is precisely which portion of the estate Dyson had been assigned to, other than that it was probably on the southern range of the Establishment. I have no idea if was to Toosey Dyson was insubordinate to, or some other overseer. I have not been able to find a decent map of the Cressy Establishment’s holdings — if such a beast has even been drawn up.

    The relatively short history of the VDL Establishment, or Cressy Company is insanely complicated to investigate, due in large part to its principal investors litigating against each other incessantly. I’ve attempted to follow some of the court cases back in England where Colonel Lautour attempts to argue (unsuccessfully) that just because he was a blithering idiot was no reason he should not get his money back.

    Unfortunately, you’ve not read the last of Colonel Peter Lautour.

  • Bio: Samuel McKee

    Bio: Samuel McKee

    Or should that be M’Kie, M’Kee, McKee, McKie, Mackie, Mackay or Mc’Kie? Which variation of spelling you choose to use depends on the year, the season, or the aspect of the moon at midnight.

    Samuel McKie (Henceforth to be spelt (McKee) was born about the year 1800 in County Tyrone, Ireland. He married Ann Hall in the Parish of Camus, in the same County on 30 December 1821.

    By the year 1830 he was resident in Liverpool, England, prior to immigrating to the Australian Colonies. He did his due diligence — so when he sailed on the barque Brenda with wife, three children and a servant, bound for Van Diemen’s Land as a free settler, he had in his possession a letter of introduction from Downing Street, allowing him authority to apply for land grants in NSW or VDL. This letter was dated 29 January 1831.

    There was consternation in officialdom after he arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on 19 December 1831. The land grant rules had been changed, and McKee was no longer eligible for grants under the new rules. McKee did acquire some farm land near the town of Launceston eventually, however whether this was a grant or he had to expend his capital in purchasing the same is unknown.

    CSO1-1-618 File Number 14120 (image 2-p80)

    We understand that a Mr. M'KIE, a gentleman lately arrived per BRENDA is about to commence a mercantile business on those premises of Mr. Reibey's, opposite the late Post Office, in St. John street.
    Launceston Advertiser, 15 February 1832 page 53

    He set up at first as a merchant on his own account in Launceston during March 1832. He was still a man of means by this date, for only a few months later he was able to enter a racehorse “Creeper” into the local Race Meeting. (it did not win).

    Later that same year his circumstances were so reduced that he was now employed in the store of a Mr William Walkinshaw as a clerk. In January 1833, McKee and several other employees of Mr Walkinshaw were acquitted of assaulting one William Lushington Goodwin over an outstanding debt. The trial excited much public interest:

    Notice.
WHEREAS, I have been arrested, and thrown into his Majesty's Gaol at the suit of one Samuel Mc Kie, (a clerk in the employ of Mr. WILLIAM WALKINSHAW, and one of the gentlemen by whom I was assaulted in the store of the said Mr.
William Walkinshaw,) for an alleged debt of One Hundred Pounds, which the said Samuel Mc'Kie did solemnly make oath I was indebted to him; and did further swear that I was about leaving the Colony ;—
NOW, although I could not (even if I felt desirous) leave until I receive the advice from England which is necessary to enable me to bring certain transactions respecting my ship the Kains to OPEN DAY LIGHT and moreover, although the time that would necessarily be required to wind up my late business is a sufficient negative to the said Samuel Mc'Kie's solemn asseveration, I do hereby give notice, that I am ready to discharge every just claim that may be made against me :—and beg for the purpose that the same may be furnished forthwith to my Solicitors, Messrs. Lumley and Wickham, Launceston.
W. L. GOODWIN.
H. M. Gaol, Launceston, }
19th Oct., 1832. }
    The Independent (Launceston, Tas. : 1831 – 1835), 19 Oct 1832 page 3

    He applied to purchase some land north of George Town from the government for a commercial venture in March 1835. His application was rejected “Because not in accord with King’s Regulations”

    Samuel McKee had many convict servants assigned to him over the years. Unlike so many others, we know the names of more than a few of those assigned to him. As is usually the case, the only reason these names are known is that something went wrong. In the case of McKee, either he hated — or liked them too much.

    Oops!

    Bridget Monningham (almost certainly not her correct name) was back in the Female House of Correction in Launceston by the date she gave birth to Samuel MacKee’s daughter. Elizabeth McKee was born 3 August 1836.

    (Eighteen years on, this event might be related to a brawl on the Launceston docks when one of McKee’s other children received a £5 fine for defending his sister’s honour.)

    …Mr. Rocher for the defence urged that there must have been something behind the curtain to justify the assault, and if the account which he had heard were true, Fisher deserved not only what he had received, but a great deal more. He was informed, that a mob of had followed defendant and his sister all the way from the Cornwall, calling after them and frequently jostling them. …

    Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 – 1899) 21 October 1854 page 3

    …defendant and his sister were returning on the evening the assault was committed from Ali-Ben-Sou-Alle’s concert, and that on the way home, a mob of fellows bustled and insulted Miss M’Kee. After taking his sister home, Mr. M’Kee, sen., and his son went in pursuit of the persons who had offered the unmanly indignities to the young lady, when they met Mr. Fisher and his witness opposite the Victoria Hotel, where an altercation ensued…

    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 25 October 1854 page 5

    At the other end of the spectrum was an odious creature by the name of Patrick Matheson:

    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), 8 April 1837 page 2

    To the Editor.

    SIR, —Having seen in your paper of the 15th instant, a statement of Mr. W. Peel’s, respecting my conduct in the Masterson business, — I beg to offer to you and the public, in justification of my character, the following reply : […]

    1st In my service only two hours— Insolence — 10 days solitary confinement.

    2nd When three days out of cells — Absconded—two year’s ADDITION— 4th conviction.

    3rd. — By Mrs. Mc’Kee — Insolence— reprimanded — in my absence.)

    4th— By ditto, ditto, ditto.

    5th— By myself- -for being absent without leave — turned into Government, to be made a Messenger. (See Gazette of 10th March last.)

    6th— By myself — for being caught in a room in my dwelling-house, concealed under a bed —six months hard labor.

