The First Fleet leaves Portsmouth

One of the projects during this period of social / physical isolation is to begin compiling information about the family history. Last term my seven year old grandson was asking questions about the convicts when he discovered that we have twelve convicts in our family including two who came on the First Fleet.

Today I decided to revisit the database, British Library Newspapers, which can be accessed from the website of the State Library of Victoria by those with a library card. Other major libraries will probably provide a similar service. The database provides access to digitised copies of articles published in Britain from the 1700s.

I used the advanced search option allowing me to search for a variety of terms such as "Botany Bay" and "Portsmouth" or "Botany Bay" and "Convicts" or just "Botany Bay" and restricting the time period of the search using the dates between option. I experimented  with a number of options.

Clicking the images below will provide a larger image.

On the surface the departure of the First Fleet for Botany Bay did not create much interest in the local press but aspects of the story can be discovered by exploring references to the departure of the ships during 1787.
 
The First Fleet left the Motherbank, Portsmouth, on 13 May 1787. From the beginning of the year convicts had left the gaols in which they had been imprisoned and loaded into wagons for the journey to Portsmouth. The Chelmsford Chronicle March 2 1787 carries a short report from the House of Commons, 26 February 1787.

 

On 7 May 1787 the Hampshire Chronicle added the following information about new convict arrivals aboard ships.

 

The following information about the ships at Portsmouth was provided on March 19 1787 in the Hampshire Chronicle. The paragraph in Home News listed the names of the ships that would be sailing to Botany Bay and also noted the captains of each ship and number of convicts and others on the vessels.

The Norfolk Chronicle reported on May 12 1787 that the fleet was ready to sail the next day.

A report dated 13 May appeared in the Northampton Mercury May 19 1787 that the ships had sailed that morning. The frigate, Hyaena, was to accompany them for the first part of the journey.

 The Hereford Journal May 17 1787 announced that the ships had sailed for Botany Bay.

A report on the initial progress of the fleet appeared in the Norfolk Chronicle May 26 1787 providing a quote forom a letter from Plymouth dated May 16.

Another short report in the Leeds Intelligencer May 22 1787 provided the coordinates of the ships when last sighted.

Over the ensuing months the newspapers provided information about the progress of the fleet either when a ship arriving in England reported a sighting of the ships or carried letters from First Fleet ships' officers.

The Hyaena brought a letter from an officer of the Friendship dated 20 May. A summary appeared in the Northampton Mercury 9 June 1787.

  Another report appeared in the Northampton Mercury June 30 1787.

The Hampshire Chronicle 30 July 1787 published part of a letter dated June 5 from Teneriffe written by an officer.

The ships of the First Fleet arrived in Rio de Janeiro in August to restock the food supply. This information appeared in the Stamford Mercury November 30 1787.

These snippets of information provide useful information on the commencement of the First Fleet voyage.

52 Ancestors #2 William Roberts

William Roberts is the second member of my family who travelled to Australia with the First Fleet aboard the Scarborough.

The book, A Rich Inheritance: William Roberts and Kezia Brown - their background and their family published c 1988, contains two volumes of research providing information about William Roberts and his family. Since then resources on the Internet have helped provide additional information.

William Roberts was born in Cornwall, England possibly in 1756. Family trees on Ancestry suggest that his father was John Roberts (1717-1792) while his mother was Jane Lugg (1727-1793). They were from St Keverne, Cornwall. The Cornwall OPC Database provides information about birth, death, marriage and other records in Cornwall. On 28 August 1757 a William Roberts (son of John and Jane Roberts) was baptised at St Keverne. On 1 July 1778 at Helston, Cornwall, William Roberts married Mary Russell (1757-1802). They had three children, Mary, William and Robert who was born after his father had been arrested.

In August 1786 a Launceston newspaper reported that at the Bodmin Assizes William Roberts was tried for stealing five and a half pound weight of yarn, the property of William Moffat of Launceston. William was sentenced to seven years transportation. He was a prisoner at the Bodmin Jail which had opened in 1779 so conditions were possibly not as bad as in some of the other gaols in the country. During the day the male prisoners were employed at tasks such as sawing wood, cutting and polishing grave stones or weaving on the prison looms.

