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PDF Pearson History 9
Unit 4, Pages 84-101

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 2
1- Students participate in Learning Activity: Population Movements and Changing Settlement Patterns during the Industrial Revolution

Lesson 1 Reading and responding to text
1- Download Reading for Week 9, 10- Population Movements and Changing Settlement Patterns during the Industrial Revolution , Pearson History 9
2- Read and understand text in page 84
3- Write dot point notes for each paragraph in page 84
4- Write a summary of page 84
5- Create a graph that represent the change of population in the cities of Hamburg, New York and London

Source analyses

6- Analyse source 3.4.3
a. Does the photograph have a title?
b. When was the photograph taken?
c. What is in the photograph?
d. Who is in the photograph?
e. What draws your eye immediately in the photograph?
f. If there are people in the photograph, how do they look?
g. What do facial expressions, body language, clothing suggest?
h. What can be seen in the background?
i. Are there symbols, landmarks, writing that are part of the photo?
j. What is the overall ‘mood’ of the photo?
k. What exactly is happening in the photograph?
l. What do you think is the value, the significance and the importance of the photograph?
m. What does the photo add to your knowledge of history?

7- Complete Learning Activities 1 to 7 from page 85
8-Write a comment about your understanding and learning from this activity

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LEARNING ACTIVITY 1
In this task you will have 3 choices:
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Choice A-
Create a amazing short story that incorporate at least five of the key issues from the list in working conditions.
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Choice B-
Compose a story board that illustrate  five key issues faced by workers during the Industrial Revolution.
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Choice C-
Imagine you are a 12 year old cotton factory worker living in Britain at the time of the Industrial Revolution. Use your knowledge of the period and the problems facing workers and children to create a 300 word narrative that highlights five key problems.

------List of issues---------------------------------------
· physically dangerous environment and duties

· inadequate training

· poor ventilation

· worker exploitation, including low wages and long working hours

· crimes against children, including physical and/or sexual abuse

·domestic violence between adults

·general law and order problems, including theft, trespass and vandalism

·chronic drunkenness

·low average life expectancy

·extreme poverty

·overcrowded housing and squalid living conditions

·high rates of illiteracy

·undervaluing of education

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1- Students use this lesson to study: Education Perfect lessons Impacts of the Industrial Revolution

If completed and ready

ACCESS CODE

CFX48L

2- Students access the assessment
* Open until the 9 of July
* 2 opportunities
*Best score

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Reading and responding-The Experience of Convicts- 

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Reading and responding-The Experience of Convicts- 

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https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/work-samples/samples/infographic-making-a-nation-above/

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https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/work-samples/samples/source-analysis-and-extended-response-the-industrial-revolution-above/

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Source analysis and extended response: The Industrial Revolution

Summary of task

Students examined four primary sources detailing working conditions in factories, mines and other operations during the Industrial Revolution. They completed four source analysis tables, recording their findings and ideas about the nature, content and use of each source. Students then wrote an extended text, using evidence from three of the four sources, to support their opinions on whether or not the Industrial Revolution improved the living and working conditions of children. The task was completed at home over a period of two weeks.

Achievement standard

By the end of Year 9, students refer to key events and the actions of individuals and groups to explain patterns of change and continuity over time. They analyse the causes and effects of events and developments and make judgements about their importance. They explain the motives and actions of people at the time. Students explain the significance of these events and developments over the short and long term. They explain different interpretations of the past.

Students sequence events and developments within a chronological framework, with reference to periods of time and their duration. When researching, students develop different kinds of questions to frame a historical inquiry. They interpret, process, analyse and organise information from a range of primary and secondary sources and use it as evidence to answer inquiry questions. Students examine sources to compare different points of view. When evaluating these sources, they analyse origin and purpose, and draw conclusions about their usefulness. They develop their own interpretations about the past. Students develop texts, particularly explanations and discussions, incorporating historical interpretations. In developing these texts and organising and presenting their conclusions, they use historical terms and concepts, evidence identified in sources, and they reference these sources.

1 2 3

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Source analysis and extended response: The Industrial Revolution - Above

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Source analysis and extended response: The Industrial Revolution Students examined four primary sources detailing working conditions in factories, mines and other operations during the Industrial Revolution. They completed four source analysis tables, recording their findings and ideas about the nature, content and use of each source.

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These stories have been submitted by members of the Female Convicts Research Centre, researchers and descendants of female convicts. We hope the selected stories help to put the women's lives in perspective and give the readers some understanding of the factors that might have affected their circumstances and the decisions they made.

The stories provide some historical background to shine a light on the lives of their subjects either before or after transportation. This contextual material could include prevailing social conditions, political ideology or geographical history relevant to the existence of the particular convict women and their families.

All stories are subject to copyright.

We welcome all stories about female convicts. However, in order to protect the integrity of this site and the quality of information provided, it is necessary to maintain certain standards of research and writing.

Writers are encouraged to incorporate into their stories, where appropriate, some historical background to assist in shining a light on the lives of their subjects either before or after transportation.

All such material should be factually based and referenced accordingly. As a general rule, stories should be limited to approximately 2500 words or less.

If you would like to contribute an interesting female convict story, please complete a submission form and ask about our style guide. Stories will be selected for publication on the basis of historical interest and quality of research and writing.

For those writers who also have photos they would like to share, database storage limitations prevent these being incorporated into the stories. However, please complete an image and document submission form for separate storage of photos in the database.

All stories are subject to copyright.

​

Please note: There may be links in the stories below for conduct record, indent and description list which will take you to the Archives Office of Tasmania website.

A

Mary Acton was well known to the police in Warrington, Lancashire, with the authorities finally managing to have her convicted in 1844 for a crime committed five years earlier. She was transported on the Tory arriving in Van Diemen's Land in July 1845. Despite marrying early in her sentence, she did not have a settled life and spent most of her sentence at Hobart and Ross Female Factories.
This is Mary's story ....

Not many convicts appeared before a Royal Commission, not many were sketched as often as Catherine, and few had photographs taken due to giving evidence. This woman's story also shows how convicts kept in touch with each other, changed partners, names and identities, but also how the past caught up with some of them in the strangest ways.

Read more about Catherine Adams and The Dean Poisoning Case.

Between 1803 and 1853, approximately 75,000 men and women were transported to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) as convicts. Of these, roughly 67,000 were shipped from British and Irish ports. The remainder were either from other British colonies or had arrived in the colony as 'free' immigrants and had been convicted later. While poor documentation in the early years makes it difficult to be precise about the number of those convicted locally, about one hundred and twenty-five females in this category have been identified to date. Hellen Copeland Armistead was one of them.

