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Thomas Brady was born in County Wicklow, Ireland in 1754.
He was recorded as a farmer in John Washington Price’s journal written on
the convict ship Minerva in 1800(2). Joseph Holt in his memoirs refers to him as Chief Clerk
employed at the Wicklow Gold mine (Copper mine at Tigrony?) and it seems that this was his main
occupation given his employment later in New South Wales.
Tradition has it that the Wicklow gold mine
came into being around 1795 when a poor schoolmaster while fishing in one
of the small streams which descend from the Croghan mountain, picked up a
piece of shining metal, and having ascertained it to be gold, gradually
enriched himself by cautiously disposing of the gold to a goldsmith in
Dublin.
He is supposed to have
preserved the secret for twenty years until he imprudently confided his
discovery to his wife who made the discovery public.
Thousands of people descended on the gold mine. ‘From a
labourer who could wield a spade or pick axe to the child who scraped the
surface of the rock with a rusty nail’ all were eagerly employed in
searching for gold ‘ After the initial finds, the mine did not prove
successful and was later closed down.
(3)
The closure of the mine coincided with civil unrest throughout the
district.
It has been written that British rule in
Ireland in the eighteenth century was one of the grossest and most
malignant stories of oppression in history as England struggled to
maintain her control, promoting the religious differences between
Catholics and Dissenters from the north. In order for Ireland to obtain
her freedom from the British it was necessary to form a union of the two
religious groups. Theobald Wolfe Tone, a young Protestant barrister, set
out to join the Catholics and Presbyterian dissenters in a union intended
to shake off the shackles of English dominance and exploitation. England
threw all her power into crushing the union of Catholics and Dissenters
however by the end of 1796 membership of the United Irishmen was said to
be half a million and consisted of men of all walks of life including
priests.(1)
Thomas Brady was affiliated with the United
Irishmen. He was arrested in Wicklow possibly early in March 1798 and was
tried in that month with many others including John Austin, Brien Byrne,
Richard Byrne, Benjamin Carrol, Christopher Coleman, John Davis, Robert
Doogan, Partrick Duffy, Thomas Ennis, Roger Gavin, John Hewitt, Robert
Keane, John Kinkaid, John McDonald, Joseph McKinly, Charles McClean
Ferdinand Maurant, Joseph Murray, Michael Mulhall, William Noble, Owen
Nugent, John Reddington, William Russell and Robert Wilson
Following his trial in March 1798, Thomas Brady
was named in the Banishment Act and would become a voluntary exile
(2).
The Banishment Act (38 George III, c.78) pardoned named individuals
concerned in a rebellion. Return to British dominions or passage to a
country at war with Britain were prohibited
(5).
There were approximately 100 Wicklow men transported after the rebellion
of 1798. Another 500 from other counties would also join them in Australia
(4) Many of these men were probably held in the Wicklow gaol along with
Thomas Brady to await transportation. Some of the rebels such as Billy
Byrne were hanged in or near the Gaol
(4)
Martial Law was proclaimed on 30th
March 1798 and under its shelter, British troops committed a wave of
atrocities. Soldiers were billeted in the homes of the people ‘A savage
and undisciplined soldiery, mad with lust and drink were let loose in the
pure homes of the countryside and the land was filled with the cries of
ravished women, the shrieks of the victims of pitch cap and triangle and
the lamentations of those who saw their homes go up in flames.
Joseph Holt who
would come to be revered for his leadership and military prowess took to
the Wicklow mountains in May 1798 after his house had been burned to the
ground. Holt led a series of fierce raids and ambushes against loyalist
military targets in Wicklow.
(1)
Joseph Holt who
would come to be revered for his leadership and military prowess took to
the Wicklow mountains in May 1798 after his house had been burned to the
ground. Holt led a series of fierce raids and ambushes against loyalist
military targets in Wicklow.
(1)
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General Joseph Holt -National Library of
Australia
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The defeat of rebels at Vinegar Hill saw
the remainder of the men heading to the Wicklow Mountains to link up with
Holt and his men. Under Holt’s command a force of British cavalry were
defeated, although subsequent campaigns were disastrous and the uprising
collapsed. The rebels continued their guerrilla campaign from the Wicklow
Mountains, however Joseph Holt negotiated surrender for himself and many
men were also captured. The war would continue under the leadership of the
intrepid Michael Dwyer.
Eventually transport was arranged for
Thomas Brady and the other
prisoners held in Wicklow. One hundred and thirty seven convicts, 19 of whom were female were
put on the vessel ‘Lively’ under Captain Dobson. They probably
boarded the Lively in May
(6)
and remained on board for up to seven months waiting to be taken to Cork,
there to be embarked on the Minerva transport. Some of the mess mates of Thomas Brady on
the Lively included: John Lacy, of Dublin, metal founder; Joseph Davis, of Dublin, cutler; Farrell Cuffee of the King’s County,
schoolmaster; John Kincaid of Armagh; William Henry of Armagh; Charles Dean of Dublin, apothecary’s
apprentice; Richard Day (?Dry); Samuel Car, brother to a clergyman of
Armagh; and Joseph Holt.
