North American Political Prisoners in Van Diemen's Land
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Document generated on 09/30/2021 1:22 a.m. Ontario History One Way Ticket to a Penal Colony North American Political Prisoners in Van Diemen’s Land John C. Carter Consequences of Rebellious Acts: The 1837 & 1838 Rebellions Article abstract Volume 101, Number 2, Fall 2009 This article will focus on the plight of ninety-three English speaking, North American political prisoners who were given a one-way ticket and ended up in URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065618ar the Van Diemen’s Land penal system, as a result of their involvement in the DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065618ar incursions into Upper Canada and the associated rebellious acts committed in 1838. The end of rebellion in Canada was the beginning of experiences See table of contents significant to the historical record in Australia. The capture, incarceration and transportation of Patriot exiles to Van Diemen’s Land and the stories of their imprisonment, release and repatriation form an intriguing episode in Australia’s and Canada’s twinned heritage. Publisher(s) The Ontario Historical Society ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Carter, J. C. (2009). One Way Ticket to a Penal Colony: North American Political Prisoners in Van Diemen’s Land. Ontario History, 101(2), 188–221. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065618ar Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2009 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ 188 ONTARIO HISTORY One Way Ticket to a Penal Colony North American Political Prisoners in Van Diemen’s Land* By John C. Carter Introduction an enormous cost? Would it not be better to employ them in making and repairing uring a visit to Quebec City in July the roads, or in some other way useful to Dof 1836, Scottish advocate James the internal policy of the colony, than to Logan commented upon convicts he saw transport them at great expense, and to their who had come from Montreal and were own deterioration? The inexperienced are to be sent to hulks in Great Britain. He brought into contact with the hardened in wrote: crime, whose advice they cannot but follow, and they are thus landed in Britain more This certainly is an absurd arrangement. depraved than they were before.”1 Why do they not employ all the criminals in the colonies in improvements there, instead Despite Logan’s musings, the practice of of taking them home or to Botany Bay, at England transporting prisoners as pun- *The author would like to thank Angelina French, Peter Fielding, John Thompson, Stephanie Burbury, Mary Ramsay, Graham Ryrie and Chris Raible for their assistance in the preparation of this article. Abbreviations: AO = Archives of Ontario LAC = Library & Archives Canada (formerly NA or PAC) BPP = British Parliamentary Papers THAO = Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office CO = Colonial Office Files TRL=Toronto Reference Library GO = Governor’s Office Despatches 1 James Logan, Notes of a Journey Through Canada, the United States of America, and the West Indies (Edinburgh, 1838), 23. Ontario History / Volume CI No. 2 / Autumn 2009 189 ishment for their transgres- sions continued. Abstract Penal transportation This article will focus on the plight of ninety-three Eng- was not a new punishment lish speaking, North American political prisoners who for prisoners from British were given a one-way ticket and ended up in the Van North America. Only a frac- Diemen’s Land penal system, as a result of their involve- tion of those shipped out ment in the incursions into Upper Canada and the as- sociated rebellious acts committed in 1838. The end of ended up in Van Diemen’s rebellion in Canada was the beginning of experiences Land or New South Wales. significant to the historical record in Australia. The cap- A significant proportion ture, incarceration and transportation of Patriot exiles served their time on the Eng- to Van Diemen’s Land and the stories of their impris- lish hulks. A large number, onment, release and repatriation form an intriguing episode in Australia’s and Canada’s twinned heritage. notably 350 sent to Bermu- da in the first decade of op- Résumé: Nous étudierons dans cet article la situation erations and a lesser number critique dans laquelle se retrouvèrent 93 prisonniers politiques américains qui furent déportés en Australie à sent to Gibraltar, came from la suite de leur participation aux incursions dans le Haut- both the criminal courts Canada et aux actes de rébellion qui y furent commis and courts martial. After en 1838. La capture, l’emprisonnement puis la déporta- 1841, only military convicts