A tale of the First, Second and Third convict fleets to Australia

This is a story of three people transported to Australia for reasons that (as many convicts do) relate to being poor.  Contrary to the myth that Australia was settled by murders and criminals, most of the convicts I have come across have been people of their time in England and Ireland where poverty was common, even if you had a job, and life was hard.  They are people who resorted to petty crime, usually theft of something quite small, and in some cases their employer was the victim or perhaps the perpetrator.

Given chances for a productive and good life in Australia most convicts had extensive families and built houses and farms, and this is what happened in this case.

So let's begin with the first fleet,

An engraving of the First Fleet in Botany Bay at voyage's end in 1788, from The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay. Sirius is in the foreground; convict transports such as Prince of Wales are depicted to the left.

MATHEW JAMES EVERINGHAM.

His place of birth is not certain, however I know from convict records it was in 1768, England.  There is a baptism record for a DOB of 25July, 1768 which may be our Mathew.

We know that Mathew was educated and literate, and by 1784, aged 15,  was a clerk working for a law firm near Temple Bar.   He was brought up to the Old Bailey for Fraud on 7th July 1784 and sentenced to 7 years transportation.  Desperate for money to pay the rent, he had gone to a bookseller falsely claiming his employer wanted to borrow a copy of a law books, which he was duly given. He then proceeded to sell the books for 10 shillings.  Unfortunately for Mathew his employer, Mr Clermont and the bookseller Mr Shepherd were well known to each other, the game was up.  Mathew's defense was "I was in great distress"  meaning he was short of money and desperate, but that was no defense in the 1700's at the dock in London.  

This type of story is told over and over again in convict records, people in England, particularly in cities,  had low wages and barely enough to live on so in desperation turned to petty crime.  In the countryside they were losing jobs and homes and again became desperate to feed their families and survive the conditions in England at the time.

Temple Bar in the Strand, London, Thomas I. Malton. The Courtauld Institute of Art, D.1952.RW.4316. © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London.

Incarceration

The first prisoners ever taken to the hulks were admitted on 15 July 1776, so it seems likely that Mathew spent time on Hulks, and Newgate prison.  No records have been found yet to confirm which ship.  Life on the Hulks was hard, but during the day the prisoners were put to work, mostly as labourers.

Transportation

Mathew James Everingham was transported aboard the Vessel Scarborogh, captained by John Marshal, as part of the first fleet of convicts to Australia.  

Once arrived in Sydney, and being literate and well-educated, he was employed as a clerk to Assistant Commissary Zachariah Clark. Although punished with 25 lashes for "drunkenness and falsehoods," he gave evidence at the trial of Sarah Bellamy, and was moved to Rose Hill to assist Henry Dodd, supervising the "pitt sawyers and the women employed at needlework."  He also did work with a boat builder on the first boat to be built in Australia, called “The Rose Hill Packet”, otherwise known as‘The Lump’, and he worked on the Government farm at Rose Hill (Parramatta).   From this information, we get a picture of Mathew as a hard working and trusted convict.

Marriage

Three months before he became “free by servitude” in 1791, Mathew married Elizabeth Rimes (Rymes) at St Johns Church, Parramatta by Rev. Samuel Marsden.    My family has a strong link to this church in the early days of the colony.  Elizabeth was transported on the 2nd fleet.

St Johns Marriage Banns for Mathew and Elizabeth

Matthew and Elizabeth’s first child, Mary Everingham, was born in December 1791 and tragically died a month later, being one of 33 children who died in the Parramatta area in that same month, from a sudden unknown illness that killed them within 24 hours.  They went on to have 11 children in all.

By mid 1802 Mathew and Elizabeth are recorded on 50 acres at The Ponds cleared, 7 sown in wheat, 6 in maize) owning 14 pigs and holding 20 bushels in maize in store. He was still receiving a public ration, while his wife and 4 children were not.

In the months following the 1802 muster, the family moved to the frontiers of settlement in the Hawkesbury River where a 50 acre grant at Sackville Reach was registered in Matthew's name in April 1803.