    Now, Sir, this is the man Peel says I recommended to be made a constable of. How could I, or any man of reason or common sense be guilty of such a thing, after such a catalogue of offences, and he in my service only two months. […]

    I shall let the matter rest for the present, and say no more on the subject, although I could fill a quire of paper on this fellow’s offences. — I am , Sir, your obedient servant,

    SAMUEL Mc’KEE.

    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), page 1

    Somewhere in the middle was George Hayle, who escaped punishment for drinking after hours, only due to the good word of his master

    Otherwise, McKee was not too fussed about which assigned servant he tussled with. One court case in February 1838 saw him charged with assaulting the (unnamed) assigned servant of a fellow settler named Edward Umphelby.

    The unluckiest of McKees’s assigned servants has to have been Thomas Roper. He was reported by McKee at various times for disorderly conduct (25 lashes), Disobedience of Orders, Insolence, and being Out of the house. Roper died in Launceston Hospital on 16 July 1838, still assigned to McKee, aged 42. Reported cause of death: “Visitation of God.”

    Samuel McKee was declared insolvent for the first time in March 1839. Since 1837 he had been in the employ of Mr Henry Dowling, sometimes editor and publisher of the Launceston Advertiser. By 1839 at least, McKee was editing Dowling’s paper for him — Which was just asking for trouble:—

    Has not Samuel M’Kee, who is so free in his remarks about Goodman Hart—who has shewn the consummate bravery to attack the unhappy fellow after his hands are pinioned and he is prostrate— gone on in his business of a cow-keeper and farmer, ever since, as though he never had been insolvent? Has this renowned and creditable Samuel McKee, Editor of the renowned and creditable Advertiser, ever paid his creditors one shilling ?”

    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 5 October 1839 page 2.

    Some weeks after this, McKee was notified another convict servant was available to be assigned to his service from the Depot at Launceston. He collected convict James Dyson on 11 November 1839, however barely two months later he returned him to the depot on 8 January 1840. He no longer required his service.

    McKee had money troubles throughout 1841 and was declared insolvent again.

    In the matter o f the Insolvency of Samuel M‘Kee, of Launceston, in Van Diemen’s Land, Accountant.
NOTICE is hereby given, that the second general meeting of the creditors of the above-named Insolvent, for the proof of debts and otherwise proceeding in the matter of said Insolvency, appointed to be held this day before William Gardner Sams, Esq., Commissioner of Insolvent Estates, stands adjourned to Wednesday, the 25th day of August inst., and notice is hereby given, that such adjourned meeting will be held at the Court-house, in Launceston, at ten o’clock the forenoon.
Dated this 4th day of August, 1841.
SAMUEL M‘KEE.
    Van Diemen’s Land Chronicle (Hobart, Tas. : 1841), 13 August, p. 3

    By 1842 he was appointed the Government Poundkeeper at Green Ponds (now Kempton, although why you would change such an excellent name as Green Ponds is beyond me). Green Ponds is quite a distance from his property in Launceston, so he must have been desperate for work. In 1843 He was appointed Inspector of Stock in the same district.

    The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 – 1859), 30 September, p. 4

    He was declared insolvent yet again in April 1845, however his creditors could not be bothered to turn up to court. McKee returned to Launceston where he worked as an accountant or clerk for several businesses.

    By the middle of the following decade Samuel McKee was secretary of the lodge of a friendly society in Launceston. His family were grown up and moving to other colonies.

    Samuel McKee died at South Yarra in the Colony of Victoria at the age of sixty-eight, on 9 December 1868. His wife Anne died in Melbourne 23 Apr 1887.

  • Bio: Lt Pearson Foote (RN)

    Bio: Lt Pearson Foote (RN)

    At Deloraine, northern Tasmania, there is a grand Georgian-style house on the grounds of a property called Calstock. This was not built by Lieutenant Pearson Foote of the Royal Navy (1792-1871), but by a subsequent owner of the estate.

    Today, the building that was not his home is a four star hotel.

    Update: apparently it is not that any more. It got sold for an obscene amount of money..

    Apart from being an inspiration to future Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi, there has to be a lot more to Lt. Foote than is currently understood.

    Calstock and Harewood were the names of two properties owned by Lt Foote in the Westbury district of Van Diemen’s Land from the 1820’s to the 1840’s. Pearson (or Pierson) Foote was born in Cornwall, England on 5 April 1798. He was the fifth of eight children born to John Pierson Foote and Mary Thorn at Harewood House by the village of Calstock.

    His father dropped dead in June 1809. Pierson was his third son, so was never going to inherit the family estate even if he was old enough to at the time. Instead he joined the Royal Navy and was enrolled as an officer on 1 October 1824. Lt. Pearson Foote, RN, never seems to have been given command of a ship.

    Instead, Mr. P. Foote sailed in cabin class on the barque Nancy (H. Pryce, RN, commander) from England on 11 July 1829, reaching Van Diemen’s Land some time in March 1830. Some months after that he was granted land in the Westbury district in the north of the island and by August at least, had been granted the first of the assigned convicts he would use to develop his property.

    On 23 November 1830 he married Susan Parker, daughter of a neighbour on the Norfolk Plains. A record of this marriage was kept by the Admiralty against any potential claims for a future Royal Navy widow’s pension.

    Foote’s first property was on the Dairy Plains, which he named Harewood. He put Harewood up for sale after he acquired land at Deloraine.

    Launceston Advertiser (Tas. : 1829 – 1846), 16 February 1837, p. 1

    Being one of the Gentry, and thus eligible to use the epithet “Esquire” after his name, he was part of such worthy mutual admiration societies as the “Cornwall Agricultural Association” (Not the English one) and the local Horticultural Society. As a matter of course, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and a magistrate for his region.

    His Excellency and suite then proceeded to dinner to the house of Lieut. Foote, R.N. at Deloraine, where that gentleman has done so much to improve his estate by clearing and breaking up the soil, building, &c.

    The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 – 1839) 25 March 1836 page 4

    During March 1836 he hosted Lt-Governor Arthur himself at his residence at Deloraine. Afterward he attached his name to some grovelling in case his nose wasn’t brown enough.

