The walking Dad: William Mallett (1862-????)

'He just went away one day and never came back,' a great aunt replied when I happened to ask what happened to her paternal grandfather: William James Mallett (1862-????). I've since spent decades trying to understand his desertion in 1885 as well as what became of him. The incident also raises some significant social questions relating to the period: How did people manage to divorce and remarry in colonial Australia? Did people separate for similar reasons they do today?

There was no easy avenue for divorce in colonial society in the Nineteenth Century. However, there was in fact a legal provision for remarriage under certain circumstances. An Act of British Parliament in 1828 expanded a principle first established in 1603 allowing remarriage if one party had been absent for seven years and the other was not aware of them to be living. This effectively allowed most convicts to remarry either with permission or after the expiry of their sentences. (1) The 'seven-year rule' acted as a means by the state to facilitate marriage in a society where defacto relationships were both common and open. While men were plentiful in the colonies, the sex imbalance in colonial Australia ensured that women were in demand. As James Boyce argued in his book Van Diemen's Land '...the gender imbalance at least gave women some degree of choice.' (2)

Mary or 'Granny' DUNN (with grandson Laurie PARRY) in 1930

Photograph of Mary Dunn (nee Mallett nee Colgan), 1930, original held by Colin Woollcott Mallett, Launceston, Tasmania.

When Mary Mallett (1864-1954) subsequently remarried Patrick Dunn under the seven-year rule in 1898, she indicated that her previous husband had been desceased since 1885. (3) While perhaps a lie of convenience, she may have never really known her first husband's fate for certain. At any rate, Mary not only married again, but she had also engaged a defacto husband in the intervening years! Mary's subsequent brood was considerable although typical for the period. (4)

But why did this marriage fail? Relationships fail for any number of reasons but undoubtedly there are several core ones, the most prominent are lack of commitment, financial challenges and infidelity - none of which are specific to any era. (5) One of the primary reasons may have also been simply a lack of compatibility—something difficult to assess if cohabitation follows rather than precedes marriage. (6) Additionally, William and Mary married very young and were perhaps unprepared for married life. (7) In colonial Australia, the 1880s proved to be a decade of general prosperity, continuing the extended economic boom that lasted between 1870 and 1890. (8) Even so, William was turned down for a land grant around the same time as he deserted. Perhaps William felt a failure and afterwards could no longer face his family? (9)

Both William and Mary were descendants of a succession of failed relationships. William's mother, Sarah Bliss Johnson, was married to a man who on one occasion assaulted her own mother and step-father! (10) William's maternal grandparents had separated early and his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Berry (an emancipated convict), entered a defacto relationship producing several illegitimate children. His maternal grandfather Joseph Bliss alias Johnson (also an emancipated convict) suffered premature senility and wandered out from Sorell into the wilderness to perish in 1847. (11) The marriage of William's paternal grandparents failed in 1838 when his emancipated convict grandfather and namesake, was convicted of larceny a second time and sent to Port Arthur. His paternal grandmother, Jane Brickhill, who was also an emancipated convict as well as an infamous drunkard, soon after returned to prostitution. (12) His father, yet another William Mallett, afterwards spent several months in Queen's Orphanage aged seven while his younger brothers were taken into the employment and protection of the Henty family. Eventually, William's parents found each other and perhaps not unsurprisingly, reinvented themselves at the other end of the state under an assumed name. (13) 

Mary's own immediate ancestry was as equally unsettled. Her father, another former convict named Cornelius Colgan, had left behind a wife, Ann, and a small family in County Down. (14) When Cornelius married again under the seven-year rule, it was to the 14-year-old (and pregnant) daughter of two bounty immigrants from County Kilkenny, Bridget Doyle. (15) Perhaps understandably this marriage also failed and likewise Mary's mother Bridget undertook a long term defacto relationship producing several more illegitimate children. (16) Mary's grandfather, Michael Doyle, mentally declined after his wife's death to breast cancer in 1882 at Forth, eventually dying three days after slitting his own throat as a resident of the Launceston Invalid Depot in 1886. (17) None of these events were unusual for the time but the multiple layers of trauma must have had some influence on both William and Mary Mallett, and in some instances perhaps, directly on the outcome of their marriage.

It is possible that both William and Mary may have even inherited some degree of 'intergenerational trauma'. The field of epigenetics suggests that while trauma doesn't change our essential DNA, it may influence the manner in which that information is expressed. In that way it may act like a note in a margin of a book, guiding which genes are activated. Intergenerational trauma can manifest itself not only physically but emotionally contributing to mental health and also interpersonal issues. (18) It is perhaps significant to note that William and Mary's sole child together, William Thomas Mallett (1884-1956), experienced an unhappy marriage and eventually separated from his wife in the 1930s. (19) This was however forty years before the achievement of no-fault divorce in Australia and neither party remarried. (20) 

In summary, there was a mechanism in colonial Australia that facilitated remarriage without the requirement for divorce. This was arguably a convenient device that allowed authorities to curb the level of long term defacto relationships apparent in the community. Furthermore, marriages in this period likely failed for many of the same reasons they do today. The capricious realities of an age preceding the implementation of the welfare state would have likely exacerbated the challenges and conflicts that naturally emerge in intimate relationships. There is also an emerging understanding that intergenerational trauma can impact emotional health outcomes; as both William and Mary shared a genealogy of dysfunctional marriages, it's possible that given suitable adverse circumstances, this factor may have contributed to the specific failure of their own marriage. 

The only confirmed picture of W. T. 'Bill' Mallett (holding axe) aged 19. Like father, like son?

Photograph of Wood Chopping at Druids Stonehenge Lodge Sports Lottah, 1903, Tasmanian Archives, NS1050/1/12, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Archives/NS1050-1-12, accessed 7 December 2023. 

I am still left with one lingering question though: what happened to William? William appears to have settled near his father and stepmother in the Bullarto region. There is a listing for a 'Mr. W. Mallett' competing in the wood chopping event of the local annual sports carnival in 1895. (21) There is another indication that William was still alive as late as 1902 as he listed as being 39 years of age on his father's death registration. (22) It's possible he may have even reverted to his birth name, 'William James Woollcott', (23) but so far he can't be found under that name either. It appears he not only 'walked' but he also seemingly walked so far and faintly that there's virtually no trace left of him at all!

- Dr. Colin Woollcott Mallett, 8 December 2023.

