The Convicts

In May 1825 Commander Henry Miller relocated the increased population of 75 convicts along with officials and military to the Brisbane River site. While now on the river the site was still called the Moreton Bay Convict Settlement and Penal Colony. As mentioned, he was called back to Sydney by the governor.

In general those send to Moreton Bay were here on minor (secondary) offences – often robberies – for which they received relative short term sentences. In 1831 the secondary offenders from Port Macquarie were transferred to Moreton Bay. This penal settlements was opened up to free settlers in 1830. Special or educated convicts from Wellington were transferred from Wellington. The last convicts left Port Macquarie in 1847. Interestingly the convict settlement here was established in 1821 when convicts from Newcastle were transferred to Port Macquarie. This transfer from Sydney to Newcastle, to Port Macquarie and Moreton Bay indicates the trend that convicts were moved further and further away as free settlers started to spread out and it became easier for convicts to escape, and also settlers put pressure on the government to move convicts away from their free settlements.

Under Logan, the total numbers of convicts in Moreton Bay only for a short short period peaked around 1,000. However, shortly after his time the whole issue of penal settlements came under discussion. This meant that far fewer convicts arrived, while most short-termers went back to Sydney. From 1832 onward we see the numbers of convicts in the colony more than halved (300-400) and later on that decade halved again. Under Logan the settlement was built for 1000 convicts and 200 military, it never received full capacity anymore. This meant that buildings became less used and started to deteriorate and there were also not enough prisoners to maintain all the farms and gardens.

The first arrivals in the mid 1820s lived in tents and they had the built the initial slab huts that were used for the military and their workshops.  The initial work consisted of basic groundwork such a levelling building sites and clearing land for farming.

Douglas Gordon in the medical Journal of Australia in 1963, comes to an interesting conclusion. The high level of death and illness in the early years (see chapter Hospitals) was a repeat of the situation in Sydney when Governor Phillip arrived there in 1788. While Phillip could be excused for lack of knowledge. The officials who established Moreton Bay should have learned from that experience and should have taken sufficient precautionary measures to prevent a repeat of the Sydney disaster, but they did not and the people in Moreton Bay paid the price for that, many with their lives and many more with permanent disabilities.

In 1835 Quaker Missionary James Backhouse wrote a report on his visit to Moreton Bay to NSW Governor Richard Bourke. In this his stated that all convicts on arrival were put in irons for nine months and unless the convicts had misbehaved there were removed after that time. He described the food that convicts received, which mainly consisted of maize meal that was used for bread and porridge. Apart from the loss of liberty the irons and the food were the major privations.

Misconduct was punished by flogging, solitary confinement, work on the treadmill, compulsory labour on Sundays as well as the above mentioned wearing of irons.

By that time the convict system had several types of convicts: The First and Second Class. Together they were also called  The Old Hands as they were all second offenders.  They Second Class was employed to clear heavily timbered land, quarrying stones, hoeing the farm lands. Most of the Second Class had iron leg cuffs. This was especially exhausting in the summer months.  Within that group there were also differences. Punishments were varied through the weight of the leg irons. While they not only had to work much harder their food rations and the quality of it was less than that of the other prisoners.

The First Class was also called the Better Class.  They were employed in the lighter and less laborious operations, this included working in the lumberyards and the outlaying farming and cattle stations. Where appropriate they were also employed as clerks and domestic staff (both men and female) for the households of military the pastor, doctor, etc. Within the Second Class were also the Mechanics. These were convicts with certain trades or skills. Some of them acquired some skills. Wherever possible they were deployed based on their skills. Those who misbehaved could end up in the iron gangs and this was in general a good enough reason to stay out of trouble.

The first commanders Miller and Bishop had complained about the lack of skilled labour. It was not after Commander Logan arrived that more convicts arrived – including those with skills needed in the new settlement. It was only at that time that serious building start to happen. Despite the overall negative legacy that Logan has left behind (see below), he has also been recognised for his excellent building program.

When Andrew Petrie arrived in 1837, he became the (first) Superintendent of Works and he oversaw the work done by the better class prisoners.

By that time, the lumberyard at what is now Brisbane Square had workshops where the ‘better’ prisoners made their own clothes, caps, and boots. They produced nails, iron bolts and other building material. They tanned leather and made soap and candles. There were also blacksmiths, carpenters, cabinet makers, coopers, wheelwrights, and barbers. As in any prison system also here there was a roaring illegal trade going on. Those in the lumberyard made whenever possible various things for the soldiers in exchange for favours, tea, tobacco, etc.

