NIAGARA 2008 – BENJAMIN POMROY

Old-poets in Oceania, by popularity

http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/area/Oceania/3?order=popularity

MELINDA spent her entire life in Australia. What formed this woman as poet and woman ? As mother of a poet ? What factors impinged upon her formation?

This is not a woman from a privileged or educated background. It is the daughter of a convicted army deserter. A girl employed as servant to a Protestant Reverend. A girl taken by her Irish Catholic father to be baptised Roman Catholic whilst still in service  according to the censuses taken at the time.

This is not a woman with experience of any land other than the colony of NSW. She lived on its fringes in the wilds and the remote places. South in the Illawarra and North on the Clarence. Her marriage to a man from a seemingly more reputable family of missionaries and landowners ended with his early death following a two year sentence to hard labour for a criminal act.

In 1868- once again in Sydney which weaves a thread throughout her life – she is found to be intestate and living in quarters in Woolloomoolloo

The poems re-located to date are published on the Illawarra in 1884. What do they tell us about her ? And what does her life tell us about the poems?

THE MOTHER ALWAYS PRECEDES THE SON.

___________________________________________

ARE THERE ANY OTHER WOMEN POETS OF AUSTRALIA BORN IN COLONY AND SPANNING THE 19th CENTURY ?

Huxley, Henrietta Anne   Oceania. Born: 1825, Died: 1914, 2 poems.

Wife of Thomas Henry Huxley

THIS IS THE NEAREST I HAVE YET FOUND

WOMEN WRITERS – SOME LINKS

WOMEN WRITERS : RANDOM LINKS.

GODEY’S LADY’S BOOK.

http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/godey/contents.html 

AN AMERICAN JOURNAL CONTAINING HUGE BASE OF ILLUSTRATIONS . ABOVE ARE HEAD DRESSES OF THE 1850S.

“In 1830, a “magazine of elegant literature was cast, doubtingly, upon the uncertain stream of public favor–its name the Lady’s Book and Louis A. Godey the publisher. It was a novel enterprise at the time, and few thought it would outlive the first year of its nativity. It soon became apparent, however, that its management was in the hands of one who knew the want of the time, and had the tact and taste required for its supply

____________________

Portraits of Women Writers, 1775-1820

http://locutus.ucr.edu/~cathy/wwport.html

______________________

British Women’s Novels: A Reading List, 1775-1818

http://locutus.ucr.edu/~cathy/womw.html

MELINDA KENDALL : HER LIFE AND WRITINGS

MUDIE ON CONVICT AND THEIR LADIES

MUDIE WAS DILIGENT IN PURSUING A MAN BY THE NAME OF WATTS. HERE IS AN EXTRACT OF THE ISSUES WHICH INCENSED SAID MUDIE. THESE COVER THE PERIOD OF TIME IN WHICH MELINDA MARRIES BASIL.

The date of Mr. Cavanagh’s first application to’Mr.
Hely, relative to Watt, was 7th January, 1835; and, a
document published in the Sydney Monitor of September
12, 1836, certifies, in the usual wav, that Jemima Chapman
was delivered of a female child in the factory, on
the 17th of April, 1834, and that the said child was the
offspring of her (the said Jemima Chapman, a convict),
and of William Watt, also a convict.
This certificate is of the birth of the first of the children
born by Chapman to Watt ; and Mr. Cavanagh, in
his charges, and also in his affidavit, declares that Watt
and Chapman were actually cohabiting together at the
time that his (Mr. Cavanagh’s) charges were preferred, and
that they had been so cohabiting together for years, and
had issue !
These dates are very important; for, about six months
afterwards, when the author of this work, then a justice
of the peace, at length succeeded in bringing Watt before
a bench of magistrates, justice was again defeated, —
and one of the pretexts for defeating justice was, that the
alleged offence of the cohabitation had taken place so
long ago, that it was not fit that it should now be entertained !
The circumstances attending the second ineffectual
attempt to bring Watt to justice are still more extraordinary
than those which have just been narrated.