In his memoirs, Joseph Holt described the appalling
conditions and lack of food on the Lively:
‘Dobson had agreed with Government to take
us to Cork for a stipulated sum, and to supply us with a pound of meat,
and a pound of bread each day. In order to make this scanty allowance go
farther, he appointed a person to distribute it with light weights, so as
to give but seven instead of ten pounds. It was no use to remonstrate; any
one who complained was instantly chained to the deck of the vessel. The
hatchways were left open to prevent our being suffocated. In the centre of
the vessel a large tub was placed for the accommodation of eighty persons,
not one of whom was allowed to go on deck at night, and who were mostly
fresh water sailors This disgusting and horrible tub was emptied but once
in twenty four hours, and as the motion of the vessel kept it in a
continued state of evaporation, the atmosphere we were compelled to
breathe cannot easily be even imaged. It is not to be wondered at then,
that those whose frames and constitutions were delicate, sunk under the
misery of our situation. Frosty winds with rain and sleet prevailed’
A plank was their path by day and their bed
at night and as the vessel rolled, the bilge water would flash under them.
Two years Holt’s senior, Thomas Brady was
concerned for his leader’s welfare. Holt in his memoirs records that Brady
shared his pillow which was a lock of hay and he recorded a conversation
with Brady – “Mr. Brady said to me, “This is a most wretched lodging
for you”, “It is,” I replied, “but I have seen much
hardship; my God has ever been propitious to me, and I doubt not I shall
have his wonted support”.
(12)
On the 2nd January 1799 Dobson
received orders to sail and on the 3rd Thomas Brady for the
last time gazed on the Wicklow Mountains, where according to Holt they had
been contented, prosperous, respected and beloved.
The Lively arrived in Cork on 29th
January 1799. John Washington Price, surgeon of the Minerva had
long been expecting the arrival of the Lively and he immediately
boarded her to examine the convicts. He found them in a most wretched,
cruel and pitiable condition, lying indiscriminately in the ships hold on
damp wet and uneven planks without any covering, half naked and exposed to
all inclemencies of the season whether snow, frost or rain. He had never
seen a more unhealthy looking or miserable set of human beings in his
life. There was little he could do for them however while they lay in the
hold of the Lively, even as the weather worsened and men began to
die. (2)
They were not taken on board the Minerva until the
13th February and over the next few months, prisoners from Cork
joined them as well. Before being taken on board the Minerva they
had their heads shaved. They were washed and received a new set of
clothing and bedding consisting of 2 jackets, 2 pair of trousers, 2
shirts, 2 pair of shoes, 2 pair of stockings, a cap, hat, vest, mattress,
pair of blankets, and cloth bags. Once on board the Minerva they
were attended by John Washington Price who suggested fresh food be
procured and who ensured the living quarters remained clean and airy. The
prisoners slept five to each berth and the quarters were 8 feet high
between decks with a scuttle one foot square to each berth on each side of
the ship.(2)
The Minerva departed Cork on Saturday 24th
August. As well as the convicts and a detachment of the N.S.W. Corps under
Lieut. William Cox and passengers such as artist John William Lewin, the
Minerva carried stores -
including 25 pipes spirits, 6 tons sugar, 20 cases glass, 4 casks
ironware, 5 casks molasses, 60 pieces Irish linen, 4 boxes coffee, 150
bales Rio tobacco, 2trunks shoes, 20 casks provisions, 15 furkins butter,
1 box hair powder, 4 pipes port wine.
Their voyage to Australia was not without
incident. In an
account of the
Minerva’s contact with Spanish frigates, in Joseph Holt’s
memoirs Holt mentions Thomas Brady as one of his ‘good and resolute
men’ -
‘On the 16th November we saw a sail to
windward, which chased us for two days: she showed Spanish colours, and we
thought her a frigate. But the Minerva was good sailer and beat her by
chalks. We ran at least nine knots an hour, and effected our escape. Two
days after we discovered two sail to leeward. The captain said one was a
Spanish galleon, the other a prison ship. He gave orders to clear the ship
for action. We had eight guns and two swivels on the poop.
Mr. Harrison
(Henry Harrison, chief mate)
asked if I would fight. I answered
“Yes” and requested to be allowed to choose from among the prisoners the
requisite number of men to work the gun and he gave orders that I should
have any I chose, on which I called for John Kincaid, Richard Byrne,
Joseph Davis, Thomas Brady, Martin Short, and Pat Whelan, six good and
resolute men on whom I could depend.