Believed to have been from a respectable family, but possibly one that had fallen on hard times, in England, Hellen, had arrived 'free' at Hobart, single and alone, in 1837. She was thirty-eight years old. Four years later, while employed as a governess at Hobart, she was accused of stealing a tablecloth. Although she denied the charge, she was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment for six months. After serving her time, she left the colony and never returned. For some years a teacher at Port Macquarie, New South Wales, where she was highly admired, she died at the age of seventy-one in 1870. She had never been in trouble with the law again.

This is her story:

The story of Jane Arnott per Margaret in 1843 and John Dunn, per Waterloo, 1835.

Read more about 'The Cook and the Blacksmith'.

Introduction
Sarah was the oldest of five children born in Nantwich, Cheshire, England to William Davenport and Ann Ashley. Sarah's mother died in 1836 when Sarah was only twenty and, around this time, it seems Sarah left home and went to live in Liverpool, Lancashire where she ended up 'on the town' for several years. Within a year of her mother's death Sarah's father remarried and, in 1840, emigrated to the USA with his new wife and Sarah's three younger sisters. Sarah was never to see her father - and most probably her sisters - ever again.

What prompted Sarah to leave home, change her age and her name from Davenport to Ashley, her mother's maiden name? What type of relationship - if any - did she have with her father and step mother? How did she feel about her father and younger siblings moving to America? Was she ever invited to join them?

Sarah's crimes were typically trivial and she was young - as such, she was one of the thousands of females who became victims of the prevailing British government economic policy to populate the colonies with 'tamers and breeders'. Evidently no one petitioned on Sarah's behalf to mitigate her sentence. Conversely, did Sarah see this as an opportunity to escape the social ravages of the industrial revolution in England? Did her family in America ever know she had been transported to Van Diemen's Land (VDL)? Did any of them care?

This is Sarah's Story...

Elizabeth Attwood was born at Pinfold St, Birmingham on 27 December 1813 to parents Thomas and Hannah Attwood. Thomas Attwood was born in 1766, was a jeweller and died in 1823. Hannah was born in 1785 and died in 1821. Thomas and Hannah were married circa 1808 and had three other children - John died as an infant, Thomas Jnr born in 1815 and Maria. Thomas and Hannah both died young, with Elizabeth being only 8 when her mother died and 10 when her father died. We do not know how the children were raised, but can assume that things were very tough for them.

We can find no trace as to what happened to Maria, but we do know that Elizabeth started a relationship with Charles Spratt around 1832, with a daughter, Emma Attwood, being born in 1833. In April 1835 Charles and a pregnant Elizabeth, were living in Birmingham when they robbed a man of two shillings and five pence.

Read more of the story of Elizabeth Attwood, and the voyage of the Tory in 1848.
( conduct record, indent, description list)

B

Introduction
Approximately 12,500 female convicts were transported to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) between 1803 and 1853. Of these 782 were transported for life. Sarah was one of these women. Ten percent of the women in this cohort had no offence recorded and, of the remainder, roughly thirty percent were convicted for serious violent crimes. The balance was convicted largely for property offences. Sadly, many of those transported for life did not commit what today would be considered serious offences nor were they repeat offenders.

Was it fair that murderers, arsonists, rapists and recidivist offenders (some of whom had been pardoned from execution) were lumped into the same basket as those who committed non violet crimes of theft, burglary, house breaking and the like, often for reasons of survival and many of whom were first time offenders? Of course, this is consistent with the prevailing government policy to populate the colonies with young women of child bearing age, but unjust nonetheless.

As far as we know, Sarah was a first time offender and was convicted of stealing £12 and a hat valued at 20 shillings. At the time, this represented the cost of two cows or eighteen stone of wool or sixty days pay for a skilled tradesman. It is the modern day equivalent of approximately £725. For this she was sentenced to spend the rest of her life in a developing and often brutal colony thirteen thousand miles away from her home and family. Was it not slavery?

Alexander, Alison, ed., The Companion to Tasmania History, Snowden, Dianne, "Female Convicts" (2005), Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania.

Alexander, Alison, ed., The Companion to Tasmania History, Snowden, Dianne, "Female Convicts" (2005), Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania.

Old Bailey t18350406-1007

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/

Theresa Charlotte Barrington, nineteen years old and single, arrived in Van Diemen's Land (VDL) aboard Emma Eugenia in March 1851, one of 13,500 (approx..) females to be transported to the colony as convicts between 1812 and 1853.[1] A great many of these women never recovered from the loss of the parents, husbands, children and friends from whom they been torn and led sad, often tragic, lives. Others saw their transportation as an opportunity to escape from the circumstances which had led them to their crimes. They settled down, worked hard, became good citizens and made a significant contribution to the development of their new country. While some chose to live their lives in relative obscurity, others were prepared to take advantage of the freedoms that they had not previously enjoyed, to hold their heads high, and to embrace all that came their way. Theresa was certainly in the latter group. Within two years of her arrival, she had married. Less than a year later, she had given birth to a daughter, the first of six children she would have with four different men. In the early 1860s, after being granted a conditional pardon, she left VDL and never returned. For the next eight years, she travelled widely in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, appearing on stage with her third husband, a well-known comedian, as a much-admired vocalist, actress and dancer. After the death of that husband, she married again but was widowed once more when her new husband died a year later. Sadly, her life seems to have fallen apart somewhat after that. She was gaoled twice in Sydney in the 1890s, once for theft and once for being drunk and disorderly. Afterwards, she struggled on until her death, at the age of eighty-five, in 1915. The death certificate shows the cause as 'senile decay'.

[1] Conduct record CON41-1-29, image 22; description list CON19-1-9, image 62; indent CON15-1-6, images 292-293; police no. 1084; FCRC ID: 5074:

The known life of Ann Beck is a tale of hardship, personal suffering and one of desperately poor mental health. Such was the extent of her mental health problems that she was admitted shortly after her arrival on the shores of Van Diemen's Land (VDL) to New Norfolk Asylum, VDL.

This is her tale.

At her trial at the Old Bailey, London, on 28 October 1830, Sarah BENNETT was found guilty of stealing a watch, two seals and a key (total value of £7.0.6d) from the person of a working-man by the name of John NEWTON. She was sentenced to transportation for life.

Read more on Sarah Bennett

Elizabeth Bidwell was born in 1825, the first daughter and second child of Nicodemus Bidwell and Melley Chamberlain. She was christened on 23 October 1825 at Nether Exe, Devon, England. Nether Exe is a small parish beside the river Exe, 5 miles from Exeter. In 1831 it had a population of 97.

Nicodemus was a 25 year old farm labourer at the time of Elizabeth's birth. His ancestral roots however were far different. He was a descendent of the Bidwell families of Newton St Cyres. Members of the family had once been landholders. Bidwell Barton at Newton St Cyres still carries their name. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries some land near Newton St Cyres was given to Thomas Bidwell, presumably for services rendered. The custom was that land passed from the eldest son to the eldest son, but Thomas Bidwell only had daughters. Richard Quicke married Thomas' daughter Elizabeth and the land passed to the Quicke family. The Quicke family still own the land and are well known for their cheesemaking today.