PATRICK WAS ASSIGNED TO HIS WIFE JUDITH MCNALLY. ONCE AGAIN MUDIE HAD STRONG OPINIONS ABOUT THESE MATTERS AND THE POWER AS MAGISTRATE TO ACT UPON SOME OF THEM.

Indeed, the more knowing ones, — that is, the very
worst characters amongst the convicts, — seldom undergo
any real punishment at all.
Whether thieves, burglars, receivers, forgers, swindlers,
or mail coach robbers, if they are ” well up to the
trick,” they bring out with them letters to some of the ”
old hands” in the colony, so as to ensure their being
applied fort as assigned servants by persons of the right
sort.
If they have secured a portion of the plunder they
had acquired in England, they easily make themselves
comfortable ; for in that case they enter into copartnery,
under the rose, with some one or other of the
emancipated felonry, who, being enabled by the funds of
their convict partners to take houses or enter into business,
apply to have their partners assigned to them as
servants, and the gentlemen convicts fall upon a bed
of roses at once !
If a wife has been left in England with the charge of
the spoil, she follows her husband in the first ship ; —
on her arrival she takes a house, and then petitions the
Governor to have her husband, — the father of her children,-—
assigned to her as her servant, — in which petition

her husband of course joins. If she has no children of
her own, three or four brats are easily borrowed in Sydney
for the purpose of stage effect ; and off she sets for
government-house, where the sight of the affliccted
lady and her little ones of course has a wonderful influence
over the sympathetic Governor Bourkc.
In short, having brought with her a supply of the “
saag,” as the convicts call their ill -gotten cash, a wife
seldom fails of having her husband assigned to her, in
which case the transported felon finds himself his own
master, in possession of all the present wealth his past
nefarious courses may have procured for him, — and on
the road to future fortune.
For the very worst characters who are transported,
therefore, it appears that New South Wales is not any
punishment at all, or at least that it is easy for them,
owing to the careless laxity and childish leniency of the
colonial authorities, to evade the punishment which their
crimes have merited.

 

it
appears from the census, taken in September, 1833, published in
the next Government Gazette after the 1st December, 1833, that
it was then estimated that there were in this colony, free males
above twelve years of age, 18,878; convict males, 21,445, and
that he had been informed that the number of free emigrants since
arrived, up to November, 1835, has been 2800, of whom 905 are
men, the rest being women and children ; and that the number of
convicts airived since the same time, has been 8163, of whom

7357 are males.

MUDIE ON HIS DISMISSAL AS A MAGISTRATE

The author treats his dismissal from the magistracy by
Governor Bourke, or any other attempt at putting an
affront or indignity upon him, by such a. government as that
of New South Wales now is, with as much contempt and
scorn as he treated the accusations of his convict servants,
to which the colonial government listened, or were disposed
to listen, with so much eagerness.
He does not exaggerate, when he declares that he considers
the good or bad opinion of the convicts themselves,
or the good or bad opinion of their convict-loving governors,
as being precisely of the same value, or rather as
being equally insignificant and worthless.
Nay, considering who the gentlemen are, along with
whom the author was dismissed from the magistracy, he
looks upon his dismissal as a positive honour conferred
upon him, instead of an indignity.

BRINGING IN JOHN MCGARVIE AND THOMAS BARKER

Of these operations General Darling says, (referring
to a time at which, while governor of the colony, he had
done the author the distinguished honour of visiting him
at his residence on the Hunter) ” My stay at Castle Forbes
was so short that I had not an opportunity of going over
your grounds : but, judging from the farm-yard, there
could be no doubt that they were well cultivated, and
I remember remarking that the stacks of wheat were very
numerous, and on a larger scale than I recollected to
have seen on any former occasion.”
The Rev. John M’Garvie, minister of St. Andrew’s
Church, Sydney, says, “The estate of Castle Forbes
presents one of the most extensive and best conducted
agricultural establishments in New South Wales ; and,
as you were the first settler in that vicinity calculated to
get an example of spirited enterprise to your less opulent
neighbours, I feel confident that the extent and judicious
management of that estate have tended, in a most material
degree, to give that pleasing, comfortable, and
British-like aspect to the whole district, for which it is
remarkable.”
Thomas Barker, Esq., a mag-istrate, and the most ex-

