Among my papers is a set of guidelines for writing oral histories, handwritten in the 1950s for members of a particular Tasmanian small town’s local history society.  The members used it when interviewing elderly locals. These interviews usually focused on local pioneering heroes.

I love pioneers and their world as it appears in popular media.  The idea of brave families travelling into the wilderness and recreating civilization always appealed.  But as an adult, I’ve learned a lot more about the world. I’ve met many people who have nothing good to say about pioneers. I’ve worked hard in my own garden to eradicate weeds that should never have been introduced to this country.  I’m aware of native animals on the verge of extinction. I know Indigenous people fighting to reclaim their traditional lands. I know the environmental damage caused by sheep and cattle. I am also aware of the huge absence in our local and national histories of whole swathes of immigrants from non-British countries, not to mention those who were already here.  I’m also quite aware that some of our great pioneers were actually absent pioneers who simply sent a workforce out with all the equipment required to build a mansion and set up a cattle ranch.  Those particular pioneers did not come out themselves until their current lifestyle could be maintained in their new homeland.

Pioneers even in fiction could be autocratic, racist and traditionalist. Was this a required characteristic? What were real pioneers like?

Was a pioneer really a good thing at all?

My copy of the oral history guidelines came from an octogenarian who recorded many oral histories of people now long deceased.  Forty years later in his turn he was interviewed by myself, and since he had nobody to pass his papers on to, they became a much valued part of my scarily large collection.

The guidelines include suggested questions.  One of those questions asks whether the interviewee was acquainted with any early pioneers of the district, what those pioneers were like and whether they had told any stories of their life and of the district.  Another asks if the pioneers had had any trouble with bushrangers or Aborigines.

The edge of native bushland near Mungo National Park New South Wales

As a family historian of the modern world, the wording of that question sort of made my blood run cold.  It’s a valid question and one that the local historian definitely wants an answer to.  It’s the way it was phrased that took my breath away.  There are a multitude of assumptions in there about the demographic of that early pioneer and the legitimacy of various lifestyles in colonial societies.  We’re talking almost seventy years ago, of course, about matters which are still burning issues today.  But it led me to consider the concept of the pioneer.

Google dictionary defines the word pioneer as (1) ‘a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area‘ and (2) ‘a person who is among the first to research and develop a new area of knowledge or activity‘.  Both are applicable at times to our colonising ancestors, but chiefly the first definition is the one we are thinking of.

It’s a fair starting point, but people actually mean something different to this when they think of a pioneer.  For a start, wherever a colony is set up among indigenous people the first definition is actually invalid.  I went through a stage of thinking that the very word ‘pioneer’ was dodgy, with its connotations of domination and destruction. This was a matter of regret to me since I love the idea of a pioneer – someone who doesn’t give up, someone resourceful who manages to survive even without the support structures set up to enable survival.

A good example of English influence in an Australian inland city. Wangaratta 2017.

It’s very easy to throw out the baby with the bathwater, as the saying goes. There are many pioneers among the Indigenous people of the world, who really were the first to settle in a new country.  I’d love to have heard their stories. Luckily the bushrangers had enough fans to have their lives recorded. Lately in Australia, people are starting to examine the lives of our Chinese and Russian pioneers.  The more aspects of society we have, the better the true picture of life in a particular time.

But a pioneer really isn’t just someone who got somewhere first. A pioneer is someone who transplanted themselves to a place that was culturally and materially barren for them, who then proceeded to retain much or all that they held dear, and to pass that on to their descendants. Well, this is how I personally define a pioneer.

Pioneers were courageous souls who may have chosen their path, but equally may have had that path forced on them.  They may have been explorers or wealthy families but they might have been convicts or famine victims, or orphan children who were shipped to the colonies to be domestic servants.  In some countries they might have been slaves, or displaced Indigenous people, or displaced due to war or religious conflicts or straightforward poverty.  They might have been shipwrecked. Whatever it was, the ability to hold on to one’s values and to create security in the midst of hardship is a remarkable skill.

European crops in Australia

A pioneer did not necessarily recreate that which he or she had left behind.  Successful pioneering required adaptation. Different crops, different clothes, different working hours in extreme heat or cold.  Different language, different financial system. Even today in my state of Australia, a wood paling fence is a rare thing because of termites. Surviving early fences are stone or brick.  This is a practice that must have been learned the hard way.  That said, sometimes the pioneer did successfully import something from their home.  The manor house for example.  Immense parliament houses. Paved roads. Village markets and wedding dresses and musical recital nights.  Just what came and which adaptations were made is one of the fascinating things we can learn from the lives of the pioneers.

Plus, sometimes the pioneer left nothing behind at all except a descendant or two and perhaps their grave (if we are lucky). This is quite enough to qualify them for the title. The Indigenous people that I know do not use the word ‘pioneer’ much, but they number many of what I would call pioneers among their ancestors who left a strong legacy of knowledge and skills.

As blog posts go, this one is a little bit shorter and a bit different to most of my others, but I felt a need to tackle this subject because I do consider many of my ancestors to be pioneers, but I am deeply aware of the downside of their circumstance – that probably, someone with a greater claim to that bit of country was displaced by my ancestors’ arrival.  The story of that displaced person or people is a part of my ancestor’s story whether my ancestors knew it or not.  If I can learn those stories, I will include them in my family history. But it doesn’t negate the remarkable qualities my ancestors possessed which I still admire today.  It’s simply a bigger and more nuanced picture.

Murray River at Tocumwal.

Over the past twelve months, many useful Irish records have become accessible via the internet.  Principle among them, at least for the history of Dillane, are the Irish Catholic Parish Records.

Our branch of this family has puzzled my cousins and I for at least fifty years. We always had a rich oral history regarding the Australian branch – they arrived in 1856 and became successful pioneers of the Cygnet district in the south east of Tasmania. Three brothers, transported as convicts for burning down a haystack.  There is a blog trilogy regarding this line starting here.  The first post is actually about the Woulfe family with the second and third focusing on Dillane.

But to summarize for those who don’t wish to read the earlier posts – Edmund, John, Timothy and William Dillane were all brothers in Athea in West Limerick.  All four married in Athea.  Edmund, John and Timothy were arrested and transported and their name morphed into ‘Dillon’ via the convict records.  William remained in Ireland where he raised a large family and kept the surname Dillane.  The Athea parish records begin in 1827 and until the past year or so we could only rely on transcriptions of the data.

Luckily, those days are over!  Here are a couple of very interesting details from the parish baptisms.