Charlotte Blears was a local girl baptised on the 26th October 1822 at St Mary the Virgin, Leigh who was to lead a quite extraordinary life. Her mother, Elizabeth Blare, was described as a singlewoman and although no father's name is given on the baptismal record, many years later Charlotte herself names him as Henry Cordwall. This is the first and only mention of Henry who doesn't seem to have played much of a part in Charlotte's life.

Read more of the Charlotte Blears story.

Margaret Bradley arrived in Van Diemens Land (VDL) aboard Sea Queen in August 1846, one of 13,500 (approx.) female convicts who were transported to the colony between 1812 and 1853.[1] While some of these women served out their time without great discomfort and eventually became good and useful citizens, others found their term of servitude humiliating and difficult in the extreme. Margaret was in the latter group, some of whom tried to escape from their island prison. Few were successful. In 1852, after having served only six years of her ten-year sentence, Margaret absconded from her assigned service and was missing for three months. She managed to get to Melbourne but soon after arriving there was apprehended and returned to VDL, where she served out the remainder of her time. But what happened to her after that is a mystery! She seems to have simply vanished from all records. Did she leave the colony? If so, where could she have gone? Still only twenty-six years of age, and probably alone, would she have tried again to make a new life for herself in Victoria? Or one of the other Australian colonies? Or New Zealand, perhaps? Would she have dared to return to her native England where the penalty for doing so was death?[2] Her story is a most interesting one but, frustratingly, it has no satisfying ending.
This is her story:
[1] CON41/1/10, image 13; Description List: CON19/1/5, image 172; Indent: CON15, image 312; Police No: 803; FCRC 1D: 10904.

[2] See 'Tickets of Leave, Certificates of Freedom, Pardons' at https://www.nla.gov.au/

Mary Braid could hardly have imagined the dramatic turns her life would take and the social controversy that would emanate from some of her life choices. First born in a large family, her father died when she was only twenty. She married three years later, had a daughter and then her husband died in a work accident before she was thirty. She returned, with her daughter, to live with her widowed mother in the family home. Thereafter, Mary's life embarked on a path of self-destruction and tragedy that would result in permanent banishment from her homeland.

One of the most extraordinary stories among those of the 13,500 (approx.) women who were transported as convicts to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) between 1812 and 1853 is that of Jean Brash. In January 1852, at the age of twenty-seven, she had been found guilty in a Scottish court of stealing half a sovereign and sentenced to transportation for ten years. She had arrived at Hobart aboard Sir Robert Seppings later that year. Before her transportation, she had been a most notorious character in Edinburgh's seedy underworld where and had had more than twenty convictions for offences including disorderly conduct and theft. She had been dubbed the 'Princess of Pickpockets' and the 'Queen of Thieves'.

It had been the legendary James McLevy, Edinburgh's first official detective, who had finally put an end to Jean's criminal ways. He had pursued her doggedly before being able to bring her to justice but, even while doing so, he admitted to having had a grudging respect for her. She had been able to outwit him frequently. After he had retired from the police force, he became a widely-published writer of crime stories, most of which were based on cases in which he had been involved during his career. In some of them, Jean Brash appears as his wily antagonist. More recently, Scottish novelist David Aston has used the McLevy stories as the basis of a highly-acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series in which a character named Jean Brash plays a leading role. The same character is also the subject of a series of books, 'The Jean Brash Mysteries', which Ashton is presently writing.

Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, Jean settled down quickly after her arrival in VDL and, after overcoming some mental health problems initially, was of little trouble to the authorities. In 1860, she married former convict William Apsey ( Pestongee Bomangee, 1852) and lived quietly. She passed away at the age of seventy in a Launceston hospital in 1894.

This is Jean's story:

In 1839, Margaret Brayson was convicted of theft at Liverpool, England, and sentenced to transportation for seven years. She was seventeen years old when she arrived in Van Diemen's Land (VDL) the following year. Three years later, she married emancipist William Jackson, a fifty-nine-year-old widower who had been married twice previously. Despite the big difference in their ages, the marriage appears to have been harmonious, and, between 1844 and 1854, Margaret gave birth to five children. Very shortly after Jackson passed away at the age of seventy-six in 1860, however, Margaret was co-habiting with a former convict Charles Frost, a man with a disreputable past. In 1865, then forty-three years old, she was found dead in her home, her body naked and badly burnt. Frost, who was alleged to have bashed her around the head just hours before she died, set fire to her body and left her to die, was charged with her murder. Some weeks later. to the astonishment of many, he was discharged before trial, the police prosecutor claiming that there was insufficient evidence of his intention to kill.

This is Margaret's story:

Surely one of the saddest stories of those of the 13,500 (approx.) females who were transported for their crimes to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) between 1812 and 1853 is that of Margaret Brodie. She was nineteen years old when convicted at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1841, of 'stealing money from the person' and sentenced to transportation for ten years.[1] As a prisoner in VDL she was troubled and troublesome. She was gaoled frequently for offences ranging from disturbing the peace and drunkenness to theft, prostitution and absconding from custody. She committed her most serious offence, however, just a few months after she had completed her ten-year term of servitude and had received her Certificate of Freedom. In 1852, she was found guilty of the manslaughter of a young police constable. Although sentenced to 'fifteen years transportation' for that crime, she spent two only years in a Hobart gaol before being released as a prisoner 'on probation'. Her bad behaviour continued unabated. Except for a brief period in the mid-late 1860s when, possibly, she found a little happiness with the man she had married shortly after her arrival in VDL, she was in and out of prison for the rest of her life. A vagrant, destitute, and described in a newspaper in the late 1870s as 'a wretched-looking woman', she died in Hobart Gaol, in 1883. She was in her early sixties.

This is her story:

[1] Conduct record: CON40-1-2, image 104; Description List: CON19-1-3, image 93; Indent: CON15-1-1, images 8 and 9; Police No: 544; FCRC ID: 4561.

C

One of the most interesting of the stories of the 13,500 (approx.) female convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) between 1812 and 1853 is that of Elizabeth (or, more commonly, Eliza) Callaghan. In September 1820, at the age of seventeen, she had been convicted of passing a counterfeit banknote in London, England, and sentenced to death. Later, the sentence had been commuted to one of transportation for fourteen years and she had arrived in Hobart the following year. In 1823, she met (and later married) John Batman, soon to hailed as a hero for his capture of the notorious bushranger Matthew Brady and afterwards to become even more prominent for his role in the infamous 'Black War', the violent conflict between settlers and aborigines in VDL from the mid-1820s to 1832, and for the establishment of the settlement at Port Philip, which was to become the city of Melbourne in the neighbouring colony of Victoria. Unfortunately, the marriage was to end acrimoniously. After Batman's death, reportedly from syphilis, in 1839, Eliza married his clerk, William Willoughby, but that marriage, like the first, ended in sadness. In 1852, described then as 'a somewhat abandoned character', she was murdered at Geelong, Victoria. She was forty-nine years old. Although she has been mentioned frequently in books and articles about Batman, relatively little has been written about her exclusively.