tensive purchaser of grain in the colony, says, ” I have
had opportunities of informing myself of the numerous
difficulties a settler contends with, in bringing a tract of
country into cultivation ; and having visited your late
estate of Castle Forbes,” ” my opinion of your agricultural
exertions is formed from seeing the state of your
farm in 1834, with the barn yard full of the largest wheat
stacks I ever witnessed ; doubtless your exertions must
have been : very great, and you must have expended a
considerable sum of money in improvements, for amongst
the settlers in that respectable district, I do not know
any who cultivated so extensively, and sent so much
wheat to the Sydney market.”

 

A LETTER REGARDING JAMES MUDIE FROM JOHN MCGARVIE WHO MARRIED MELINDA AND BASIL ON AUG 1 1835

From the Rev. John M’Garvie, Minister of St. Andrew’s
Scots Church, Sydney. .
Sydney, 30th March, 1836.
Dear Sir,
I have this moment received your letter, in
which you request me to state, whether I ” have heard or
known any thing to affect your character, as a private Gentleman,
or as a Magistrate ;” and also, what I ” know respecting
the extent of your agricultural exertions, and your mode
of treatment of the convicts in your employment.”
It gives me much pleasure to state, that,
during a personal acquaintance of more than seven years, I
have neither known nor heard any circumstance that could
affect your character, as a private Gentleman or as a respected
member of society. I have had occasion to sojourn in your
house at Castle Forbes ; I have repeatedly exercised the

duties of my sacred calling, in the family of your nearest
relatives, where you resided, and I have often met you in
private life ; and I have not the slightest hesitation in adding
to that of your numerous friends, my humhle tribute of
testimony to the correctness of your deportment and excellence
of your character.
The estate of Castle Forbes presents one of
the most extensive and best conducted agricultural establishments
in New South Wales; and as you were the first settler
in that vicinity calculated to set an example of spirited enterprise
to your less opulent neighbours, 1 feel confident that
the extent £nd judicious management of that estate have
tended, in a most material degree, to give that pleasing, comfortable,
and British-like aspect, to the whole district, for
which it is remarkable.
It also comes within my own knowledge,
that you have given encouragement to the performance of
divine service, in your own house, when opportunity offered ;
that you have proposed to set apart a portion of ground on
your own estate, for the erection of a church ; and in every
instance in which ministers of our communion (and of these
I speak with perfect certainty) have expressed a desire to
exercise their sacred functions, at Patrick’s Plains, or Castle
Forbes, you have forwarded their views, and opened your
hospitable mansion for their reception. When I attended at
Castle Forbes, I was particularly gratified by the appearance
of comfort, regularity, and respect, presented by the convict
portion of the audience.
As I have not been present on any occasion
when you have exercised the office of Magistrate, I do not
feel so competent to give an opinion, as other friends perfectly
acquainted with the subject. But your firmness, discrimination,
urbanity, and strict love of justice and truth, in
private life, enable me to judge that upright and honourable

feelings only have actuated your conduct, in dispensing justice
and law, impartially, to Bond and Free.
On the eve of your departure, I cannot
close this letter without an assurance of the happiness it will
give to your numerous friends, to hear of your safe arrival
in England and speedy return to Australia. For your future
happiness, I can only add my most fervent wishes.
I am,
Yours truly (
Signed) JOHN M’GARVIE.

 

AND FROM THOMAS BARKER EMPLOYER OF THE KENDALL BROTHERS AND PATRICK MCNALLY

From Thomas Barker, Esq., a Magistrate for the Territory,
and the most extensive Purchaser of Grain in the Colony.
Sydney, 2dth March, 1836.
My Dear Sir

