Convict & deciphering help pls

Hi Montgo,
I've researched a convict that was carried out on the Bangalore - will dig out my notes and post later as I've a good deal of info. and do not want to get it wrong from 'memory'.
P.

montgo wrote: »

Pedro,
Were you able to get hold of hulk records of Bermuda? Did yr convict stay in Bermuda or was he transferred to the Cape or Tasmania? Any info would be most welcome.

Hi Montgo,
You don’t quote dates but I’ve put in a few below and you can match-up with yours to see if they fit the same voyage of the Bangalore; however, they look the same.

Firstly, Bermuda was a port of call en route as the sailing ships used the Trade Winds for the passage 'down under.' It became a staging post, a sort of calling house where convicts were landed and there was some training given as ‘rehabilitation.’ As a result many of those who arrived in VDL/Tasmania did so as ‘ticket of leave men’ - i.e. essentially they were set free on arrival if they had been of good behaviour on the remainder of he voyage.

There were serious ‘issues’ between the various ‘Authorities’ over transportation; by 1850 the Colony definitely did not want them. The Home Secretary, Earl Grey promised on 27 July 1848 that transportation to the Colony would not be renewed. See link for some later Parliamentary comment that gives a good flavour. Earlier, the arrival of the Pestonjee Bomangee, at Hobart in January 1849, with 298 male Irish convicts had created a considerable political storm and this affected later arrivals. In brief, the Australians wanted to improve the image of the Colony and not be seen as a dumping ground for criminals, so transportees were unwelcome.

After his trial (Ireland) my guy was held in the local jail, then taken from there handcuffed to another convict and (as an example to the general populace) brought between two policemen on an open cart to the local railway station under military escort. They were then put on a train to Dublin, housed in Kilmainham Jail before being brought to Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) where he went aboard the ‘Bangalore’ and remained there until she took all her prisoners aboard. She was built in Jersey, 877 tons and on the leg to Bermuda carried 250 convicts from various parts of Ireland. It is quite probable that some of these had deliberately committed offences in order to be transported – it was a better option than the Workhouse if you were young and had no ties and this is alluded to in contemporary newspapers e.g. Freemans Journal and also by the Viceroy Lord Clarendon, who said in 1848 that the destitute were committing offences to get into gaol and prisons built to contain 4,000 now had 12,000 occupants.

Grey was concerned that, contrary to his guidelines, the convicts on the Bangalore contained many Irish unfit for heavy labour and under 20 years of age. The Governor of Bermuda agreed – he was Capt. Charles Elliott, a straight guy, very sympathetic to the Irish convicts, viewed them as victims of the Famine and not criminals, and wanted to keep about 70 of them in Bermuda. They were the prisoners whose ‘low stature and childish appearance’ he attributed to the Famine. His main reason was to keep them separate from the hardened criminals who might corrupt them. My guy was classed as a ‘hardened criminal’ and was held in Bermuda. Elliott ‘topped up’ the Bangalore with other ticket of leave men (I have no note of who they were or where they originally came from) and he boasted 'that the colony of Van Diemen's Land will have rarely received 203 adult male passengers by one ship, containing a larger number of useful settlers in a new country.' Many had been skilled tradesmen, others were trained in 'regular and laborious industry' in Bermuda and influenced by their convict experience. Of those who were held back in Bermuda many were ready for release, but because Bermuda was not considered suitable they were shipped home to Ireland in 1854 on a ship called the ‘James’.

I’ve not researched records in Bermuda because I knew my guy sailed a couple of months later, on 22 April 1849 on the Neptune, the same ship as John Mitchell, who mentions the Bangalore in his ‘Jail Journal’.

By the 18 July they were anchored off Pernambuco in Brazil for nearly a month while waiting for and loading with supplies. Then on reaching the Cape there was another row, leading to a five-month stand-off, all the convicts being confined on board, ended only on 19 February 1850. After arrival in Tasmania on the 9th April 1850 some Irish convicts including my guy – labelled as ‘troublesome and malicious’ were sent to ‘The Cascades’, an outstation of the penal settlement of Port Arthur, some 40 miles from Hobart. This was the destination for the hardest of convicted British and Irish criminals. I’m still researching his progeny. Nearly there!

A really good read on that period in VDL and Australia is Robert Hughes’ book ‘The Fatal Shore’ – not just for transportees lifestyles, but a general history of Oz and how that country developed. I cannot recommend it highly enough, but reading about the privations and punishments can be depressing reading.