Happy Tuesday everyone! Another week, another family history post! In case you missed it, August is National Family History Month here in Australia, and because I enjoyed filling a whole month with genealogy posts last year, I'm back at it again this year with some more family history goodies! Today, I'm diving into my own family tree and pulling out the skeletons in the closet. Because yes, I am one of those Aussies with convict ancestry, and it honestly explains SO much about my family! Not only am I going to delve into the story of Second and Third Fleet arrivals Thomas Gosper and Mary Hipwell, but I want to give a little context as to why on earth England decided to ship their criminals off in the first place. Firstly, I must apologise for the recycled content. I had a whole list of posts and video topics I wanted to do this month, and I was SO excited to share this convict story. Turns out, I already shared it this time last year as part of my 'Coming To Australia' post! Whoops! Now, I was totally prepared to scrap it and find something else to share, but there were no other stories jumping out at me, or ones that are ready to be told just yet. And well, the days were quickly disappearing and I thought, why not just share it again and delve into some of the context surrounding convicts and transportation! So if you did read my post last year, sorry for the repeat, but enjoy this story nonetheless! convicts, transportation & a new colony Okay, let's start with a little history lesson to understand why England was so desperate to ship it's criminals across the seas, and why Australia was chosen as the location for a new colony all those years ago. [note: some of the following has been copied straight from an essay I wrote for university in 2019]. With the loss of the American colonies during the War of Independence of the 1770s and 1780s, Britain lost its ability to transport convicts (fellow Hamilton fans, where you at??). It is estimated that upwards of 50,000 convict men had been transported to the Americas in the sixty years prior to the War of Independence. Suddenly, that option was unavailable, and between 1782 and 1787, the prison population of Britain had doubled, leading to mass overcrowding and the threat of the spread of disease[1]. The government was in dire need of a solution to the ever-growing prisoner problem and so sought to find locations to transport convicts. Several options, from resuming transportation to Maryland, or commencing transportation to its other colonies like Jamaica and Nova Scotia; to creating a settlement on the Falklands, River Gambia or the Das Voltas Coast, were turned down[2]. Existing colonies did not want to take convicts, while the new settlement locations were deemed inhospitable. After several years of receiving proposals for transportation from Joseph Banks, James Matra, John Call and Sir George Young, who all spoke favourably of Botany Bay, the convict problem finally had a solution – creating a penal settlement on the eastern coast of Australia where Captain James Cook had sailed fifteen years prior. The rationale for the choice of Botany Bay is outlined in the 'Heads of a Plan' document, which was sent from Lord Sydney to the Treasury, Over fifteen paragraphs, the document explains why Botany Bay had been chosen and the plans for convict settlement, from how many convicts and marines would be taken on the journey, to the types of tools and provisions that would be required. These points indicated just how self-sufficient the new settlement would need to be, with the ships to take as many “provisions as they can possibly stow, or at least a sufficient quantity for two years’ consumption... it is presumed, the colony...will be fully sufficient for their maintenance and support.”[3] Unfortunately, due to no one having seen Botany Bay in fifteen years, they had no idea just how harsh the conditions would be for those arriving on the First Fleet, resulting in limited rations are near starvation by the time the Second and Third Fleets arrived in 1789 and 1791, respectively. Not to mention, thanks to Cook's passing remarks, no one knew that the Indigenous population was much larger than expected... The Heads of a Plan also alludes to ulterior motives when it comes to the choice of Australia as a new colony. The final three paragraphs refer to flax, tropical products and New Zealand timber, with reference to the “considerable advantage [that] will arise from the cultivation of the New Zealand hemp or flax-plant”[4] in regards to naval supply. It also mentions the hopes that “Asiatic productions [could be] cultivated in the new settlement”, as well as the “possibility of procuring from New Zealand any quantity of masts and ship timber,”[5] again for the benefit of the navy. It is these three short paragraphs that have suggested to some historians that the British Government