Bringing convicts back to life

Part of the Hobart Penitentiary is a Memorial to the 75,000+ convicts who came to Van Diemen's Land. Three were Clare's direct ancestors. Via an ipad she could identify each of them, and 'queue' them into the display module - a four sided pillar suspended from the ceiling of an old court house. The first side of the pillar was a rolling display of hundreds of names in different sizes and colors. 

Suddenly JOHN GILL appeared in white, and floated over the corner and onto the second side of the pillar. Here was displayed his age at conviction, 18, for stealing wheat from his employer. He was a miller. I think he got 7 years, but as the guide reminded us, people with needed skills, such as food providers, were sought after criminals for the new colony, and maybe the judge saw an opportunity to aid New South Wales. 

The third side of the pillar was the best - an AI generated image based on the physical characteristics recorded about convicts in order to recapture them should they abscond! He arrived to Sydney in 1818, but was sent to Van Diemen's Land soon after.

On the final pillar was a statement of his life as a convict, ie no further punishments, and that was all! I know he gained his ticket of leave after exactly seven years, married an ex-colour sergeant's daughter and had nine children in Glenorchy. He never re-offended, but that was not enough for him to gain land in the penal colony. The whole extended family moved to Victoria in the mid 1840s, lost everything in a bushfire, and finally washed up in Geelong, where John, his wife and the colour-sergeant died in their 50's of old age.

Next was WILLIAM FERRIS, known by the court system as HUTCHINS (he lied about his last name). 'William Hutchins' flew across onto the second pillar. 

       

Another 18 year old, convicted in 1843 for his second crime of housebreaking and theft of a coat worth 10 shillings. He was a French Polisher like his father, and his brothers would become. He was a Londoner.

Another sentence of 7 years, although few would ever return to England. William was sent from Hobart to Launceston.

The final pillar revealed no further crimes. He married Mary Madigan, see the next convict revealed below, and they had nine children before moved to Victoria in the 1870s. In Melbourne he worked as a French Polisher again.

He lived to a ripe age of 76, truly dying of old age. Did his family in England ever know his fate? 

The last of Clare's convict ancestors in Van Diemen's Land was MARY MADIGAN, an Irish girl maybe 15, maybe 19 years old. Her crime was committed at the height of the Great Famine in 1847. 

This image does not do justice to the black eyed, black haired, oval faced girl who found herself choosing to set fire to a house 'for the purpose of transportation'. She was from County Clare.

A few misdemeanours are recorded, included being absent from muster after her Governor-sanctioned marriage to William Hutchins.

Mother of ten, the last born in Victoria in her late 40s, she died in 1900. She is buried separately from her husband in the Melbourne General Cemetery. They were both cared for by daughters till the end.

Mary may have had a sister named Catherine follow her to the colonies. We have many strong DNA matches to the family of Catherine Grey as she became in 1856. As well Clare and her distant cousin Eleanor are nearly exact matches on the mitochondrial line - our mother's mother's mother's line. It is strong evidence that these two girls surnamed Madigan were sisters. 

In truth, I doubt these images bear much resemblance to the convicts, they look haunted but a bit too clean and well fed. None-the-less it was wonderful to see them remembered at this extra-ordinary memorial to our extra-ordinary survivors of the penal world.