CON40-1-1, image 256; FCRC ID: 1126.

https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18200918-57-defend705&div=t18200918-57#highlight

See 'Eliza Batman', Geelong Cemeteries Trust at https://www.gct.net.au/eliza-batman/

This is her story:

" I had already come across several very interesting women. I found I could link them all to Cascades during a single month - May 1847. It would have been possible to choose another month in another year and discover other interesting lives. Serendipity" ....Maureen Mann

Read Cascades May 1847

A small number - probably fewer than 120 - of the 13,500 (approx.) females who were transported to Van Diemens Land (VDL) between 1812 and 1853 were convicted in one of the other Australian colonies. Rosannah CAVANAGH was one such. She was convicted in New South Wales (NSW) and arrived in VDL per Abercrombie on 16 April 1841. She was twenty-three years old.

Cavanagh (seen also as Rosanna CAVANAGH, Rosannah CAVENAH, Rosanna CAVANNAH and similar variants) was born at Liverpool, about sixteen miles (26 kms) west of Sydney in 1818. There, she lived with her Irish-born mother, Mary Ann ATTWOOD and her step-father, James ATTWOOD, a farmer. Both were former convicts. Mary Ann Attwood had been eighteen when she arrived in NSW (as Mary Ann PRENDERGAST) aboard Experiment II to serve a seven year sentence in 1809. English-born James Attwood had been sentenced to transportation for life and had arrived on Lady Castlereagh in 1818.

In January 1846, Elizabeth Chadwick was convicted at Nottingham, England, of stealing money from her employer.[1] Sentenced to transportation for seven years, she arrived in Van Diemen's Land (VDL) in the following August. Her convict documents show that she was only sixteen years old upon arrival. However, she was not the timid and fearful prisoner that her tender years might have suggested. Assigned to settlers as a housemaid, she was feisty and troublesome. Charged with offences on eleven separate occasions during the years of her servitude, she was punished frequently for misdemeanours including gross disobedience of orders, behaving in a disorderly manner at church, using obscene language, being out after hours and absconding from her assigned service. On one occasion, she was gaoled for six months for 'living in a state of adultery with George Murray', a twenty-seven-year-old Irish-born convict, to whom she claimed to be married. Her strength and hardiness of spirit, however, were sorely tested after the completion of her sentence. In 1866, now legally married to former convict Richard Coultass, she witnessed the tragic deaths of her two eldest children - daughters Ellen and Jane, eight and five years of age respectively - who were burnt to death when their long dresses caught fire inside their home. Some years later, it is believed, her third child died from an illness. He was sixteen. With a hardiness that was astonishing in one for whom life had not been easy, Elizabeth herself lived on into her late sixties. She passed away at Launceston in 1897.
This is her story:
[1] Elizabeth Chadwick: conduct record: CON40/1/10, image 25; description list CON19/1/5, image 175; indent: CON15/1/3, image 317 and 317; police no: 790; FCRC ID: 10914; her conduct record and indent show her age as sixteen but in a Nottingham (England) newspaper report of her crime in 1846, she was said to be seventeen.

Rachael CHAMBERLAIN is reputed to have been one of the most notorious women ever transported to Van Diemens Land (VDL).[1]

Chamberlain (nee BERRY) was born at Bristol, England, about 1796.[2] Nothing is known of her early life. At the age of eighteen, she married a 32-year old widower, Abraham CHAMBERLAIN (aka CHAMBERLYN, CHAMBERLAYNE, CHAMBERLYNE), at St Mary's, Newington, London.[3] Two years later, her husband was convicted of larceny and transported for seven years. He arrived at Hobart on 11 June 1818.[4]

In 1821, Rachael, who had been supporting herself through prostitution since her husband's conviction and transportation, was herself convicted of larceny.[5] She had stolen a quantity of bedding, valued at forty shillings, from a room in which she had been lodging with a man by the name of Joseph NIXON.

Read more of Rachel's story...

[1] Tardiff, Philip. (1990). Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls: Convict Women in Van Diemen's Land. North Ryde: Angus and Robertson; Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser (HTG), 11 May 1822, p.2.

[2] Year of birth calculated from age 28 given on arrival at Hobart.

[3] Marriage Entry No. 858 in "London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921, Southwark, St Mary, Newington, 1814", via 'Ancestry.com', accessed 18 January 2017.

[4] CON31/1/6, Image 44 (name shown as 'CHAMBERLYN'.)

[5] Chamberlain's convict documents mention that she had been 'on the town'.

Those who are interested in the stories of the female convicts who were transported to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) between 1812 and 1853 may already be familiar with that of Norah Cobbett who arrived in the colony aboard Persian in August 1827.[1] Her extraordinary tale is inextricably bound with that of the fascinating adventurer, pirate, farmer, painter, police constable, newspaper editor and author Jorgen Jorgenson ( Woodman, 1826), who, before his conviction in England and exile to VDL, had sailed to Iceland where he had proclaimed himself that country's 'King'.[2] This present account adds little to the several outstanding works about his life that have appeared in recent years.[3] It differs from them, however, in taking as its main focus the astonishing life of Cobbett, a woman who, while being referred to as 'liquor-addicted', 'violent', 'disreputable' and 'notorious', was also seen as 'charismatic' and 'celebrated'. It may serve, too, as a useful introduction to the important historical events in which the pair were involved in the colony, describing the way in which Cobbett's association with Jorgenson led, as one of his friends had predicted, to his eventual ruin.

[1] Conduct record: CON40-1-1, image 278; Police No: 96; FCRC ID: 9999.

[2] Conduct record: CON31-1-23, image 124.

[3] Bakewell, S. (2006). The English Dane: From King of Iceland to Tasmanian Convict. London: Vintage; Sprod, D. (2001). The Usurper: Jorgen Jorgenson and His Turbulent Life. Hobart: Blubber Head Press; Hogan, J.F. (2018). Being the Life and Adventures of Jorgen Jorgenson. Trieste Publishing @ www.triestepublishing.com; Dally, J. (1967). 'Jorgenson, Jorgen (1780-1841)' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol.2, pp. 26-28; 'Jorgenson, Jorgen' in Companion to Tasmanian History at https://www.utas.edu.au/tasmanian-companion/biogs/E000534b.htm.