Endnotes

(1) David Kent & Norma Townsend, 'Some Aspects of Colonial Marriage: A Case Study of Swing Protestors', Labour History, 1998, 74:40-53, p 42, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27516552 accessed 21 October 2023.

(2) James Boyce, Van Diemen's Land, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2009, pp 128-130.

(3) Marriage registration of Patrick and Mary Dunn, married 6 December 1898, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Marriage RGD37/1/60 904, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/925325, accessed 5 December 2023.

(4) Mary bore seven more children to Edward James McGuire and three to her seond legal husband Patrick Dunn. For details see: Death registration of Mary Dunn, 2 September 1954, Victorian Archives: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Melbourne District, 10123/1954.

(5) Hope Gillette, 'The Top 12 Reasons for Divorce', Psychcentral website, 25 October 2022, https://psychcentral.com/relationships/top-reasons-for-divorce#A-closer-look-at-the-reasons-for-divorce, accessed 5 December 2023.

(6) The birth date of their first and only child together implies that Mary was pregnant within two months of their wedding. We can probably safely infer then that cohabitation, let alone sexual relations were both initiated post-marriatge. See: Birth registration of William Thomas Mallett, born 29 July 1884, Victorian Archives: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Heywood District, 17498/1884.

(7) Marriage registration of William and Mary Mallett, married 24 September 1883, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Marriage RGD37/1/42 1069, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/898748, accessed 5 December 2023. At the time of their marriage William and Mary were aged 21 and 20. 

(8) Education Services Australia, 'Australia in the 1880s', My Place for Teachers website, n.d., https://myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/decade/1880, accessed 6 December 2023. 

(9) 'Portland Local Land Board', Portland Guardian, 18 July 1884, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63343125, accessed 5 December 2023. The grant was to have been in the parish of Annya and was refused by the Portland Local Land Board.

(10) 'Assault - Grady v. Curtis', Colonial Times, 15 February 1855, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8779190, accessed on 5 December 2023. Sarah had married Robert Curtis in 1852 and they had two children together. See: Marriage registration of Robert Curtis and Sarah Bliss Johnson, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Marriages, RGD37/1/11 204,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/842209, accessed 5 December 2023.

(11) Joseph Bliss married Elizabeth Berry in 1826 and they had three children together. By 1839 she was having children to another ex-convict, Michael Grady. Refer to: Marriage registration of Joseph Bliss and Elizabeth Berry, married 9 January 1826, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Marriages, RGD36/1/1 961,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/817943, accessed 5 December 2023 & Baptism of Betsy Grady, 14 August 1842, Tasmanian Archives, Parish Registers, County of Buckingham, 1329/489,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1088665, accessed 5 December 2023 and three more over the next several years. Joseph's mental health seems to have declined around this time and he was incarcerated for a time in the New Norfolk Lunatic Asylum in 1846 suffering from 'chronic disease of the brain' despite not yet being fifty: Accounts and Papers Vol. XI: Convict Discipline, Great Britain, Parliament, House of Lords, Oxford University, 1849,  https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Accounts_and_Papers/ahBcAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0, accessed 5 December 2023. Joseph went missing in 1847 and human remains were found in the bush at Carlton, near Sorell, 15 years later. They were suspected to have belonged to him. See: 'Country Intelligence', Advertiser, 14 January 1862, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264620476, accessed 5 December 2023. 

(12) Colin Woollcott Mallett, 'A Convict Cold Case: William Mallett (1797-1852)', The Write Side of History blog, 12 October 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-convict-cold-case-william-mallett.html, accessed 5 December 2023. 

(13) Colin Woollcott Mallett, 'The Boy Who Lived: William Mallett (1830-1902)', The Write Side of History blog, 9 November 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-boy-who-lived-william-mallett-1830.html, accessed 5 December 2023. William's parents, William Mallett and Sarah Bliss Johnson lived in the Circular Head area as 'William and Ada Sarah Woollcott'. Part of the reason may have been because her legal husband Robert Curtis refused to "vanish".

(14) Convict indent of Cornelius Colgan, Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Indents of Male Convicts, CON14/1/40, pp 120-121,  https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-40$init=CON14-1-40P119, accessed 5 December 2023. Details of his first family are provided across two digitised pages. 

(15) Bridget was married at Northdown, Port Sorell in her parents' home and her age was given as 14; while Cornelius was listed as an 'Adult', he was actually around 40 years of age. See: Marriage registration of Cornelius Colgan and Bridget Doyle, married 29 June 1862, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Marriages, RGD37/1/21 587, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/867053, accessed 5 December 2023. Bridget's true age is calculated from that given on her family's immigration record (6 years old in 1854). See: Immigration record of Michael and Mary Doyle and family, Tasmanian Archives: Descriptive List of Immigrants, CB7/12/1/1,   https://stors.tas.gov.au/CB7-12-1-1P84J2K, accessed 5 December 2023. Their first son Michael Colgan was born less than four months after the marriage. See: Birth registration of Michael Colgan, born 23 September 1862, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Births, RGD33/1/40 1417,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1013667, accessed 5 December 2023.

(16) Bridget and James Jeremiah O'Keefe had several children together, begining with Helen Ann Lousie O'Keefe. See: Birth registration of Helen Ann Louisa O'Keefe, born 6 June 1880, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Births, RGD33/1/58 2549,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1034375 accessed on 5 December 2023. 

(17) Refer to: Death registration of Mary Doyle, died 9 September 1882, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Deaths, RGD35/1/10, 1246, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1230836, accessed 5 December 2023; Death registration of Michael Doyle, 22 March 1886, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Register of Deaths, RGD35/1/55, 132,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1169232, accessed 5 December 2023.

(18) Sara Johnson, 'Understanding epigenetics: how trauma is passed on through our family members', Arkansas Advocate website, 5 July 2023, https://arkansasadvocate.com/2023/07/05/understanding-epigenetics-how-trauma-is-passed-on-through-our-family-members/#:~:text=Modern%20research%20suggests%20the%20trauma,and%20the%20effects%20of%20trauma, accessed 5 December 2023.

