FOUNDERS & SURVIVORS The convict nursery at the Cascades Female Factory, Hobart Rebecca Kippen

One of the primary aims of the one visitor to the colony noting that the Land was estimated to be around Founders and Survivors project is ‘greatest part of the women seemed to 18,000. Of these, 725 were female have been sent there to be confined in convicts.4 About 100 of these women to trace the descendants of Van more senses than one, for nearly every were sent to the new Factory.5 The Diemonian convicts and their life one of them had a child in her arms, or Cascades Factory was criticised by the outcomes. This article outlines by the hand’.2 Once a child was weaned, local newspapers before it even opened the early living conditions of her mother was sent back out to service, for business. It sat in a swamp at the leaving the child behind. At the age of bottom of Mount Wellington, was some of the first convict three years, children in the convict always cold and damp and received descendants—the children born nurseries were sent to the Orphan very little sun.6 to convict women in the Hobart School. convict nursery. The Factory quickly became notorious. The Female Factory was run very much Within a year there were almost 200 along the lines of workhouses back in women and children located there. The Background England, with a superintendent and Colonial Times reported that a ‘great Most female convicts lived and worked matron—usually a married couple—in number of deaths…constantly occur at in the community under a system of charge, a part-time medical officer, and the new Female Factory…so many as six assignment to free settlers. However, if several subordinate positions held by or seven children have laid dead there at they were unmarried and became inmates of the institution. Also like the the same time’.7 There were lurid pregnant, they were sent to the Female workhouses, the death rates of children rumours that ‘the corpses of children House of Correction, also known as the in the Female Factories was inordinately [were] conveyed secretly out of the Female Factory, to give birth in the high, at least four times the level in the Factory, without the slightest regard to convict nursery. For example, in 1828, general community.3 ceremony’.8 In 1830, a woman convicted Prudence Clare was returned to the of killing her infant child in the new Female Factory ‘being unable from Factory became the first woman hanged pregnancy to be any longer of service to The Cascades Female Factory in the colony.9 her Master’.1 At the end of 1828 a new Female Factory was opened in a remodelled distillery at The reasons for the high mortality were The Female Factories were synonymous Cascades, near Hobart. At this time the not hard to ascertain. The women and with convict mothers and their children, British population of Van Diemen’s

Chainletter No. 3, December 2009 5 FOUNDERS & SURVIVORS children were crowded together, dozens The problem may have been temporarily cookhouse, where there were seven beds to a room, and they received inadequate fixed13 but keeping the Factory and the for seven women and thirteen children. food and clothing for good health. The nursery clean was a constant challenge. Two other children had died in the same regulation diet was very poor but often Settlers frequently complained that room the day before; and one the the women and children did not even women from the Female Factory were previous Saturday. Every child in the receive that. sent to their service ‘in a filthy state’, nursery had been ill within the last sometimes with their hair ‘full of month, and three of them were still very For example, in 1830 the Lieutenant vermin’.14 Although the superintendent ill.17 Governor wrote asking whether the of the Factory argued that ‘our women’ stipulated rations were being adhered to were ‘free from Filth and Dirt’, he did The coroner’s finding was that Elizabeth in the Female Factory. The rations were, acknowledge that it was impossible to Lush ‘came to her death in a natural way for breakfast, a quarter pound of bread maintain complete cleanliness given that and not through neglect or injury from and a pint of gruel; for dinner, half a bedding from prison ships, which were any other person’.18 The coroner pound of bread and a pint of soup; and ‘generally covered with vermin’, were deplored the ‘present system of for supper, a quarter pound of bread and washed in the Factory by the women.15 management’, and the fact that a pint of soup. For the soup, there were unmarried female convicts who became to be 25 pounds of meat to every 150 Inquests on deaths in the nursery pregnant were punished ‘whilst the quarts of soup, which was to be Over the next few years, the continuing Father of the child whether he be the thickened with vegetables and peas or terrible conditions in the nursery were Seducer, or paramour, is rarely if ever barley. This diet, even if fully supplied, occasionally brought to public attention punished’. was totally inadequate for pregnant and through inquests which were held on breastfeeding mothers. deaths occurring there. These inquests In March of 1838 the newspaper the have a depressing similarity about them. True Colonist strongly criticised