Chapter 4: Van Dieman's Land

History is a symphony of echoes heard and unheard. It is a poem with events as verses. Charles Angoff

The land and its people

Figure 1 Tasmanian tribes 1810-1830 Oyster Bay, North East, North, Big River North Midlands, Ben Lomand, North West, South West and South East nations.

In 1642, the explorer Abel Tasman observed smoke from campfires. As a result, he named the island Van Diemen's Land after his benefactor.

The campfires were signs that the land was inhabited. These were the estimated 3,000-13,000 men, women and children known to themselves by their clan names. While their 100 clan names remain in the People's language, the nine nations are only English. For 40,000 years, they were the custodians of the land, its songs and stories. The island was not the end of the earth to them. To the People, it is their home. It is Trouwanna.

The land and its people were ancient. Then, in 1803, uninvited people came. Soldiers and convicts began to spread over the land of the ancestors. The inevitable clashes started. The battles and resistance of the People to protect Trouwanna was doomed. As the newcomers continued to come, build roads, stone towns, farms, and mines, and bring strange diseases, the encroachment of the newcomers pushed Trouwanna's people further inland. Settlers surveyed the traditional hunting grounds and ignored the natural rights of the People. Objecting to the incursions by the interlopers was met with extreme deadly force.

By Mary's arrival in 1826, the People were shot on-site as enemies of the State. Two years later, they were under martial law. The battle and the Black war continued with men, women and children of the People clans systematically murdered. Only a remnant was rescued and forcibly transported to the Furneaux Islands. There, against the odds, they protected their language and culture.

Figure 2 Nowhere was resistance to white colonisers greater than from Tasmanian Aborigines. Still, within a generation, only a few had survived the Black War. Robert Dowling/National Gallery of Victoria

Was Mary able to read a map? What stories had she heard? Van Diemen's Land would seem a strange island. Hobart is an unfamiliar and remote place. Coming from winter in the Northern hemisphere to summer in the South, she would first notice the change of seasons. The brightness of the sky, a blue that shimmered and clouds of pure white. The sun was burning her skin. The air filled with unfamiliar scents. From the ship, she could see the fledgling capital. Shabby bark huts by beach. Unpaved roads. Mountains, covered with strange trees. Not the familiar scream of seagulls, the same bird with a different tone. Then, flocks of screeching cockatoos and parakeets. These birds sang other songs. All would seem strange, similar but dangerously different. It would be easy to believe she had arrived at the end of the earth.

When Mary arrived in 1826, there was an assignment system where employers applied to the Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania for convict workers. Farm Hands and any skilled labourer was welcome. Women were ideal domestic servants, those with farm experience could work on the land. Employers now feed, cloth and assign work. Convicts were not slaves and could not be ill-treated or punished by their masters. A magistrate is called, and a case is heard. Only then, if guilty, can legal punishments be ordered.

Female convicts were not flogged like their male counterparts. But, instead, they were subject to harsh treatment for being drunk in public, falling pregnant, prostitution or theft. For example, a fellow prisoner on the Providence, Jane Brickhill, was sentenced to two hours in the stocks for drunkenness. It was harsh punishment at any time. Poor Jane was in the open in winter. And on a cold day, with a sharp wind, blowing from the river or the mountain, through the confined space in Murray-street, the punishment of sitting in the stocks must be a little short of torture. If a convict's behaviour were considered severe enough, she would be sent to one of the Female Factories.

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Figure 3 Illustration of stocks (Simon Barnard A-Z of Convicts)

In this system of Assignment, a convict was an unpaid worker. However, a well-behaved convict could get a Ticket of Leave, allowing the parolee to work for themselves and earn wages. For women, especially young women, sentenced to transportation, there was a hope that work as a domestic servant or marriage would lead to their social and moral rehabilitation.

The Assignment system was poorly organised and received many complaints in the press. Newly arrived convicts were being corrupted by "old Lags". A letter to the editor and the reply, which appeared in the Colonial Times on March 23 1827, mentions the many ways corruption ruined the newly arrived.

A young female by the Sir Charles Forbes, was assigned to a good place, where she was well fed and received good wages. By some means she got into bad company, who poisoned her mind against her master and mistress, and induced her by every means to leave her place. She grew insolent, lazy, and obstinate, and at length ran away.

Prisoners were allocated to positions as servants to families on arrival. Some exceptions were nursing mothers and some who were ill. Mary was assigned to William Effington Lawrence of Launceston. Having disembarked from the Providence in Hobart, she could have undertaken another voyage around the coast to Launceston, landing at Georgetown and upriver to one of his properties. However, failing this, along bumpy wagon ride was in store for her.