was establishing more than just a criminal outpost, and that convict transportation was just a front to the expansion of their empire. For England, Australia became its most important convict outpost, with an estimated 162,000 convicts being transported between 1788 and 1868, three times the amount that were sent to the Americas. descended from convicts Now that we've established a little context as to why criminals needed to be transported halfway round the world, let's dive into my criminals. We start with Thomas Roker Alexander Gosper, my 5th Great Grandfather, born 10 May 1768 in Surrey, England to parents Thomas Roker Gosper and Jane Worton. The family lived in Rotherhithe in south-east London, an area known in the eighteenth century to house the city's poorer citizens. The wealth and status of the family are further cemented by the fact that neither Thomas nor his parents could read or write. Situated on the River Thames, Rotherhithe was part of London's docklands. Thomas worked on the docks as a "Lighterman", putting him in the perfect position for the crime which he was to commit. On 23 November 1786, Thomas, along with Thomas Gaskin and William Stuart, were caught damaging the property of Edward Thomas and James Ogle. Appearing in the Surrey Assize's on 2 April 1787, they were officially charged with "feloniously cutting, damaging, and spoiling at Rotherhithe a headfast affixed to a certain vessel, called a lighter." In layman's terms, they cut the three pieces of rope, to the value of twenty shillings, that were attached to a boat. Seems like a pretty small crime, but it was a very common practice. Someone would cut the rope of a moored boat at night, waiting for it to drift downstream to be looted. But essentially, Thomas was sentenced to seven years transportation to the colonies, for cutting a few pieces of rope. Thomas embarked on the ship Surprize as part of the Second Fleet on 19 January 1790. The Second Fleet consisted of six ships - Lady Julianne, Guardian, Surprize, Neptune, Scarborough, and storeship Justinian - with Surprize being the smallest of the fleet. The Second Fleet suffered badly on their 158-306 day journey from Portsmouth to Port Jackson, with the Guardian hitting ice near the Cape of Good Hope and becoming wrecked on the coast. The voyage saw the highest mortality rate in the history of transportation to New South Wales. On the Surprize alone, 254 men boarded in England, but only 218 disembarked in Sydney. The rough seas saw the ship constantly taking on water, sometimes above the convict's waists, throughout the 158 day journey. The journey alone would have been punishment enough, but Thomas still had seven years of convict service to contend with once he stepped foot on land on 26 June 1790. Before we get any further with Thomas' life in the colony, let's backtrack a little and turn our focus onto Mary Ann Hipwell, who was born in 1765. Not too much is known about Mary prior to 1790, when she first appeared in The London Times for committing the crime that would see her shipped off to the colonies. Mary lived in Hanover Square, working as a servant for Mrs Elizabeth Tyndale. At the beginning of August 1790, Elizabeth left her house in the care of Mary, telling her not to abandon her post or admit any men. On the 14th, Elizabeth received word that her house had been robbed two nights prior while Mary had gone to Sadler's Wells with a Benjamin Colburn. Elizabeth returned home to find upwards of £200 of property missing, in the form of apparel, plates and jewellery, with the cost to replace being much higher. An officer searched Mary's box, producing a pair of white gloves and a pillow case, which Elizabeth claimed were both hers. Between the many contradictions and Colburn's general character, both Mary and Benjamin were committed for trial, which took place in October. Mary was found guilty of stealing goods to the value of one shilling, while Benjamin was not guilty, his part merely being keeping Mary company. Mary was sentenced to seven years transportation to the colonies, for a crime that she may or may not have actually committed. And although Benjamin was found not guilty, he did eventually find himself bound for the colonies too. Mary, fittingly, embarked on the ship Mary Ann as part of the Third Fleet on 16 February 1791. The Third Fleet consisted of eleven ships - Mary Ann, HMS Gordon, Matilda, Atlantic, Salamander, William and Ann, Active, Queen, Albermarle, Britannia and Admiral Barrington. The Mary Ann was one the only ship to transport solely female convicts, although a small number of females were also on board Queen. Surprisingly, six female convicts mysteriously wound up on Albermarle, despite none embarking when the ship left England. Compared to the voyage of the Second Fleet, the Third Fleet traveled a lot better, with only 9 dying on board the Mary Ann, and 