the The superintendent wrote back to the The child in question dies of some sort convict authorities. It railed that the Lieutenant Governor and said that he of bowel complaint, often soon after Cascades Factory, a ‘miserable place’, was ‘unable to comply’ with the being weaned. The coroner is appalled was ‘the most unfitting place in the regulations because no vegetables were at the overcrowded conditions, whole colony for the prison of women, available.10 Consequently, the so-called sometimes at the meagre diet, and children and infants’.19 The paper called ‘soup’ consisted of water with a couple recommends immediate remedial action. for an inquiry into conditions and of chunks of meat floating in it. The coroner’s recommendations are treatment of children at the Factory.20 However the superintendent had promptly ignored by the authorities. There had been 208 deaths of children misunderstood the Lieutenant Governor. within the Factory out of 794 admitted The Governor simply wanted to ensure For example, around the middle of 1834 or born in the Factory since its opening that the women were not getting more no fewer than ten children died at in 1830.21 meat than was stipulated in the Cascades within six weeks. One of these regulations and that they were not deaths was the subject of a coronial Again in March 1838, yet another getting any meat in solid form, inquest. The coroner’s jury went to inquest was held, this time on a female although, of course, ‘vegetables with the Cascades to examine the prisoner at the Female Factory. The jury necessary quantity of barley and peas accommodation. They resolved that a found that ill health among the children must be regularly supplied’.11 ‘strong and respectful remonstrance’ was caused by the ‘crowded state of the should be made by the coroner, as to the nurseries, the limited size of the yard, Another recurring problem was total unsuitability of the nursery. The and the obstruction which the high walls cleanliness, or lack thereof. In 1832 the dormitory for weaned children was only give to the sun shining on the flagging Lieutenant Governor paid a surprise 40 feet long by 11 feet wide and held 26 of that yard and the lower part of the visit to the Female Factory. He found it children and 13 women. It had held buildings’. The only place children could in a ‘very dirty state’. Rubbish had more than 60 women and children, a take exercise was in the wet yard where accumulated in every building, the walls number in the jury’s judgement so the sun did not shine for four months of and floors were crawling with bugs and ‘totally disproportionate to the the year. the blankets were ‘quite black with accommodation afforded that they felt it fleas’. The children’s rooms were a duty to remark on it’.16 Sixteen women and 16 children were ‘particularly bad’, which the Governor kept in the upper room of the suckling thought partly accounted for the sickly Elizabeth Lush, who was the subject of nursery. The air was ‘very close and very state of the children. He ordered the the inquest, had been weaned just before bad’, especially in summer. The women problem be fixed immediately through she came to the nursery, and her mother and children were locked up from six in obtaining extra quantities of soap ‘or was sent out to service. The overseer of the evening until six on the morning. By anything else that may be necessary for the nursery thought that she had died of eight or nine at night, the room became putting the Establishment in a clean and a fever and bowel complaint. Elizabeth ‘very offensive and pernicious’ from the wholesome state’.12 had been kept in a room over the heat and the smell of excreta. The

6 Chainletter No. 3, December 2009 FOUNDERS & SURVIVORS suckling ward consisted of two rooms, Even though almost all the women and each 28 feet by 12 feet, in which were children were suffering from disease, crammed more than 70 women and immediately the mortality fell by children. The jury found the smell of around 75 per cent and the children these rooms ‘most offensive’ even in the ‘thrive[d] better than was ever known daytime.22 before’.33 Only ten deaths occurred in the second half of 1854, four of them in The amount of food supplied to the July, as opposed to 68 deaths in the first women was extremely limited. The six months of the year.34 women in the nursery complained that ‘the food was not so nutritious for In March of 1855, Hall was forced to women suckling as they could wish’. resign from the service. Three months The milk was very bad. However the later, the Convict Comptroller General coroner believed that their rations were decided to commandeer the Infirmary sufficient considering that the Factory for office space, and the women and was ‘a place of punishment’. The children there were sent to the hiring women complained of headaches and depot at Brickfields, again under the found the place very unhealthy. Twenty control of the Convict Department. deaths had taken place within the last Dr Edward Swarbeck Hall, 1858, Within about two months, one quarter three months however the coroner had photographed by Fred Frith. of the children moved had died, eight Reproduced by permission of the only been notified of seven. Two