'The Convict Who Never Was'

In mid-May 1847, brothers Michael and John Connolly brutally murdered a man named Thomas Dillon in the small village of Kilmakil, County Tipperary, Ireland.[1] On 22 April of the following year, they were hanged for their crime. A few months after their execution, their elderly widowed mother Mary Connolly and two of their brothers were arrested and charged with their involvement in same grisly crime.[2] At their trial, the court heard that the bloody slaying of Dillon, a bailiff, had been in retribution for his eviction of the family from their small rented farm. These were difficult times in Ireland. It was the time of the 'Great Famine' when a potato blight had led to the failure of crops throughout the country. Poor tenant farmers such as the Connolly family could scarcely find enough food to keep themselves alive, let alone to sell to earn an income. When they were unable to pay their rents, their heartless English landlords were quick to force them off the lands on which they had lived and worked for generations.[3] Nevertheless, this was no justification for murder, and Mary was found guilty and sentenced to death. Later, the sentence was commuted to transportation for life.[4] Described then as 'wretched' and as 'an old, emaciated-looking woman, nearly eighty years of age', she was put aboard the convict ship Lord Auckland for the long voyage to Van Diemen's Land (VDL). On 3 March 1849, a New South Wales (NSW) newspaper reported that Mary had been shunned by her fellow prisoners on the ship for the blood-thirsty nature of her crime.[5] They had refused to sit with her to eat, or to have anything else to do with her. But, as it happens, when Lord Auckland arrived at Hobart on 20 January 1849, Mary was not aboard. Her name is not listed among the 13,500 (approx.) female convicts known to have been transported to between 1812 and 1853. What had happened to her?[6]

[1] A report of the trial at Nenagh, Ireland, of Michael and John Connolly has not been located but see The Warder & Dublin Weekly, August 12 1848; see also http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/ir1835.html.

[2] Freeman's Journal (Dublin), 9 Aug. 1848. British Library Newspapers at https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=BNCN&u=61sltas&id=GALE|Y3204569414&v=2.1&it=r&sid=BNCN&asid=6e7b4e35; Gale Document Number: GALE|Y3204569414, accessed 14 Feb.2021.

[3] Smith, C. E. (1993). 'The Land-Tenure System in Ireland: A Fatal Regime' in Marquette Law Journal, Vol. 76, Issue 2, Article 6.

[4] As for Note 2, above.

[5] The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (NSW), 3 March 1849, p.4.

[6] www.femaleconvicts.org.au

Introduction

As sisters, Mary and Sarah would have shared experiences in their early years as part of a large family and possibly when they were transported together to Van Diemen's Land (VDL). However, once they reached foreign shores their lives took very different paths. A clue may be found in the ship records relating to their characters: Mary was recorded as being 'indifferent' although 'believed to be good' while Sarah was 'very well conducted'. In the colony, Mary committed a series of behavioural offences for which she spent some time in the House of Corrections, whereas Sarah had a completely clean record. Neither, it seems, had previous convictions but each had spent time 'on the town' in England, presumably, to earn an income. Given their one and only conviction in England involved the theft of food and clothing, was this a crime of necessity?

Convict Susan CORFIELD had been in Van Diemens Land (VDL) for only a little over seven years when she was brutally murdered at Hobart by a jealous lover. She had just received her certificate of freedom after having completed her term of servitude. She was twenty-eight years old and single.

Of course, Susan did not ask, or deserve, to be murdered. She was the victim of a monstrous attack by an enraged, vicious killer. It was he who was solely responsible for her death and he was executed for his crime. However, based on evidence presented at his trial, some would think that Susan's behavior in the years before her death had been imprudent, rash and duplicitous.
This is the tale of her short, pathetic life.

Many of the 13,500 (approx.) women who were transported as convicts to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) between 1812 and 1853 lived miserable lives in a society where females had few rights and were usually denied the means and opportunity to succeed and prosper. Some, unable to adjust to the circumstances of their new lives, continued in their criminal ways and were severely punished by having to spend long years in gaol. Others ruined their lives with alcohol or made bad choices in the company they kept and the men they married. The majority of those transported, however, soon came to realise that they had been given a chance to put behind them forever the evils that had brought about their convictions in the countries from which they had been banished. A few managed to establish and operate successful businesses. Most settled down, worked hard, became good wives and mothers and, in that way, made significant contributions to the development of a new and vibrant nation. One of those in the latter group was Mary Cotterell who, at the age of sixteen in 1845, had been convicted of theft from her employer in England and sentenced to transportation for seven years. In VDL, her behaviour was exemplary; she was never in trouble with the law again. By 1852, she had been granted a certificate of freedom and was a free woman again. She married twice and had nine children. However, while her life appears to have been a comfortable and contented one in the main, it was not untouched by sorrow. Her first husband was killed in a tragic farm accident. One of her daughters died at the age of five when her clothing caught fire in the home. A son died of an illness at the age of three. Her second husband passed away while in his mid-sixties. When Mary died at the age of sixty-six in 1895, she was a well-respected and highly regarded member of her local community. Her convict past had been long forgotten.

This is her story:

We are only able to get but a small glimpse into Hannah's life. There are far more questions than answers in her story. More shadow than light; more illusion than definition. What we can piece together of her life's journey resembles an unfinished and tattered jigsaw. Nonetheless, her place in society, albeit elusive and ill defined, deserves its mark on the map of history.

Reclaimed by her father at the age of five, we know little of Isobel's life until she became step-daughter to Cecilia Thornton in marriage to her father, William Cuthbert, in 1827. Isobel would gain a step-sister and step-brother from this union, and then lose them as both succumbed to the misery, disease and poverty of marginal life on the fringes of rural Scotland during the early 1830's, her father's trade and income fell into decline under the onslaught of mechanisation in the textile industries, the rise of machines was destined to eradicate the craft of hand-weaving which was William's occupation. Eventually Cecelia was to fold into the grave also, reducing family Cuthbert back to where it had started, approximately fourteen years before, just father and daughter.

Closing the curtain on any hope of a normal family life and ushering in the darkness, William Cuthbert now dropped his moral torch and instead lit a flame for his teen-aged daughter. There would come years of distress and abuse, a perpetual nightmare of manipulation and molestation from the mid eighteen-thirties until Isobel's arrest at the age of twenty-one in the dawn of the following decade.
Read more of the story of Isobel Cuthbert "Do not use me so"

D

Ann became embroiled in a Beverley body-snatching gang (she was considered by some to be the leader of this gang). "Bodies used to be unearthed and conveyed to the garden known as Rattle Garth at the south-eastern corner of Jack Taylor's Lane in Beckside, Beverley. A shed which stands just by Jack Taylor's Lane and another shed at the bottom of the garden where the sights were horrible, the cutting up of bodies by this gang. The gang also at times have said to have used (a) shed on Queensgate Road in (a) field till lately occupied by (Mr.) Whisker." One of the gang members was a notorious William Ware (known as "Edinburgh Bill") who, along with other gang members, was caught and arrested at Cottingham Churchyard. Ware tried to escape but fell into a heap of lime and was temporarily blinded.
Read the story of Ann Dawson.