Baptism of John Dillane 05 Feb 1842 in Athea

Baptism of James Dillane 28 Oct 1843 in Athea

Baptism of Michael Dillane 14 Aug 1844 in Athea

In 1838, the most excellent Father Luke Hanrahan began work at Athea.  Actually, I’m sure the others were excellent too.  But Father Hanrahan was wonderful in that he added the residence of his parishioners as he wrote out the records.

The above three baptisms are for the sons of Edmund and William giving their residence as Glanduff.  This marvellous detail has not come to us before.

Map of Limerick with relevant locations highlighted and added. Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABaronies_of_Limerick.jpg

This is a crowded map but it is hard to find one that can be legally used.  Glanduff, the residence of at least two of our Dillane brothers, is the red dot in the far south.  Athea, the place where their children were baptised, is the red dot in the upper left.  Although not a huge distance by today’s standards, it is a distance of about twenty miles.

The townland of Glanduff -also known as Glenduff and sometimes Glinduff – was mostly the property of Eyre Massy at the time of these baptisms. It was and still is part of the parish of Monagea.

In the 1820s, a detachment of the 40th regiment was stationed at Glanduff and was later replaced by a detachment of the 42nd.  Some very interesting stuff was happening there in the 1830s and 1840s.

The trouble with stepping a generation back – as we do in family history – is that we find ourselves at the end of a long piece of action.  It’s like starting a movie in the last half hour.  But for the sake of tracking the record it has to be done this way.  So apologies if it gets confusing.

Most of us who research Irish ancestry will know about the conflicts which occurred there, the whole England and Ireland thing with protestants coming in and taking Catholic land.  That’s an oversimplification of course.  There were people possessed of the favour of one monarch who were given land that used to belong to the people favoured by the former monarch, regardless of their religion.  There were people with money on all sides, including Catholic, who managed to keep their holdings and summon armies.  Each county has its own stories, its own armies who fought its own enemies.  It was a complicated thing.   So to research ancestors in the county of Limerick, it isn’t enough to know a general history of Ireland.  It helps to know the history of Limerick.  It’s probably a life’s work really.

King John’s Castle – Limerick City taken by William Murphy 2011. CC 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ Some rights reserved. No changes made.

The siege of Limerick (the castle/city of Limerick that is) occurred in 1691.  The obituary of an elderly Woulfe in the 1920s (born circa 1830) stated that his ancestors had proudly served in the castle holding off the attackers.  This is an indication that stories about that event were still part of oral history across the next few centuries.

The city of Limerick was an urban environment – by 19th century Irish standards – whereas the area to the west was wild with very little infrastructure.  As late as 1820, many of the roads lacked bridges and were impassable after heavy rain.  There wasn’t much travel happening at all.  There was a lot of poverty and a lot of crime, some of it deadly.

The Dublin register reported the following on 09 February 1822:

Four men of the 40th Regiment, who were left at Glanduff to give up the Barracks, were surprised on Tuesday morning. While two were carrying the furniture up to Glanduff House, a party rushed in suddenly, and overpowering those left in the Barracks, got clear off with the entire of their arms, ammunition and accoutrements.

It was a time of violent secret societies on a mission to defend the powerless Irish tenants against their oppressors.  Two of these societies were the Rockites – led by a succession of ‘Captain Rock’s – and the Whiteboys who were based in Cork.

The same newspaper gave the following reports amidst a large number of other incidents.

A party of Whiteboys went into Drumcolliher on Monday night, firing shots, after which they retired, saying they were not sufficiently prepared. On Tuesday night they attacked several houses, and succeeded in getting twelve stand of arms from different inhabitants in the town.

On Monday night another party went into the town of Abbeyfeale.

Wednesday, at two o’clock in the day, three men in women’s apparel went into a field at Dobile near Rathkeale, and shot a horse engaged in ploughing, belonging to a farmer named Scully; the three fellows announced themselves as Lady Rock and her suite, and mentioned that if Scully did not leave the country they would serve him as his horse.

On the above map, Drumcolliher is to the right (the east) of Glanduff.  Abbeyfeale is close to Athea.  Our Dillane ancestors were living right in the middle of all this action.  Knowing their future and the personalities of later Dillanes, they were probably a large part of it.  There are disputed reports that the first Captain Rock was one Patrick Dillane of Croom who to avoid capture apparently escaped into the wilds of West Limerick in the 1820s.

It was a long and convoluted trail which led me to Croom – in fact, a DNA match with another Woulfe descendant.  She descends from a Sheehan of Shanagolden who married a daughter of Patrick Maurice Woulfe.  They were actually married in Athea, but since her husband’s parish was given as Shanagolden I followed them in the records and began to find more Dillanes including the following marriage.

Marriage of John Dillane to Maria Wolfe of Athea at Croom 15 June 1808

I am fairly sure that this is our line and that we have two generations in a row of a Dillane marrying a Maria Woulfe.  It would help explain why so many distant cousins are showing as a bit closer than they should.  Why Croom?  It’s so far away that I still feel the need for another corroborating detail to confirm it.  I was pretty sure given the children’s names that the mother was going to be a Bridget, which is not borne out by this record.  That said, they all have an elder daughter called Mary as well so this fits too.

I’m also pretty sure that I have found John’s baptism and a couple of his siblings were also married in Croom, which makes it more likely that this is he.

Baptism of John Dillane at Monagea 30 Dec 1789

So here we have another few useful details, including the residence of Meenileen – known to us also as Meenoline – the home of a well established branch of our Woulfe family.  Meenoline is marked on the above map, just south of Sugar Hill.  In the 1828 tithe applotment books, one Edmund Dillane can be found residing at Sugar Hill.

To hastily conclude this blog post since it is getting rather long, here is the marriage of Edmund Dillane and Margaret Dunworth.

Marriage of Edmund Dillane and Margaret Dunworth 15 Jan 1789 in Monagea.

I have found a few children now for Edmund and Margaret – as well as John, there are daughters Mary, Catherine and Julia (Juliana).

This will not be conclusive for some time yet, until I can piece the whole extended family together and figure out why a Dillane from Monagea might have travelled as far as Croom to marry a girl from Athea.  Maybe it was a runaway match?  This was also the era of marriage by abduction, something else which the papers were full of.  But it is all guesswork just now.

At the very least, I have a likely hypothesis for myself and other researchers to work from.

The first concrete evidence of George Richards is his marriage in 1828 to Ellen Cummings. He comes through records as little more than the husband of the more visible Ellen and as the father of a bunch of children.  Recent DNA matches have confirmed my ancestral line back to George and Ellen, so maybe he is about to appear clearly to us at last.