(19) William T. Mallett married Eleanor Bedelia Ann Parry at Lottah, Tasmania. See: Marriage of William and Bedelia Mallett, 24 June 1908, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Marriage 22/1126 1908. While initially listing one household, the Tasmanian Post Office records lists two residences for 'W. T. Mallett' at Lottah between 1923 and 1937. Afterwards his wife is listed as aliving in Launceston. Refer to: H. Wise and Co., The Tasmanian Post Office Director, Kelly and Co., London, 1891-1948, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/Library/SD_ILS-981598, accessed 5 December 2023.

(20) While in 1959 the federal Matrimonial Causes Bill defined 14 grounds for divorce, it wasn't until the Family Law Act 1975 that 'no fault divorce' was introduced in Australia. Farz Edraki & Keri Phillips, 'How Australia introduced no fault divorce - and why our family law system is under review again', ABC News website, 11 February 2020,  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-11/history-no-fault-divorce-and-family-law-in-australia/11931556, accessed 5 December 2023.

(21) 'Bullarto Sports', Kyneton Observer, 21 March 1895, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article240956760, accessed 5 December 2023. It's most likely the younger William, considering the event was wood chopping and and given the relative ages of father and son.

(22) Victorian Archives: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Bullarto District, 12891/1902. The current ages of WJM and his sisters are all listed otherwise they would be recorded as 'deceased'. 

(23) Birth registration of William James Woollcott, born 9 June 1862, Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Births, RGD33/1/40 760,  https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1013013, accessed 5 December 2023.

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

Accounts and Papers Vol. XI: Convict Discipline, Great Britain, Parliament, House of Lords, Oxford University, 1849, https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Accounts_and_Papers/ahBcAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Advertiser (Hobart, 1861-1865)

Colonial Times (Hobart, 1861-1865)

H. Wise and Co., Tasmanian Post Office Directory, Kelly & Co., London, 1891-1947.

Kyneton Observer (Victoria, 1856-1900)

Portland Guardian (Victoria, 1876-1953)

Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department, Indents of Male Convicts, CON14/1/40

Tasmanian Archives: Descriptive List of Immigrants, CB7/12/1/1

Tasmanian Archives: Parish Registers, County of Buckingam

Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Births

Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Deaths

Tasmanian Archives: Register General's Department, Registers of Marriage

Victorian Archives: Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages

Secondary Sources:

Boyce, James, Van Diemen's Land, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2009.

Kent, David & Townsend, Norma, 'Some Aspects of Colonial Marriage: A Case Study of Swing Protestors, Labour History, 1998, 74:40-53.

Online Sources:

Edraki, Farz & Phillips, Keri, 'How Australia introduced no fault divorce - and why our family law system is under review again', ABC News website, 11 February 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-11/history-no-fault-divorce-and-family-law-in-australia/11931556.

Education Services Australia, 'Australia in the 1880s', My Place for Teachers website, n.d., https://myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/decade/1880

Johnson, Sara, 'Understanding epigenetics: how trauma is passed on through our family members', Arkansas Advocate website, 5 July 2023, https://arkansasadvocate.com/2023/07/05/understanding-epigenetics-how-trauma-is-passed-on-through-our-family-members/#:~:text=Modern%20research%20suggests%20the%20trauma,and%20the%20effects%20of%20trauma.

Mallett, Colin Woollcott, 'A Convict Cold Case: William Mallett (1797-1852)', The Write Side of History blog, 12 October 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-convict-cold-case-william-mallett.html.

Mallett, Colin Woollcott, 'The Boy Who Lived: William Mallett (1830-1902)', The Write Side of History blog, 9 November 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-boy-who-lived-william-mallett-1830.html.

The boy who lived: William Mallett (1830-1902)

On the grounds of the old Queen's orphanage in New Town, Hobart there is a monument to the children that died while resident there. One of those names listed there is William Mallett who apparently passed away in 1839. The orphanage records reveal he was the son of William and Jane Mallett, his father is noted specifically to have arrived in the colony of Van Diemen's Land aboard the Pilot (1). The problem is younger William didn't die in 1839. He was in fact my Great Great Great Grandfather and he lived a long, full life, fathering four children by two women and eventually dying in Bullarto Victoria in 1902! We know that because of both archival and DNA research.

The paper trail is long and complicated, of course. William was baptised in the Anglican parish of Christ Church Longford in 1832 along with two of his siblings. While his church index card above lists his father's occupation as a fencer based at Campbell Town I believe this is likely a mistranscription of 'Camperdown' which was a property owned by his employer, Captain Andrew Barclay (2). 

It's thought William's first marriage to Sarah Bliss Johnson was a defacto relationship but he did marry his second wife Jane Butcher nee Lloyd and his parents are listed on the registration above as well as his place of birth (3).

His death registration above also lists his parents, the names of both his wives and the names and ages of his children. His age is listed on both of these Victorian records and correlates with his baptism details. His place of birth is actually given as 'North Esk' on his death registration which was the location of the Barclay estate (4). 

William's brother James Mallett's marriage registration above indicates shared parentage, although it seems Uncle Jim did not know his mother's maiden name! (5).

Of the first native Tasmanian born generation, only William and his younger brother James Mallett (1835-1901) were known to have had children. Above is an ancestry 'thrulines chart' showing genetic matches between my father (David Mallett) and various descendants of both brothers; these include six matches on our line and seven matches on Uncle James' line. While Ancestry doesn't provide a chromosome browser that could provide conclusive evidence of a shared ancestry between the two lines through a study of specific shared segments, this is evidence of a distinct autosomal correlation between the descendants of these two brothers with the varying numbers and sizes of segments all reflecting expected typical distances in relationships as determined by the closest common ancestor. My father matches 13 people in all and there are more (including his sister) but the charts only include kits that are both matches and which indicate common ancestors in their respective family trees. Other platforms though have provided evidence of specific shared segments shared exclusively between descendants of William and Jane Mallett.

So my ancestor William Mallett (1830-1902) was the child of convicts William and Jane Mallett and he was the brother of the James Mallett who established a family at Merino, Victoria and so he didn't die in Queen's Male Orphan School hospital in 1839. So what is going on? What actually happened to William?!

First a little potted history... 