Questions of destiny and the future may not have ever been considered by young Mary Dockerty, seemingl y her concerns were more immediate and centered around the daily here, and now of her existence. However, in 1832 when Mary stood in the dock of the Old Bailey her destiny was to change forever. With no family for support, seventeen-year-old Mary lived on the streets of London. She was one of many trying to survive in that ancient city awash with a teeming mass of souls all striving to stay alive amidst a changing landscape mostly etched with hopelessness. Information on Mary's earlier years has not been uncovered but she may have been living on the streets for some time. Where, and when she was born we will never know but anecdotal information passed down to her twice great granddaughter suggests she was Irish or at least her parents were born in Ireland.
Read the story of Mary Dockerty Destinies plan for Mary Dockerty,

Ellen PRATT nee DONOVAN (per Martin Luther 1852) alias 'Campbell Town Nell'
It is the truth of war that the history is written by the survivors. Convict histories are largely the same, written by their descendants. Those that managed to obtain their freedom marry and enjoy, if only in a small way, the security of work and family. Over time, with the status of wife and mother, they obtained a respectable place in society. For many others who never married or obtained a settled life, their history is told only from their struggles with the law.

This story is of Ellen, who partially succeeded. She did indeed marry and had a family of six children. For reasons unknown (although a liking of alcohol may have been the reason) Ellen was not able to grasp the opportunity marriage had given her.

Read the story on Ellen Donovan alias 'Campbell Town Nell'

A letter to Mary Donovan 1819 - 1891 by great great great great granddaughter, Erica.

'You were born in late 1819 in Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland. I've seen pictures of it on the internet. Lush green hills and fields. I read that it was a British Army barracks. One of the largest in all of Ireland at the time.

At age 20, for reasons unknown, you had travelled to London living "on the street" as they politely put it when you were arrested for larceny alongside Matilda Everdon. Was she your friend, Grandmother? Perhaps a roommate? Or just an acquaintance? I wonder what you were thinking when you pawned the stolen jacket of David May, upon Matilda's request. Did you have any idea that one small action would have changed the course of your life forever? While you were drinking with your ill-gotten funds, at the back of the pub on that Thursday in March 1841, did you ever imagine you would be sent across the sea to the other side of the world to serve out your 7 year sentence and never return?'
Read the story of Mary Donovan 1819 - 1891

ELIZA'S STORY: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ELIZA WEBB DORE 1829 -1875

Eliza was convicted of the crime of wilful murder in 1852, narrowly avoided the death sentence, and was transported for life to Tasmania, then known as Van Diemen‟s Land, arriving in April 1853.

She died on the 15 July 1875, aged 47, in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
This story tells how her life unfolded.

A LETTER TO MY GREAT GREAT GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER,
My dearest Margaret

This letter is written to you by my son, Samuel, who can read and write, whereas I never learned to do so. Samuel urged me to tell my story, so that future generations know from whence they came.

I was born in Galway, Ireland on 1 August 1811, and was a nursemaid/needlewoman. You would probably think me to be quite a brave young girl when I tell you what happened next. I went over to London to try to make a living, as life in Ireland had no future for me. I also had a child, and on 27 February 1833 I left my child with a friend, Bridget Key, and told her I was going to sell some fruit, but I never went back. I never saw my firstborn again. If I'd known what was about to happen, I would never have gone. On 28 February, I met up with Mary Lee, who was a stranger. I asked her for lodgings, and she said I could stop with her, which I did for four nights. The next day, a cold winter's day on 1 March 1833, Mary Lee met up with a journeyman silk-weaver, John Carlier. Mary asked him if he would give her anything to drink, so they went to a house on Bunhill Row and had some gin. Mary asked him to come to our house, which adjoined Chequer Alley. I was at home in bed when they arrived. Mary leaned over John Carlier and took something from his pockets, and before he realised what had happened, Mary had rushed downstairs talking in Irish. She'd taken a quarter of an ounce of pigtail tobacco, four sovereigns and some silver.
Read more of the story of Mary Dove 1811 - 1865

The story of convict Esther DOWLING is an intriguing one. When reading the story, it is not difficult to get the impression that she wanted to be a convict - and that she wanted to remain a convict forever!

The story of Maria Drake, one of the 13,500 (approx.) females who were transported to Van Diemen's Land (VDL) as convicts between 1812 and 1853, is an unhappy one. In November 1842, she was convicted of the theft of a watch and watch-stand from a house in London, England, and sentenced to transportation for seven years. She was twenty-three when she arrived in VDL aboard the vessel Margaret in 1843. Soon after her arrival, she was living in a de facto relationship with a former convict by the name of John Thompson ( Asia, 1, 1823) and, by 1854, had given birth to three children by him. During this time, she was never in trouble with the law. However, when Thompson was convicted of a felony in Hobart around 1855, and sent off to serve four years imprisonment in New South Wales, her life changed dramatically. In 1858, she was charged with the attempted murder, by poisoning, of a twelve-year-old boy and his mother. At her trial in the Supreme Court, Hobart, on 29 July 1858, she strongly protested her innocence. Although it was made clear to the jury that she had not acted with malice towards the boy and his mother, and that she had no motive whatsoever for wanting to harm them, she was found guilty as charged and sentenced to death. Later, the sentence was commuted to a term of imprisonment for life. It is believed that she was released around 1870 but what happened to her after that remains a mystery.

This is Maria's story:

The fascinating story of a resilient convict woman. Born at Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, around 1797, Elizabeth led a long, difficult - and, at times, sad - life but was in her late eighties when she passed away at Longford, Tasmania, in 1883.

Read the story on Elizabeth Duesnap.

On 3 May 1845, after Elizabeth Dyer had served only three years of her ten year sentence, she was granted a conditional pardon for the role she had played in rendering assistance to the Master of Royal Admiral and his officers when mutinous members of the crew had been preparing to take over the ship whilst at sea in 1842.

Read More about Elizabeth Dyer.

In October 1843, Ann Dyke was convicted in Staffordshire, England, of the theft of a few small items of clothing and sentenced to transportation for fifteen years. She arrived in Van Diemen's Land (VDL) aboard Angelina in August 1844. Like many of the 13,500 (approx.) females who were exiled to VDL between 1812 and 1853, she was young, single, uneducated, and from a poor family.

After a brief period of probation, she was hired out to free settlers as a servant and, although she was charged again with a number of relatively minor misdemeanours, she was of little trouble to the authorities for the first eight or nine years of her penal servitude. During that time, she had formed a relationship with William Johnson, a former convict, had given birth to two of his children and had been granted a ticket of leave.

In 1855, however, her life changed dramatically.