 

have had opportunities of informing myself of the numerous
difficulties a settler contends with, in bringing a tract of
country into a state of cultivation, I having visited your late
Estate, Castle Forbes, you request my candid opinion of the
extent of your agricultural exertions.
With regard to the first question I can only
reply by reiterating the sentiments of every respectable Colonist, —
that I most sincerely believe you have at all times conducted
yourself as became a Gentleman, a greater proof of
which cannot be, than the estimation in which you are held
by persons of respectability, and the very close intimacy that
subsists between you and them.
With respect to your Magisterial capacity,
I have every reason to believe you have acted most conscientiously
in the discharge of the various arduous duties imposed
by that office.
My opinion of your agricultural exertions
is formed from seeing the state of your farm in 1834, with the
barn yard full of the largest wheat stacks I ever witnessed.
Doubtless your exertions must have been very great, and you
must have expended a considerable sum of money in improvements ;
for amongst the settlers in that respectable district, I
do not know any who cultivated so extensively, and brought so
much wheat to the Sydney market.
I cannot close this without an expression of
regret, that you should feel compelled to leave us. I trust,
however, we may shortly have the pleasure of again enjoying
your society. Believe me you carry with, you every good
wish for your safety and speedy return.
Yours very truly, (
Signed) THO. BARKER.

MUDIE ON CONVICT MARRIAGE

MUDIE ON MARRIAGE 

A young fellow who had just become free, and had
got himself established on thirty acres of land, with a
few pigs, &c., set off for the factory in search of a wife.
On his way, he had to pass the estate of the writer
of this work. In conversation with the wife of the
porter at the gate, he mentioned the object of his journey.
The porter’s wife advised him to pay his addresses
to one of her master’s convict female servants, whom
she recommended as being both sober and industrious,
whereby he would at once gain a good wife, and spare
himself an additional journey of a hundred and forty
miles.
At the request of this Celebs of Australia, the damsel

was sent for, and the bargain struck on the instant, provided
the necessary consent of the ladifs assignee master
could be obtained, which she herself undertook to solicit
Entering the breakfast room of her master with an
unusually engaging aspect, and having made her obeisance
in her best style, the following dialogue ensued : —
Marianne.— I wish to ask you a favour, your honour.
His Honour Why, Marianne, you have no great
reason to expect particular indulgence ; but what is it?
Marianne (curtsying and looking still more interesting.)
I hope your honour will allow me to get married.
His Honour Married ! To whom ?
Marianne (rather embarrassed.)— To a young man,
your honour.
His Honour. — To a young man ! What is he ?
Marianne (her embarrassment increasing.) — I really
don’t know !
His Honour. — What is his name ?
Marianne.— I can’t tell.
His Honour — Where does he live?
Marianne. — I don’t know, your honour.
His Honour. — You don’t know his name, nor what he
is, nor where he lives ! Pray how long have you known
him?
Marianne (her confusion by no means over). — Really,
to tell your honour the truth, I never saw him till just

now. Mrs. Parsons sent for me to speak to him ; and
so,— we agreed to be married, if your honour will give
us leave. It’s a good chance for me. Do, your honour,
give me leave !
His Honour.— Love at first sight, eh ! Send the young
man here. [
Exit Marianne.
Enter Celebs.
His Honour. — Well, young man, I am told you wish
to marry Marianne, one of my convict servants.
Celebs (grinning.)— That’s as you please, your
honour.
His Honour As / please— Why, have you observed
the situation the young woman is in ? (Marianne being ”
in the way ladies wish to be who love their lords.”
Celebs (grinning broadly.) — Why, your honour, as to
that, you know, in a country like this, where women
are scarce, a man shouldn’t be too ” greedy !” I’m told
the young woman’s very sober, — and that’s the main
chance with me. If I go to the factory, why,— your
honour knows I might get one in the same way without
knowing it,— and that, you know, might be cause of
words hereafter,— and she might be a drunken vagabond
besides ! As to the pickaninny, if it should happen to
be a boy, you know, your honour, it will soon be useful,
and do to look after the pigs.
The author having afterwards satisfied himself as to
the man’s condition, and as to his being free, gave his