Those who read my blog will have become familiar with a few regions of Tasmania by now, particularly the districts around the townships of Hamilton, Kempton and Port Cygnet.  George Richards lived further north, in Launceston.

For geographical context:, here is Van Diemen’s Land 1852 with the regions marked which have been referenced in my blog:

Map from Wikimedia Commons

In the beginning of white settlement, each region was its own discrete world.  People certainly travelled between regions, trade was conducted between regions and they were all administered by the same Colonial administration.  But the local flavour in each area was very strong, heavily influenced by those who lived there.

So far, this blog has focused on the south of the colony.  But there was a north too, with different settlers, different discrete regions and very different flavours.   The north of Tasmania has its own unique history.  So now to bring all readers up to speed in a few short paragraphs!

Right from the beginning of British control of Van Diemen’s Land there was debate over where administrative government should be placed. It was briefly in Risdon Cove (now a suburb of the present day city of Hobart), then transferred north to Port Dalrymple (later Georgetown), then to Launceston and then back to Hobart Town where it then remained. All of these shifts were in that first decade of settlement. Risdon Cove was settled by Britain in 1803, Port Dalrymple and Sullivan’s Cove (Hobart Town) in 1804 and lastly Patersonia (Launceston) in 1805.  These initial settlements were basically a few shiploads each of handy colonists, soldiers and some cattle. They came off the boat into heavy forest, cold weather, much rain and mud.  Over the next three years, building work began, streets were laid down and jetties were built. We’ll now focus on the two northern settlements of Georgetown and Launceston which had received these names by 1810.

I don’t want this post to be a heavy read but a few elements of the epic tale of early settlement are relevant.

The neighbouring colony of New South Wales began in 1788 and by the start of the 19th century it was  a proper little settlement.  The administrations of the two colonies had a brotherly relationship and were each governed by England, but each colony was required to achieve self sufficiency on its own.

Here’s a map showing Sydney (in the colony of New South Wales) and Port Dalrymple (in the colony of Van Diemen’s Land).

Location of Rum Rebellion of New South Wales and of the Van Diemen’s Land settlement of Port Dalrymple (Footnote 1)

In 1808, a famous military coup was staged in New South Wales by soldiers who felt the place was being dangerously mismanaged.  This mismanagement stemmed in part from a circumstance where coinage had not been established and was rare in the colony. With no way to buy or sell using coins and no way to pay soldiers their wages, rum became the accepted substitute. Soldiers were in a perfect position to receive new shipments of rum which they could purchase at good prices and then sell on with a profit.  Price gouging, alcoholism and an unhelpful balance of power ensued.  A newly appointed colonial governor was given orders to correct the situation.  The result was outright rebellion.  This event is known in history as the Rum Rebellion.

The rebellion took a while to quell but once this was achieved, the problem of what to do with the offending soldiers needed to be resolved.  England didn’t want them back but they were now a properly networked and coherent group who might rebel again.  The soldiers were court martialed en masse, but these guys had all lived together in a small community for years and they were deemed to have acted with good intention. It was decided to separate them to a multitude of small new settlements.

Some were offered land grants in the new settlement of Port Dalrymple if they resigned of their own volition.  It was an acceptable arrangement for all involved.  By 1812,  ex-soldiers and their families were trickling south to take possession of their new land. Thus in about 1812 came the family of toddler Mary Ann Elinor Cummings – known as Ellen – whose father had been an officer in the Rum Corps.   The dramatic tale of the Cummings family is worthy of its own blog article.  All that is relevant here is that the young Ellen arrived sometime between 1812 and 1816.

I tried to find a photograph of Launceston but on my last trip through it looked like this. However, this is probably a good indicator of life in the region on a winter’s day.  This was taken circa 11.00 am around 20km south of the city of Launceston.

So, back to Launceston.  Descriptions occasionally appeared in local papers.

In this decade, Launceston had no newspaper of its own and is generally referenced in other papers as a shipping destination, but a few articles give a clue about life there.

1817:

It appears about the 25th ult. that … bushrangers committed a robbery near Launceston – that the day after, one of them, (Wright, who lately ran from George-town ) left the party, went into Launceston, and surrendered – that on the 29th, Collier surrendered, having a cut across the neck, and his left hand much shattered: — he states that the night after the robbery alluded to, Browne & Wright left the party — that Septon, Hillier, & himself remained at a hut behind Gordon’s Plains, where in the middle of the night, Hillier with razor cut the throat of Septon so dreadfully as to cause his immediate death — that Hillier then attempted to cut his (Collier’s) throat, who, however, got out of the hut with a slight cut on the left side of the neck: upon which Hillier, who had possessed himself of the whole of the arms, took up Septon’s rifle, fired, & shattered much of the hand of Collier. It does not appear that there had been any quarrel; And Hillier’s motive for killing Septon, and attempting to kill Collier, can only be supposed to have existed with a view to obtain the reward offered for them. Since this affair Coine, another of the old bushrangers, has given himself up, and is in confinement at this place; and there remain now at large, Howe, Watts, and Browne, for the whole of whom rewards are offered. — [See Proclamation.] (Footnote 3)

More in 1817:

George Gray, who murdered JOHN EVANS at York Plains, as adverted and noticed in our last week’s Gazette, was this morning brought in a prisoner by a guard of the 46th regt. and lodged in the gaol. He was taken on the road to Launceston, by Corporal GREEN, of the 46th alone; a circumstance highly creditable to him.

It was a different and dangerous world.  Yet along with murder, assault, mental illness, severe alcoholism, floods, famines and much rain the two settlements continued to grow. Most settlers received supplemental supplies from the government but were beginning to make a go of it alone.  This was Ellen Cummings’ world.  By her teen years she had experienced the Rum Rebellion, a move to a new colony, home invasions and her mother’s tragic death by drowning in a flooded river in 1820 when she was aged 11. There had been little safety and maybe not much happiness in her world.  Shipping records indicate that her two older brothers – John and James – spent more time away from the family home than there once they were old enough to escape.  The Cummings family had money and a good position in society, not to mention a sense of entitlement which passed from father to son for several generations. But Ellen was a girl in a family which did not afford equal status to women. She missed a lot of the education and opportunities which her brothers received.  No doubt by the age of 18 in her lonely world she needed a protector.

Southern entry to Launceston 2014. This is probably the same hill from which the 1812 description was made. The rivers Tamar and Esk are temporarily hidden by the left hand cutting.