In May of that year, she and Johnson were arrested on suspicion of their involvement in the murder of elderly Thomas Axford, a well-respected resident of the district in which they were living. Fortunately for the couple, the murder charge was dropped when, shortly after the killing, a man who had been staying with them at the time of the murder, confessed to the crime. He told the police that he had acted alone. That man was John 'Rocky' Whelan, a notorious bushranger and one of the most infamous criminals in Australia's colonial history. He is known to have committed at least five cold-blooded murders. He was hanged for his crimes at the Hobart Gaol in June 1855.

Although the details are unclear, it is believed that Ann spent a short time in gaol at Oatlands, accused of being an accessory to the murder but eventually that charge was dropped also. After her release, she gave birth to two more children by Johnson but little more is known of her. In 1864, she surrendered all four of the children to the Queen's Orphan School at Hobart and, with Johnson, faded into the pages of history. The last mention of the pair appears to have been in the Tasmanian Police Gazette in 1866 when an appeal was made for information as to their whereabouts. Where did they get to? Were they ever found?

This is Ann's story:

E

Introduction
Was Elizabeth really only 15 when she faced court for the fourth time in Scotland in 1834? Or was she 20 on arrival in Van Diemen's Land (VDL) in 1835 as her transportation records stated?

It is likely that the court records are more accurate as many men and women transported to the Australian colonies frequently altered their ages and marital status to suit their circumstances - mostly to improve their prospects of marriage or employment. Record keeping was poor and not compulsory in many jurisdictions in the United Kingdom in the eighteenth century and many records were lost or destroyed over time making it difficult to verify personal details.

In any event, Elizabeth was no stranger to petty crime as she already had three prior convictions for stealing clothes for which she had served two terms of imprisonment of thirty and sixty days.

After a further conviction for theft, and recorded at trial as only 15, Elizabeth found herself on a ship with 133 other female convicts bound for a developing, and often brutal, colony half a world away. Did she have any idea what this new life would hold for her? Was she looking to escape a life of misery and poverty in Scotland?

Further stories:

Edges of Empire Biographical Dictionary:

Edges of Empire is a Biographical Dictionary offering accounts of nearly 200 female convicts who were tried or born outside the British Isles. All were transported to the Australian colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land between 1788 and 1853. Their life stories have been tracked from numerous sources around the world, sometimes in detail and sometimes with the merest trace of their existence.

Our Genealogy page also contains some interesting female convict stories researched and written by our genealogists, transcribers and researchers.

The Founders and Survivors project newsletters also contain interesting stories on convicts.
(Scroll down toNewsletter subscription and Previous issues on the left hand side of the page.)

Recently Viewed

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COPLEY, Mary and Sarah per Hector 1835. By Helen Menard.

MARKHAM, Essy (John William Dare, 1852) by Don Bradmore.

PREECE, Jane (Anna Maria 1852) by Don Bradmore.

MILLER, Janet (Emma Eugenia, 1851) by Helen Menard.

KENNY, Bridget (Duke of Cornwall, 1850). By Don Bradmore.

HARFORD, Mary per Royal Admiral 1842. By Don Bradmore.

HARRINGTON, Martha (Royal Admiral 1842). By Helen Ménard.

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These stories have been submitted by members of the Female Convicts Research Centre, researchers and descendants of female convicts. We hope the selected stories help to put the women's lives in perspective and give the readers some understanding of the factors that might have affected their circumstances and the decisions they made.

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When instructed work on the BLUE tab only. Go to the links in the BLUE tab.

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Collaborative LA  Captain Cook's Mission

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Collaborative LA  Captain Cook's Mission

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In Search for the Great South Land: GO TO

https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/cook-claims-australia

Read, understand and answer three questions

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As it travelled north along Australia's coast, the Endeavour got stuck on coral on the Great Barrier Reef. Cook and his crew were trapped on board the ship. They had to throw six cannons, thousands of gallons of water and many other supplies overboard to lighten the ship.

After 24 hours, the crew freed the Endeavour from the reef. They sailed into the (newly named) Endeavour River, where they were protected from strong winds. Here they began emptying the ship and repairing the damage to the hull. It took two months for the crew to repair the ship, regain their health and stock up on valuable food supplies.

At Endeavour River the botanist Joseph Banks had more time to collect Australian plants and animals, including a kangaroo. Also, the ship's crew made good relations with the Guugu Yimithirr people, although Cook did cause offence when he refused to share any of the turtles his men had captured with his local hosts.

In August of 1770 Cook set sail again. The Endeavour spent 18 dangerous and windy days and nights continuing north through the Great Barrier Reef.

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Cook claims Australia | Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom | National Museum of Australia

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In 1770 Lieutenant James Cook, captain of the ship the HMB Endeavour, climbed to the highest point of Possession Island and claimed the east coast of the Australian continent for Britain, naming it New South Wales.

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The Experience of Convicts
Students learn about the causes and effects of European imperial expansion and the movement of convicts to Australia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries AC9HH9K01

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 Collaborative- Exile or an Opportunity?

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 Collaborative- Exile or an Opportunity?

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GO to:   https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/first-fleet-arrives-sydney-cove

Read, understand and answer three questions

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware this website contains images, voices and names of people who have died.

Exile or opportunity?

1788: Captain Arthur Phillip establishes a convict settlement at Sydney Cove

1788: Captain Arthur Phillip establishes a convict settlement at Sydney Cove

State Library of New South Wales FL3268277

Use the following additional activities and discussion questions to encourage students (in small groups or as a whole class) to think more deeply about this defining moment.

Questions for discussion

1. What, if any, have been the long-term effects of convict transportation on Australian society?

2. Do you agree with the National Museum of Australia that the arrival of the First Fleet is a defining moment in Australian history? Explain your answer.

Image activities

1. Look carefully at all the images for this defining moment. Tell this story in pictures by placing them in whatever order you think works best. Write a short caption under each image.

2. Which 3 images do you think are the most important for telling this story? Why?

3. If you could pick only one image to represent this story, which one would you choose? Why?

Finding out more

1. What else would you like to know about this defining moment? Write a list of questions and then share these with your classmates. As a group, create a final list of 3 questions and conduct some research to find the answers.

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National Library of Australia, MAP NK 276

In a snapshot

The arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in January of 1788 marked the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia. The fleet was made up of 11 ships carrying convicts from Britain to Australia. Their arrival changed forever the lives of the Eora people, the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land in the Sydney area, and began waves of convict transportation that lasted until 1868.

Can you find out?

1. Who were Australia's first convicts? Why were they transported to Australia?

2. How did Governor Arthur Phillip manage the colony of New South Wales?

3. What were the main ways Aboriginal people were affected by the arrival of Phillip and the First Fleet?

Why was a convict colony set up in Australia?