consent to the match ; and the enamoured pair were of
course united in the holy bond of matrimony.
The object in giving the above sketch, is to convey to
the reader, at once, some idea of the nature of rustic
courtship in New South Wales, and of the relations
towards each other of the two sexes of the felon population,
as well as of the charming prospect attendant
upon a convict wedding.
Such scenes as the above are of constant occurrence ;
and the writer has deemed it best to present one of them,
without embellishment, as it actually took place.
The sketch is as slight as may be, yet it images a
state of things difficult to be conceived in England,
and certainly unparalleled in any civilized country.
But to return to the system on which the female convicts
are treated : — Nothing can be more impolitic, or
roore unlike punishment, from the first hour of their
embarkation in England.
Each convict ship carries out a herd of females of all
ages, and of every gradation in vice, including a large
proportion of prostitutes of all grades, from the veriest
trull to the fine madam who displayed her attractions in
the theatres.
All who can, carry with them the whole paraphernalia
of the toilette, with trunks and boxes stuffed with
every kind of female dress and decoration they can
come at.

Question of intent

http://www.eniar.org/news/reynolds.html

Question of intent
Did Australians intend to exterminate the Aborigines?

Historian Henry Reynolds looks for evidence of genocide in his latest book, An Indelible Stain?

MORE OF MUDIE AND HIS VIEWS OF THE COLONY

MUDIE’S ROMANCE OF THE FELONRY OF NSW

By the colonial law, a convict only holds his ticket-
of-leave during ” good behaviour.” For any irregular,
immoral, or unlawful conduct, his ticket-of-leave ougtyt
to be taken from him, and he is subjected to such further
punishment as the summary tribunal before which
he is tried may apportion to his offence.
Independently of the gross public immorality, and
indecency of Watt being at all connected with the Sydney
Gazette, and independently of the infamous purposes to
which he prostituted that government journal, he was
at the time living in open contempt of a colonial regulation
whereby he was bound to attend a general muster
of all the ticket-of-leave men, at stated periods, within
the district of Sydney ; he was at the same time leading
a life of profligacy ; he was known to be habitually a
liar in private, as he was a traducer and a libeller in
public ; he was living in open adultery with a female
runaway convict, transported for life, who bore two

children to him, and whom he had the audacity to send
to the factory, that her lyings-in might be defrayed at
the public expence ; and that the offspring of his adulterous,
and (in other respects by the colonial law) peculiarly
criminal intercourse, might be maintained at the
expense of the same public, whom he was daily demoralizing
and endangering by his pestilent and atrocious
writings.

MUDIE’S METHOD OF DEALING WITH RECALCITRANT ROMAN CATHOLICS ET AL :

The convicts, as may be readily supposed, are generally
profligate, treacherous, dishonest, and mutinous.
It is a fearful thing for an agricultural settler to be
placed in the midst of from twenty to fifty such labourers
and household] servants, — prejudicially operating,
by their atrocious example, their disgusting manners, and
horrid language, upon his family,— and continually engaged,
more or less, in plundering him and his neighbours.
Even when divine service was performed at the
establishment of the author, which he procured being
done as often as circumstances would permit, many of
his convict servants falsely excused their non-attendance
on the plea of their being Roman Catholics. Their
object was, to go upon predatory excursions while the
family and the rest of the establishment were engaged
in the ordinances of religion. This purpose, however,
as soon as discovered, was defeated, by compelling all
the real and pretended Roman Catholics to muster out-
side the building, and to remain there during the time
of worship. Their conversion to Protestantism was
miraculous, none of them withstanding this tett act more
than twice or thrice,— but all successively taking their
places in the congregation.
From the lenity of the colonial government in the
treatment of these ruffians, not only are they insubordinate
and mutinous, but they are even full of high notions
of their own dignity !
Masters have been reproved for speaking with too
little respect to the gentry assigned to them
as servants !