Just a year later, in May 1804, the family was attacked by an aboriginal raiding party. Matthew, his wife and their Irish assigned convict worker were said to have suffered spear wounds and their house and barn were robbed and burned. Caves on the farm bore the hand marks and other artwork of the aboriginal people who had lived there for millennia. 

1804 report in Sydney Gazette

 

Recovering from their injuries, the couple worked hard to clear and cultivate the land, and by 1806 they had at least 19 acres cleared in wheat, 6 in maize, 1 in barley, 1 in potatoes, orchard and garden) They held 13 bushels of maize in store and owned 18 pigs, supporting themselves, 6 children, a convict and a free man. (In the 1980s the site of the farm was occupied by the Sackville Ski Gardens on the Tizzana road near the Sackville ferry.)

Matthew's property suffered floods in 1806 and 1909, in which he was brought close to ruin. He let the Sackville farm and moved his family to Green Hills where he was employed by the wealthy emancipate brewer and settler, Andrew Thompson. In Feb 1810 he was granted a wine and spirit license.

1810 Sydney Gazette

After Thompson's death in October 1810 (the same year) the family lived at his West Hill Red House Farm (modern McGraths Hill).   

It appears that Mathew went back to farming.  He was in financial difficulty in 1812 when his property was offered for sale by execution. He failed to sell  the Sackville farm, which was again ravaged by flood in 1811. The property was leased to his son Matthew and finally sold in 1820.

The Final Chapter

Mathew James Everingham died on 25th December, 1817 at Windsor.  The circumstances of his death were revealed at the inquest  By this time Mathew had become a district Constable at Portland Head as well as a farmer.  He appears to have fallen off the ship and  into the river and drowned accidentally.

Mathew James Everingham is buried at Wilberforce Cemetery.

Elizabeth Rimes died in December 1841and was buried on Knights Farm, 24 years later at Cumberland Reach.

Footnote:

The Australian Police History site has some very interesting family stories about Mathew Everingham and Elizabeth Rimes.  Elizabeth was said to have been married 5 times, Mathew was supposedly murdered, and an heir to the Everingham millions back in England.  Like most family stories they are probably an embellishment of the truth.

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More Information? If you are researching

Mathew james Everingham and Elizabeth Rimes

 and would like the sources for this story, 

please contact me or comment below.  I would be happy to collaborate with you.

Trial of Elizabeth Rimes

The trial of Mathew James Everingham

Thomas Bates b1766

THOMAS BATES - From common thief to an honest industrious character.

I wonder how Thomas felt, standing in the dock,  when he was sentenced to Death at the Old Bailey. A common enough sentence in those days. Fortunately, transportation was often used as an alternative to hanging or imprisonment for criminals in England.  From 1787-1868, criminals from the United Kingdom were transported to the British colonies in Australia as the American War of Independence had made it impossible to continue to send them to America.  Thomas Bates was one of them.

I am quite lucky that we know a lot about Thomas  after he was transported to the Colony.  Several documents exist, and they paint a story of survival, and the beginings of the colony.  The Clark branch of my family centred around the Parramatta & Auburn areas of NSW, and Thomas owned land in what is now Auburn.  He is just one of the several people in the family that appear to have been on the wrong side of the law.  Fortunately, Thomas seems to have become an upright person in society (with one significant slip up!) and future generations did the same.

His Beginnings

Thomas Bates was the son of John Bates and Elizabeth Wood who married on 28th February, 1746 at All Saints Church, Canterbury, England.  The family lived in the London area, which is where most of their children were born.

All Saints church

Thomas was born on 14th August, 1766 in London, and baptised at Saint Luke Old Street Church, Finsbury, London in September the same year.

St Luke Old Street church

The Old Baily and Transportation

This is all I know of him until he was committed for Trial in 1796 at the Old Bailey for stealing clothing and cloth.