182 deaths total, compared to the 273 total deaths of the Second Fleet. The journey was hardly an improvement however, with conditions said to cramped and unhygienic, with convicts surviving on little more than starvation rations. After 143 days at sea, Mary arrived at Port Jackson on 9 July 1791, ready to start her seven year sentence. Thomas first appears in colonial records in November 1794 when he was granted 30 acres of land on the western bank of the Hawkesbury River, opposite what is now Windsor. From his very poor and uneducated upbringing in Rotherithe where he worked on the docks, Thomas had become a relatively skilled farmer, eventually becoming a respected member of the community. During this time, Mary become involved with fellow Third Fleet convict Richard Reynolds, who arrived on the Atlantic on 20 August 1791. They had a child, Edward, in 1794, and eventually moved to the Hawkesbury. By 1798, Mary had moved on from Richard, bringing Edward with her as she moved in with Thomas in Freeman's Reach. Together, Thomas and Mary had four children - Thomas Jnr in 1798, John in 1801, Joseph in 1804, and James in 1805. I am descended from their second child, John, who married Hannah Beale Reynolds in 1822 and had 13 children. And yes, in case you were wondering, Hannah is Richard Reynolds daughter from his marriage to Sarah Elizabeth Sterling, another convict who arrived in 1798. Thomas' Hawkesbury land was heavily timbered, and by 1801 he had cleared all but five acres, most of it plowed for wheat and maize. He had also acquired a goat and eight pigs, managing to support himself, his family and a female servant with just the government rations. Clearly, Thomas was doing well for himself and was in good standing within the colony, because he was granted a further 100 acres in the District of Mulgrave in August 1803. He was reported by one government official as being deserving of the additional land because he was 'industrious'. By all accounts, despite his reasons for being in New South Wales in the first place, Thomas was an upstanding member of the community who had carried out his sentence without much trouble. During this time, Thomas and Mary had been living together and raising their family but were not wed. In January 1810, Governor Lachlan Macquarie had taken over administration of the colony, bringing with him a change for colonial society - emancipates were now encouraged to take their rightful place in the mainstream of society, and mistresses were encouraged to become wives. With this, Thomas and Mary were married at St Matthew's Church of England in Windsor on 19 November 1810, seven weeks after Thomas' Certificate of Freedom was granted on 29 September 1810. It would seem that Thomas wanted to marry as a free man. The Gosper family went onto become a pretty respectable family within the Hawkesbury, Freeman's Reach and Upper Colo area, continuing to not only farm a mix of crop and livestock, but also able to lease chunks of land out. Records do indicate that Thomas did go through a rough patch, having to get at least two loans from the Bank of New South Wales. Mary passed away at the age of 72 at Upper Colo on 23 August 1837, forty-six years after arriving in the colony. It seems the death of his wife had Thomas looking at his own mortality, as he wrote his Last Will and Testament on 20 September 1837, bequething portions of land to all his sons, to be handed down the male line of the family. Thomas passed away at the age of 79, also at Upper Colo, on 21 September 1847, fifty-seven years after his frightful voyage to the colony. Both Mary and Thomas were buried in the Colo Valley, but the exact location is no unknown, and the only record of their deaths comes from the family bible, held by Joseph. As of 1998, according to the book Gosper Connections: A Genealogy of Thomas Roker Alexander Gosper and Mary Ann Hipwell, there were at least 24,700 descendants of Thomas and Mary, which broke down into 12,656 males and 12,044 females - and I'm one of them, well, I don't think I was included in this number, but still! It's one thing to have the vague notion that there are a LOT of distant relatives out there, but it's a whole other thing to have a ballpark number, that had only increased in the past 22 years! There's still so much more to discover about all my convict ancestors - there's SO many more on this branch of my family, and probably just as many more that I'm yet to uncover. As we all know, our family tree research is never really complete, so I'm excited for what else I'm yet to discover. I'd love to know - if you had convict ancestors, what was the crime that got them transported? And when did they arrive in the colony? See you back here next week with another post! Victoria :) POSTS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:
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