Norfolk Island convict mutinies

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Norfolk Island convict mutinies were a series of armed uprisings by convicts on the penal colony of Norfolk Island, Australia. All were unsuccessful.

Contents

1826 rebellion

1826 convict rebellion
Date25 September 1826
Location
Result Unsuccessful escape attempt
Belligerents
Convict insurgents Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British Army
Commanders and leaders
"Black" John Goff Vance Young Donaldson
Strength
over 50
Casualties and losses
3 convicts hanged 1 soldier killed

The first convict rebellion took place in September 1826.

It was led by "Black" John Goff. He arranged for two convict decoys to make an escape attempt; they were followed by several soldiers. While this happened, fifty convicts seized and bound their overseers, robbed the stores for provisions and put three boats to sea. One soldier was killed, bayoneted to death, while others were wounded.

The convicts sailed to Phillip Island where they were eventually re-captured, although some eluded the authorities for up to six months. [1] [2]

The ringleaders – Goff, William Moore and Edward Watson – were tried and hanged in Sydney in 1827. The Chief Justice said when passing sentence on John Goff:

You... have detailed to the Court a long complaint of the hardships you have undergone, of your love of liberty, and of the degree of violence which you thought yourself justified in using to obtain it. By your own statement your whole life has been one career of crime... It is within the recollection of this Court, how near you were, at no distant period, to have been consigned to the grave, and happy would it have been for you had your career then terminated without the additional crime of the blood of a fellow creature being added to the list... With respect to the general harsh treatment of which you complain on Norfolk Island, what are men sent there for? It is within the knowledge of the Court that they are never sent except for crimes of the deepest dye; and is it then to be supposed that they are sent there to be indulged, to be fed with the fruits of the earth and that they are not to work in chains? No, the object in sending men there is not only as a punishment for their past crimes, but to serve as a terror to others; and so far from it being a reproach, as you have stated it, it is a wise project of the Government in instituting that settlement for the punishment of the twice and thrice convicted felon, as a place of terror to evil doers, and in order to repress the mass of crime with which the Colony unhappily abounds. [3]

Capture of Wellington

Capture of Wellington
Date21 December 1826
Location
Result Mutiny successful though later captured
Belligerents
Convict insurgents Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
Commanders and leaders
John Walton
Strength
66 convicts
Casualties and losses
2 killed [4]
5 executed

On 21 December 1826, the ship Wellington was seized by the 66 convicts it was taking to Norfolk Island. [5] Twenty of the ship's crew and soldiers were kept prisoners. Soldiers had kept firing through the bulk head into the hold until it became apparent that crew members were in danger of being injured.

The convict Walton appointed himself captain of the vessel, Douglas as first mate and "Flash Jack" Edwards as second mate and Clay as steward. A gale sprang up and the sailors were asked to help work on the ship. They refused at first but changed their mind with the consent of the captain. [6] [7]

Re-capture

Wellington then sailed to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand, where they were recaptured by a whaler, The Sisters under the command of Captain Duke. [8]

Due to their merciful treatment of the captured ship's guards and crew, only five of the prisoners were executed, although 23 were condemned to hang. [9] [10] [11] [12]

1827 uprising

1827 Uprising
DateOctober 1827
Location
Result Unsuccessful uprising
Belligerents
Convict insurgents Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British Army
Commanders and leaders
Patrick Clynch Thomas Wright

There was an attempted uprising in 1827 with an attempt made on the life of new commandant Thomas Wright by Patrick Clynch.

Clynch was later captured and then shot. [13] [14]

Wright was later arrested for ordering Clynch's murder and put on trial. [15] [16] [17] He was acquitted.

1830 escape

1830 Escape
Date19 June 1830
Location
Result Unsuccessful escape
Belligerents
Convict insurgents Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British Army
Commanders and leaders
Lt Borough
Strength
11 convicts
Casualties and losses
11 convicts drowned (presumed)

In 1830 there was a successful escape of eleven convicts from the island on a newly constructed whaleboat. They went to Phillip Island, where they robbed a visiting botanist, Mr. Cunningham of provisions. [18]

Lt Borough took charge of a boat and took off after the felons but was forced to turn back as darkness began to fall and the rough seas.