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I then got my
cartridges, hands spikes, ramrods, tub flame, and powder monkey. I was
soon charged and ready. I passed the word to Kincaid and Byrne to mind my
motions and not to fire till I gave the signal. Captain Cox was on the
poop with 24 marines.’ However, after a broadside which did them no harm,
the Minerva managed to out run the Frigate
(12)
Ever the soldier, Joseph Holt went on to
explain the reason for his involvement – “Mr. Harrison, till this day I
considered you a sagacious man. “What have I done, sir” said he, “To
change your opinion of me?”
“I will tell you”, I answered, “you know
that although I am no convict, I am under restraint, and if I was taken by
any power I would demand the rights and privileges of a citizen of that
power. It was my interest and the intention of the men you gave me from
among the prisoners, that we should be captured. All who are enemies to
England are our friends; we are in a state of bondmen to England; with the
Spaniards we should be free. Had England given us freedom, we should have
been grateful and delighted to fight for her; but she placed us in chains
– how could you think we would fight to keep ourselves in irons? No, sir,
I tell you had we come to action, I would have turned the gun against the
poop, and tried all I could to obtain liberty for myself and the other
prisoners. All nations of the world are our friends, save England only”(12)
Washington Price records the above incident
as having taken place in September. He makes no mention of assistance from
Joseph Holt or his resolute men but does question the wisdom of allowing
the frigates to come so close and regret at having his cabin pulled down
and furniture removed to make way for a gun.
Washington Price makes mention of
Spanish frigates in his entry for November
– ‘ The convicts begin now to get great
spirits from an idea that has been formed by one of their chiefs that we
are to be met when in the latitude of the Cape by two Spanish or French
vessels, and brought into the Isle of France, but I am apt to think that
they will be disappointed, and do suppose that the proprietor of this
falsehood, (O’Connor the Bantry doctor) could have no other motive in it ,
but a view of alienating the minds of the people who were well disposed in
the ship, and thus by threat and holding forth this language, induce them,
to make attempts they would otherwise never think of ; but we shall take
care not to give him or any of the rest of them an opportunity.’"2
The Minerva reached Rio de Janeiro on Sunday 20th
October and departed on 8th November She
arrived at Port Jackson on Sunday 12th January. Washington
Price records the day as being exceedingly warm, the thermometer reaching
81F (29C) with a moderate South East breeze and clear skies.
After muster following the day of arrival
the convicts were placed under an overseer and marched away to their
different employments. Joseph Holt records that those transported for
rebellion were left at large to act as they thought proper.’ Thomas
Prosser, Thomas Brady, Edward O’Hara (and himself), all United
Irishmen in alike circumstances agreed to walk out together. All
respectable men their only crime was ‘wrong notions in politics’(12).
Washington Price has a different version – ‘His
Excellency Governor Hunter told me he had received many petitions and
applications from the prisoners on board to be left here. He asked my
opinion of many of them which I gave him candidly, in consequence of which
John Austin, Ferdinand Maurant, Thomas Prosser, Dudley Hartigan, William
Henry Alcock, Henry Fulton, Maurice Fitzgerald and Thomas Gosgrave were
ordered ashore and the rest got absolute denials’.
Nine months later in September 1800 an Irish conspiracy was uncovered. The
plan was to overturn the government by putting Governor King to Death and
confining Governor Hunter. The rebels were to meet at and take Parramatta
and then before day light take the Barracks at Sydney. And afterwards to
live on the Farms of the Settlers until they heard from France where they
had intended to dispatch a ship. The rebels were well armed with pikes and
were to be joined by soldiers who it was planned would take the guns to
South Head and other places of security. When the plan was revealed,
Governor Hunter ordered an enquiry and many of Thomas Brady’s
acquaintances were questioned. Punishment for the perpetrators was harsh.
The following correspondence written in October was received in England
the next year:
"A very unpleasant circumstance had like to have occurred here lately. The
Irish rebels who were lately transported into this country, had imported
with them their dangerous principles, rather increased than subdued by
their removal from their native country. They began by circulating their
doctrines among the convicts and a conspiracy had scarcely been formed
before it was happily discovered. They could never have attained their
object; but from their desperation, infatuation, and sanguinary habits,
much bloodshed would probably have ensued. They had conducted their scheme
with great art and secrecy, to which they were generally sworn, and
offensive weapons were made even from the tools of agriculture, for
carrying their purpose into execution. In no part of the British
dominions, upon any occasion, could the troops and principal inhabitants
shew more zeal and alacrity in coming forward in support of the
Government, and even some of the worst of the English convicts expressed
their abhorrence of such a diabolical plan. Governor King has added
to the military force, by forming a company at each settlement of the
principal inhabitants; and which he has named "The Loyal Parramatta and
Sydney Association"
(8)
Thomas Brady was either not involved in this conspiracy or evaded
detection.
