Riotous scenes as women are landed -
Port Jackson, Feb 6 1790. Scenes of riot and debauchery after the disembarkation of the women convicts tonight transformed Sydney cove into something resembling a gin palace attached to a brothel.
All this took place at night during a violent storm with lightening bolts which, at one place, split a tree in half, killing five sheep and a pig that were penned below it.
The licentious merriment began when some merchant seamen requested some grog from their captain.
No doubt the man had good reason to comply, in the relief at getting rid of the last of his convicts, as he had faced a penalty of £40 for every convict missing.
Soon the sailors and convicts were in and around the women's tents, some queuing for sex, others making love with women they had forged attachments on the voyage. Others were swearing, fighting or singing.
While the scene was deplorable no action by the Governor nor his officers. Presumably they thought that intervention would have provoked a serious riot, and that it was best to wait for the morning to re-establish order.
The women, cooped up on the voyage and for another 10 hot and intolerable days outside Sydney Cove, had not too many chaste figures among them.
Reports on trading convict women
London, Sept 28, 1798.Disturbing reports have been arriving of the degrading treatment of female convicts sent to New South Wales.
There have been descriptions of dreadful scenes upon convict vessels arriving in port.
The decks have been crowded with both settlers and male convicts alike, picking and choosing the women them as though they are no more sheep or cattle.
Some settlers want women for servants or wives, while the convicts are looking for wives.
Some women not chosen on the spot are then taken in open boats up the river to the settlement of Parramatta, where another selection process takes place. Those not chosen for particular purposes are then given the free will to go with whom ever they prefer.
Those who do not go with one man are assigned to take care of huts in which there are from two to ten men.
A gallows lament by young convict
Sydney cove, June 24. Samuel Payton, a 20-year-old convict, who will die on the gallows tomorrow for attempted robbery, has sent a most moving letter to his mother.
"My dear mother! With what agony of soul do I dedicate the last few moments of my life, to bid you an eternal adieu! My doom being irrevocably fixed, and ere this hour tomorrow I shall have quitted this vale of wretchedness. I have at last fallen an unhappy, though just, victim of my follies.
Banish from your memory all my former indiscretions and let the cheering hope of a happy meeting hereafter console you"
A woman convict is hanged for robbery
Sydney Cove, Nov 23 Ann Davis has been hanged, the first women in the colony to be "turned off" by the executioner.
She was found guilty of stealing clothing and goods from the house of convict Robert Sidaway, who co-habituated there with Mary Marshal. Davis was in the habit of calling by and smoking a pipe with them.
When they were away on November 14 she gained access through a window. After upsetting a tub of water in the house, she made off with her booty. It was later found in her possession.
Convict woman writes of life in 'this solitary waste of creation'
Norfolk Island, Nov 19 The plight of convict women has been describe in a letter which has been privately sent in a ship today.
A convict women writes of "our disconsolate situation in this solitary waste of creation"
" The inconveniencies.. suffered for want of shelter, bedding etc are not to be imagined by any stranger. However, we have now two streets in four rows of the most miserable huts you can possibly conceive of deserve that name"
The women are "deprived of tea and other things.... and as they are all totally unprovided with cloths, those who have young children are quite wretched.
"Several women, who became pregnant on the voyage, and are since left by their partners, who have returned to England , are not likely to form any fresh connections.
"We are comforted with the hopes of a supply of tea from China , and flattered with getting riches when our settlement is complete.
"Our Kangaroo rats are like mutton, but much leaner; and there is a kind of chickweed so much in taste like our spinach. Something like ground ivy is used for tea; but a scarcity of salt and sugar makes our best meals insipid.
"The separation of several of us to an uninhabited island was like a second transportation. In short, every one is so taken up with their own misfortunes that they have no pity to bestow on others"
for more go to http://www.convictcreations.com/history/description.htm
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