    SIR,—We, the undersigned residents in the Northern Division of the Island, desire to express to your Excellency the satisfaction we have experienced at the visit you have made to its capital, and while we regret that your public avocations forbid a more prolonged one, we look forward to an early renewal of it, when we hope to have an opportunity afforded us of evincing our feeling towards yourself and Mrs. Arthur, by some public demonstration of respect.
    We have the honor to be,
    Sir,
    Your most obedient humble servants,
    Tho. Archer, M. L. C. J. D. Toosey, V.D.L. Est.
    W. P. Weston J. P. R. Vincent Legge, J. P.
    Wm. Archer J. P. M. Franks
    G. Yeoland J.P. Wm. Seccombe, J.P.
    W. Paton J.P. Henry Jennings
    Alfred Wm. Horne J.P. Pearson Foote, J.P.

    The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 – 1839), 25 March, p. 4

    In late October 1838, he was assigned a convict named James Dyson to his service. In late November he sent the wretched man to Captain Moriarty to deal with for idleness and neglect of duty. Moriarty sentenced him to six months hard labour with the Snake Banks road gang before he was returned to Foote’s service about May 1839. Dyson was sent back to the depôt at Launceston by October. Foote may not have wanted him back.

    The town of Deloraine, Tasmania, in 2017 before I knew anything about the place.

    Over half a century ago Deloraine could boast of some distinguished naval and military men among the first land owners of the district for, in addition to Captain Moriarty at Dunorlan, there was that fine type of an English gentleman, Lieutenant Pearson Foote, R.N., the first owner of Calstock and Harwood, both of which properties he named after the family estates of the Footes in Devonshire, England, opposite Cote Hele, the seat of the Earl of Mount Edgecombe, a branch of which distinguished family our old and respected resident, Mr. J. L. Edgecombe claims to be.
    […][Foote] is spoken of by those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance as a most hospitable, if somewhat eccentric gentleman, who used to have a flag pole near where Calstock house now stands, the arranging and hoisting of flags on which used to occupy a considerable portion of his time.

    Western Tiers (Tas. : 1980 – 2004) 20 May 1983: 27. Web. 18 Jul 2022

    It’s important to state that Lt Pearson Foote was stark staring raving mad. If he was anyone other than a ‘gentleman’ he would have been locked up.

    Deloraine in 2017. I visited the town before I knew there was a connection there I needed to investigate.

    About the time a certain convict was due to be returned to Foote’s service, a bushranger gang swept through the Deloraine district. People were robbed. A man was murdered. The local constable claimed it never happened and blamed his constituents for getting into a panic, including one — unnamed — gentleman. —

    […] That no particular alarm exists among the settlers, is evident from the circumstances of one of them who lives beyond Deloraine having refused the protection of a party of constables, who were patrolling for the purpose of quieting the fears he might have entertained from the reports before alluded to.
    Another gentleman in the neighbourhood whose fears have been much excited, took the best precaution he could to protect his own person by surrounding himself with a party of young and amiable females, by far the most desirable and agreeable body guard he could have selected.
    I am, Sir,
    Your obedient servant,
    THOMAS JEFFCOTT,
    District Constable.
    Westbury. V. D. Land,
    April 23, 1829.

    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), 27 April 1839, p. 2

    Jeffcott’s detractors (of whom there were many) were not so coy in their responses…

    … We applaud the gentleman’s courage, certainly, and have no hesitation in declaring it to be our opinion, that any MAN cloaking his own person from injury inside a barrier made of females, deserves immortalizing ; and we propose that an address be at once “got up,” declaratory of the gentleman’s heroism, and be entrusted to the District Constable for signatures, which may easily be procured amongst the chain-gangs, shingle-splitters and sawyers in the bush, provided always that the canvasser is authorized to promise tickets-of-leave and other sorts of indulgences.

    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880), 27 April, p. 2

    Finally, someone named names…

    … I cannot answer with regard to Lieutenant Foote’s being surrounded by a guard of “young and amiable females,” but I rather imagine they existed more in Mr. Jeffcot’s fanciful ideas, or perchance he was commencing to dream when he penned this sentence, However, it is now the ungracious task of Lieutenant Foote, as a magistrate, as a husband, and as a man, to come boldly forward and clear his character of that blemish which has been cut upon it (I am sure most unwittingly) by the foolish correspondent of the Launceston Advertiser. — I remain, dear Mr. Editor, yours,
    obediently,
    SUBSCRIBER
    Westbury, May 1.

    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 4 May 1839, p. 3

    Lt Foote sold up his properties in VDL during the 1840’s, moved to Victoria, deserted his wife and died in Melbourne in 1871.

  • Bio: David Williams

    Bio: David Williams

    of Patterson’s Plains

    Allow me to digress briefly before proceeding to the matter at hand:— David Williams and Henry Nicholls were both masters to whom James Dyson, convict, was briefly assigned to. How briefly? Two months in the case of Williams, Three days in the case of Nickolls. If I ever finish the book I am writing, this part of his life warrants about a page at most. Researching these two to understand their tiny part in his story has taken the best part of two weeks. This is why progress has been so slow and I’ve yet to even begin writing that page.

    Van Diemen’s Land settler David Williams was winding up his affairs in that colony when convict James Dyson was assigned to him about 14 July 1837

    To be Sold by Public Auction,
BY MR. UNDERWOOD,
On the Premises, on FRIDAY, the 1st September, at twelve o'clock precisely, without reserve,
ALL that valuable FARM, comprising one hundred and sixty acres of alluvial Land, the property of Mr. David Williams, situate at Paterson's Plains, adjoining the property of Capt. King, and Dun Edin, within four miles of Launceston; 40 acres are laid down in English grasses, and about 30 acres in the highest state of cultivation. The whole is fenced in, and subdivided into paddocks.
It is well watered at the driest seasons. A convenient weather-boarded house is erected on the farm, with suitable out houses, stock yards, &c.
TERMS:—
Ten per cent. deposit., £200 to remain on mortgage, and the remainder by approved bills at 8 and 6 months, with a lien on the property. Title unexceptionable.
Immediately after the above,—
The GROWING CROPS, consisting of 25 acres of wheat, 4 acres of barley.
TERMS, —
Approved bills payable on the 1st of April.
ALSO,—
Four strong working Bullocks
One brood mare
One colt, rising 2 years old
Bows, yokes and chains
Ploughs, harrows, bullock cart, farming implements, &c.
TERMS. — Cash.
    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 26 August 1837 page 3

    Sixteen days after the land on the Patterson’s Plains went up for auction, he returned Dyson to the Depot at Launceston. — “His master no longer requiring his service”. Dyson was next assigned to… But that’s another story.