On the 25 September 1786 William was transferred to the hulk, Dunkirk, anchored at Plymouth. Hulks were old ships used to house prisoners. During the day the convicts usually worked in chain gangs carrying out tasks such as dredging or working on the roads. At night the convicts slept in an over crowded area between the decks. William remained on the hulk until 21 March 1787 when he was transferred to the transport ship, Charlotte. Ten days later he was transferred to the transport ship, Scarborough. On 13 May 1787 the First Fleet left Plymouth and spent the next eight months travelling to New South Wales. Details of this arduous trip can be found in an earlier post on this blog First Fleet Voyage to Australia.They arrived in Sydney Harbour on 26 January 1788.

Almost two and a half years after his trial William arrived in this new colony on the other side of the world from his family in Cornwall, including a son he probably never saw. He now had to make a new life. Initially the convicts would have lived in tents and later wattle and daub huts. The climate was very different from home in Cornwall. Apart from anything else the seasons were back to front. Arriving in New South Wales in the middle of summer would provided a challenge to the convicts and soldiers in the new colony. The ships had brought provisions but it was necessary for crops to be planted to sustain the colony and herds of animals to be developed from those brought out on the ships. The land around the first settlement proved unsuitable for the growing of crops so it was necessary to look for better land that could be used for farming. There was a shortage of skilled labour among the convicts required to build the new settlement. So far no record has stated William's occupation in Cornwall but he may have possessed some carpentry skills as family stories suggest that he had worked in this field in his first years in the colony.

William's seven year sentence ended in August 1793. Convicts were allowed to remarry after seven years separation from their former spouse so on 14 August 1793 William married Kezia Brown, a convict who had arrived in New South Wales with the Second Fleet. They were married at St Phillip's Church in Sydney by the first clergyman in the colony, Richard Johnson. William and Kezia already had two children, William and Mary, and then added a further eight children to the family, Sarah, James, John, Robert, Maria, Harriett, Ann and Edward.

Like many of the convicts, William appears to have had little formal education - when he signed his will he signed it with his mark - however this was not a barrier to making a successful living in the colony. Once he was free, William became a farmer. On 8 January 1794 he received a grant of 30 acres of land near Sydney. In September 1800 he sold the land for sixty pounds. In 1796 William Roberts received, from Governor Hunter, a grant of 50 acres of land in the district of Mulgrave Place (near Windsor). Initially William rented some of this land to other settlers thus earning additional money to support his growing family and purchase additional land. In June 1809 William purchased 50 acres from Thomas Hobby. The land was known as Hobby's Farm. He later purchased additional land in the town of Windsor. By all accounts William made a success of farming. The General Muster of 1822, two years after his death, described Hobby Farm as comprising of 20 acres of wheat, 8 acres of maize, 6 acres of barley and half an acre of potatoes. Half an acre of the property was devoted to a garden and orchard. The rest of the land was pasture. At the time of the muster there were 40 cattle and 50 pigs.

William Roberts died on 14 February 1820 aged about 64. He was buried at St Matthew's Anglican Church Cemetery in Windsor.

He was my great (x4) grandfather.

52 Ancestors #1 George Guest

Amy Johnson Crow decided to include in her blog, No Story Too Small, a blog post each week for a year about an individual ancestor and issued a challenge to other bloggers to do the same - 52 ancestors in 52 weeks.

 

I am a few weeks behind but Australia Day seems a good time to start a similar project. On 26 January 1788 ships of the First Fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour. Two of my ancestors were aboard those convict ships - George Guest on board the Alexander and William Roberts aboard the Scarborough. George Guest is the subject of the first post in this series.

 George Guest was born in Gloucestershire, England possibly on 31 March 1765. He was a labourer but his life changed dramatically when on the 24 October 1873, at the age of 18, he was arrested for stealing animals. At the Gloucestershire Lent Assizes on 24 March 1784 he was convicted for stealing, with force and arms, ten live pigs, goods and chattels of John Hathaway and a chestnut mare plus goods and chattels of Thomas Wills. Stealing livestock, particularly a horse, was considered a major crime resulting in the death sentence, however George received a reprieve with the sentence commuted to transportation to America. After the American War of Independence this was later changed to transportation to New South Wales.

In February 1787 George was transferred to the Alexander in Portsmouth Harbour. The ship left Portsmouth on 17 May 1787 for the eight month journey to New South Wales. Two hundred and eight male convicts were aboard the ship when it left Portsmouth. Charles Bateson in his book, Convict Ships 1787 to 1868, describes the experiences of the convicts on this long trip.