Given the copious records, letters and official engagements of the Cummings family, it would be surprising if the George Richards that we have gleaned from the records was an equal match for Ellen.  The Cummings family were well connected in Ireland and England, had married into a very wealthy family on the Isle of Man, had some lucrative enterprise in India and managed to wriggle out of a whole lot of scrapes which would have resulted in a destroyed life for a ‘lesser’ man.  Ellen seems to have been a forgotten and unregarded child. Her father was only concerned about the boys.  Thus somehow she met an illiterate convict approximately ten years older than she and the two of them made a match of it.

Here’s the marriage record:

Marriage record of George Richards and Ellen Cummings (Footnote 5)

Civil registration started in Britain in 1831 and that requirement was sent to the colonies at the same time.  Three years earlier, in 1828, we have only a church marriage record. There was no consent sought for Ellen despite her tender years.  Eighteen was not adulthood in 1828 so she should have required the permission of either parent or if an orphan, of a guardian such as an elder brother, but in this era officiating ministers were hard to come by and they undertook a multitude of religious ceremonies.  I have not managed to trace the witnesses but hopefully I’ll find them one day.

Many of the details on this certificate are correct. Ellen was born in the colony – well, in a neighbouring colony – and she was free.  So presumably the record is correct in identifying George Richards as a convict.  I’ve never heard of anyone impersonating a convict. It is therefore logical to assume that George Richards was a convict who arrived on a ship called the Pilford.  Which doesn’t exist.

There were 9 convicts named George Richards transported to Tasmania and another 12 so far identified as transported to New South Wales.  The common theory among family researchers is that he arrived on the ship ‘Guildford’ in 1819.  There was indeed a George Richards on this ship. The convict from the Guildford was a butcher.  Our George is also a butcher.  So this fits.  But we don’t know for sure and in one place at least, it is recorded that the convict from the Guildford died in 1825.  There was indeed a convict named George Richards who died in 1825 but not ours. The record is all out of order and seems to have been rewritten from another record.

George Richards was tried on 4th March 1820 in Chelmsford, Essex and found guilty of larceny. He was sentenced to death which in the usual way was transmuted to transportation 14 years.  He was placed in a hulk named Leviathan at Hampshire, from whence he was removed to the Guildford and arrived in Tasmania on 10th October 1820. He received a ticket of leave at some early date.  In 1824 he stole something which I cannot read from the factory of William Smith in Launceston so he must have been in town then. He was in trouble again in 1826 for being out after hours.  Which brings us to the date of his marriage, of which there is no mention in the convict record.

The eldest child of George and Richard was my own ancestress, Frances Ann born 2nd January 1829. She was baptised in March 1829 at St John’s Anglican Church in Launceston.

Baptism of Frances Ann Richards in Launceston Tasmania

George’s convict record contains a misdemeanor of being absent from muster on 26th January 1829.

From this point, all we have is a handful of baptism and civil birth registration records. Combining the existing baptisms with later records the Richards family so far consists of:

George’s ticket of leave was suspended for six months on 11th March 1831 for some unknown reason,   only a few months after the death of his first son George.

In 1833, George was charged with sheep stealing, an offense which still brought the death penalty in those days.  (Footnote 6)

So, does this mean he died?  It seems not, because although his convict record also states ‘Death recorded’, the entries go on.  In fact, his convict record states that he received his free certificate on 7th Feb 1834, at which point he was still in jail awaiting trial. This is very very unlikely!

However, no registration has been located for the children born between 1833 and 1839. We know of them either through their marriage and death records or through DNA matches with their descendants.  The town of Launceston was growing rapidly at this time.  Whether they lived in town or somewhere very rural is not known.

In 1838 George was arrested on suspicion of felony but there was insufficient evidence to bring the matter to trial.  On March 14th 1840 he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly.  There was another felony in Sept 1840 and a third offence on 3rd October the same year due to entering the constables’ huts while drunk. For this offence he was sentenced to 10 days hard labour on the roads.  It didn’t help. On the 31st October 1840 he was in trouble again for another felony but the case was dismissed due to lack of evidence. Possibly he’d gained a reputation.

After that final offense in 1840, the matter was allowed to rest on the condition that he move to the Hamilton district and remain there.  It’s where the unruly ex-convicts went.

This fits with the movements of our Richards family.  All the children from Eliza onward were born and properly registered in Hamilton.  George appears in their birth registrations as a labourer, a butcher and finally a farmer.

On 8th November 1847, George and Ellen’s eldest child Frances married Edward Cox at St John the Baptist, Ouse.   Almost ten years later in 1856, Ellen passed away, the cause of death given as dropsy.  The family split up, some of the children leaving for the now thriving colony of Victoria where fortunes were being made in the goldfields and there was work for everyone.

As required, George remained in Hamilton. Richard and Matilda moved to Victoria. Harriet married a shepherd of Osterley.  The youngest four girls all married local ex-convict farmers.  I’ve written often about the Ouse region with its early pioneers, that peculiar bunch of free-by-servitude men who lived almost as one with the bush and could comfortably spend weeks alone without missing human contact.  The six Richards girls who remained in the Ouse region became matriarchs of six large families who still live and farm in the region today.  But the sons moved away.  One of the boys had a liaison with a local girl but there was no marriage.  The resulting son grew up bearing his mother’s surname and his descendants also continued in the region.

This has been a very long post, I know.  George Richards ended his days amidst a diphtheria epidemic which took half his family. His daughters Frances and Susan plus his grandson Edward George Cox all died within weeks of each other.  George’s death was attributed to cancer. Possibly this was so. Possibly he had cancer but the diphtheria was taking hold also.

Here is his death registration. His daughter Susan is the entry immediately after his. (Footnote 7)

To conclude, here is George’s grave.  It’s a proper monument, worthy of a pioneer of the district who was also father-in-law and grandfather to most of the region’s farmers.

Grave of George Richards at St John the Baptist Ouse Tasmania

(Footnote 8)

Footnotes:

(1) By Lencer [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

(2) “GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL ORDERS.” The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842) 11 January 1812: 1. Web. 2 Jul 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article628393>.

(3) “HOBART TOWN; SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1817.” The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter (Tas. : 1816 – 1821) 6 September 1817: 1. Web. 2 Jul 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article652952>.

(4) “Hobart Town; SATURDAY, NOVEMBER, 1817.” The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter (Tas. : 1816 – 1821) 1 November 1817: 2. Web. 2 Jul 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article653280>.

(5) State Archives of Tasmania, marriage records Church of England

(6) “CRIMINAL SIDE.—THURSDAY.” Launceston Advertiser (Tas. : 1829 – 1846) 20 February 1834: 3. Web. 3 Jul 2017 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84774309>.