    The biography of David Williams I have put together here is markedly different from some other accounts of his life posted elsewhere. I don’t believe he was ever a convict in NSW or VDL, nor do I believe it was he who died in the year 1841 falling off a cart while drunk near Hobart. If that is a disappointment to any family members, fear not — the truth is far more interesting, and there are far more avenues of research to wander down than I have even touched on.

    David Williams was born before 1792 somewhere in the British Isles. He enlisted in the 46th South Devonshire Regiment of the British Army sometime during the last years of the Napoleonic War. He departed England late in 1814 on the the troop ship Windham bound for New South Wales, then Van Diemen’s Land.

    Ship News
On Monday last arrived the ship General Hewitt
Captain Earle, from England, having a detachment
of the 46th Regiment on board, commanded by
Major Oglevie: and yesterday arrived the Wind-
ham, Captain Bligh, also from England, having
on board the head-quarters of the 46th Regt.
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel MOLLE, who
succeeds Colonel O'CONNELL as Lieutenant
Governor of this Territory, and is accompanied by
Mrs. MOLLE and Family; also, Lieutenant Walters,
of the Navy, Agent for Transports.
    The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), 12 February 1814, p. 2

    Corporal Williams stayed in NSW for a time, but he resigned from the army at Port of Launceston sometime about the beginning of the year 1817. According to his record, he served 7 years. Do the sums — Someone is lying.

    He had definitely been farming in the Launceston district for a while by 1822, for he was then selling grain to the government commissariat at Port Dalrymple.

    For those family members bewailing I stripped their heritage of Australian Royalty — despair not. On 2 January 1826 at Launceston, he married Jane Jones, his assigned convict serving girl. Jane was then only one year into a seven year sentence for “Stealing Silk Handkerchiefs from a shop” in Northumberland. She did not cease being a convict after marriage, so she was lucky that an accusation of “Stealing sundry articles of Wearing apparel the property of Mr Naylor from his house in Launceston” did not stick.

    According to her conduct record (that ends abruptly after 29 April 1826) she was already married to someone named John Hamilton back in England. On her Launceston marriage certificate however, she states she was a spinster. Someone in officialdom slipped up again!

    Their first child, a daughter named Hannah, was born at Patterson’s Plains on 9 July 1828.

    The following year, grimmer tidings were to hand. They employed a stock-keeper on their estate. One Saturday morning he vanished never to be seen again. No one had any doubt back then that he’d been murdered.

    David Williams (junior) was born on 25 March 1830. Later that year his father operated the district Pound for Patterson’s Plains.

    By 1832, he also acquired a Publican’s licence for the district. What was it about former British Army Corporals and taverns?

    Still, the next year 1833, David Williams was mixing with the high and mighty of the district on civic matters concerning roads and bridges about the North Esk River. Later that year he breached some sort of regulation concerning his Liquor licence and was fined £2.

    In 1834 David Williams had two grants near Launceston confirmed. Presumably this meant he was now in possession of the title deeds for his properties on Patterson’s Plains.

    The record goes dark for the next three years.

    1837: An individual named Thomas Prosser claims David Williams and Joseph Bond Clarke obtained some promissory notes from him by false pretences. This allegation is never tested in court. Then in February that same year, Williams declares he has lost a promissory note to the value of £40 and threatens anyone who would dare cash that note in.

    His property goes up for sale in Patterson’s Plains during August. Those of his assigned convict servants he does not return to the Depot are transferred to his neighbours, such as Arthur Hellier of Launceston.

    His son Thomas Williams was born on 11 November 1838, but the place of his birth is now Launceston, rather than Patterson’s Plains. One month later, 20 December, the barque Socrates sails from Launceston bound for the newly established colony of South Australia.

    2 horses, 4 bullocks, 2 bags oats, 1 big seed, 20 packages furniture, 6 bags flour— D. Williams.

    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 22 December 1838 page 2

    During the middle of the next year David and Jane Williams departed Launceston for Adelaide on the schooner Lowestoft with one of their children. They may have travelled back and forth between the two settlements for a number of years afterwards, but Adelaide in South Australia was where their new home was to be.

    On 15 November 1843 in Adelaide, their 15 year old daughter Hannah married John Berry. Fifty nine years later, Mrs Berry died in Melbourne, Victoria at a ripe old age.

    Thomas Williams lived out the rest of his life in South Australia. He died aged 71 at Keswick in Adelaide on 7 October 1909.

    David Williams (junior) may have remained in Van Diemen’s Land longer than the rest of the family. It was probably he leaving Tasmania for the Victorian goldfields during the early 1850’s, and it was he who died at Eaglehawk near Bendigo in 1892. A warning to Williams family members — there is possibly a highly disturbing discovery to be made at the end of this trail.

    Mrs Jane Williams died at Kooringa, South Australia on 24 July 1858. She was 49 years old and been a widow since 28 April 1847. David Williams the Elder must have been a good few years older than the 55 years of age the authorities there believed him to be at the time. The inquest into his death in Adelaide is disappointingly sparse on details.

    On Thursday an inquest Was held on the body of David Williams, who was drowned, by falling into a well, at Bowden, on the previous evening, at 9 o’clock, and a verdict returned,” That the deceased died by falling into a well.”

    South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register (Adelaide, SA : 1845 – 1847) 1 May 1847 page 3

    Well, duh!

  • Bio: Henry Nickolls

    Bio: Henry Nickolls

    The Master of Corra Linn

    On, or just before 7 December 1837, Henry Nickolls, master of the Corra Linn estate on the Patterson Plains, was punched in the head by a newly-assigned employee and warned by him that “there was more where that came from”. Which is something of an inversion of the typical master / servant relationship.