SIR JAMES MUDIE

JAMES MUDIE AT MONASH

Mudie, James. 1779-1852.
The felonry of New South Wales : being a faithful picture of the real romance of life in Botany Bay, with anecdotes of Botany Bay society and a plan of Sydney / by James Mudie. (London : Printed for the author by Whaley and co., 1837)

James Mudie was infamous in Sydney in Governor Bourke’s time, the early 1830s, for his savage treatment of the convicts assigned to him and for the harsh sentences he handed down from the bench, where he served as a magistrate. There were court cases, angry pamphlets and an investigation by the Governor, the result of which was that Mudie was not re-appointed as magistrate, sold his property and returned to England. The Felonry of New South Wales is an attack on the colonial society he had left behind. It made him many more enemies than he already had, and when he, very ill-advisedly, returned to the colony in 1840, he was horse-whipped by the son of Judge Kinchela whom he had maligned in the book.

MORE OF MUDIE’S COLOURFUL SNIPPETS OF LIFE IN SYDNEY. MUDIE IS FROM THE SAME GENERATION AS PATRICK MCNALLY (1787 – 1850? ) AND WRITES OF THE PERIOD WHEN MELINDA LIVED HER YOUTH IN HAWKESBURY AND SYDNEY.

The government was not more secure in its pastoral
operations. Owing to the scarcity of cattle, large herds-
on government account were formed in different parts
of the settlement. The overseers and stockmen (again of
course) were felons. After a time, there were frequent
allegations that the herds were plundered. To ascertain
the truth, an order was issued, directing that on
certain days specified, the cattle at the different stations
should be successively mustered and counted. This was
done; and, to the surprise of the informants, the different
stocks of cattle were found to be numerically
entire.
The suspicion that some deception had been practised,
was unavoidable ; and a second muster was ordered to
take place ; when some functionary, more sagacious
than the rest, suggested that the muster should take
place at all the stations on one day. An enormous deficiency
was now discovered.
On the first occasion, the guilty overseers and stockmen
had played to each others’ hands, by secretly driving,
from station to station, the requisite number of
cattle to make a show of the stock being complete at
each place successively.
Thus were laid the foundations of fortunes for another
portion of the colonial felonry

 

MELINDA KENDALL : HER LIFE AND WRITINGS

THE FELONRY OF NSW

The Felonry of New South Wales: Being a Faithful Picture of the Real Romance …   By James Mudie

Reproduction of original from Goldsmiths’ Library, University of London

1837. MUDIE WAS A MAGISTRATE IN COLONIAL NSW.

THE  FELONRY  oF NEW SOUTH WALES:
BEING A FAITHFUL PICTURE OF THE
REAL ROMANCE OF LIFE IN BOTANY BAY.
WITH
ANECDOTES OF BOTANY BAY SOCIETY,
AND A PLAN OF SYDNEY.
BY JAMES MUDIE, ESQ.,
OF CASTLE FORBES, AND LATE A MAGISTRATE FOR THE TERRITORY
OF NEW SOUTH WALES. ”
I HAVE BEEN ACCUSTOMED, ALL MY DAYS, “
TO HEAR AND SPEAK THE PLAIN AND SIMPLE TRUTH.-
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY WHALEY AND CO., HOLYWEI.L ST.,
AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS

SEEMS TO NOT BE UNDER THE HEAVY WEIGHT OF COPYRIGHT SO I SHALL PRESENT A FEW SNIPPETS FROM MUDIE’S 1837 BOOK WHICH HAS HAD PRINTED HIMSELF. ONE MAGISTRATE’S VIEW OF THE COLONY.

INTRODUCTION.

THE object of the writer of the following pages
to lay before the British public, and more especially the
legislature and the government, a faithful picture of the
present state of New South Wales, as regards rt»
social, moral, and political condition, particularly .considering
it as a, penal settlement ; with the tendency of
the line of policy pursued by its present governor,
Major-general Sir Richard Bourke, as to the treatment
of the convict population and the entire felonry of the
colony, and the mighty influence, either for good or evil,
which the mode of treating the convicts must necessarily
exercise over the interests and welfare of the free and
reputable settlers, — over the morals of the entire community, —
over the tranquillity of the colonial society, —
and, emphatically, over the state of crime in ^GreatiBri-
tiiin herself, whose criminals must be either emboldened
or discouraged in proportion as they view transportation