The convicts that took to sea and were never heard of again – it is presumed they all drowned. [14]

1834 rebellion

1834 Convict Rebellion
Date15 January 1834
Location
Result Rebellion crushed
Belligerents
Convict insurgents Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British Army
Commanders and leaders
Captain Foster Fyans
Strength
over 100
Casualties and losses
6 dead
13 convicts executed
1 soldier dead
1 guard dead

In January 1834 a serious insurrection occurred on Norfolk Island, involving over a hundred convicts who made a series of concerted attacks against their guards, with the ultimate aim of taking control of the island and effecting an escape by the next Government vessel to arrive with supplies. [19] [20] [21]

On the morning 15 January 1834 about 30 men, following a pre-arranged plan by pretending sickness, fell out of various of the Camp and Longridge gangs and went to the hospital. They entered the hospital and secured those there by locking them in a room, and then proceeded to break off their irons. From the hospital the mutineers waited for the gaol-gang to be turned out for work under an armed guard. As this occurred the insurrectionists rushed from the hospital behind the gaol and attacked the rear rank of the guard. After a short struggle during which two or three muskets were wrested from the soldiers, six of the mutineers were killed or wounded and the guard “succeeded in dispersing and finally in securing them”. [22] [23] [24]

The trial of those charged as "principals and accessories" of the insurrection commenced on 12 July 1834 before Justice William Burton. [22] [23] At the conclusion of the trial on July 22, thirteen men were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to death. [24]

On 10 September 1834 two clerics and the New South Wales hangman left Sydney for Norfolk Island aboard the brig Governor Phillip, to carry out the executions of the thirteen convicted mutineers. Seven of the men were hanged on Monday, September 22, and the remaining six the following day. [25] [26]

1842 rebellion

On the morning of 21 June 1842, a convict work party aboard the Governor Phillip at Cascade were let out to start unloading the launch of the brig, as they had to make way for a ship that had arrived from Sydney. After seeing that only a serjeant and two soldiers were on deck, the convicts overpowered them and held the Governor Phillip for roughly half an hour before the soldiers trapped below deck were able to retake the brig. Five mutineers and one soldier were killed in the affray, and another two soldiers were severely wounded. Three of the soldiers that were initially confined below deck were also scalded badly when the convicts poured boiling hot water through gaps in a hatch that they had bolted shut. [27]

At trial, one of the convicts was released for saving a soldier who had been thrown over aboard. Five other convicts were put to death, one of whom received a reprieve and was instead transported for life. The other four convicts were hanged in November 1840. The Australian reported, "We heard several of those employed about the gaol remark that they had never witnessed men come to the scaffold so firm, yet in so resigned and devotional a state of mine." [28]

1846 rebellion

1846 Convict Rebellion
Date1 July 1846
Location
Result Rebellion crushed
Belligerents
Convict insurgents Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British Army
Commanders and leaders
William "Jackey Jackey" Westwood Joseph Childs
Strength
1,600 [29]
Casualties and losses
12 convicts executed [30] 4 officials killed

There was a final rebellion of convicts in 1846. It was led by William "Jackey Jackey" Westwood, a bushranger who had recently been sent to Norfolk Island. He was known as the "Gentleman Bushranger". [31]

Joseph Childs took over the running of Norfolk Island in 1844, ushering in a far harsher regime than his predecessor. He greatly reduced prisoners' privileges and in May 1846 ordered prisoners to hand in their tins and knives and other utensils. In response, Westwood led an uprising of convicts which resulted in an overseer and three constables being killed. However, the mutiny was suppressed by the colony's military. [32] [33]

Westwood was sentenced to death with 11 others and was executed on 13 October 1846. [29] [34] [35] [36]

The governance of Joseph Childs was blamed for causing the mutiny. He was replaced by John Price. [30]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Norfolk Island</span> Historical account of Norfolk Island

The history of Norfolk Island dates back to the fourteenth or fifteenth century when it was settled by Polynesian seafarers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bushranger</span> Originally runaway convicts during the British colonisation of Australia

Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Gidley King</span> Royal Navy officer and colonial administrator (1758–1808)

Philip Gidley King was a British politician who was the third Governor of New South Wales.

Major Joseph Childs (1787–1870) was a British Royal Marines officer and penal administrator; he was commandant of the second convict settlement at Norfolk Island, from 7 February 1844 to August 1846.

Nathaniel Lucas (1764–1818) was a convict transported to Australia on the First Fleet. His occupation was listed as carpenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foster Fyans</span> Australian politician

Foster Fyans was an Irish military officer, penal colony administrator and public servant. He was acting commandant of the second convict settlement at Norfolk Island, the commandant of the Moreton Bay penal settlement at Brisbane, the first police magistrate at Geelong, and commissioner of crown lands for the Portland Bay pastoral district in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. He is the great-great-grandfather of actor Sam Neill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Westwood (bushranger)</span>

William Westwood, also known as Jackey Jackey, was an English-born convict who became a bushranger in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Westbrooke Burton</span> Australian politician

Sir William Westbrooke Burton was a judge and President of the Legislative Council, New South Wales, Australia. He was presiding judge in the second trial of the Myall Creek massacre. The trial was the only case in Australian history in which white settlers were successfully prosecuted for massacring Aboriginals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Knatchbull (Royal Navy captain)</span>

John Graham Knatchbull was an English naval captain and convict found guilty of murder in 1844. He was one of the earliest to raise in a British court the plea of moral insanity (unsuccessfully).