    This is only one possible interpretation that the historical record allows… but it’s how I’d like to imagine the confrontation between Nickolls and convict James Dyson played out. It makes for a more lurid opening line than “Assaulting and Threatening Violence to his Master” which is as close to an accurate translation as can be gleaned from James Dyson’s surviving Convict conduct record generated for his time in Van Diemen’s Land.

    Dyson was immediately sentenced by the police magistrate at Evandale to six months hard labour on the roads at the Kings’ Meadows Convict Station (where Dyson most absolutely positively wore one very stylish hat).

    A Hobart Chain Gang
    A generic Convict Chain Gang. Accuracy not vouched for.

    But who was Henry Nickolls, about whom Dyson made a judgement call that it was better to spend the six months in a road gang than have to endure any more than three days with him as a master?

    Henry Nickolls, Esq.

    Was born in Little Stukely, Huntingdonshire (now part of Cambridgeshire) towards the end of the year 1793. Aged 33, he married 29 year old Charlotte Wilkins on 23 August 1826. Next month, the newly-weds sailed from London to Van Diemen’s Land on the ship Admiral Cockburn, arriving in Hobart on 14 February 1827.

    Nickolls was sent out by two gentleman brothers to manage and farm on their behalf the extensive properties they had acquired in the Colony. Their names were…

    JFC!

    Sir John Owen (Bart) & Edward Lord

    Wikipedia page for Sir John Owen (Bart)

    Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for Edward Lord

    These two “gentlemen” — a politician and soldier respectively, were brothers. Sir John changed his name so he could inherit a prosperous estate in Pembrokeshire with a baronetcy attached. This estate in Wales (the old one, not the New South one) was named Orielton. He also inherited a seat in parliament as part of the deal.

    Edward Lord had once been a soldier of the officer class. He was kicking around Van Diemen’s Land since the time of the original British incursion. He had even been an acting-Governor briefly back in 1810 when his most notable act in office was burning all the incriminating documents from his predecessor’s reign. He was hated by his peers, but having a politician brother who was now a minor aristocrat meant they both wangled some of the choicest land grants in the Colony along with the worst of them.

    The brother’s estate of Orielton in Van Diemen’s land, near the town of Sorrell, seems to have been run productively by Nickolls. Nickoll’s speciality was cattle and horse breeding. The issues that eventually arose between he and his employers might have been due to his one absentee boss needing more and more money to fund his political habit. (Owen was gobsmacked his constituents keep fielding alternate candidates against him at election time just because he didn’t represent their interests). Richard Lord on the other hand, was probably just being a ruthless arsehole.

    Whether Nickolls was replaced voluntarily or otherwise as agent for Owen and Lord is not clear. However from 1 September 1831, it was Alexander Goldie now in charge at Orielton and the brother’s other interests, with the mandate to wring as much cash out of the cows for his employers as possible.

    Alexander Goldie has his own Australian Biographical Dictionary entry.

    Nickolls was also of the gentlemany class. While still working for Sir John Owen (Bart), he made successful application for land grants on his own account despite merely being a well-paid employee for Sir John. He was also appointed a Justice of the Peace by the Governor very soon after his arrival, which is a mark of some esteem from a soldier for someone who only obvious connection with soldiering was as sometimes-agent to someone no-one trusted.

    Nickoll’s initial land grant was for 2000 acres in the Brighton district in 1828. He next applied for 2500 acres more in the Morven District near the South Esk River during 1833. “Corra Linn” is located by the North Esk in the same district, so if this is not a typographical error, and his application really was approved — the latter may be the land near the town of Longford where he finally resided.

    His first attempt at free enterprise, after separating from Owen and Lord, was winning a tender to provide a mail service between Hobart Town and Launceston. — Entirely on horse back. He purchased six used saddles from the government for the purpose. But the gloomy prediction of one of the Launceston newspapers proved prescient —

    We have already stated that Mr. Nichols has obtained the contract for the conveyance of the mail throughout the Island. It is taken at £990, ferries free, and commences on the 2nd June. We wish him success. Individuals who by any means benefit the community are justly entitled to their earnings, but we fear that the present most infamous state of the roads, and want of bridges, are more likely to ruin a contractor than to put money in his pocket. The present system of colonial government is altogether bad, and until the desired change takes place, but little good may be expected by the community.”

    The Independent (Launceston, Tas. : 1831 – 1835) 12 May 1832 page 3

    We can probably assume that Henry Nickolls lost his deposit.

    He was in government service as the Commandant of Flinders Island between September 1834 and November 1835. He was not ruling another convict establishment, although none of the 134 or so inhabitants under his management were free to leave.

    They were as many of the First Nations peoples in British occupied Van Diemen’s Land as could be captured alive after the genocidal war of conquest of their land. It was not identified as such in the terminology of the day, but Henry Nickolls was Commandant of one of the world’s first concentration camps. By the time this settlement was abandoned in 1847, only 47 Palawa still left alive.

    He next turned down further government employment as a manager on the Launceston docks. When he also appeared to reject an official appointment at Circular Head with the VDL Company (where his nemesis Alexander Goldie was once employed), that government was through with him.

    He had attempted to pressure the administration by name dropping all the worthies he was writing to back in Britain to lobby on his behalf. Being written to sternly by Lord Fitzwilliam and the Bishop of Chichester was not enough to sway the Colonial Secretary. The regretful notation on his letter of pleading reads-

    I wish I could do something for Henry Nickolls but alas I cannot.

    Instead, one year later (or by January 1837 at the latest), Henry Nickolls was in residence at Corra Linn.

    Gateway to the Corra Linn Estate off Relbia Road in 2017
    The road to Corra Linn 2017

    Corra Linn / Corra Lynn

    The land around the North Esk river known as Patterson Plains also was the location of government stockyards acquired by Lieutenant David Rose after he retired from the army in 1814. There is a waterfall and gorge on the North Esk river adjacent to the property that resembles (somewhat) one from his native Scotland.

    Corra Linn in VDL. Very pretty, but not seeing the resemblance

    Lt. Rose dropped dead in 1826, “hastened by a wound from a dog bite” according to his Australian Biographical Dictionary entry.