Old Bailey C1808

Find out more about the trial

 

As often was the case, the sentence of death was commuted to Transportation, and records show Thomas Bates was on a hulk until it was carried out, although no hulk record has been found so far.   Convicted criminals like Bates, who were sentenced to transportation, were punished with imprisonment in prison hulks to work at hard labour prior to their transportation.    Life in prison hulks was hard, and death rates were high.

Thomas was transported in 1798 on "The Hillsborough"  The death rate on the journey of the Hillsborough was one of the highest of any convict ship, 95 of the 300 convicts died on the journey, and many more were ill when they arrived in Sydney in 1799.

When he arrived in Sydney, the Governor was John Hunter.  Hunter was a naval officer and was recalled to England  just after,  in 1800.

Hunter handed over to Lieutenant-Governor Philip Gidley King, who established Australia's first welfare institution (Female Orphan School) in 1801.  The school housed abandoned and orphaned children who were supposed to be educated, but were often put to work as servants and making clothing.

Life in Australia

Thomas Bates' early life in NSW, Australia as a convict was quite successful, he became a land and livestock owner and farmer and was given conditional emancipation in 1803 and a pardon in 1804.

Thomas Bates was one of the first people who owned land in what is now the Centre of Auburn.  An Heritage Study into the history of Auburn  gave me quite a lot of information about where Thomas had his land. 

Thomas married Mary Ann Katesby on 6th February, 1804 at St Johns Anglican Church, Parramatta, NSW, Australia.

St Johns Parramatta

Mary was also a convict, transported on the Earl Cornwallis in 1798 she had previously married a convict, John Johnson in 1802, but he died the next year in 1803.  They had one child, Mary Ann Johnson.

In April 1809, Lachlan Macquarie was appointed Governor of New South Wales.  Macquarie was Australia's longest serving governor, and led the penal colony to a free settlement through policies of economic and social development.  He is also remembered, however, for mistreatment of the aboriginal population.

Gov Macquarie

In the early years of their marriage, Thomas became a constable in Parramatta.  The family had 4 children (Margaret, John, James and Elizabeth) and owned 50 acres in what was then Greater Parramatta.  There are several reports of a Thomas Bates being a road repairer in Parramatta, as well as being granted a publican licence in Parramatta, but it is difficult to confirm the latter is the right Thomas Bates.

In 1815, we do know that Thomas apprehended the bushranger, John Fitzgerald at Concord, and he was given 10 pounds reward.   Fitzgerald was infamous for his exploits in the Hunter region and for escaping from gaol on several occasions, he died in notorious circumstances.

An insight into Thomas Bates can be found from a 'memorial' letter he wrote to Gov. Macquarie in 1820, where he describes himself as being of honest, industrious character.

The family were still landholders in Parramatta in 1822 when Thomas and his wife were charged with assaulting Maria Haslem (Maria & her husband appear to have owned land near to the Bates').

He fell from grace, and was dismissed from his position as Constable.  However, the situation is unclear, as he is still listed as a constable in 1823 & 1825, and still on the Colonial Secretary papers, being paid as a Constable in Parramatta.

What else is known?

That is the last we know, with any certainty, of Thomas Bates. There is family information that he  was involved int he uprising of Vinegar Hill and that he was  buried at the Devonshire Street Cemetery. The Devonshire Street Cemetery was eventually closed and the graves exhumed and moved to other cemeteries to make way for the Construction of Central Station in Sydney.

"Thomas Bates (1825)". Thomas was buried in the Church of England section. His remains were re-interred in Bunnerong Cemetery (Botany), Church of England Section 4S, plot 102. Johnson & Sainty transcribed the headstones back in 1969-1970. Gravestone Inscriptions NSW Volume 1, Sydney Burial Ground by K.A. Johnson and M.R. Sainty.

His wife, Mary Ann Bates is in the 1828 census, living in the household of John Thompson (her son in law), she is listed as Widow by this time, she died in December the same year.

More Information? If you are researching Thomas Bates and would like the sources for this story, please contact me or comment below.  I would be happy to collaborate with you.