(7) State Archives of Tasmania, civil death registrations

(8) http://www.gravesoftas.com.au/municipalities/Southern_Tasmania.htm

The pioneer of our Peard family in Australia was John Peard who arrived in the 1850’s as a young man and eventually settled in Albury on the New South Wales/Victorian border.

Family researchers in the mid 20th century went to Ireland in search of our roots and returned with a grand pedigree in ornate handwriting which gave us the lineage of the Peard family in Fermoy, Cork.  A slightly simplified version of this lineage can be found in Burke’s Landed Gentry of Ireland. The family home was Coole Abbey in Fermoy where the family once entertained royalty.  The manor was built for Henry Peard back in the 17th century and remained in the family until the early 20th century.

Somehow the family line descended from Coole Abbey and an entry in Burke’s Peerage to my great grandfather, the respectable but hardly notable Burley Peard in the Snowy Mountains district of New South Wales.  We all wanted to know the story.  Why were we not sipping tea in our illustrious mansion in Ireland?  What happened?

There were other questions too.  Why would a well-connected young man travel alone to Australia?  Why did he then stay here when he was wealthy enough to return to Cork for a visit?  Why does the family have no heirlooms from Ireland?  Why did he not name a daughter after his mother? The story seemed incomplete.

On 18 Sep 1856 he arrived in Melbourne on the ship Saldanha. He was aged 17 and is on the shipping list as ‘Gentleman’.  He traveled alone.  Later research has shown that he first went to the Victorian goldfields before making his way to Bowna in New South Wales where he met his future wife.  John Peard certainly was an educated and hard working man. He was involved in local committees and progress associations. He was also industrious and adventurous, ready to try new methods.

John and Mary Ann were married on 26th Mar 1868 in Beechworth, Victoria.  The marriage certificate names the parents of John Peard as Henry Harrison Peard and Jane Leahy.  The old pedigree of the family had named his parents as Henry Harrison Peard and Jane Selby.

This is the second half of John and Mary Ann’s marriage registration showing their occupation, age, location of the marriage, their address, parent’s names and parental occupation.  John Peard was a carrier aged 28 and he lived in Albury.  The handwriting is difficult to read, someone just might read ‘Lehy’ as ‘Selby’.  But until the past decade it was not easy to locate a marriage certificate in Australia without knowing which state one needed first.  After all these years looking for a Jane Selby as per the older research, now we could search for Jane Leahy.

At first it didn’t help. Jane Leahy has proved as hard to find as the nonexistent Jane Selby. Her birthplace was a complete guess.  There was no baptism to be found for John so there was no confirmation that she was even Irish, other than that very Irish surname. Henry Harrison Peard died in Inchinapalace on 4th May 1847 of fever but did not mention any family.  It was a puzzle that wouldn’t solve for a very long time.

Two recent events changed everything.  Firstly, a fellow researcher in the United States found me through this very blog and contacted me regarding John Peard.  She was the descendant of one Richard Peard who emigrated from Cork to the United States alone as a teenager sometime around 1858.  A family story had passed down that Richard Peard had a sibling who moved to Albury in Australia.  When she read my blog she suspected she had found the sibling.

Secondly, a very elderly Peard relative in Ireland replied to an online post stating that John Peard in Australia was supposed to have a brother named Henry who went to the United States.  These two sketchy stories led to a comparing of DNA test results which confirmed cousinship between the descendants of John Peard and the descendants of Richard Peard of Iowa.   It looked very positive.

Finally, after some rather pessimistic trawling through the Irish Catholic Parish Registers, I found him.  More than that, I found the whole family!

Here he is at last, after at least fifty years of constant research by various Peards with a few big surprises thrown in.  He was baptised on 26th June 1839 in the Catholic church at Castletownroche and his address is given as Inchinapalace.  At least, Henry Peard’s address is.  Jane was still a Leahy and John was illegitimate.  This explains a lot.  Henry Harrison Peard was a protestant, Jane was Catholic. After Henry’s death, did she and the children receive any protection from the rather wealthy Peard family?  Were they even acknowledged as Peards?

Looking further in the register, the following baptisms also came to light.

This is the baptism of Richard Peard on 26 Feb 1841, the lad who emigrated to Iowa.  He was also illegitimate.  One illegitimate child might be an accident or a seduction. Two? There must have been some impediment to marriage.

William Peard baptised on 28th Aug 1842, also illegitimate.  Yet Henry Peard was not called upon to marry Jane?  The existence of this boy was a complete surprise.

Two illegitimate girls, Ellen and Sarah both baptised on 18th October 1846.  They may not have been born at the same time.

It looks as if Jane Leahy was living near Castletownroche and was in a long term relationship with Henry Harrison Peard.  One Henry Peard was having children quite nearby with a wife named Catherine.  This is an avenue to explore.  But many questions remain.  What happened after the death of Henry Harrison Peard in 1847 and the emigration of John Peard in 1856?  How did the family live?  What happened to Jane, William and the two girls?

The plan now is to look at the Leahy families around Castletownroche, focusing on Jane Leahy and the sponsors.

Photograph by Sarah777: attribution under Creative Commons License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

For my first blog post in several months, I have decided to focus on an ancestor who just might have emerged from the shadows at last.  There is no certainty yet.  I’m making this post in case other Behan or Dillon researchers can help narrow the field at all.

I have  already written one blog post about Bridget Bain . She appeared in Tasmania in 1856 as the young bride of John Dillane. They lived in Cygnet and raised a large family. She has puzzled her descendants for a long time.

John and Bridget were married twice.  That is, they were married in 1856 in an Anglican church and conducted a second, Catholic ceremony in 1877.

In that twenty one years, the state of Tasmania underwent a huge cultural transformation. The state was self-governed as of 1856. They  ceased to be a penal settlement.  With its own parliament and a rapidly increasing free population came some pride and stability. More children went to school, infrastructure improved and there was a lot of employment for anyone who wished to work.

By 1877, priests and reverends could count their congregations as their own.  The pews were no longer filled with ticket-of-leavers who were only there as part of their curfew requirements.  True communities were developing and along with this came greater care with parish events such as baptisms and marriages.  My guess is that the details on John and Bridget’s second marriage are likely to be recorded with a level of respect to the couple which may have been absent the first time round. At this second marriage, Bridget’s name is written as ‘Behane’ not ‘Bain’.

Second marriage ceremony of John Dillon and Bridget Bain 13 Feb 1877 in Cygnet. [On microfilm at State Library of Tasmania, also accessible via Familysearch and Tasmania Names websites.