    The heir to his estate seems have been Alexander Rose, a nephew. It must have been he, a decade later, who leased some of that land to Nickolls. The Rose family retained other portions of the inheritance to work themselves, so Henry Nickolls next did his bit for neighbourly relations by taking Alexander to court over a barn that he commissioned him to complete which did not live up to his gentlemanly expectations.

    … At the instigation of Mr. Home, the witness, Gardiner, was asked how wide the spaces were between the logs, to which he answered that towards the ground they were not wider than to admit a man’s arm, but they encreased towards the top.
    Mr. Home — Cannot pigs get in ?
    Witness— Not unless they were to FLY !

    “SUPREME COURT—CIVIL SIDE.” The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 13 January 1838 page 1
    The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 – 1880) 25 January 1840 page 4

    Henry Nickolls was out of Corra Linn by January 1840, but was still a presence in the district. Then Alexander Rose and his family departed Van Diemen’s Land for a few years and the next time Corra Linn is up for rent, a Mr Gilles of Sandhill is managing the deal.

    Launceston Advertiser (Tas. : 1829 – 1846)Thu 7 May 1840 Page 1
    Patterson Plains 2017

    There is ‘nary a peep out of Henry Nickolls Esquire for some time until:—

    Kirby House, Norfolk Plains.
THIS Establishment for Young Ladies will be fully prepared for their reception on Monday, 1st February next. '
Mrs. Henry Nickolls trusts her earnest endeavours to perfect every arrangement for the comfort and improvement of the pupils will meet the approval of those parents who may favour her with their patronage.
    Launceston Advertiser (Tas. : 1829 – 1846) 27 January 1842 page 2

    There are really only two ways of interpreting the situation when the wife of a gentleman goes very suddenly into business on her own account during this era. Either she has suddenly come into some wealth that her genteel husband has no access to, OR the couple’s finances have deteriorated so badly that he had to send the missus out to work to keep cigars and cognac on the table.

    Henry Nickolls, Esquire, now of the town of Longford in Norfolk Plains district, placed himself into voluntary administration for insolvency on 18 July 1842.

    Under the Insolvency of Mr. Henry Nickols, of Norfolk Plains, and by order of John Atkinson, Esq., Assignee.
    TO BE SOLD BY PUBLIC AUCTION,
    By Mr. B. Francis,
    On the premises at Norfolk Plains, on THURSDAY and FRIDAY, the 15th and 16th September, at twelve o’clock precisely,
    TWELVE FRENCH BEDSTEADS,
    Chintz and dimity furniture
    Wool mattresses
    Feather beds and bedding
    Rosewood, loo, telescope, and dining
    tables
    Cheffioniers, sofas, couches
    Sets of chairs, plate, linen
    China, glass
    And 150 volumes of sundry books
    Fourteen capital milch cows
    Thirteen steers and heifers
    Six working bullocks
    One Hereford bull
    Two useful saddle horses
    One jaunting car
    Sets of harness, &c.
    ALSO,
    All the farming implements
    A strong bullock cart
    One horse cart
    Ploughs, harness
    Dairy utensils
    And numerous other effects.
    The auctioneer particularly calls the attention of gentlemen and others to the above furniture, the whole being of a very superior order, and nearly new. The cattle have been selected with care, and known to be first class.
    TERMS — Under £25, cash ; above that sum,
    an approved endorsed bill at 3 months.

    Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 – 1899), 3 September, p. 5

    The Nickolls family lost their bedsteads but kept their house. Not much is heard from Henry Nickolls in the newspapers after that. He was presented to the Governor at a Levee held in Launceston during 1843. He resigned as a Justice of the Peace the same year, then tried his luck again with the Government for work, applying for a paid appointment in the Convict Department at Launceston. He also applied for a magistrates’ gig in his old stomping ground back in Sorrell in 1850.

    By now, the next generation of his family were emerging into public view when his son Henry Berkeley Nickolls was appointed postmaster to Bishopsbourne, a locality east of Longford in 1849.

    Henry Nickolls died at Longford 30 December 1872, aged 78.

    Nickolls seems to be both the historically correct and the preferred spelling of his family name, however, every other permutation (Nickol, Nicholls, Nichols) will appear somewhere in relation to this individual or his family. Henry and Caroline did have children, a distressingly large number of then died in infancy during their years at Corra Linn.

    He is not to be confused in the historical record with a Henry Nickolls, farmer of Brighton, Tasmania who died in 1885, or the convict named Henry Nickolls who arrived on the convict transport Moffatt, (but a later voyage than the one that brought James Dyson to Van Diemens’ Land!)

  • Choose your own Adventure

    Choose your own Adventure

    Not quite a love story yet.

    This is the tale of two convicts in Van Diemen’s Land. Their story does not have an end yet: happy, sad or otherwise. Can you help?

    The man

    Lorenzo Johnstone was an Irishman born around the year 1808. His complexion was brown and his face deeply pitted with the scars of acne or maybe smallpox. A labourer from the village of Muckney in County Monaghan, he may have very soon realised he had made a terrible mistake joining the British Army.

    The 1st Regiment of Foot was stationed in Ireland until about the time Johnstone turned seventeen. Then the Regiment was split in two, and the 1st Battalion of the regiment to which Johnstone was attached transferred to Scotland. His first Court Martial for desertion took place on 20 November 1829 in Fort George, Inverness. He served 25 days in the stockade for that infraction. The question that must be raised is whether Johnstone was trying to get back home to Ireland, or he was in dread of returning there — the Regiment was scheduled to return to Ireland in 1833.

    If his hope was to return to Ireland, that wish was to be fulfilled — albeit briefly. One year nearly to to day after he first absconded, His second Court Martial for desertion took place at Glasgow on the 13 November 1830. He was sentenced to fourteen years transportation. His convict ship Larkins, sailed from Downs, Ireland on 11 June 1831, and arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on 19 October. His military career was most certainly over and he seemed destined never to see Ireland or Scotland ever again.

    Lorenzo Jonstone’s conduct record in VDL [CON31/1/24 p81]

    Johnstone is one of those infuriating oddities — an Australian convict with a completely clean conduct record during his sentence. By May 1832, he was most certainly in Launceston (or its environs), for that is where a fellow felon, Thomas Quarrie, was convicted for nicking some of his clothes (to the value of four shillings). He was assigned to someone in the Launceston district on 9 December 1834.