tion de Patriotes à Van Diemen’s Land, l’histoire de leur were shipped out of British séjour dans cette colonie pénale, puis leur libération et leur rapatriement, est un épisode qui retient l’attention North America. Penal trans- dans l’héritage commun du Canada et de l’Australie. portation, banishment and forced military service were seen as an alternative to capital punish- focus on the ninety-three4 English speak- ment.2 This decision would have a direct ing, North American political prisoners. impact upon 150 political prisoners3 cap- They were given a one-way ticket and tured during the 1838 rebellions in Up- ended up in the Van Diemen’s Land penal per and Lower Canada. This article will system, as a result of their involvement in 2 For more on transportation of convicts from British North American, see Patricia Kennedy, “Seek- ing suitable punishments,” The Archivist (May-June 1988), v.15, #3, 4-6, and James Rees, “Horrors of a Prison Ship,” United States Military Magazine (1840-41), v.2, 83-4. 3 The first 9 men were sent to Van Diemen’s Land aboard theMarquis of Hastings which arrived in Hobart Town in July 1839. Four more arrived in January 1840 aboard the Canton. Initially there was confusion as to the final destination of these13 men. After sentencing, an Irish newspaper reported that they would be placed on “the York prison ship in that habour [sic], to be ultimately transported to New South Wales.” See “The Canadian Prisoners,”The (Monaghan) Northern (26 January 1839). In handwrit- ten notes, William Lyon Mackenzie recorded that among prisoners tried by Jonas Jones at Niagara in July 1838, that James Gambel [sic], Samuel Chandler, Linus Miller, John Grant, James Waggoner and J.J. MacNulty [sic] were to be transported to Botany Bay. See Mackenzie-Lindsey Papers, Clipping #4682, n.d., Archives of Ontario. The third group consisting of 79 captured in Upper Canada and 58 captured in Lower Canada were sent to Hobart and Sydney aboard the H.M.S. Buffalo. 4 Benjamin Mott was transported on the Buffalo but did not land in Van Diemen’s Land with those 190 ONTARIO HISTORY the incursions into Upper Canada and triot Robert Marsh reflected the mood the associated rebellious acts committed along the border at this time: “It was all in 1838. excitement in Buffalo, Cleveland, De- troit and all along the frontier...the whole Background country was awake; many and strong fter the initial rebellions against were the inducements for young as well ABritish rule in Upper and Lower as married men, to engage in so glorious Canada in 1837 were put down, many a cause.”5 Accounts in period newspapers rebels fled to adjoining American bor- warned of pending dangers in various der states. There, American sympathizers quarters.6 augmented their numbers. Their cause Between January and December of was not dead, and in 1838, convinced 1838, at least ten incidents of armed inva- of support for a popular uprising against sion and rebellious acts occurred, which what they perceived as British “oppres- ignored neutrality laws established by the sion and tyranny,” Patriot Forces banded United States and violated the sovereign together to renew their efforts to “liber- authority of Canada.7 With prisoners be- ate” the Canadas from British rule. Pa- ing taken at the Schooner Anne, Pelee captured in Upper Canada, but went on to New South Wales with the rest of the prisoners captured in Lower Canada. Mott was returned to Van Diemen’s Land in February 1844 and worked in Hobart for the American Consul, Elijah Hathaway. He became the 93rd English-speaking Patriot in the Van Diemen’s Land penal system. 5 Robert Marsh, Seven Years of My Life, or a Narrative of a Patriot Exile (Buffalo, 1847), 7. 6 See the Cobourg Star (3 January 1838), v.5, #14, 2, c.2, on activities in Buffalo, theCobourg Star (21 February 1838), v.5, #21, 3, c.2, for a description of feelings and events on the Michigan Frontier. See “In- troductory Address,” Canadian Quarterly Agricultural and Industrial Magazine (May 1838), v.1, #1, 13, for the impact on farmers and agriculture in Upper Canada. See Kingston Chronicle and Gazette (6 January 1838), v.14, #55, 1, for news from the Niagara Frontier, and the Western Herald (23 January 1838), v.1, #2, 11-13 on events in the Western District. 7 See Appendix A for a listing of these events. For details about several of these incursions, see R. Alan Douglas, Uppermost Canada (Detroit, 2001), 157-176, John C. Carter, “Rebellious Acts in the Western District of Upper Canada: Precursor to Transportation to Van Diemen’s Land,” Australasian Canadian Studies Journal (2004 & 2005), v.22 & 23, 33-66, Stuart Scott, To the Outskirts of Habitable Creation (New York, 2004), 42-117, and Robert E.