The orphanage as an organisation was founded as the 'King's Orphanage' in 1827, ostensibly in response to growing calls for the need to service the basic needs of the colony's destitute children. In her thesis on topic submitted in 2000, Shirley Dean describes how the assigned motivations for its founding range from the philanthropic to the creation of a 'mechanism of social control'. The initiative was taken under the direction of Governor Arthur although the Bigge Report had been silent on the problem. Certainly there was a strong element of self-interest on the part of the propertied settlers in creating a literate, trained, reliable workforce (6). It is known that approximately 6000 children were admitted to it between 1829 and 1879 (7). From the beginning only a minority of the children resident there were by strict definition 'orphans': many were children of parents who for a variety of reasons could not properly provide for them. The backgrounds of the children varied greatly: some were illegitimate, others belonged to single parent families, in some cases they had invalid parents and a few had been simply abandoned. Sadly some indigenous children too were also admitted after having been forcibly taken from their families (8). 

The male orphan school opened in 1827 and the female orphan school the following year, at first renting premises. The first meeting of the management committee was held in April 1828 and a ladies committee was formed soon after to specifically oversee the running of the female school. Their weekly minutes were regularly reviewed by Governor Arthur himself. The staffing structure was highly heirarchical and consisted of a headmaster, matron, servants and beadle. From the outset the Orphan schools were beset by scandals concerning administrative mismanagement and personality clashes between the staff. The permanent buildings surviving today were in fact designed by colonial architect John Lee Archer and constructed as two wings separetly adjoining St. John's church, New Town in 1833. Children were eligible from the age of three and parents with adequate means were expected to contribute to their upkeep. Children were mostly apprenticed or assigned out between the ages of twelve and fifteen years. Perhaps one of the crueller aspects of the institution was the fact that children could only be returned to the custody of their parents with the approval of the specific committe. This was despite the orphan schools were often overcrowded and conditions described as 'worse than spartan' (9).

Improvement both moral and vocational were the fundamental aims of the orphan schools. An Act was passed on 22 November 1838 specifically to facilitate an apprecnticeship system for the children of the orphan schools (10). While the female school was from the outset always focused on preparing girls for domestic service, the emphasis in the earliest decades of operation for boys was on 'industrial training'. Children were apprenticed or assigned under indentures that were legally binding until the age of eighteen. However the population of the colony was always small, econoimc activity limited and the labour market negatively impacted by the gold rushes. The colony was primarily an agricultural one and trade apprenticeships were few and far between and so after 1860 the emphasis for the boys changed emphasis to preparation as farm labourers. In 1861 the master tailor and shoemaker were fired. Dean notes this shift was advantageous for the orphan school as it was at the time located within 150 acres of scrub land (11). In return for free labour and obedience, Masters had a obligation to provide adequete food, apparel, lodging and medical attention (12). It should come as no surprise to learn that they often didn't and Lucy Frost's recent book is full of accounts of the system's appalling limitations and failures (13).

Now back to William... 

On 30 April 1838, William Mallett, aged 7, was admitted to Queen's Male Orphan School along with three other boys: Jeb Birkins aged 7 years, Henry Williams aged 6 and 3/4 years and Charles Neale aged 3 and 1/2 years. Like William, all three of the other boys were the children of convicts and they were all eventually apprenticed out between 1846 and 1850 (14). The physical design of the orphan schools perhaps reflected the 'class views' in relation the stigma of convictism and the poor in general as religion was to play a central role in their redemption. Dean argues that the formulation of the orphan schools were in fact influenced the 'adoption of the bourgeoise middle class family as the ideal model' (15). These children had been contaminated by their parents and generally by their class as a whole and they needed to be rescued, elevated perhaps by the example and influences of the enlightened—but not elevated too far of course (!). Very little was expected of them other than to become useful. William's father had recently re-offended and been sentenced to seven years at Port Arthur. It is suspected he is the son that had a part in his family's downfall by picking up a dropped bank note from the street and taking it home to his father. Afterwards his two younger brothers (James and Thomas) were taken into service by the Henty brothers and played a first hand part in the settlement of the colony of Victoria (where their elder brother George also emmigrated). William was the only surviving child admitted to the orphanage and from his later life as a splitter and farmer there can have been little wrong with him physically—so maybe it could be inferred that perhaps because of his 'criminal history' he was not an attractive employment proposition like his little brothers? (16) 

Perhaps one way of understanding William's experience of the male orphan school is to unpick the events contemporary with his tenure? While many apprentices were mistreated by their masters, as previously alluded to, the life of the scholars resident in the orphan schools was described as 'spartan'. There are also some indications that the children were inflicted with excessive discipline. The biggest scandal of William's residency were the charges brought by and against second master, John Offor. He was drawn into conflict with his superior, headmaster, the Reverand T. H. Naylor. Offor had first fell out of favour when he accompanied his fellow employee, Mrs. Girl, to deliver a complaint about another employee Mr. Gazard to the Colonial Secretary's office without leave. In May, a board of inquiry was organised to investigate no less than eleven charges of misconduct brought against him by Naylor. One of the more serious charges was one of intemperance; Naylor accused Offor of 'over severity towards the boy's at one time, and total disregard to necessary control at another...'. Two boys who testified (William Williams and Henry Bradshaw) admitted they had ran away because they were to be flogged. A record of punishments was tabled indicating that between 1 November 1837 and 10 June 1839 a punishment of 31 stripes had been delivered once, 25 stripes had been delivered 25 times and 20 stripes twice. Otherwise all punishments had been 12 stripes or less. It was further revealed that between 1 January 1838 and 10 June 1839 there were officially 374 incidents of corporal punishment although that was in response to 881 individual offences. Significantly, one of the other charges against Offor was that he had told the boys that they should have 'warm beds, good clothing and good food' as he had made some complaints and someone was coming to make enquiries. Although this charge of 'improper language' was rejected by the inquiry, the issue of the 'spartan' nature of the school's conditions does not appear to have been addressed (17). 

It does seem unlikely that the listing of William's death is a clerical error. This entry precedes the one's above and below it by the better part of a decade. The insitution also wasn't so callous or indifferent that the odd child could be misplaced (18). A week after his 'death' on 15 June 1839, the Cornwall Chronicle reported that there were 226 boys and 210 girls 'under tuition' at the orphan schools (19). I have followed up on all children who died who were listed on the same page as his entry and I have failed to find a government death registration of only one of them aside from William. The fact that not all colonial records have survived probably explains the other missing death registration but I doubt there ever was one for William. So I am left to conclude that somehow William, all of nine years old, managed to extricate himself from orphanage either with or without help. It could be significant but William is described as having died in 'hospital' while other entries indicate they died in the male orphan school hospital (20). Perhaps his condition was serious enough to be taken to the local colonial hospital in Hobart and that in itself may have opened up various possibilities?