    On 3 November 1837, at about the midway point of his sentence, he was granted his ticket-of-leave. This effectively paroled him to work for whoever he chose, or work on his own account. He could even be an employer, or take on apprentices. There were however, stringent restrictions on his movements, who he could associate with, or how late he could be out at night. But Lorenzo Johnstone remained resolutely on the right side of the law. So it was on 11 April 1838 that he submitted his application to the relevant authority for permission to marry. Within two weeks the reply was made via correspondence with the Colonial Secretary in Hobart. Permission was duly granted. Johnstone should have been a very happy man — He owned outright — or at the very least had unencumbered use of — a horse and cart, so he may have felt secure in providing a service that should always be in demand—transporting things from one place to another. He was thirty years old. Maybe for the first time in his life he felt that everything was moving in the right direction. If so it was a sentiment his bride-to-be may not have shared. The wedding date was delayed, and delayed again…

    permission to marry in 1838 [CON52/1/1p42]

    The woman

    Fanny Dewhirst claimed (or it was estimated) that she was born about the year 1813 — however if her parents were William and Mary Dewhirst and she was baptised in Heptonstall, near Halifax in Yorkshire on 28 August 1808, she was several years older than that. It might be a modern sensibility to hope that the later is true, for if it was the former, she was barely 16 when it was recorded that she was “on the town” a euphemism for having no home or protection, or more commonly — supporting herself by prostitution. At some stage before her arrest in 1832, she lost her right eye.

    Town of Halifax, Yorkshire, from The Penny Magazine, 15 March 1834
    Leeds Intelligencer, 12 Jan 1832, p4

    On a winter’s day 5 January 1832 she was sentenced to seven year’s transportation for the theft of a very large sum of money from a man publicly identified as a Mr George Schorah of Northowram (a location a mile or so north-east of Hallifax town centre). £25-£26 was a vast sum of money for the time, and the sentence handed down at the West Riding Christmas General Quarter Sessions in Wakefield seems almost lenient until it is understood that Mr Schorah was most certainly also Fanny’s customer and the chairman of the court was a Reverend. Fanny Dewhirst was imprisoned at York Castle until March when she was transported down south to Woolwich, near London, then cross country west to Plymouth in Devon, where she would board her transport vessel to Van Diemen’s Land. The convict barque Hydery departed England on 11 April 1832 and arrived in Hobart Town on 10 August 1832. Within a month she was sent north to Launceston, and assigned to work as a domestic servant for someone named Hubbard. On 13 September 1832 her extensive bad conduct record gained its first entry.

    Fanny’s conduct record in VDL [CON 40/1/3 p79]

    She refused to do the laundry as ordered to by her mistress, so Fanny began the long relationship with the house of correction for female prisoners back south in Hobart Town — at the Cascades Female Factory where she served a month at the wash tub. It was the first of many sentences for a multitude of infractions of the rules. These included:— [being] out after curfew and falsely representing herself to be free; Absent all night without leave; Absent from her service at 3 o’clock in the morning; Absconding; Destroying a handkerchief (property of the crown); Refusing to go back to her service; Being in public (out after hours)… etc. This is only a small sampling of the cause of her subsequent punishments. “Being out after hours” is by far the most common offence for which she was charged (16 times) but “being absent without leave” (12 times) comes a close second. There were more than a few occasions when she could be found guilty of both at the same time. The usual punishment was solitary confinement on bread and water. It has been calculated that she spent 176 days (nearly six months) this way.

    One of her masters was Major Wellman of the 57th Regiment. He was stationed in Launceston and was assigned lands at Norfolk Plains (both locations associated with Fanny Dewhirst). Whoever he was, she must have detested this soldier or his family with a passion, for two times during 1836 when assigned to him she ran away. For the crime of absconding, her sentence of transportation was increased by eighteen-months.

    On 17 November 1837 she was sentenced to ten days of solitary confinement on bread and water for being out in public after hours. She was employed by someone called Moore who resided Launceston. This was the third time she had received the same sentence for the same crime while in Moore’s service. It was to be the last offence she was charged with for the remainder of her time as a transportee, now due to expire in July 1840. Then on 11 April 1838, Lorenzo Johnstone applied for leave to marry her. The government had no objections, but did she?

    Fanny Dewhirst could neither read or write. Those life skills she had acquired she had learnt the hard painful way. According to the conventional morality of the day she was supposed to just curl up and die when her situation failed to match the expectations of those who made the rules. If her life in Van Diemen’s Land and her life before that in Yorkshire suggests any thing it was that this was a person who would fight passionately to survive in the moment, regardless of the long term consequences. If survival was a moment by moment affair, then so would be pleasure. If she lived by the minute then Lorenzo Johnstone gave every indication of being someone who played a long game in life. A soldier’s life had taught him discipline, but she had already run away from one soldier. Did she really want to spent the remainder of her life with another?

    “We said yes, okay?” [CON52/1/1p43]

    Something strange happened on 28 November 1839. Lorenzo Johnstone applied a second time to marry Miss Fanny Dewhirst. Why he needed to apply to the authorities again is not remotely clear. Maybe too much time had elapsed between the first permission and the wedding ceremony? Once again, the Lieutenant-Governor initialled assent to the lawful and permanent union of the two convicts, which was communicated back to the parties on 26 December 1839. On 15 January 1840, Lorenzo Johnstone, aged 31, was married to Fanny, who gave her age as 21 (pull the other one), according to the rites of the Church of England in the Launceston parish church of St John. Lorenzo listed his trade as a gardener, but he would not have owned his own farm. He could not legally own land — yet.