Charlotte Badger was a former convict who was on board the Venus during a mutiny in Tasmania in 1806. Taken to New Zealand, she was rescued by Captain Turnbull of the Indispensible, and eventually she returned to Sydney. In the intervening centuries, a number of writers have contributed to the fiction that she took an active role in the mutiny and she became known – erroneously – as Australia's first female pirate.

Captain John Black, was an English seafarer, who had a short but eventful career that included privateering and exploration. He was best known, during his own lifetime, for a mutiny on Lady Shore in August 1797, as it sailed south in the Atlantic Ocean, bound for Sydney, New South Wales, carrying female convicts. As a result of the mutiny, Black and several other members of the crew were put into a small boat and left to find their way to the nearest land, being Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston and Arthur's Vale Historic Area</span> Historic settlement area on Norfolk Island, an Australian external territory in the Pacific Ocean

Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area (KAVHA) is an old settlement on the Kingston coastal plains, southern side of Norfolk Island, consisting of a large group of buildings from the British Empire's convict era (1788–1855), now considered to be of such cultural significance to Australia and to the World that the area has been formally inscribed onto both the Australian National Heritage List and UNESCO's World Heritage list as amongst:

" .. the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts."

Andromeda was built in Sunderland, England in 1819. Initially she made one voyage to India, sailing under a licence from the British East India Company. She then started sailing to Australia, carrying voluntary and involuntary migrants. She made four voyages transporting convicts: one voyage to Van Diemen's Land and three to New South Wales. She continue to trade, primarily to Australia. Her last voyage was to Ichaboe Island. She was last listed in 1847.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cooking Pot Uprising</span> 1846 penal colony riot in Norfolk Island, Australia

The Cooking Pot Uprising or Cooking Pot Riot was an uprising of convicts led by William Westwood in the penal colony of Norfolk Island, Australia. It occurred on 1 July 1846 in response to the confiscation of convicts' cooking vessels under the orders of the Commandant of the penal settlement, Major Joseph Childs.

Norfolk Island twice served as a penal colony, from March 1788 to February 1814, and from 1825 to 1853. During both periods the government in the Colony of New South Wales transferred convicts that had been brought to Australia on to the island.

HM Colonial brig Prince Leopold was launched in 1815, or earlier, as Rosetta. The government in Van Diemen's Land (VDL) purchased her in 1818 to serve the settlements. She then carried timber other supplies, and transferred both prisoners and soldiers between VDL and Port Jackson, and to and from Maria Island. In July 1831 the government sold the brig. Her new owners named her Mary Elizabeth, or Mary and Elizabeth. She was wrecked on 30 May 1835 at Port Sorell, Tasmania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Army in Australia</span>

From the late 1700s until the end of the 19th century, the British Empire established, expanded and maintained a number of colonies on the continent of Australia. These colonies included New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Queensland. Many of these were initially formed as penal settlements, and all were built on land occupied by Indigenous Australians. In order to keep the large number of transported convicts under control, enforce colonial law and fight the Australian frontier wars, British military elements, including the British Army, were deployed and garrisoned in Australia. From 1790 to 1870 over 30 different regiments of the British Army consisting of a combined total of around 20,000 soldiers were based in the Australian British colonies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Green (executioner)</span> Australian colonial executioner

Alexander Green was an Australian executioner. He arrived in the colony of New South Wales in 1824 as a convict and was granted a Certificate of Freedom in 1831. During the period 1826 to late 1833 Green was employed as a flagellator, or scourger, at Sydney, Port Stephens and the Hunter Valley, inflicting floggings on those who had received a sentence of corporal punishment. In February 1834 he was appointed as the colony's public executioner, beginning a career of twenty-one years during which Green carried out about 250 hangings. During most of his employment as the New South Wales hangman, judicial executions were able to be viewed by the public. His last execution in February 1855 was the first private hanging after the enactment of legislation to abolish public executions in New South Wales. Towards the end of his career Green's behaviour became increasingly erratic due to drunkenness and mental instability. He was declared to be insane in April 1855 and committed to a lunatic asylum. Alexander Green died at the Parramatta Asylum on 31 August 1879.

References

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