within one week.35 Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW. children had died within the last ten days without inquests.23 Hall examined the children daily and Even though he had retired, Hall again ‘scarcely ever felt a child’s feet took action, this time publicly. He wrote 27 Dr Edward Swarbeck Hall otherwise than stone cold’. Neither the a number of very detailed exposés women nor the children got sufficient In June 1854, Doctor Edward Swarbreck which were published in the press. Hall food. Breastfeeding mothers were Hall took up a temporary appointment accused the Convict Department of a allocated a miserly half diet. The food as medical officer at Cascades. Hall was ‘heartless, murderous experiment’ in given to weaned children was often an English doctor in his early 50s who taking the children from the Infirmary burnt or rancid.28 Children were was highly experienced in the medical and sending them to Brickfields, ‘which frequently kept in solitary confinement management of institutions. Among had formerly been so fatal to them, and with their mothers.29 other posts, he had had medical charge again proved so’. At the very least there of an orphanage in Liverpool, and then had been ‘reckless indifference to the life Dr Hall urgently requested that fires be various of the convict establishments on or death of the infant children of convict lit in the nursery to ward off the cold 36 his emigration to Van Diemen’s Land.24 parents’. Hall backed his claims of and damp. However the authorities Hall was a great humanitarian who was high mortality with statistical evidence ‘appeared afraid of dirtying the grates, not afraid of causing trouble in high from the Hobart death registers. or of taking the trouble of lighting places to get results. 30 fires’. He also asked for warm woollen Inquiry into the convict system cloaks for the children. He was put off, On his arrival at Cascades, Hall found Around the same time, the local and then eventually told that the cloaks 60 women and 110 children housed in Legislature appointed a committee to were being made in the workroom. So four damp cold rooms of 20 feet investigate accusations of ‘fraud, he went to the workroom where he square.25 The children were in a feeble peculation and embezzlement’ made found that there was no material with and emaciated state, many of them against officers of the Convict which to make them.31 requiring medical treatment on a daily Department. The committee was to also basis, ‘and the mortality frightful’. Dr ‘make such other inquiries into the Dr Hall was frustrated at every turn by Hall attributed this to a ‘complication of abuses in the Convict Department the convict authorities who appeared to causes’ under the heading of ‘general which may appear to affect the colonial have no interest in the health of the mismanagement’.26 interest’.37 These ‘other inquiries’ children. So he arranged to circumvent included the high death toll in the the authorities altogether by having the The children were kept outside all day, convict nurseries. Dr Edward Swarbreck mothers and children at Cascades whatever the weather, with only an Hall was their star witness. transferred to the Infirmary in Hobart open shed in which to shelter. No where they would be under the sole care heating was available in the rooms. The Hall described conditions at the of the Medical Department, rather than clothing of both mothers and children Cascades during his time there as the Convict Department. This was done was quite insufficient to preserve vital medical officer and the resistance on 5 July 1854.32 At this time Hall had warmth, and was often issued damp. encountered from officials of the been at Cascades for less than a month. Convict Department, who had ignored

Chainletter No. 3, December 2009 7 FOUNDERS & SURVIVORS his requests for adequate heating, and newspapers reported that the women 25 E.S. Hall, ‘Mortality at the convict additional food and clothing for the and children were well cared for and nurseries’, Tasmanian Daily News, 19 women and children. He also exposed received a ‘full supply of good and November 1855. 26 Legislative Council, ‘Proceedings of the 41 the petty pilfering of food meant for the nourishing food’. Select Committee on the Convict convict women and their children. He Department, evidence of Dr Hall’, Journals of ‘knew well how plentiful a ration may the Legislative Council of Tasmania, Paper 32 appear on paper, but how regularly it 1 Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart (1856). 27 became “fine by degrees and beautifully (hereafter AOT) CSO 1/288/6893, Police Ibid. 28 E.S. Hall, ‘Mortality at the convict less” before it reached the plundered Report, 23 September 1828. 