Both were Roman Catholic, both were 18 years of age. Neither could read or write. Each came over to be a general servant.  It is very hard to pick between them.   The girl from Kildare had ‘no friends’ and upon arrival was hired by a Mrs James.  The girl from Kerry was sponsored to the state of Tasmania by a man named Denis Sweeney.  Here lies the possible clue.

At first, I had great hopes for Biddy Behan from Kerry.  Everything fitted! John Dillane came from the Kerry/Limerick border so she might have been a girl from home.  Then I tracked Denis Sweeney and lo and behold, he was a convict transported on the Lord Dalhousie, the same ship as John Dillane!  Could it really be more conclusive?  Denis Sweeney was transported with his brother John.  They ended up in Westbury where John Sweeney married convict Ellen Behane.  Biddy Behan(e) from Kerry was the little sister of Ellen Behane.  It was perfect!

But no. Biddy Behane from Kerry was married at Westbury on 23 April 1857 to Jeremiah McAuliffe.  John and Ellen Sweeney were the witnesses.  Ten years later they were living in Oatlands.  That bird won’t fly.   But at least we have eliminated the options down to just one.  This does not mean it is definitely our Biddy, there were any number of girls arriving on ships without papers or born locally  without record.  If Bridget was easy to track, someone would have done it by now.  But this one Biddy Behan was now high on the list of possibilities.

Biddy Behan from Kildare left Plymouth on 30 Sep 1854 in the ship ‘William Hammond’ and arrived in Hobart on Christmas Day the same year.  The ‘William Hammond’ was a brand new ship. Biddy traveled on her maiden voyage with Captain Horatio Edwards. The common practice in that decade was for a ferry to bring passengers from Dublin to Plymouth where they would board the bigger ship to Australia.

Their arrival was barely noticed in Hobart. It was Christmas after all.

Dec. 25 -William Hammond, ship, 683 tons. Edwards, from Plymouth, Sept. 30, with sundries and 256 immigrants; surgeon-superintendent, T. Belcher Esq. Agent-Master (Footnote 1)

The William Hammond has made an excellent passage of about 84 days. Two births and four deaths took place during the passage. She spoke no vessels. (Footnote 2)

Biddy’s first days in Hobart Town are not recorded, but we know she was employed as a general servant by Mrs James of Brown River. Brown River is in Kingston  between Hobart and Cygnet (formerly Lovett), so this young girl moved to the right general area.  If John Dillane made day trips at all, he might have found her.

Massively enlarged portion of a map of Tasmania which my grandfather used at school.

There is no other record regarding young Biddy Behan from Kildare.  It is very very likely that this is the girl who married John Dillane nearly two years later.

A search for a family surnamed James at Brown River has so far yielded nothing.  However, there was a Frederick and Jane James living at Deep Bay in December 1856.  Deep Bay is deep in the heart of Dillane country to the east of Cygnet.  If Biddy’s employers had moved with her to Deep Bay, she would have had daily contact with John Dillane.  He might have been her neighbour!  Frederick James was sometimes recorded as Frederick Jaynes and he was a sawyer. If this family employed a servant, she was probably paid very little and undertaking some heavy work.  Once again, it makes sense for the unskilled Biddy Behan to gain this type of employment.

Searching for further clues had not yielded results.  Behan was a common name in Kildare, as is ‘Bridget’ as a girl’s first name.  We know she was Catholic from the shipping record but not every record has survived.  However, Kildare has some early baptisms so there are possibilities.

John Dillane (now Dillon) and Bridget Bain (Behan) had the following children:

The children of John Dillon (Dillane) and Bridget Bain (Behan) born in Tasmania, Australia

There must be a clue in here somewhere but until we locate Biddy’s family we don’t know what that clue is.

Options in Ireland:

Best Fit –

Bridget Behan baptised on 8 May 1836 age 0, the daughter of Peter Behan and Eliza Scott, in Athy, Kildare, Ireland.  Sponsors were George Scott and Mary Whelan

Two other children were born to these parents – Eliza baptized in 1837 and Thomas baptized in 1841. However, there is a marriage in 1867 in Kildare, Ireland for one Bridget Behan aged 30 with a father named Peter Behan. If this is the same Bridget, it would eliminate her as an option.

Other possibilities:

Bridget Behan baptised on 21 Nov 1841 the daughter of Patrick Behan and Mary White at Monasterevin, Kildare, Ireland. No sponsors written into this register. Although this Bridget is a few years younger, these parent names are found among John and Bridget’s children.  Patrick and Mary Behan also had a daughter Ellen baptized in 1840.  Biddy just might have put her age up to obtain passage out of Ireland. 

Bridget Behan baptised on 16 Feb 1837 the daughter of Maurice Behan and Jane Conlan at Monasterevan, Kildare, Ireland. No sponsors written into this register.  

Bridget Behan baptised on 13 Jan 1837 the daughter of Michael Behan and Anne in Suncroft, Kildare, Ireland.  Sponsors were Denis Haslan and Maria Nowlan

There are more – many more, but the years begin to be distant or the parent names are distinctly different to our Biddy’s family.

Having searched to this point I have once more come to a grinding halt.  No DNA matches show ancestral names of Scott or White in Kildare.  With the new changes in FtDNA I am no longer able to search for ‘Kildare’, which is a huge shame.

So I’ll leave it here for now.  New records are finding their way online all the time.  I will just have to wait.

On the 12th April 1824, the Glasgow Court of Justiciary met to deal with three months’ worth of prisoners now languishing in Glasgow awaiting trial.

Among the prisoners were our Ann Livingston aged about fourteen and her partner Alexander Stevenson, only a few years older.  The relationship between the two teenagers is not known but most likely they were either cousins or romantically connected.  Ann may not have had contact with Alexander since their incarceration but it is likely that she did. They might have had many friends to keep them informed of the other’s circumstances.

According to the book ‘A summary of the powers and duties of juries in criminal trials in Scotland‘ by William Steele published in 1833,  the crime of ‘opening lock-fast places’ means breaking into a locked or blatantly secured area while legitimately on a premises.  So this is different to breaking into a house where one is also trespassing.  Wherever they were, Alexander and Ann were allowed to be there, but they then decided to break into a room or cupboard or chest which they were not authorised to break into. The available details are very sketchy.