to a penal settlement as a punishment more or less
severe.
The author has ventured to coin the word felonry, as
the appellative of an order or class of persons in New
South Wales, — an order which happily exists in no other
country in the world. The major part .of the inhabitants
of the colony are felons now undergoing or felons
who have already undergone their sentences. They
occupy not only the station of the peasantry and labourers
in other civilized communities, but many — very
many — of them are also, as respects their wealth or
their pursuits, in the condition of gentry, or of dealers,
manufacturers, merchants, and lawyers or other members
of the liberal professions. Hitherto there was no
single term that could be employed to designate these
various descriptions of persons, who now bear the denominations
of ” convicts” and ” ticket-of-leave-men ;”
as also, ” emancipists,” (as they are absurdly enough
called), who again are subdivided into ” conditionally
pardoned convicts,” ” fully pardoned convicts,” and ”
expirees,” or transported felons whose sentences have
expired ; together with ” runaway convicts,” subdivided
into ” absentees,” (a name foolish for its mildness), and ”
bushrangers.” The single term, the felonry (which
comprehends all these descriptions of the criminal population),
though new, is evidently a legitimate member
of the tribe of appellatives distinguished by the same
termination, as peasantry, tenantry, yeomanry, gentry,
cavalry, chivalry, Sfc. The author has the honour of

especially presenting it to the gentlemen emancip/s^,
alias, the emancipated felons. of the colony, by whom
he has no doubt it will be received with most peculiar
approbation and delight, inasmuch as it not
only expresses? — and elegantly expresses — their place iti
society, but as it raises their caste (with all the beauty
and fashion of the felonry of New South Wales, whether
spaikling in silks and jewels at the theatre and the
ball, or dashing four-in-hand to the races at Parramatta,
or over the glittering and crowded ” drive” to Bellevue
Point, on the South Head Road, not more romantic by
the magnificence of its natural scenery than by the living
splendours of its rich and animated felonry), to the
dignity of an order in the commonwealth.
In gratulating himself, as well as the colony, on this
felicitous invention, the author, before the fervor of
critical accuracy and fastidiousness subsides, begs leave
to record his protest against the abuse of language in
the misapplication of the terms emancipists and absentees
to two portions of the colonial felonry. An emancipist
could not be understood to mean the emancipated, but
the emancipator. Mr. “Wilberforce may be honoured with
the title of emancipist ; but it is as absurd to give the
same appellation to the emancipated felons of New South
Wales as it would be to bestow it upon the emancipated
negroes of the West Indies.

SNIPPETS SUCH AS THIS :

The author of this work received an account of the
manner in which a conditional pardon had been obtained,
from the mouth of the emancipated convict himself. The
fellow is still, after the lapse of so many years, far from
being morally reformed ; as he lives by the keeping of a
very improper house in Parramatta, and the selling of
ardent spirits to the lowest class of the population.
Having understood, he said, that a conditional pardon
might be obtained for money, he applied to a convict
government clerk, who undertook to procure the pardon
for the consideration of twenty pounds. As soon as he
was ready to comply with the pecuniary condition, he
wrote to his friend the government clerk at Sydney, requesting
him to procure the pardon. The letter was
entrusted to a convict proceeding to Sydney, who,
having characteristically opened the packet to ascertain
its contents, thought fit to suppress it, and give information
of the job to another convict clerk of government, a
friend of his own. The latter being thus ” put upon the
scent,” wrote to the applicant, and offered to procure
him a conditional pardon for ten pounds. The convict of
course allowed the first nrgociation to drop, and, for the
smaller bribe, was shortly afterwards gratified with the
object of his wish.

del.icio.us Tags: FELONS,NSW,19TH CENTURY,MELINDA KENDALL,MAGISTRATES,TICKET OF LEAVE,CONDITIONAL PARDON

Wrecks on the New South Wales Coast By Jack Loney

LiveJournal Tags: ships,NSW,19th century,shipwrecks

Wrecks on the New South Wales Coast

By Jack Loney

 

A full chronology of wrecks and detailed intro of shipping along NSW coast including the wreck of Basil Kendall’s ship BRISBANE in 1832 with supposed death of his father Rev Thomas Kendall.

LYNNE SANDERS-BRAITHWAITE