2 W. Howitt, Land, labour and gold, (Lowden, nurseries’, Tasmanian Daily News, 19 38 recipients’ hungry mouths’. The Kilmore, 1972). November 1855. Committee found that the ‘sickly state of 3 R. Kippen, Death in Tasmania: using civil 29 Legislative Council, ‘Proceedings of the the children’ and ‘excessive mortality’ in death registers to measure nineteenth-century Select Committee on the Convict the convict nurseries was caused by cause-specific mortality, PhD thesis (The Department, evidence of Dr Hall’, Journals of ‘general mismanagement, exposure to Australian National University, Canberra, the Legislative Council of Tasmania, Paper 32 2002). (1856). cold, insufficient food and clothing, 4 J. Montagu, Statistical account of Van 30 Ibid. badly arranged dormitories,…and an Diemen’s Land (Government Printer, Hobart 31 Legislative Council, ‘Proceedings of the insufficient allowance of nourishment to Town, 1856). Select Committee on the Convict mothers who were nursing’. This was 5 Colonial Times, 2 January 1829. Department, evidence of Mr Watson’, the fault of the Convict Department 6 Colonial Times, 31 August 1827, 7 August Journals of the Legislative Council of Tasmania, Paper 32 (1856). which was ‘chiefly responsible for a 1829. 7 Colonial Times, 7 August 1829. 32 Legislative Council, ‘Proceedings of the reckless negligence which has resulted 8 Colonial Times, 3 April 1838. Select Committee on the Convict in the loss of so many lives’. What is 9 Hobart Town Courier, 24 April 1830; Department, evidence of Dr Hall’, Journals of more, the Committee named names, Tasmanian and Austral-Asiatic Review, 23 April the Legislative Council of Tasmania, Paper 32 stating that culpability mainly attached 1830. (1856). 10 33 to the Convict Superintendent and the AOT CSO 1/365/8341, Letter from the E.S. Hall, ‘On the medical topography and Principal Superintendent to the Colonial vital statistics of the city of Hobarton, Comptroller General. 39 Secretary, 30 April 1830. Tasmania, and its southern sub-districts for 11 AOT CSO 1/365/8341, Letter from the 1855’, The Australian Medical Journal 2(1857), All those who could share some blame Colonial Secretary to the Assistant 81–110. in the high level of mortality fell over Commissary General, 5 May 1830. 34 P. Gunn and R. Kippen, Household and themselves to prove that the mortality in 12 AOT CSO 1/366/8341, Memorandum from family formation in nineteenth-century Tasmania, dataset of 195 thousand births, 93 the nurseries was not so high as Hall the Lieutenant Governor, 25 January 1832. 13 AOT CSO 1/366/8341, Memorandum from thousand deaths and 51 thousand marriages stated, or to say that it was not so high the Lieutenant Governor, undated. registered in Tasmania, 1838–1899 compared to other places, or to blame 14 AOT CSO 1/895/19025, Letter from the (Australian Social Science Data Archive, the parents for the high mortality. The Police Office at Hamilton to the Colonial Canberra, 2008). Comptroller General—who had been Secretary, 19 December 1836; AOT CSO 35 Legislative Council, ‘Proceedings of the responsible for moving the women and 1/895/19025, Letter from Dr Dermer to the Select Committee on the Convict Colonial Secretary, 26 December 1836. Department, evidence of Dr Hall’, Journals of children from the Infirmary—argued 15 AOT CSO 1/895/19025, Letter from John the Legislative Council of Tasmania, Paper 32 that, if mortality was high, it was Hutchinson to the Colonial Secretary, 22 (1856). because the children had ‘constitutions December 1836. 36 E.S. Hall, ‘Mortality at the convict tainted by the hereditary diseases 16 AOT CSO 1/902/19161, Coroner’s report nurseries’, Tasmanian Daily News, 19 derived from their vicious parents’.40 on the inquest into the death of Elizabeth November 1855. Lush, October 1834. 37 House of Commons, Copies or extracts of 17 Ibid. correspondence with the Governor of Tasmania, This inquiry into the Convict 18 Ibid. connected with the institution of an inquiry by a Department was highly embarrassing 19 True Colonist, 9 March 1838. committee of the Legislative Assembly into the for the Lieutenant Governor, who 20 True Colonist, 23 March 1838. working of the Convict Department... (London, peremptorily shut down parliament 21 AOT CSO 5/114/2605, A return of the 1856). 38 before a final report could be produced. average admissions of women and children, Legislative Council, ‘Proceedings of the deaths &c at the Female House of Correction Select Committee on the Convict However by this time Van Diemen’s from the period of its first occupation in the Department, evidence of Dr Hall’, Journals of Land had already received its last load year 1830, until the 31st March of the present the Legislative Council of Tasmania, Paper 32 of convicts from Britain. Within a couple year 1838, 12 April 1838. (1856). of years the convict system had been 22AOT CSO 5/114/2608, Coroner’s report on 39 Legislative Council, ‘Draft of a proposed almost entirely dismantled. the inquest into the death of Barbara report from the Select Committee on the Hemming, 29 March 1838. Convict Department’, Journals of the 23 Ibid. Legislative Council of Tasmania, Paper 33 At least up until the 1870s the Cascades 24 Legislative Council, ‘Proceedings of the (1856). Factory was still being used to house Select Committee on the Convict 40 AOT GO 33/83/487, Letter from the female prisoners and their children. In Department, evidence of Dr Hall’, Journals of Comptroller General on Mr Hall’s 1872 it held 78 women and 26 young the Legislative Council of Tasmania, Paper 32 observations on mortality at the convict children. However this time the (1856). nurseries, 26 September 1855. 41 The Mercury, 30 December 1872.

8 Chainletter No. 3, December 2009