More than four years after his arrest George arrived in New South Wales. It is difficult to imagine the shock that the convicts and soldiers must have felt arriving at what was to be their new home which had no settlement as they knew it but was just bush. The vegetation was very different from that in England with plants that they had never seen before. The Aboriginal people living near the harbour lived a very different lifestyle from Europeans. The animals and birds were strange and they had arrived in the middle of an Australian summer. Still the convicts would have had little time to think about their surroundings as shelters had to be erected and a source of fresh water located. Gradually the settlement evolved.

On 7 January 1790 George Guest travelled with a number of other convicts aboard the Supply to the new settlement at Norfolk Island. This first settlement, established in February 1788, on the island was an experiment to try and establish crops to supply the main colony at Port Jackson. Twenty-three people made up the original settlers including 15 convicts. They all had trades that may be useful in the new settlement. During the week the convicts worked for the government but on Saturdays they were allowed to clear land and plant their own vegetables. As well as planting crops  the men built huts for the new settlement. Fishing supplied a regular source of food. However there were problems including plagues of rats, ground worms and grubs as well as weevils in the wheat seed and parrots feasting on newly planted crops.

When George arrived on Norfolk Island the population had grown to 150. The ships, Sirius and Supply then brought another 200 convicts plus supplies. but unfortunately the Sirius hit a reef  and every effort was made to rescue as many of the supplies as possible. Martial law was declared and rations were halved. The colony was saved by the arrival of flocks of shearwaters that could be used as meat as well as provide eggs. With supplies of food scarce severe floggings were the punishment for anyone caught stealing food.Consequently when the Supply returned to the island on 7 August 1790 with plenty of provisions as well as another group of convicts it was a welcome sight. Mary Bateman was one of the convicts aboard the ship.

George Guest and Mary Bateman were soon living together. When the Rev Richard Johnson visited the island from Port Jackson in 1791 he performed a number of marriages and baptisms. On 9 November 1791 he married George and Mary. Between 1792 and 1804 George and Mary had five children - Sarah, George, John, Mary and William. (As not all records of births and deaths have survived there may have been other children.) We do know that Mary died on the island aged one year.

Until 1793 George was still a convict. He was reported to have been flogged on several occasions for telling a lie to Major Ross, for 'neglect of duty' and for employing convicts without permission. Despite these setbacks he started to build a life for his family on the island. After receiving his pardon he continued to receive rations until 1794. In 1796 he was granted 14 acres of land and was then able to supply the government with maize and pork. He gradually increased his acreage and purchased purchased sheep. He is reputed to have acquired 250 acres of land and built his flock to 600 ewes and 342 wethers by 1805. Life on Norfolk Island was not easy and the settlers faced many challenges. A number of books have been written about this period of history on Norfolk Island - Convicts and Commandants of Norfolk Island 1788-1855 by Margaret Hazzard being one of them. However George continued to acquire land and was considered by Major Foveaux to be a most industrious settler.

When the first Norfolk Island settlement was to be closed, George and his family were offered land in Van Diemen's Land as compensation for loss of property in the island. In September 1805 George and his family left Norfolk Island. George was now 40 and most of the rest of his life was spent arguing with authorities about his entitlement. Records show that he frequently sailed to Sydney from Hobart and back to put his case for what he considered he was owed. In January 1806 he was granted 24 acres at Macquarie Point but he considered he was entitled to a further 400 acres.

When Governor Bligh travelled to Hobart in July 1809 after being ousted from Sydney, George Guest was listed as one of the men in Hobart who provided fresh provisions for the Governor on board his ship on the Derwent. In Van Diemen's Land George once again acquired property though disputes about transactions continued. One of his properties was the Seven Star Inn in Campbell Street, Hobart which he owned until his death.

As the signature of George Guest shows, like many of the convicts, he could not write his name when he came to the colony. However lack of education did not stop him from becoming a successful, if disgruntled, land owner and businessman. One suspects that George may not have been an easy man to live with. Life was not necessarily easy in the new colonies and each of the locations that he moved to was newly established. When his family moved to Van Diemen's Land in 1805 the initial settlement at Hobart Town had only been established for a year. With each move the family would need to start over again and face the challenges of a new settlement. George Guest died in Hobart on 23 March 1841 aged 75. He was buried at St David's Cemetery.

George Guest was my great (x4) grandfather.

