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Extract from
a Copy of a Letter from Governor Macquarie to the Earl
Bathurst; dated Government-House, Sydney, New South
Wales, 4th of December 1817.........
When the female
convicts arrive they are regularly mustered by my
secretary on board ship, and the usual questions are put
to them in regard to their good or bad treatment during
the voyage; and if they appear healthy, and do not
complain of ill-usage, they are either assigned to such
married persons as require them for servants, or sent to
work at the Government-factory at Parramatta. It is very
true that there are no suitable buildings for them to
lodge and reside in, provided by Government, excepting
the factory at Parramatta, which is only sufficient to
contain about sixty women, whilst there are sometimes
not fewer than two hundred employed there. These are,
therefore, in common with the male convicts, obliged to
find lodgings for themselves; but in order the better to
enable them to do so, they are allowed half of the day
to work for themselves; it therefore often happens that
they are exposed to form bad connections which lead to
vicious and profligate conduct. This evil is as old as
the original establishment of the colony, and certainly
should be obviated or totally removed on every ground of
moral or political expediency; and, viewing it thus, it
has long been my most sincere wish to remedy the evil,
as far as practicable, by erecting a large factory and
commodious house at Parramatta, within a high inclosure,
for the employment and residence of the female convicts,
and within a large space of ground for recreation, so as
to keep them always within it, and prevent them having
any intercourse with the people of the town, until such
time as they should either be married, or assigned as
domestic servants to married persons. The variety of
other public buildings required in the colony, and the
inadequacy of the colonial funds to defray the expenses
of erecting them all at once, have hitherto precluded
the possibility of my realizing my wishes to have a
factory and dwelling-house on a large scale erected at
Parramatta for the above purpose. I expect, however, to
be now very soon enabled to have these very necessary
works commenced upon, and to defray the entire expense
from the colonial funds. I take the liberty of here
calling to your Lordship's recollection that I suggested
in one of my dispatches some years ago, the expediency
of erecting a factory and dwelling-house for the female
convicts at Parramatta........... |