Between 1860 and 1879 almost a quarter of all the orphans apprenticed absconded (21). While most were caught and returned, some likely succeeded. Leaving a master's premises without permission could result in a month's imprisonment with additional hard labour for boys (22). There are two children listed as absconded on the same page as William's entry in the orphanage records with no indication they were returned (23). Poor conditions and harsh discipline is likely to have been a strong motivating factor for absconding. Abuse of children is also likely to have been widespread and under-reported. Lucy Frost elaborates on this point:

I think it important to acknowledge that if these adolescent boys were the victims of sexual predators, they may never have told their mistresses, fearing they would not be believed. Throughout the archive of material related to apprentices, there is no reference to boys being sexually molested. The sexual abuse of girls was no doubt more widespread than is account for by the cases brought to court or discussed in various correspondence, and it is impossible to believe that no boys were similarly abused (24).

And if I may be so bold as to put my hypothetical spin on this thought, children, particularly small children, were no doubt vulnerable within the walls of the orphan schools—even if it were only from predators among their older peers.

There is a gap of two decades in our knowledge of what happened next in William's life. We can infer some likely details though. He is next detected on the archival radar living as splitter as 'William Woollcott', living with his 'wife' Ada Sarah Woollcott at Black River near Circular Head in 1862 when their eldest child, William James Mallett was born (25). DNA research has revealed that Ada Sarah was in fact Sarah Curtis nee Bliss Johnson and it seems that the couple had run away together (!) Her husband, Robert Curtis worked in the timber industry in Hobart, so that may be the link (26). This is suggestive that William may have remained in the immediate area, perhaps worked with or for Curtis in a mill and formed an attachment with his wife.  

St. John's Anglican Church, New Town, 2017.

(SurveyorMJF, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikipedia Commons)

It would be impossible to estimate the damage done to all those young lives by the orphan school system in Tasmania. I have little doubt it had a lasting effect on its charges. Given William's tender age I think it likely that he found some sympathetic source of support either in the form of an employer or perhaps a family. Regardless, he was certainly one of the lucky ones who were able to get away early and for good.

- Dr. Colin Woollcott Mallett, 10 November 2023.

Endnotes

(1) Tasmanian Archives: Kings/Queens Orphan School (TA148); Register of children admitted and discharged from the male and female orphan school, SWD28-1-1, p 27.

(2) Baptisms of George, William and Elizabeth Mallett, baptised 3 October 1832, Christ Church Parish Register, Longford, Tasmania, Australia, nos. 98-100 & Colin Woollcott Mallett, 'A Convict Cold Case: William Mallett (1797-1852)', The Write Side of History blog, 13 October 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-convict-cold-case-william-mallett.html , accessed 13 October 2023. 

(3) Marriage registration of William Mallett and Jane Butcher nee Lloyd, married 31 July 1889, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, no. 6387.

(4) Death registration of William Mallett, died 25 October 1902, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria,  no. 12891.

(5) Marriage registration of James Mallett and Eliza Sarah Seaborne, St. Stephen's Church Portland, married 2 July 1856, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, no. 2351/1856.

(6) Shirley Dean, Our Children, Our Orphans, [Honour's Thesis] University of Tasmania, 2000, pp 5, 16, 22, https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Our_children_the_orphans/23236667, accessed 23 September 2023. 

(7) Lucy Frost, Convict Orphans, Allen & Unwin, Crow's Nest, New South Wales, 2023, p 1.

(8) Dean, Our Children, p 9.

(9) Dean, Our Children, pp 25-30.

(10) 'From the Gazette', Cornwall Chronicle, 19 January 1839, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65952242, accessed 23 September 2023.

(11) Frost, Convict Orphans, pp 9, 79-80.

(12) Dean, Our Children, p 50.

(13) Frost, Convict Orphans, passim.

(14) Tasmanian Archives: Kings/Queens Orphan School (TA148); Register of children admitted and discharged from the male and female orphan school, SWD28-1-1, p 27.

(15) Dean, Our Children, p 12.

(16) Colin Woollcott Mallett, 'A Convict Cold Case'.

(17) 'Thursday Evening', Hobart Town Courier and Van Diemen's Land Gazette, 23 August 1839, p 4, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8747354, accessed 23 September 2023.

(18) Tasmanian Archives: Kings/Queens Orphan School (TA148); Register of children admitted and discharged from the male and female orphan school, SWD28-1-1, p 27.

(19) 'Minute-Finance', Cornwall Chronicle, 22 June 1839, p 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65951760, accessed 23 September 2023.

(20) Tasmanian Archives: Kings/Queens Orphan School (TA148); Register of children admitted and discharged from the male and female orphan school, SWD28-1-1, p 27.

(21) Dean, Our Children, p 50.

(22) Frost, Convict Orphans, p 117.

(23) Tasmanian Archives: Kings/Queens Orphan School (TA148); Register of children admitted and discharged from the male and female orphan school, SWD28-1-1, p 27.

(24) Frost, Convict Orphans, p 62.

(25) Tasmanian Archives: Register-Gerneral's Department; Registers of Birth, RGD33/1/40, no. 760, https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1013013, accessed 23 September 2023.

(26) Tasmanian Archives: Register-Gerneral's Department; Registers of Marriage, RGD37/1/11, no. 204, https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD37-1-11p85j2k, accessed 23 September 2023.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Christ Church Parish Register, Longford, Tasmania, Australia.

Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tasmania)

Hobart Town Courier and Van Diemen's Land Gazette (Hobart, Tasmania)

Registry of Births, Death and Marriages, Victoria.

Tasmanian Archives: Kings/Queens Orphan School (TA148); Register of children admitted and discharged from the male and female orphan school, SWD, 1828-1863.

Tasmanian Archives: Register-General's Department; Registers of Birth, RGD33/1/40.

Tasmanian Archives: Register-General's Department; Registers of Marriage, RGD37/1/11.

Secondary Sources

Dean, Shirley. Our Children, the Orphans [Honour's Thesis], University of Tasmania, 2000, https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/Our_children_the_orphans/23236667, accessed 23 September 2023. 

Frost, Lucy. Convict Orphans, Allen & Unwin, Crow's Nest, 2023.