Web Link:
First Fleet Fellowship Victoria - George Guest

The First Fleet ships - notes

Eleven ships made up the First Fleet:

Transports

Alexander

Charlotte

Friendship

Lady Penrhyn

Prince of Wales

Scarborough

Store-ships

Borrowdale

Fishburn

GoldenGrove

Warships

Sirius

Supply

The transports were fitted out for the journey at Deptford on the Thames before travelling to Woolwich, Plymouth and / or Portsmouth to collect their cargo of prisoners.



Seven hundred and fifty-nine convict (568 male and 191 female) travelled on the First Fleet. However in total there were almost 1500 people aboard the eleven ships including naval and merchant seamen and other officers and crew including cooks and carpenters who sailed the ships,  marines and some family members of crew plus children of some female convicts. The expedition to the other side of the world was to establish a convict settlement and marines were required to help establish and maintain the settlement.

Convicts aboard the transports at time of sailing:

Alexander 195 male convicts

Charlotte 88 male & 20 female convicts

Friendship 76 male & 21 female convicts

Lady Penrhyn 101 female convicts

Prince of Wales 1 male convict & 49 female convicts

Scarborough 208 male convicts

Forty convicts (36 male and 4 female) died from time of embarkation to arrival at Port Jackson.

Deaths aboard the convict ships:

Between embarkation and sailing 16 male & 1 female convicts

Between the Motherbank & Teneriffe 7 male & 1 female convict

At Teneriffe 1 male convict

Between Teneriffe & Rio de Janeiro 5 male & 1 female convicts

Between Rio de Janeiro & Port Jackson 7 male & 1 female convicts

First hand accounts of the voyage of the First Fleet have been recorded in surviving logbooks of the ships and diaries of crew on some ships.

The ships left the Motherbank on 13 May 1787 and arrived in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788.
The journey to Botany Bay took the Supply 256 days to complete, the Alexander, Friendship and Scarborough 257 days and the rest of the fleet 258 days.

• Bateson, Charles. The convict ships 1787-1868. Library of Australian History, 2004
• King, Jonathan. Australia's First Fleet: the voyage and the re-enactment 1788 / 1988. Robertsbridge & Fairfax Magazines, 1988

First Fleet Voyage to Australia

Two members of my family were convicts travelling to Australia on the First Fleet.

George Guest (also written in some records as Gess) was born at Prestbury, Gloucester in 1767. On 4 March 1784 at Gloucester Lenten Assizes he was sentenced to death on two counts of theft for stealing ten live pigs and a chestnut mare. The sentence was reduced to seven years transportation to America. Initially the seventeen year old was taken to the hulk Censor. At the end of February 1787 George was transferred to the Alexander to leave for New South Wales with the First Fleet.

William Roberts was born in the Cornwall region possibly in 1755. Little is known about his life in England. At Bodmin Assizes in August 1786 William Roberts was charged with stealing five pound and half weight of yarn, property of Wm Moffatt of Launceston resulting in a sentence of 7 years transportation. He was taken to the hulk, Dunkirk moored in Plymouth Harbour where he was kept with other prisoners until he was transferred initially to the convict ship Charlotte and finally to the convict ship Scarborough during March 1787.

The Alexander was the largest transport ship in the First Fleet measuring 114.3 feet in length and 31 feet wide. The barque built  ship with a quarter deck consisted of two decks without galleries or figurehead and had three masts. Two sets of figures have been provided for the weight of the ship but it was probably between 445 and 452 tons. The master of the ship was Duncan Sinclair, the surgeon was William Balmain and there were 195 male convicts aboard when the ship sailed.

The Scarborough was slightly smaller than the Alexander measuring 111 feet 6 inches in length and 30 feet 2 inches wide. The height between decks was 4 feet 5 inches. The ship consisted of two decks, had three masts and was rigged as a barque. Two sets of figures have been provided for the weight of the ship but it was probably between 411 and 418 tons. Another record provides the weight as 430 tons. The master of the ship was John Marshall, the surgeon was Denis Considen and there were 208 male convicts aboard when the ship sailed.

Most of the convicts on the Alexander embarked at Woolwich on January 6, 1787 though a few were boarded at Portsmouth. The convicts boarded the Scarborough at Portsmouth. Gales and bad weather delayed the loading of convicts and provisions on all the ships but eventually they anchored off the Motherbank near Ryde on the Isle of Wright across from Portsmouth. A plaque on the seawall at Ryde commemorates the departure of the First Fleet. Sixteen men from the Alexander died as the waited from March to May for the ship to sail. Some of the bodies of convicts who died at this time are buried at St Anne's Church on the Isle of Wight. It has been suggested that a reason for the high number of deaths was because a number of the convicts had been in poor health when they left the gaols.