Ocean and birds from The Quiver 1864

Ann was just one of many women arrested in that quarter. Margaret Gordon, a ‘thief by habit and repute’ had been caught breaking into a house and  Maria Kelly was accused of uttering a forged note.  Margaret McTeague had been arrested along with her father for uttering several forged notes.  Margaret was five years older than Ann.  Margaret Bell was incarcerated for receiving goods from a housebreaking expedition by a group she was involved with.

Margaret Gordon was brought before the bar on the first day of the sessions, found guilty and sentenced to 14 years’ transportation.  Maria Kelly appeared next and was declared free.

This was the third time at least that Ann had been arrested and tried, so she probably understood the system quite well.  She was not called on that first day, but she and Alexander were the second case heard on Tuesday 13th April

There is a brief description in the Caledonian Mercury of 17th April 1824:

The court met this day at nine o’clock …Alexander Stevenson, and Ann Livingstone, accused of theft by opening lock-fast places, were found Guilty, and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. On receiving sentence, Livingstone exclaimed “I hope your Lordship will be in hell before that period.”

This is our first official record of Ann’s attitude towards anyone in authority.

There is little detail available regarding Ann’s time in jail, awaiting transportation. This was a time of bonding for many convicts whose lifelong friends in Australia can be traced back to the same ship and the same jail after their sentencing.  Ann Livingston and Margaret Gordon were soon joined by Margaret McTeague.   Ann Dunsmore, another teenager, was already in the cells with a young child of obscure description. Margaret Paisley, Janet Buchanan and Mary Little were certainly also present.  Most women had committed offenses in company with a male family member, either a husband or father. Margaret McTeague’s father had been sentenced to death.  Ann Dunsmore and Janet Buchanan had a husband also under sentence of transportation and they could probably expect to be reunited in the penal colony.

Ann’s jail report was not complimentary: “a prostitute and thief, connexions of the worst description“.

The Caledonian Mercury of 11 September 1824 finally has a reference to these women:

Thursday the following female convicts arrived at our jail (Edinburgh?) from Glasgow, on their way to the hulks, preparatory to transportation, viz. – Ann Hunter or Dunsmore, Margaret McAslan or Paisley, Janet Gardner or Buchanan, Mary Little, Margaret Gordon, Margaret McTeague, and Ann Livingstone. They were the same afternoon conveyed to Leith, and embarked on board the smack Hawk, for the Thames.

The convict ship Neptune.  Roughly similar to the Henry.

The women were transported to Van Diemen’s Land on the ship Henry.  The surgeon’s log for this journey spans the period 02 August 1824 till 01 March 1825.  Conduct reports for the convicts give an arrival date of 08 February 1825.  Ann Livingston does not appear in the summary of the surgeon’s log, however the log has not been digitized so I have not viewed the whole thing.

Shipping reports of the time all have the same brief detail, dated October 11 1824 at Deal: ‘came down the river, the ship Henry, Ferrier’ .   We know that the above women were all transported on this ship so they didn’t have long to wait.  James Ferrier was the captain.

On her conduct record, Janet Buchanan states that her husband was now at Sheerness awaiting transportation.   Ann Dunsmore says that her husband was already in the colony. The women clearly had some information about loved ones.

From the Hobart Town Gazette (“Ship News.” Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen’s Land Advertiser (Tas. : 1821 – 1825) 11 Feb 1825: 2. accessed Web. 21 Feb 2016 )

SHIP NEWS

Arrived on Wednesday from England, the ship Henry, Captain Ferrier, with 79 female prisoners, who have 10 children, and 25 free women, with 23 children, the latter having been sent out at the expense of Government to join their husbands and relatives in these Colonies. The Surgeon Superintendent is Dr. Carlisle, R. N.-The Henry left the Downs the 12th of Octoher, and on her passage touched at St. Jago’s. She brings no mail, but newspapers to the 6th of October.

The Henry offloaded its cargo of convicts very quickly, keeping two convicts on board plus several of the free women who all travelled on to Port Jackson.

We don’t know Ann’s first impressions of Hobart Town. She arrived in February so the weather was probably beautiful.  The town was small, the treatment of convicts was still harsh so she may not have felt very comfortable.  Several of the convict women probably lost their children at this point, at least temporarily, with the children removed to the town orphanage.  They may not have had enough confidence in the system to believe they would see those children again.

The best thing for Ann’s descendants is that she has now arrived where the record keeping was quite good – especially good with regard to our Ann who soon made herself known to the authorities.

West side of Mt Wellington in the clouds Jan 2014, a light rain falling. This was a different century but the season in which Ann arrived (summer). 

‘Gin Parlour’ by the Religious Tract Society 1854 artist not credited

Ann Livingston was one of the many colourful characters of early Hobart and New Norfolk. As an ancestor she is a fascinating subject for research. She was probably quite difficult to be around, but her indomitable spirit comes through very clearly.

Her earliest days are still shrouded in mystery.  Most likely, Ann herself had no idea of her precise birthplace or birth year. The event occurred around 1809 in Renfrewshire in Scotland, maybe somewhere near Paisley since this is where we first find her.

The town of Paisley is an easy twelve miles from Glasgow.  In 1810 it was called a town. One 1823 edition of the Encylclopaedia Britannica says ‘The whole population of Renfrewshire amounted to 78,000 in 1801, of which Paisley alone contained much more than a third, and in 1811 it was 92,596.”  It was a region of growing population and shrinking industry.

At the turn of the 19th century the main industries of Paisley were agriculture, cotton and minerals. Many of the local families contained sailors and fishermen.  We can glean some idea of life there from books and newspapers of the time which might help to identify Ann’s early experiences.  The region was assessed  in 1811 for the British government by one John Wilson, and his report was published a year later.  In his chapter on new infrastructure, Wilson describes the region’s canal development as follows:

General View of the Agriculture of Renfrewshire 1812, drawn up for the consideration of the Great Britain Board of Agriculture by John Wilson

John Wilson undertook his contracted duty with diligence and attention to detail, but clearly his instructions were to identify and assess the county’s wealth and future financial prospects.  Knowing the future of Scotland and its smallholders, we can see the beginnings of their end in reports such as this.   After noting the ruined castles which dotted the region, his assessment is quite pessimistic.

General View of the Agriculture of Renfrewshire 1812, drawn up for the consideration of the Great Britain Board of Agriculture by John Wilson p61

So just what does John Wilson mean by this?  Basically that the farmers are of too low a class to be worth better housing.  In another few pages he begins to explain:

Finally, we have a description of the poor people of the region.

Wilson page 80

It’s a very impersonal and clinical description but we can begin to see the situation.  There were itinerant workers and families without support. The farmers were barely hanging on to their homes, the canal had failed to provide egress for trade and there was very little in place to support poor people.