He was employed in the Commissary’s office
for four years following arrival in Sydney and it is almost certain he
maintained his allegiance to his fellow countrymen in exile. Although he
was not implicated in the
1800 rebellion he was not so fortunate in
1804.
In the aftermath of the Rebellion of Castle Hill, an inflammatory
letter written by him was found amongst the papers of ‘a strongly
suspected character’ The letter contained terms and expressions of a
virulent and seditious tendency and Brady was interrogated and brought
before Governor King where his manner was ‘generally impertinent and his
whole conduct grossly insolent and disrespectful’ He was ordered into the
custody of the gaoler and to receive a corporal punishment.
(7) After
this punishment he was sent to Newcastle penal settlement.
Select here to find other
convicts sent to Coal River (Newcastle) in 1804
When he arrived at Newcastle or Coal River
as it was often referred to in 1804, the settlement was under the Command
of Lieutenant Charles Menzies. Many of Brady’s contemporaries were put to
work in the
Coal
Mines in Newcastle and it is possible that Brady was also
required to do this work, however his usefulness as a clerk was recognized
and he was probably employed in that capacity by the time Charles Throsby
took over as Commandant twelve months later.
Under
Lieutenant Menzies,
conditions at Newcastle were necessarily strict and the work was arduous.
There were many escape attempts and a foiled uprising by some of the
convicts but no mention of any involvement by Thomas Brady. In fact Brady
was to continue in Newcastle probably in the capacity of clerk or similar
work throughout the tenure of several Commandants. It is possible he knew
the running of the settlement better than anyone else during these early
years.
The first mention of him at Newcastle comes
in the form of a rebuke by the benevolent
Charles Throsby,
and it is a mark of his regard for Brady that he dealt with the situation
as he did. In another time under a different Commandant, Brady’s
punishment may have been much more severe. Charles Throsby had left
instructions with the storekeeper Mr. Sutton that Thomas Brady was to
assist in packing the salt ready to be taken to Sydney. Soon after,
Throsby accompanied by Lieutenant Symons, went to examine the proceedings,
and Throsby was embarrassed and annoyed by Thomas Brady’s insolent
behaviour towards him.(9)
He left instructions that Brady was not to be employed at the stores again
but there is no mention of corporal punishment, isolation or any other
punishment in fact which could have been expected in this time and place.
Thomas Brady remained incarcerated at
Newcastle throughout the entire upheaval with William Bligh and the New
South Wales Corp in
1808-09, but he would not have been unaware of the
events in Sydney. When Governor Macquarie arrived in
1810 the direction
was given that all men imprisoned while the rebel government was in place
should be released. Imagine Thomas Brady’s surprise when Commandant
William Lawson
gave the order that Brady too should be released, having 'served over five
years at Newcastle and having in that time been a most useful man'.
Unfortunately Brady’s freedom was short-lived for later in January several
prisoners were returned to Newcastle and Lawson received advice that ‘it
was not His Excellency's wish nor the spirit of the recent Proclamation
that every person who had incurred sentence of transportation under the
late assumption of Government should indiscriminately be set free’ only
those who had been sentenced due to unjust causes. In future Lawson was to
liberate only those persons whom the governor directed to liberate. Boat
builder
Thomas Crump
and clerk Thomas Brady were found to have been liberated illegally and
they were returned to Newcastle as was Irish lawyer
Lawrence Davoran.(10) Read Governor Macquarie's directive
HERE
In this tiny settlement of just 100 people, Brady remained for the next
two years. He was in Newcastle when
Lieutenant Purcell
took
over as Commandant
in
1810 and when a new wharf was commenced to replace the one
begun by Menzies six years before. He was there when Governor Macquarie
inspected the township on 3rd January
1811 and a few months later when
James Hardy Vaux
arrived, sentenced to work in the coal mines. He was
almost certainly close by when Lieutenant Purcell was engaged in a very
public dispute with the new surgeon
William Evans. He would have seen
hundreds of convicts come and go during his long years at Coal River.
Thomas
Brady managed to procure a house for himself. Although the location
of this is not revealed, it was substantial enough to be purchased for the
use of the government in
1812 and Brady received £11
remuneration. His circumstances were better than many in the settlement,
however he was almost certainly glad to finally receive
word that he had been granted a pardon. He departed the little settlement
in January 1812.
It seems for the next few years he was
employed as a clerk in the Commissariat Department in Sydney. While under
the conditions of his Banishment he had not been permitted to return to
Ireland, it is possible that he travelled elsewhere. He received an
absolute pardon in 1812
(2)
and there is mention of a Thomas Brady departing the colony in the years
1813 and again in 1817 with a daughter, and it is possible that the
absolute pardon gave him the freedom to travel where he wished.
Thomas Brady died in Sydney on the 9th
July 1819.(11)
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