The ships left England on Sunday 13 May 1787. On 20 May trouble was reported to be brewing on the Scarborough when the master of the ship was informed of a possible plot being organised by a group of convicts to take control of the ship. Two convicts were transferred to the Sirius where they each received 24 lashes before being transferred, in irons, to the Prince of Wales.  The ships then continued on the journey to Teneriffe arriving on 3 June. By this time there had been another five deaths on the Alexander and 21 prisoners were on the sicklist. The convict quarters on the ships were overcrowded and  infested with rats, cockroaches, bugs and other vermin. For the first week at sea the convicts were still in irons but once these were removed they had more freedom to move around and experience the novelty of being at sea. At Teneriffe the prisoners received the luxury of fresh food. John Powers, a convict from the Alexander, tried to escape in the jolly-boat but was recaptured the next day.

Leaving Teneriffe the weather was extremely hot with frequent rain squalls and little wind making progress in sailing difficult. With this leg of the trip taking longer than anticipated the daily water ration was reduced. The ships crossed the equator on July 14 with the sailors and marines paying tribute to King Neptune. The winds had improved so the water ration was increased to two quarts per person each day. The ships arrived at Rio de Janiero on 5 August where they stayed until 4 September checking the ships and replenishing supplies.

Under sail again the ships experienced storms and heavy seas resulting in the ships rolling and pitching and shipping water. The winds allowed the ships to travel quickly but the prison quarters would have been constantly wet, the convicts seasick and not allowed on deck. The conditions for the convicts must have been horrendous. Generally, though, the prisoners were well behaved except for one group who planned to escape once the ship reached the Cape of Good Hope. Three seamen helped these convicts obtain an iron crowbar and other possible weapons but the plot was revealed before the ship reached the Cape. John Powers, the ringleader of the group, was transferred to the Siruis where he spent the rest of the voyage in irons nailed to the deck and the seamen involved in the plot were also transferred to the Sirius. The informer spent the rest of the voyage aboard the Scarborough. It was not only the prisoners who were at times troublesome but the conditions and length of the voyage were also reported as affecting the tempers of the officers and crew on some of the ships. Crew members who misbehaved were severely punished with marines on the Scarborough receiving between 50 to 150 lashes for offences. The ships finally arrived at Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on 11 October.

The next month was once again spent obtaining supplies for the ships. Fresh food was available most days when in port which must have been a welcome change from slated and dry rations. The Dutch were not helpful in making available provisions but Captain Phillip and his officers purchased any livestock and fodder offered. The animals travelled primarily on the Sirius and the three storeships but the female convicts on the Friendship were transferred to the Lady Penrhyn, the Charlotte and the Prince of Wales to make way for sheep.

The fleet of ships left Cape Town on 13 November. Initially there were good winds but a week into the journey the ships were becalmed. This was the followed by a period of strong winds and high seas . By the 25th the weather was again moderate and the decision was made that the Supply accompanied by the Alexander, the Friendship and the Scarborough would go on ahead of the other ships. The weather grew colder as they sailed through gales and heavy seas. Once again the ships pitched and rolled and were swamped by water. The only diversion was the sighting of whales and seabirds including albatrosses, petrels, garnets and gulls. By December 6 the ships entered thick fog which must have been a frightening experience for all on board, especially for the convicts  once again confined below deck, as the ships rang their bells and fired the guns on the warship to alert each other of their position in the fog. The weather was extremely cold and the convicts must have suffered with only their normal clothes and one blanket to keep them warm. By 22 December the weather was again fine with a good sailing wind and the ships made good progress. On 5 January the coast of Van Diemen's land was sighted. Heavy seas again as the ships sailed up the Australian coast and the three transports arrived at Botany Bay on 19 January, one day after the arrival of the Supply. The remaining ships arrived the following day.

The ships on the voyage from England to Botany Bay had travelled 15,063 miles and had taken between 250 and 252 days to complete the journey. The average daily run was approximately 82 miles with an average speed slightly exceeding 3 knots per hour.

Captain Phillip decided that Sydney Cove would make a better settlement than Botany Bay so the eleven ships sailed into Port Jackson on 26 January.

• Bateson, Charles. The convict ships 1787-1868. Library of Australian History, 2004