Free Settler or Felon
Convict and Colonial History




Convict Ship Medway - 1821


Embarked: 156 men
Voyage: 120 days
Deaths: 0
Surgeon's Journal: no
Master Borthwick Wight
Surgeon Thomas Davies R.N.


The Medway arrived in Van Diemen's Land on 13 March 1821 with 156 male prisoners, having departed Portsmouth on 15th November 1820.

Military Guard

The Guard consisted of 30 non-commissioned officers and privates of the 53rd regiment under command of Lieutenant Gordon of the 82nd Regiment.[1]

Cabin Passengers

Passengers included William Wemyss, Deputy Commissary General and wife, Michael Moodie, Assistant Commissary General Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and family and Mr. Halden.

Van Diemen's Land

The prisoners were landed on 17th March and after being inspected by the Lieut-Governor were assigned to various employments.

Sydney

The Medway then continued to Sydney arriving there on 27th March 1821 with a number of prisoners under sentence of transportation to Newcastle by the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction and Bench of Magistrates of Van Diemen's Land. Some of the prisoners brought from VDL to Sydney on this voyage may have been prisoners who escaped the colony on the Young Lachlan in 1819 and were captured and returned on the St. Michael in 1820.


Medway returned to Australia with convicts in 1825

Notes and Links

1). Joseph Collins who arrived on the Medway was sent to Newcastle penal settlement in 1821. He was one of eleven Pirates who seized the Cutter Eclipse from Newcastle harbour in 1825.

2). Thomas Davies was employed as surgeon-superintendent on the Henry in 1823 and the Asia in 1825

3). 1st Officer William Wylie, 2nd Officer William Manners and Dr. Davies were advertising their intention to depart on the Medway in March 1821[2]

4). Hunter Valley convicts / passengers arriving on the Medway in 1821 -

Collins, Joseph

Halloran, Laurence Henry

References

[1] Hobart Town Gazette 21 March 1821

[2] Hobart Town Gazette 17 March 1821