#52 Ancestors # Week 9 - At the Courthouse

#52 Ancestors #Week 9 - At the Courthouse

My ancestors were a law-abiding lot.  There were no convicts ( although more research might find that William Barry, 3rd great grandfather was one).  Great uncle Michael Gleeson had a few drunken brushes with the law, but he was almost certainly suffering from PTSD after WW1, so can perhaps be forgiven.  So, too, was a great uncle by marriage, who took a shot at his daughter’s boyfriend and was lucky not to have killed him.

In my husband’s family, on the other hand, there are several convicts.  I thought it would be interesting to record their crimes, and their sentences.

Peter McCann, 4th great grandfather, was a robber, tried in Dublin and sentenced to 7 years transportation.  He came to New South Wales in 1800, on the Minerva, a ship carrying lots of Irish political prisoners, which gave rise to the family myth that he was actually a rebel. Not so.  He didn’t even take part in the infamous Irish conspiracy in September 1800.  Giving evidence, he said that one of the rebels had asked him to participate, saying, “ Although you are a robber, you are a man I can depend on ....”
( He shouldn’t have - Peter McCann was an informant.)
Peter McCann drowned at Rickerby’s Creek, near Windsor, on 26 October 1806.
Mary Fitzgerald, 4th great grandmother married Peter McCann in 1804.  She was tried at Waterford, Ireland and sentenced to 7 years for stealing.  Mary came to NSW on the Atlas 1, on a voyage which
is recognized as having been one of the worst to the colony in transportation history.  There was one
death for every 2.7 convicts, an outcome mainly attributable to greediness and neglect by the Captain.
After Peter’s death, Mary married 3 more times and she died in 1870.
Rosetta Johnston, 4th great grandmother, arrived in the colony with her 6 year old daughter, Catherine, who later married Peter and Mary’s son, Nicholas McCann.  Rosetta was also sentenced to 7 years, for larceny.
Rebecca Bloxham, 3rd great grandmother, sentenced to death for “robbery on a person”.  The sentence was downgraded to transportation for life and she arrived in 1826.
John Hooper, 3rd great grandfather, married Rebecca in 1829.  He too had been sentenced to life, for larceny.
William Roberts, 3rd great grandfather, was sentenced to 14 years in 1827 for stealing.  He had been a habitual thief, and had changed his name from “Watson” to “Roberts”, perhaps not to disgrace his honest family.  He was sent to Van Diemen’s Land, where he was to met his wife
Agnes McMillan, 3rd great grandmother, whose crimes I wrote about in #52 Weeks - Challenge.

With the exception of Peter, who met an early death, all of these convicts eventually obtained their freedom and never went to prison again.  Nor did they ever go back “home”.   Like most convicts, they actually flourished in their new environment.  They had families, and jobs, and most owned property, and employed others.  Their crimes were almost certainly committed in response to the poverty and privation of their lives in Ireland and England and while their initial convictions may have been met with fear and apprehension, there is no doubt that they and their descendants ultimately led much better lives than they would have done had they not been sent to the colonies.