W. E. Lawrence was a wealthy landowner of several properties and companies in Launceston and the Tamar region. His wife, Mary Ann Lawrence, had produced three small children by the time Mary arrived. As Lawrence was a close friend of the great prison reformer Jeremy Bentham, it might be construed that Mary had arrived at an enlightened household. Lawrence was involved in education and civic duty and would become a distinguished Member of the Tasmanian Legislature. We could assume that he would be at least fair-minded. Bentham wrote Lawrence was "a worthier man, a more benevolent cosmopolite, never left any country; and very few better informed or more intelligent'.

When he died in 1841, his obituary extolled his value as a citizen held in high esteem.

'Mr Lawrence in his seat in the Council was foremost in advocating popular rights. He had a mind which soared above all petty notions of party politics or political manoeuvres. The colonists have lost a valuable friend, an able advocate, a disinterested patriot, by whom, through the constant and consistent exercise of independent principles—by pursuing an open and honourable course of public life, aided by the possession of superior talents and abilities—he had rendered himself greatly prized and esteemed'.

However, something did not sit well with Mary. Perhaps it was her nature or the trauma of her voyage, and something went wrong with the Assignment. It would be presumptuous to give an excuse for her behaviour. There were extenuating circumstances. She was a survivor, and to be so required strength of character. She was not a calm, easily managed girl. She was one of the many "guttersnipes" of Bethnal Green, and if not soliciting men, she was drinking with them intending to rob them. Her rebelliousness is evident in her behavioural record from Providence. While it may be biased, she was not a person described as having a good character.

She was uneducated, unrefined, undisciplined, and probably a reluctant servant. While Mary may have been, as a woman, historically silent, she was very vocal when in a temper. She quite likely did not "know her place". Her nature, well lubricated with alcohol, would explode without thought of consequence.

Six months into her Assignment with the Lawrence household, she is confined in the George Town Female Factory. On November 3, 1826, Peter Mulgrave, magistrate, sentences her to "confinement in a cell for a month. The first fortnight to be kept on bread and water". Following her sentence, she returns to her master's service.

Back with her master, she gets on with her work. For two years, Mary continues her work. Her temper is simmering under real or perceived slights. Then, on December 30, 1828, all hell broke loose. Drunk and abusive, she assaults Mr and Mrs Lawrence and their child. Mary returns to the Factory at George Town.

Figure 4 W.E. Lawrence Figure 5 Mary Ann Lawrence

Perhaps Mrs Lawrence, a wealthy and high bred woman, could not understand the anger wound up in Mary. Mary Ann Lawrence had come to Australia on a ship purchased by her future husband, William. She was part of the wealthy upper class. Mrs Lawrence enjoyed a life of privilege as the wife of the wealthiest landowner in Tasmania. Mary relied on her wits and cunning for survival.

It may have been a case of pure prejudice on both sides. Mary would have resented the wealthy Mrs Lawrence, and the latter may have seen in Mary a girl not to be redeemed. On the other hand, perhaps it was just a case of expectations. Mrs Lawrence would not train a servant. In England, a servant came as trained or trained through an apprenticeship system. A hierarchy exists in the culture of servants, and one worked their way through the ranks. An untrained convict girl already marked by her short hair could have endured the taunts of the free servants.

Mary's service record is a strong indicator of either her inability to settle or her unwillingness to submit to her new surroundings. Governor George Arthur ruled the Colony from 1824 to 1836. He insisted "every convict should be regularly and strictly accounted for and that the whole course of their conduct should be registered from the day of their landing until the period of their emancipation or death."

Mary's Convict Service Record (below) lists her employment and the crimes committed during her seven-year sentence.

Mary Davis /Police Number 60/ Ship - Providence 2. 1826 London May 19 1825. 7 [years]

60 Davis – Mary

Providence 2 Transported larceny from the person. Goal Report: here before. Single.