Online Sources

Mallett, Colin Woollcott. 'A Convict Cold Case: William Mallett (1797-1852)', The Write Side of History blog, 13 October 2023, https://thewrite5ideofhistory.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-convict-cold-case-william-mallett.html, accessed 13 October 2023.

A convict cold case: William Mallett (1797-1852)

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Over the next few months I am going to publish a series of short historical biograpahies of selected infdividuals who are all of some interest to me, beginning with my convict ancestor William Mallett (1797-1852). I hope you find them as intriguing as I do - CWM.

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William Mallett was 18 years old when he was arrested for burglary in Penryn, Cornwall in 1815. (1)  In the morning of 16 November, William was observed leaving the Anchor Inn and heading in the direction of the nearby custom house. William was pursued by the owner, Henry Plint, to a docked vessel at the Quay, the Commerce. Located hiding in the forecastle he was found in possession of a silver teaspoon which Plint asserted was his property. On 25 March 1816, William was tried for burglary and robbery at the Cornwall Assizes, Launceston before Sir Robert Graham and James Allan Park and sentenced to death. (2) Fortunately for William, his sentence was subsequently reprieved. (3) When he was received aboard the hulk Leviathan on 24 May 1816 he had turned 19 and his sentence had been commuted to ‘Life’. (4) William was described as a shoemaker, and being 5 foot 7 inches in height, having a dark complexion with brown hair and hazel eyes. (5) He was variously listed as William Mallett junior or William Mallett the younger. (6) He was transported via the Fame, departing from Spithead, London on 9 October 1816. The Fame arrived in Sydney on 8 March 1817. (7)

Map of the Quay at Penryn site of William's arrest in 1815.

Before transportation to New South Wales ceased in 1840, the ‘worst characters’ were often transferred to Van Diemen’s Land. (8) William was indeed transferred to Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land via the Pilot on 11 September 1817 along with 104 other male convicts. (9) His identifying police number was 42. (10) Over the next several years William began to improve his life in Van Diemen’s Land and impress as a participant in the ‘assignment system’. This system was designed to provide cheap labour to the emerging colonial economy as well as provide a reformative influence to the convict population.(11) Even so, William experienced his first rematch with authority in 1823: while working on a ticket of leave, he was charged with stealing tools from a Doctor McNab and on the 29 March he was fined 3 pounds. (12) He married convict Jane Brickhill at St. John’s Church, Launceston on 9 September 1828.(13) Between July 1828 and May 1830, William was working for settler Andrew Barclay on a Ticket-of-Leave. (14) He likely participated in Governor Arthur’s infamous black line project which was compulsory for all convicts who had been granted a ticket of leave. (15) When three of William and Jane’s children were baptised together in the Christchurch Parish at  'Camperdown' on 3 October 1832, he listed his occupation as ‘Fencer’. (16) William’s conduct record indicates that he was granted a conditional pardon (No. 379) on 21 August 1832. (17)

However, by the end of the decade, William’s life was to suffer a significant setback. On 20 October 1837, William was found in possession of £20 worth of bank notes belonging to a Michael Connolly of Launceston. Connolly had just received a large quantity of bank notes from the Tamar Bank in Launceston, dropped some on his way home and realising his mistake, turned back to see a boy running away with a handful of them. He followed the boy home inside found the boy’s father, William, holding the notes. (18) William was charged with stealing and sentenced on 3 Jan 1838 to seven years transportation with two years of his sentence to be served at Port Arthur Penal Station. (19) Established in 1830 as a place of secondary punishment for recidivists, Port Arthur employed convicts in timber felling, milling and coal mining. While not as austere as Macquarie Harbour and Norfolk Island, discipline could be still be strict. (20) William was officially punished three times during his sentence, including being confined on bread and water for being found ‘improperly in possession of potatoes’ on 4 July 1839. (21)  

William’s conviction had a severe impact on his family, although there are indications that there were pre-existing tensions in his marriage. In December 1830, William reported Jane for being absent and drunk and she was sentenced to 10 days solitary confinement on bread and water. While also pregnant with their last child, Jane was also charged with being complicit in the Connolly affair but avoided conviction. (22) Although he was the second eldest son, William’s namesake was the only child placed in Queen’s Orphanage in New Town following the conviction. (23)  Their last child, Joseph, died aged two months of a ‘visitation by God’ and was buried in March 1838 in the Anglican cemetery in Cypress Street, Launceston. (24) Over the next few years there was an exodus of their surviving children to colony of Victoria: the eldest son George was the first to transfer to Portland in 1840 (and again in 1842); the younger surviving children James and Thomas were employed by the Henty family and travelled there in 1841. (25) There are indications that Jane may have struggled to cope with increased poverty, increasing drunkenness, often finding herself at odds with the local police. (26) Following William’s second conviction, between 1838 and 1846, Tardif reports that Jane was charged on no less than 17 occasions for drunkenness or obscene language or both! (27) Although she departed for Port Fairy, Victoria in 1848, she may have returned and been the ‘Jane Mullett’, servant, who died in Launceston in 1853. (28)

James Mallett (1835-1901) son of William and Jane Mallett, aged 31.

Over the next several years, William progressed through the system for the second time. His second sentence had coincided with the instigation of the probation system. Although this system claimed to be just and be designed to reward good conduct, it insisted that prisoners be treated according to the severity of their sentence and be subjected to successive stages of punishment utilising such methods as solitary confinement and hard labour which overall contributed to ‘increased misery’. (29) In April 1842 he was discovered drunk and out after hours and sentenced to 6 days solitary confinement. He was granted a ticket of leave on 10 March 1843. The following October he was reported for visiting a public house and absenting himself without leave for 10 days. William’s journey through the judicial system finally ended when his conditional pardon was extended on 21 October 1845. (30) Little is known of William’s later years regarding his personal productivity and independence but when he died in 1853, the informant was his daughter-in-law, Ann Mallett, who have her address as Bourke Street, Launceston. Although only 54, he had survived the transportation system twice, so he may have been ailing and in the care of what was left of his family. (31) William was buried from the colonial hospital in the Anglican cemetery at Cypress Street, Launceston, perhaps near the remains of his wife and their last child together. (32)

 - Dr. Colin Woollcott Mallett, 13 October 2023.

Endnotes

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(1) ‘Cornwall Assizes’, Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal (Truro, England), Issue 664, 16 March 1816, p 2, British Library Newspapers, accessed 24 May 2023.