Ann has a local surname. There were Livingstons scattered right across this region but they don’t seem to fit into a coherent family.  The Napoleonic wars had taken many men, put an end to a lot of trade.  Somewhere, Ann had a biological father and mother, but perhaps her father was a soldier and not present in her life?  Perhaps her mother was one of the semi-nomadic seasonal workers referenced above who became pregnant to a local man?  Until a baptism record is found we have no idea at all.

Paisley Abbey from North West © User:Colin / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 (creativecommons dot org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

After this very emotionless description, we can examine newspaper reports for more detail.  The following excerpts are a small sample involving events around Paisley but they show the situation clearly – people surviving any way they can, children left alone while the parents are working, regiments coming and going and the need to constantly watch out for fraud in every transaction.  This was the world for Ann Livingston as she grew from baby years into comprehending childhood.

1807: Alexander Taylor, [surgeon’s apprentice] and Matthew Smith, gardener, both of Paisley, were accused of the murder of an infant child. The indictment accused Smith of having taken from Agnes Kelly, on the street of Paisley, a female child of between two and three months old ...  (Scots Magazine 01 Feb 1807)

From the Caledonian Mercury 20 Feb 1812)

A number of disorderly women and vendors of base coin have been taken into custody, and sentenced to solitary confinement in the Bridewell (Glasgow).

Tuesday this week, the Berwickshire Regiment of Militia marched from Queensberry-House Barracks for Paisley.

A female swindler, of decent appearance, upon Friday last came to lodge in a house in Leith St. She pretended she had come on the coach from Falkirk and that her husband was an officer in the navy whom she expected to arrive hourly by the road.  On Tuesday afternoon the lady decamped, taking with her a large number of valuable items from the house. 

1812 (all from the Caledonian Mercury 16 Nov 1812):

John Cochran, carter, was tried for cutting away the land-fasts of a vessel moored at the Broomielaw, and selling them for old rope ….

James Crawford, a deaf and dumb man, was attacked between Glasgow and Paisley by three foot-pads, cut and abused very much, and robbed of a silver watch ….

A man in Paisley was robbed of ninepence and a pair of new shoes, which the villains took off his feet after cruelly abusing him ….

Two children in separate towns, both very young, were burned to death this week in singularly similar circumstances.  In each case the fathers were absent on business and the mothers had gone out to raise potatoes ….

(from the Caledonian Mercury 06 Apr 1814)

On Wednesday last, a Paisley gentleman left Glasgow betwixt nine and ten o’clock to walk home. On the way, three men sprung out from the Plantation west gate, one of whom grappled the gentleman by the collar and attempted to trip him; while the other two struck him with sticks over the head and brought him to the ground.  While in this situation two of them proceeded to rifle his pockets while the third held a pistol within a few inches of his face. Not one of them during the whole transaction ever uttered a word ….

And then, seemingly a long way off in Manchester, England, came an event now known as the Peterloo Massacre.

Wikipedia (2016) describes it this way:

The Peterloo Massacre occurred at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 that had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

At the time of the Peterloo Massacre, Ann Livingston was about ten years old. The event sent shockwaves across Great Britain.  Men and women from all walks of life united in protest.  News travelled and protesters mobilized.

Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland By Sarah Q from Northern, NJ, United States (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In the course of last week a bill, with a mourning border, calling a meeting for Saturday of the inhabitants of Paisley and its vicinity to take into consideration the late proceedings at Manchester, was circulated in the above district. But when the hour of meeting came, three o’clock in the afternoon, it was found necessary owing to the inclemency of the weather to postpone, for the rain fell in torrents. The Meeting stands postponed until Saturday.

The Public Ledger of 17 September 1819 tells us a little more (much abbreviated):

The postponed meeting .. took place on Saturday last .. about two miles southwest of Paisley. The day was fine and the numbers assembled was great, perhaps from 10,000 to 12,000. All the speakers were dressed in mourning .. numerous speakers .. angry tirades on the character and conduct of the Manchester magistrates .. 

In consequence of what is not known, but all the town hall windows were broken and the mob had not dispersed at half past 11. The Sheriff and the constables were grossly insulted, and assailed with stones while parading the streets. A considerable number of rioters were taken into custody. 

The following day was reported as follows also by the Public Ledger:

On Sunday the scene of riot and outrage was renewed in Paisley. During the day a number of persons assembled in the streets.  By seven o’clock their numbers had greatly increased and they proceeded to open violence. The Sheriff Deputy was knocked down, kicked and left insensible. Many other respectable individuals were assaulted and abused, and their houses damaged.  It was found necessary to read the Riot Act and call out the military. The constables with patrols of soldiers searched the streets and the town is again tranquil. 

This blog is not about the Paisley Riots but since our Ann was in the middle of this event, it undoubtedly had a huge impact on her.  One letter writer of the time described the town as for the whole of that Sunday having a ‘very threatening aspect’.  By that Sunday night there were rumours of large crowds marching out from Glasgow to join the fray. Very few residents would have slept well that night.

The Yorkshire Gazette of 25 September 1819 gives the end of the story.

At Glasgow, a number of villains who had collected in the Green, with a view to joining the rioters in Paisley, returned to Glasgow after having been, three miles out of the town, joined at the New Bridge by a crowd of about 8,000, who paraded the streets for some time. It being represented to the magistrates that a riot would take place .. two troops were fetched from Hamilton. About nine o’clock the riot act was read and the cavalry called out.  About 100 persons were arrested and sent to the Police Office. 

The unrest went on for days, involving vandalism of anything made of glass, stone throwing and attacks with sticks.  Shops stayed closed for a week.  Eventually it  settled down, with the jails completely full and the military still out on full alert.

Flare-ups continued for months and nothing improved for those without money.  The newspapers are full of robberies, murders and abandoned babies. We have no idea what was happening to Ann in these years but given her personality later on, she was probably learning by now to watch out for herself.  These were undoubtedly tough and lonely years.

According to Ann’s later statement, her first stint in Paisley Jail was for one fortnight when she was aged about twelve years.  Her second was for eight months in the same place for housebreaking.  Hopefully a record will show up one day for these periods of incarceration.  After her release from jail the second time, she was aged about thirteen, maybe fourteen.

At the time of her third arrest in early 1824 at the age of fourteen, her occupation is recorded as ‘prostitute’.  Ann and 18 year old Alexander Stevenson, also of Paisley, were caught ‘opening lock-fast places’ in Glasgow. They were placed in Glasgow prison to await trial at the April sessions.