Stated the offence stealing wearing apparel from a man once. Acquitted for stealing from a man once for shoplifting one-month House of Correction. Single

November 3 1826. W, E, Lawrence Esq/abscond from her masters service – to be confined in cell in the Factory at Geo Twn. One month and on fortnight of that time to be kept on bread and water and afterwards retn to her master's service (P.A.M)

December 30, 1828 Lawrence esq/ Drunk and assaults Mrs Lawrence and her infant child also with assaults on her Master W.E. Lawrence Esq and being most violently abusive yesterday. – 12 mths hard labour in the Factory at George Town. After that one-month solitary confinement – 14 days on B&W. To have her head shaved on entry to the Factory and on leaving it (P.A.M and F.C.S)

January 31, 1828 Bently/ Drunk disorderly conduct and Insolence – to be sent to the Factory for 6 months and have her head shaved (P.A.M)

February 1, 1829 House of Correction abscond from female Factory – to be confined in a cell on B&W only for 14 days. (J. Darcy)

February 14 1829 House of Correction Rioting Dist conduct in the C Class Ward in the House of Correction and endeavoured to set fire to the building at the height of the 8th Inst – sol cell 7 days (P.S)

May 20, 1829 P. Graham/ Absent herself from her masters house

without permission and being intoxicated yesterday. Cell on B&W 7 days and C Class House of Correction. P.S./6/

Feb 1830 Rev W Bedford/ Abscond from her service in company with Robt Cowburn 6 week back Remaining absent until she was delivered […] morning to Constable Hickman by Robt Cowburn to be placed in the H of Correction until the pleasure of his Excellency is known.

Mary's response to work was in keeping with about a third of convict women. One third settled into their new surroundings and made the best of it. Some were admonished, but for the most part, they kept their heads down and got on the best they could. The next third was often in trouble, absconding, drunk, and abusive behaviour towards their masters. The final group were hardened criminals who resisted any form of rehabilitation. These women were not always violent, but they did refuse to comply with regulations and work details. They sang riotous songs and engaging in prostitution and stealing. This group used standover methods to extract sexual favours from fellow prisoners.

An examination of Mary's conduct record places her in the "C" Class or Criminal 3rd Class. On seven occasions, her behaviour was so bad she was sent to the House of Corrections. Her head was shaved, and she spent weeks in solitary confinement on bread and water. Her fellow Newgate Prisoners had varying levels of success in transitioning from convict to free person.

Elizabeth Blacklock, one of the Newgate group, married another convict, William Sumpter, on August 15, 1827. Sumpter had arrived in Sydney in 1803 and was transferred to Tasmania in 1817. A lifer who made his living as a sawyer and, like Elizabeth, was in his mid-forties when married. Elizabeth and William seem to have found a life in the Colony.

By contrast, Julia Mullins led a tumultuous life in and out of the Female Factory system. She continued to ply her trade as a prostitute. When arrested in London, a prostitute "living on the town" continued her career in Tasmania. Julia gathered to herself the proverbial "record as long as your arm". She made two unsuccessful applications to marry. The first was a free man George McNish in 1832 and convict Alexander McDonald in 1836. In 1829 she gave birth to a daughter Anne Mullins, father unknown. Anne was born in the House of Correction. Once weaned, the child would be in the care of the orphanage. Her son John Robinson was born in February 1835. John's father was a seaman. Little John was also born in the House of Correction went on to the orphanage. Julia was often absconding, found drunk in a disorderly house. She suffered many punishments in the House of Correction. Poor Julia came to an untimely end in 1892. Aged 56 years, she accidentally suffocated to death.

The youngest prisoner of the group, Elizabeth Stenson, spent time in George Town Factory. After being denied permission three times to marry Phillip Walker in 1929 and Robert Ayton in 1831, she finally married Thomas Shackel in 1832. Thomas was a free man managing Scone Farm, a large estate with 27 employees. Elizabeth had landed on her feet.

Ann Margaret Wright was sentenced to death and transported for life. She married a widower George Edwards in 1828. The marriage was not happy by all accounts. In 1830 she attempted to abscond and escaped on the Phoenix. She set sail with the captain of the ship who abandoned her in India. Eventually discovered as a runaway convict she was imprisoned in Calcutta and returned to Van Diemans Land. The failed attempt meant six months in the Cascades Factory.

She had a formidable temper. In 1833 she "feloniously and unlawfully and maliciously cut and wounded …her husband in divers places with intent to murder him". Ann received a pardon in 1846. However, in 1853 she was before the courts again. This time for swinging a frying pan at her husband. She is given seven years and is released after 18 months. Six years later, in 1859, she returned to jail for drunkenness and died of consumption in September 1860.

The Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser had boasted the women from the Providence were "of a very superior class to those who had recently been sent here". The assertion that convict women were uncorrupted before disembarkation seems quite naïve.

The women with Mary were hardened and wily survivors by the time they were ready to disembark. Considering Mary and other women on the ship, the previous women must have been quite a handful. Included in the article is mention of thirty to forty females who came out as free settlers. More women are needed to counter the imbalance of the sexes in the Colony of "ten to one, males to females."

Life for Mary was about to become a series of punishments as she continued to live a riotous life.

She then makes a decision that will bring her into more danger and harm.