(2) ‘Second Day’, Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal (Truro, England), Issue 667, Thursday 6 April 1816, p 4, British Library Newspapers, accessed 24 May 2023.

(3) ‘Multiple News Items’, Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal, Issue 666, Thursday 30 March 1816, p 2, British Newspapers, accessed 24 May 2023.

(4) Hulk record for William Mallett, The National Archives (UK): Home Office; Convict Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, HO9/8, 1802-1849, hulk register no. 3295, Ancestry.com, accessed 7 June 2023.

(5) State Archives NSW: New South Wales Government; Bound manuscript indents, NRS12188 4/4005 1788-1842, Ancestry.com, accessed 7 June 2023.

(6) ‘Cornwall Assizes’ & Criminal register for William Mallett junior, The National Archives (UK): Home Office; Criminal Registers for England and Wales, HO27/12 1791-1892, p 96, accessed 7 June 2023 & Transportation register for William Mallett the younger, The National Archives (UK): Home Office; Convict Transportation Registers, HO11/2 1791-1868, Ancestry.com, accessed 2 June 2023. He was even referred to once as Hugh Mallett but that was clearly an error: ‘Multiple News Items’.

(7) The Fame was 464 ton and built at Quebec in 1812. The Ship’s Master was Henry Dale and Surgeon was John Mortimer. The voyage lasted 150 days, transporting 200 male convicts among whom there were 2 deaths. See: Charles Bateson, The Convict Ships 1787-1868, Library of Australian History, North Sydney, 2004, pp 340,382.

(8) David T. Hawkings, Bound for Australia, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., Chichester, Sussex, 1987, p 2.

(9) Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment Lists and associated papers, CON 13-1-1 1812-1859, p 96,  https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON13-1-1$init=CON13-1-1P85 , accessed 7 June 2023.

(10) Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment system – male convicts, CON 31-1-29 1803-1843, https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-29$init=CON31-1-29P18 , accessed 7 June 2023.

(11) Richard Tuffin, ‘Assignment’, Companion to Tasmania History online, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/A/Assignment.htm , accessed 23 May 2023.

(12) Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment system – male convicts, CON 31-1-29 1803-1843, https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-29$init=CON31-1-29P18 , accessed 7 June 2023. This could have been Alexander McNab who was granted land on the island. Refer to: Land grant for Alexander McNab, granted 30 June 1823, State Records Authority New South Wales: New South Wales Government; New South Wales various Land Records, Fiche 3262 4/438 1788-1963, p 63, Ancestry.com, accessed 7 June 2023.

(13) Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage (Pre Civil Registration), RGD 36/1/1, no. 1185, https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/818391 , accessed 7 June 2023. Jane Brickhill’s own background and convict career is documented in Philip Tardif’s Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls, Convict Women in Van Diemen’s Land 1820-1829, Angus and Robertson, North Ryde, 1990, pp 849-850.

(14) Register of passes to travel granted to William Mallett, 9 July 1829 & 8 May 1830, Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Passenger and Land Records, CON 81-1-1 1828-1833, Ancestry.com, accessed 7 June 2023 & G. H. Stancombe, ‘Andrew Barclay (1759-1839)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography online,  https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barclay-andrew-1739 , accessed 18 May 2023.

(15) Lyndall Ryan, ‘The Black Line in Tasmania: success or failure?’, Journal of Australian Studies, 2013, 37(1):3-11, p 11, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2012.755744 , accessed 18 May 2023. Ryan informs us that all convicts granted a ticket of leave were ordered to take part unless they could afford to provide a substitute. Of the 2200 men who took part in the operation it is estimated that 700 were convicts. 

(16) Baptisms of George, William and Elizabeth Mallett, baptised 3 October 1832, Christchurch Parish Register, Longford, Tasmania, Australia, No. 98-100.

(17) Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment system – male convicts, CON 31-1-29 1803-1843, https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-29$init=CON31-1-29P18 , accessed 7 June 2023. The pardon though does not appear to have been gazetted until 1835. See: ‘Classified Advertising’, Hobart Town Courier, 30 January 1835, p 4,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4181902 , accessed 24 May 2023.

(18) ‘Quarter Sessions’, Cornwall Chronicle (Tasmania), 6 January 1838, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65950265 , accessed 24 May 2023. Connolly found four in William’s hand and four more under his hat! In his defence, William reportedly told Connolly he was intending to use the notes to make a kite for the boy!! The boy in question was likely William’s namesake who had been born in 1830.

(19) Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment system – male convicts, CON 31-1-29 1803-1843, https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-29$init=CON31-1-29P18 , accessed 7 June 2023. Connolly was a local entrepreneur who part owned a shipping agency that imported sheep and cattle and facilitated sealing and whaling. See:  Author Unknown, ‘Griffiths, Jonathan (1773-1839)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography online https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/griffiths-jonathan-2128 , accessed 23 May 2023. Money appears to have continued to slip through his grasp as he was declared insolvent in 1843: ’Advertising’, Launceston Courier (Tasmania), 27 March 1843, p 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84674158 , accessed 24 May 2023.

(20) Lloyd Robson & Michael Roe, A Short History of Tasmania, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 1997, pp 15-16.

(21) Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment system – male convicts, CON 31-1-29 1803-1843, https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-29$init=CON31-1-29P18 , accessed 7 June 2023.

(22) Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Comprehensive Registers of Convicts, Supplementary Conduct Registers, CON 40-1-1 1828-1853, https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON40-1-1$init=CON40-1-1P115, accessed 7 June 2023.

(23) While he is not named in any surviving court documents or in the press coverage, William junior may have been placed in the orphanage as a punishment. Tasmanian Archives:  Kings/Queens Orphans Schools; Register of Children Admitted and Discharged from the Male and Female Orphan School, SWD 28 1828-1863, orphan no. 3388.

(24) Tasmanian Archives: Register-General’s Department; Register of Burials in Tasmania, RGD34/1/1 1803-1933, no. 5527, https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1181125 , accessed 7 June 2023 & Diane Cassidy, Cypress Street Cemetery, self-published, Launceston, 2018, p 99.