Britain used transportation to distant lands as a way of getting rid of prisoners. After Britain lost its American colonies in 1783 the jails of England were full. The British decided to begin transporting prisoners to Australia, which had recently been claimed for the British Crown by Lieutenant James Cook.

Prisoners (also known as convicts) were transported for many reasons but mainly for crimes that we might consider to be minor today, such as stealing. Convicts who were transported were usually poor, often from the large industrial cities and were mostly from England (with a large minority from Ireland and Scotland).

The First Fleet of 11 ships, commanded by Captain Arthur Phillip, set up a convict settlement at Sydney Cove (now Circular Quay) on 26 January 1788. This was the beginning of convict settlement in Australia.

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National Museum of Australia

Who was Australia's first governor?

Captain Arthur Phillip was an experienced naval officer who became first governor of the colony of New South Wales. He faced many challenges in the early years of settlement. He was prepared to punish people who broke the rules, but also rewarded convicts and free settlers who behaved well.

Almost straight away, the new colony faced starvation. The first crops failed because of the lack of skilled farmers, spoilt seed brought from England, poor local soils, an unfamiliar climate and bad tools. Phillip insisted that food be shared between convicts and free settlers. The British Officers didn't like this, nor the fact that Phillip gave land to trustworthy convicts. But both actions meant that the colony survived, and they began an attitude of fairness that is still prized in Australia today.

Research task
Research the sorts of people who travelled on the 11 ships that made up the First Fleet. How many convicts (male and female), free settlers, crew, marines, officials and children were on board?

What effect did the First Fleet have on Australia's first peoples?

The arrival of the First Fleet immediately affected the Eora nation, the traditional Aboriginal owners of the Sydney area. Violence between settlers and the Eora people started as soon as the colony was set up. The Eora people, particularly the warrior Pemulwuy, fought the colonisers. This conflict was mainly over land and food.

Phillip was speared during a meeting with Eora at Manly in 1790, but he recovered and continued as the colony's first governor for two more years. He returned to England in 1792 with two Indigenous men: Bennelong, who later returned to Australia, and Yemmerrawannie, who died in England.

Thousands of Eora people died as a result of European diseases like smallpox.

What were the long-term effects of the First Fleet?

The First Fleet was the beginning of convict transportation to Australia and was followed by many other fleets of convict ships. When this ended in 1868, over 150,000 convicts had been transported to New South Wales and other Australian colonies. Most convicts stayed in Australia after serving their sentences, and some became well-known, important people within the Australian colonies.

Convict settlement continued to have devastating effects on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the decades after 1788. Thousands died in conflicts with settlers and from diseases, and many more suffered from the loss of cultural traditions and languages.

Read a longer version of this Defining Moment on the National Museum of Australia's website.

What did you learn?

1. Who were Australia's first convicts? Why were they transported to Australia?

2. How did Governor Arthur Phillip manage the colony of New South Wales?

3. What were the main ways Aboriginal people were affected by the arrival of Phillip and the First Fleet?

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The First Fleet arrives at Sydney Cove | Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom | National Museum of Australia

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The arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in January of 1788 marked the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia. The fleet was made up of 11 ships carrying convicts from Britain to Australia.

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1. Who was Thomas Alsop and what happened to him? Why do you think the presenters chose to tell his story?

2. What evidence do the presenters use to tell the story of convictism in Australia?

3. Do you agree that the convicts were a 'diverse and complex cohort' (group)?
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4. Investigate the life and contributions of a convict to the Australian colonial society
Background
Origin
Crime
Conviction
Life in Australia
Contributions
Legacy?

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The Experience of Convicts- Reading and responding

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The Experience of Convicts- Reading and responding

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Read understand and complete the learning activities 1 to 8

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National Library of Australia:https://www.nla.gov.au/research-guides/convicts/convict-hulks

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The London convict maid, a cautionary tale of life in the colony, circa 1830, nla.obj-1117449

Female convicts were predominantly young, single women who had been domestic servants and/or who had come from a semi-skilled background - such as an apprenticeship. The majority of female convicts were first time offenders sentenced to transportation for minor theft (Oxley, Deborah, Convict maids 1996 , pp. 42-48).

Online

Ancestry - Tasmania, Australia, Baptisms of Children of Convicted Women, 1833-1854
Tasmania
This collection includes baptism records for children born in female factories. Information on these records is limited, however the name of the ship the mother of the baptised child travelled to Australia on is usually listed.

You can access Ancestry in the Library by visiting our eResources portal and searching for this resource under the Browse eResources tab.

The Central Register of Female Prisoners
Victoria
The Public Records Office of Victoria has a register for female prisoners which is searchable by surname. Enter 516/P1 into the VPRS search box to search this collection: VPRS 516/P1 Central Register of Female Prisoners (search for your prisoner surname within series 516).

Microfilmed and other material

Index Female Factory Parramatta 1826 to 1848. [microform]
New South Wales
The Index to the Female Factory records of Parramatta can be viewed on microfiche in the Library. You can use the index to locate records held by the State Archives and Records NSW. If you can't visit the Library you can request a lookup using our Ask a Librarian service.

Manuscripts

Some of the Library's unique manuscript collections contain valuable information about female convicts

1. Compilation of the results of research into the lives of the 127 female convicts who were transported to New South Wales on board the ship "Minstrel" in 1812

2. Compilation of the results of research into the experiences of the convicts transported to New South Wales on board the ship "Fortune" in 1813

3. Typescript titled Criminals or political deportees: the experiences of the convicts transported on the "Fortune", 1813, (258 leaves), 1993.

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The London convict maid, a cautionary tale of life in the colony, circa 1830, nla.obj-1117449 Female convicts were predominantly young, single women who had been domestic servants and/or who had come from a semi-skilled background - such as an apprenticeship.

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https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/videos/australian-journey-episode-06-captivity-narratives

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Australian Journey Episode 06: Captivity Narratives

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We'd love to know what you think of this site - please give your feedback in this short survey

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https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/videos/australian-journey-episode-06-captivity-narratives-interview

1. What aspect of the convict story does Dr Rae Frances talk about with the presenter?

2. What was the experience of female convicts? What evidence does Dr Frances use to illustrate this experience?

3. What makes the story of Mary Reibey particularly interesting?
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1. What aspect of the convict story does Dr Rae Frances talk about with the presenter?

2. What was the experience of female convicts? What evidence does Dr Frances use to illustrate this experience?

3. What makes the story of Mary Reibey particularly interesting?

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Australian Journey Episode 06: Captivity Narratives interview

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1. What aspect of the convict story does Dr Rae Frances talk about with the presenter? 2. What was the experience of female convicts? What evidence does Dr Frances use to illustrate this experience? 3. What makes the story of Mary Reibey particularly interesting?

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Australian Colonies and economical growth  1788 to 1900

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Australian Colonies and economical growth  1788 to 1900