Free Settler or Felon

Convict and Colonial History



Convict Ship Globe - 1819


Embarked: 140 men
Deaths: 1
Surgeon's Journal: yes
Previous vessel: Tyne arrived 4 January 1819
Next vessel: Surry arrived 4 March 1819
Captain Joseph Blyth
Surgeon George Clayton
Prisoners and passengers of the Globe identified in the Hunter Valley


The Globe was built at Scarborough in 1810.

The convicts on this ship came from counties throughout England including Warwick, Southampton, Somerset, Middlesex, Lancaster, Cornwall, London, Essex, Devon, Sussex, Norfolk, Cambridge, Surrey, York, Warwick, Lincoln, Dorset and Wiltshire. They were transferred from county prisons to prison hulks in the months prior to transportation.

One hundred and forty men were embarked from the prison hulks at Portsmouth. Some had been held on the hulk Laurel and were embarked on 26th August 1818........

REPORT of the Chaplain of the Captivity and Laurel Hulks at Portsmouth, to J. H. Capper, Esq. regarding the state of Morals among the Convicts confined on board the Hulks in Portsmouth Harbour, 30th June 1818.

The Convicts have continued for the last half year to behave in the most orderly manner. The schools are in a flourishing condition. Attention, and even devotion, are conspicuous among the Prisoners during Divine service. They are frequently to be seen reading the Bible in their wards; and they all regularly attend prayers in the Chapel every evening. An improvement has been made in separating the young boys still more completely than before from the rest of the Convicts: and, in every respect, the present state of the Convicts may be considered as extremely satisfactory.
[2]

Most of the men were in their 20s and 30s. There were only a few very young convicts on this voyage - two 17 year olds; one 16 year old and two fifteen year olds. James and Richard Passmore from Devon were the youngest at 13 and 15 years of age. James Passmore died at Bathurst in 1835.

Departure

The ship departed Portsmouth on 9th September 1818.

Surgeon George Clayton

George Clayton kept a Medical Journal from 28 August 1818 to 30 January 1819. .........

Punishments meted out during the voyage included 12 lashes to Abel Lancaster for riotous conduct and abusive conduct to a sentinel; Thomas Heys 12 lashes for abusive language to Lieut. O'Brien; James Robinson 12 lashes for attacking the sentinel; Benjamin Millington 42 lashes for obstructing a sentinel; and unusually to John Palfrey, a passenger on the voyage, who was handcuffed for exciting tumult in the convicts and guards. Mrs. Palfrey was treated by the surgeon for a headache! [3]

Port Jackson

They sailed via Madeira and arrived in Port Jackson on 8 January 1819.

Governor Macquarie recorded the arrival in his journal:

Saturday 9. Jany. 1819 Early this morning the Ship Globe Commanded by Capt. Blyth, anchored in Sydney Cove, with 140 Male Convicts from England, from whence she sailed on the 9th. of the month of Septr. last; Mr. Clayton R. Navy being Surgeon Supdt., and Lieut. OBrien 48th. Regt. Commanding. the Guard consisting of 30 men of the 17th. and 34th. Regiments. - One Convict only died during the Passage. - Deputy Commissary General Frederick Drennan (to supersede Dy. Comy. Genl. Allan) with his Family, have come out Passengers on board the Globe. - Mr. Drennan waited on me immediately at Parramatta.[4]

Free Passengers

Other passengers included Miss Eliza Walsh; Miss Ann Walsh and Mr. John Gaggin; and Mrs. Mead.

Military Guard

The guard and their families were disembarked on 29 January 1819. Members of the guard mentioned in the surgeon's journal include: Mrs. Hermitage, soldier's wife, Corporal Murphy, Edward Fitzgerald, Thomas Quinn, Mrs. Edwards, Thomas McKearnan, Edward Donovan, Andrew Barron, and William Glover.

Convict ships bringing detachments of the 34th regiment included

Baring in 1815

Batavia in 1818,

Globe in 1819,

Asia in 1820,

Grenada in 1821,

Speke in 1821,

Prince of Orange in 1821 and

Adamant in 1821.

Port Dalrymple

On 6th February the Sydney Gazette reported that The 'Elizabeth Henrietta' under master David Smith sailed for Port Dalrymple with prisoners. Eighty-four male prisoners were from the Globe and another nine male prisoners from various other convicts ships and one woman Charlotte Paterson (alias Scott) who arrived on the Wanstead in 1814. A list of names of those transported on the Elizabeth Henrietta can be found in the Colonial Secretary's Correspondence. A military guard of the 48th regiment accompanied the prisoners.

Hunter Valley

Twelve prisoners of the Globe have been identified in the Hunter Valley region in later years. -
John Birch,
James Collins,
John Davis,
William Edwards,
William Jones.
John Mann,
Thomas Moore,
Redmond Moss,
Joshua Ogden,
Alexander Phelp,
James Renwick
Richard Scadden.
Find out more about prisoners /passengers of the Globe here

Life in the Colony

Some convicts fared better than others in the years after arrival.......

Alexander Phelp a hairdresser and ropemaker who was tried in Plymouth in March 1818 achieved a degree of comfort and success. He married and became a baker and Publican at Newcastle. He was granted an allotment of land in Pacific Street Newcastle (Allotment 11) in 1826 and in 1830 advertised that his apartments opposite the beach were available to lease particularly for those people interested in sea bathing. Allotment 11 was later acquired by A.W. Scott. The location of this grant can be found on this map at Cultural Collections, University of Newcastle.

Richard Scadden's experience as a convict was not so fortunate. He was born in Cornwall, a boat builder by trade and already over forty years old when he was sentenced to transportation for life in 1817. On arrival he was assigned to the Dock yard to work and just a few months later made a daring attempt to escape the colony in an open boat with three other men. Correspondence of the Commandant J.T. Morisset in the Colonial Secretary's records reveal more of the attempt:

A Party I had sent in pursuit of runaways to Broken Bay on their return fell in with four men with a boat on the beach about nine miles to the Southward of this. On seeing the soldiers one made off, the remaining three were bought in late last night. I immediately dispatched another party who took the fourth. Three of them belong to the Dock Yard of Sydney and the other to the Town Gang. Scadden confessed that their intention was to leave the Colony. They had with them carpenter's tools, flour, biscuits and their clothes. They had made sails of blankets and were making masts. The story of the others is that, the boat was borrowed from somebody in Cockle Bay, whose name they did not know, and the wind being high they were driven to sea. The names are (William) Tremain, (John)Burton and (James) Fitzsimmons.

The men were returned to Sydney in April where they were punished with 100 lashes in the market place. Richard Scadden spent the next twelve months confined in double irons in the gaol gang. (1) By 1828 he was assigned to William Evans at Bellevue on the Paterson River. He died in 1833.

Notes and Links

1). George Clayton was also surgeon on the convict ships Shipley in 1817 and the Competitor in 1823 (VDL)

2). Register of Shipping

References

[1] Sydney Gazette 17 April 1819

[2] House of Lords Sessional Papers- Report of the Chaplain of the Captivity and Laurel Hulks at Portsmouth

[3] National Archives. Reference: ADM 101/30/1 Description: The Globe convict ship medical officer's diary for 28 August 1818 to 30 January 1819 by George Clayton, surgeon superintendent. During this time the Globe convict ship was transporting convicts from Portsmouth to New South Wales

[4] Lachlan and Elizabeth Macquarie Archive