(25) Tasmanian Archives: Colonial Secretary’s Office; George Town Port Officer’s Semi-Weekly Reports, CSO 95-1-1 1837-1847 pp 30, 129 & Courier, 13 August 1841, p 2. James Mallett’s recollections of arriving as a boy in Portland were recorded in his dotage in 1896. See: Bunt, ‘Pioneers of the West’, Casterton News, 20 April 1896,  http://www.swvic.org/merino/mallett.htm , accessed 23 May 2023. It not known what happened to William and Jane’s daughter Elizabeth born 1832 and it’s assumed she had died, perhaps before they settled in Launceston.

(26) Jane was described as a ‘regular visitor to the police’ in ‘Police Report’, Cornwall Chronicle (Tasmania), 13 March 1844, p 2,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66017630 , accessed 24 May 2023 and as having ‘an extraordinary taste for distilled waters’ in ‘Police Report’, Cornwall Chronicle (Tasmania), 11 December 1844, p 2,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66270795 , accessed 24 May 2023.

(27) Philip Tardif, Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls, Convict Women in Van Diemen’s Land 1820-1829, Angus and Robertson, North Ryde, 1990, p 850.

(28) Tasmanian Archives: George Town Police; Returns of crews and passengers on ships departing from Launceston, POL 220-1-1 1848-1854, p 4, https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/578848 accessed 7 June 2023 (listed as arriving via Providence and being free by servitude) & Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Hobart deaths and Launceston and country districts deaths, RGD35/1/22, no. 980, https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1195526 , accessed 2 June 2023.

(29) Michael Sprod, ‘Probation system’, Companion to Tasmania History online, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/P/Probation%20system.htm accessed 18 May 2023.

(30) Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment system – male convicts, CON 31-1-29 1803-1843, https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-29$init=CON31-1-29P18 , accessed 7 June 2023.

(31) It’s not known exactly how Ann was William’s daughter-in-law. It possible that while his son James prospered in Victoria, their son Thomas born around 1833 may have returned at some point to the island and she may have been his wife. A Thomas Mallett born around this time experienced a struggling life as an alcoholic and spent time in prison before he reformed and became a loved and trusted employee of the Shaw family of Castra Road, Ulverstone, dying in 1904. See: ‘Police Court’, Launceston Examiner, 14 September 1869, p 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36705936  accessed 24 May 2023; North West Advocate and Emu Bay Times, 7 July 1904, p 2, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64663824 accessed 24 May 2023; Kathleen Cocker, Early Houses of the North West Coast of Tasmania, E. H. Stancombe, Western Junction, 1984, p 66 & Tasmanian Archives, BDM registers; 1707/1904.

(32) Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Hobart deaths, Launceston and Country districts deaths, RGD 35-1-17, p 530, https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD35-1-17P17 , accessed 7 June 2023 & Diane Cassidy, Cypress Street Cemetery, self-published, Launceston, 2018, p 99.

Bibliography

 

Primary Sources

 

Archives:

 

Ancestry.com, Bound manuscript indents, NRS12188 4/4005 1788-1842.

Ancestry.com, Convict Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, HO9/8, 1802-1849.

Ancestry.com, Convict Transportation Registers, HO11/2 1791-1868.

Ancestry.com, Criminal Registers for England and Wales, HO27/12 1791-1892.

Ancestry.com, New South Wales various Land Records, Fiche 3262 4/438 1788-1963 1788-1963.

Ancestry.com, Passenger and Land Records, CON 81-1-1 1828-1833.

Christchurch Parish Register, Longford, Tasmania, Australia.

Tasmanian Archives: Colonial Secretary’s Office; George Town Port Officer’s Semi-Weekly Reports, CSO 95-1-1 1837-1847.

Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment Lists and associated papers, CON 13-1-1 1812-1859.

Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Assignment system – male convicts, CON 31-1-29 1803-1843.

Tasmanian Archives: Convict Department; Comprehensive Registers of Convicts, Supplementary Conduct Registers, CON 40-1-1 1828-1853.

Tasmanian Archives: George Town Police; Returns of crews and passengers on ships departing from Launceston, POL 220-1-1 1848-1854.

Tasmanian Archives:  Kings/Queens Orphans Schools; Register of Children Admitted and Discharged from the Male and Female Orphan School, SWD 28 1828-1863.

Tasmanian Archives: Register-General’s Department; Register of Burials in Tasmania, RGD34/1/1 1803-1933.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Hobart deaths, Launceston and Country districts deaths, RGD 35-1-17.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department; Registers of Hobart deaths and Launceston and Country districts deaths, RGD35/1/22.

Tasmanian Archives: Register General’s Department, Registers of Marriage (Pre Civil Registration), RGD 36/1/1.

 

Newspapers:

 

Casterton News

Cornwall Chronicle (Tasmania)

Hobart Town Courier

Launceston Courier (Tasmania)

Launceston Examiner (Tasmania)

North West Advocate and Emu Bay Times

Royal Cornwall Gazette, Falmouth Packet and Plymouth Journal (Truro, England)

 

Secondary Sources

 

Books:

 

Bateson, Charles, The Convict Ships 1787-1868, Library of Australian History, North Sydney, 2004.

Cassidy, Diane, Cypress Street Cemetery, self-published, Launceston, 2018.

Cocker, Kathleen, Early Houses of the North West Coast of Tasmania, E. H. Stancombe, Western Junction, 1984.

Hawkings, David T., Bound for Australia, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., Chichester, Sussex, 1987.

Robson, Lloyd & Roe, Michael, A Short History of Tasmania, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 1997.

Tardif, Phillip, Notorious Strumpets and Dangerous Girls, Convict Women in Van Diemen’s Land 1820-1829, Angus and Robertson, North Ryde, 1990.

 

Journal Articles:

 

Ryan, Lyndall, ‘The Black Line in Tasmania: success or failure?’, Journal of Australian Studies, 2013, 37(1):3-18, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2012.755744, accessed 18 May 2023.

 

Online Sources

 

‘Griffiths, Jonathan (1773-1839)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography online, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/griffiths-jonathan-2128, accessed on 23 May 2023.

 

Sprod, Michael, ‘Probation system’, Companion to Tasmania History online, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/P/Probation%20system.htm, accessed on 18 May 2023.

 

Stancombe, G. H., ‘Andrew Barclay (1759-1839)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography online,  https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/barclay-andrew-1739 , accessed 18 May 2023.

 

Tuffin, Richard, ‘Assignment’, Companion to Tasmania History online, https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/A/Assignment.htm, accessed on 23 May 2023.