    Lawful matrimony
    The Hobart Town Courier and Van Diemen’s Land Gazette, Friday 3 July 1840 p4

    For Mrs Lorenzo Johnstone, there was one final hurdle to overcome before her past as Fanny Dewhirst was definitively behind her. The moment came six months after her marriage on 5 July 1840 when she granted her Certificate of Freedom. She was free by virtue of servitude — She had served every hour, every day, every month, of her eight and a half year sentence. Now she was utterly free to go where she wanted to, live the life she chose. It would be a fair guess she hated Van Diemen’s Land and would want to get away from that island as soon as she was able to. But of course, she wasn’t free. She was married to Lorenzo Johnstone and he was still a Ticket-of-Leave convict. He had four years left of his sentence to serve. Here was the bitter irony — She had never conformed to the rules — she had flouted them at every opportunity (and paid the price). She was never granted a Ticket of Leave, much less a Conditional Pardon which was the next reward for good behaviour — yet even with an extension to her sentence by eighteen months, she now had more legal rights than her husband — who had started his sentence three years before hers — had a spotless good behaviour record, but could not legally leave the Launceston district.

    In the circumstances, it reads like a cruel joke that Lorenzo Johnstone’s conditional pardon mooted as early as January 1842 but not valid “until Her Majesty’s pleasure be known” was finally promulgated on 31 August 1843, for the following cause:—

    “Having served ten years in the Colony without a charge of misconduct”

    On 30 November 1842 Johnstone had been fined by a magistrate for a trivial cart-riding offence. Maybe that had been enough to delay his Conditional Pardon? He received his Certificate of Freedom by servitude in 1844. Now he could own land or leave the Colony anytime he chose — or was able to. In previous eras expired convicts were granted free land to work, but those days were long past. But had he time left to save his marriage?

    The leaving of Launceston [POL220/1/1 p223]

    It took six more years before he finally departed from Van Diemen’s Land. Gold had been found across the Pacific Ocean in California, USA, back in 1848, and on 9 May 1850 he sailed from Launceston on the Jane Francis bound for San Francisco. Being who he was, he dotted all the “i”s and crossed all the “t”s on the paperwork. This is how we can be fairly certain that his wife, Fanny Johnstone did not sail with him on that vessel. This is the last verified record of Lorenzo Johnstone and (in the negative) his wife. There are any number of unverified sightings. Here lies the point of danger in concluding this story…

    https://freelorenzojohnson.org/

    In Pennsylvania USA, in the year 1995, a man named Lorenzo Johnston was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. After seventeen years behind bars he was freed by a higher court on the grounds that he had been falsely convicted due to insufficient evidence. Four months later, yet another court sent him back to prison to resume his original sentence. As of today (April 2019) Lorenzo Johnson was a free man living with his family in New York. He spent twenty-two years of his life behind bars for a crime he most certainly did not commit.

    Now it should be fairly self-evident that Lorenzo Johnson and Lorenzo Johnstone are not the same person (Nor is it slightly feasible that one could be the great-great-great-great grandparent of the other). The stakes for me in a theory I have about the fate of the nineteenth-century individual after his wife’s freedom was granted in 1840 are immeasurably lower than that of a man wrongly convicted of a capital offence on circumstantial evidence and prejudice against him for the colour of his skin. I’m not going to state my theory here (though it shouldn’t be too hard to work out my line of reasoning from other articles on this site) because the case of Lorenzo Johnson — the one who had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and not be a pitted-faced Irishman — should be a warning about leaping to conclusions without being in possession of all the facts, or any proof at all. At the moment, all I have are coincidences — as did the jurors at Johnson’s first trial. The result was a gross miscarriage of justice.

    The dilemma…

    Herein lies my problem: I have a theory about this couple. However I cannot prove my theory, but I cannot conclusively disprove it either. Conclusive facts that would disprove my case would be records of husband and wife together after the year 1840, or records of Mrs Fanny Johnstone after that date living a life away from her spouse. There is some evidence in Tasmania that the latter is what might have occurred.

    Unfortunately Johnstone and its variants Johnson or Johnston are all too common as family names. Lorenzo Johnstone (the Irishman) was recorded as being capable of being able to read and write, so while others might have misspelled his name (and did) we can be reasonably certain that Johnstone is the variant that he prefered. There are records of a Fanny Johnstone having involvements with the law in Launceston between the years 1863 and 1871, However in only the earliest instance was she actually found guilty of something (fined 6 shillings for disturbing the peace with one Thomas Crawford) (In the last recorded, she was employed as a sick-nurse for the family of a police constable). The difficulty is that there were other families of Johnstones in that town during the era, and of that subset of the population were a number of other women named Fanny — both of the Mrs and Miss variety. I cannot prove the Fanny Johnstone I wish to trace is one of the above — nor can I disprove it yet. There is no death or burial record that I can identify for Fanny Johnstone that plausibly fits the former Miss Dewhirst, nor can I find evidence that supports her remarriage.

    As for Lorenzo Johnstone, his movements after 1850 are similarly hard to interpret:—

    • In October 1852 a Mr Lorenzo Johnson [sic] aged 37, sailed from the colony of Victoria to Launceston on a vessel called the Launceston
    • But a Mr L. Johnson [sic] and wife sailed from San Francisco to Port Jackson, New South Wales on the vessel Abyssinia in the year 1853…
    • In 1876 an occupant of the Victorian goldfields named Lorenzo Johnson [sic] died, but according to his death record he was only a young man of 25 years. If this is correct, he was born sometime about the year 1851. The names of his parents are unrecorded and no record of his birth has yet been found.

    … So the fate of Lorenzo Johnstone remains as uncertain as that of his wife and for much the same reason.

    In Summary

    Can you help? Are you a researcher or even a descendant of Lorenzo Johnstone (or Johnson) born Muckney, County Monaghan, Ireland about the year 1808, or Fanny Dewhirst (or Dewhurst) born Halifax, the West Riding of Yorkshire, England about the year 1813 (or as early as 1808)?

    If you have come across stories concerning either of these two convicts in Van Diemen’s Land, or are connected to either by ties of family, I would love to hear from you and complete their story. If you know Lorenzo and Fanny are your ancestors or you wish to claim them as your own, please make that claim. That is what I would be doing… if I had the evidence.

    References

    Convict records for Lorenzo Johnstone at Libraries Tasmania

    Convict records for Fanny Dewhirst at Libraries Tasmania

    Fanny Dewhirst’s convict record has been completely transcribed by the Female Convicts Research Centre. Registration is required to view these transcriptions, but I can’t overstate how useful access to this database has been. https://www.femaleconvicts.org.au/