The lumberyard was walled with one entrance at Queen Street which was guarded by a sentry. At six o’clock the prisoners were mustered and with a group of six red coats were walked back to the Convict Barracks. They were searched by a convict overseer to make sure they did not smuggle any tea or tobacco back into their compound. The Petrie boys had rather free access throughout the settlement and were able to provide some tea, tobacco, and other goodies to prisoners in the lumberyard or those who were out in the field. Their mother actively stimulated this. Sometimes the crow-minder (see below) did bury some tobacco that was later  retrieved by the iron-gang prisoners. The soldiers would often just look on as long as the overseers were away.

The prisoners received twice a week their rations of tea, sugar, and meat from the cook in the lumberyard. They daily also received corn meal porridge, served in kids (small wooden tubs). There are also several reports indicating that the sugar, what they called black sugar, was not much more than molasses. The tea was very coarse like bits of stick and was known as ‘post and rail’. They also roasted corn and than grind to make coffee, this was known as ‘coal tar’. The poor quality of the food was a constant complaint and malnutrition (together with poor hygiene) was a key reason for the high level of hospitalisation and consequent death.

The iron gangs were mainly deployed in the various farms and gardens (New Farm, Kangaroo Point, along the river in South Bank and around what is now Roma Street. First, they had to walk in chains to these places. Here, they did all the usual farming and the chipping and hilling of the corn. They had to use the hoe; Logan had forbidden to give them a plough. They also had to bring the corn on carts – they had to pull themselves – to the windmill. While the hand carts remained in use, later also a bullock was sometimes used to pull the cart.

Both groups worked on the treadmill. The major difference being that it was a punishment for the iron gang who could have to work for up to 16 hours with irons on. The other prisoners often volunteered, worked much less time, where able to get some extra food and of course had no irons on.

In the case of the iron gang workers, if they did not do their share or misbehaved in any form, they would be given the lash on the spot by the convict overseer. At the Government Gardens (Botanical Gardens) was a lonely pine tree that was used for that purpose. On the Creek street side was a tree-hut for the crow-minder. This was a short-sentenced prisoner (who would not run away) he had to walk along the corn with a clapper to keep the crows and cockatoos away. He also had to keep an eye on the Aboriginals that they did not swam across the river to steal corn. The fact that this happened rather often indicates that he was not always successful in his job. There were also crow-minders at other sites.

An interesting detail that Tom also mentioned both in relation to prisoners in the garden and on the treadmill is that the convicts always took their shirts off not because of the heat, but to keep them reasonably clean as they only were issued with two shirts a year.

Women also worked in the gardens. Females and some male convicts were also deployed in household and maintenance work for the various military staff members and their households.

Tom Petrie mentioned that the Turrbal people called the convicts ‘croppies’. This is interesting as that was originally the name for Irish convicts send to Australia. Croppy was a nickname given to Irish rebels fighting for independence from Britain during the 1798 Rising [1]. They must have picked up that name at the early beginning of the penal settlement and that name stuck to them. The aboriginals called the soldiers ‘diamonds’ because of their red and white uniform.

Statistical information

Visiting botanist Allan Cunningham reported in June 1828 that there were 500 convicts , 73 military and 3 clerks.

Prisoners overview for 22 September 1828

2	clerks	In public offices
5	overseers	Police duties and with working gangs
13	assistant overseers	Police duties and with working gangs
119	mechanics & labourers	Engineer’s Department
33	boats crew
6	splitters and fencers	3 men split 75 rails and posts, 2 put up 16 panels of fencing, 1 in charge
386	labourers	Employed in the Agricultural establishment
9	at Dunwich	1 storeman and 8 labourers
15	camp gang	12 in government garden, 3 digging a well
12	stock keepers & carters	3 with sheep, 3 with pigs, 1 with cows, 2 with goats, 1 watching cattle, 2 carters
18	light gang	3 at the store, 1 scavenger, 1 dairyman, 3 dairy women, 1 water carrier, 3 servants
12	barrack establishment	3 bakers, 3 cooks, 4 wardsmen, 2 grinding corn, 1 in charge
23	goal gang	At the foundation for new stores
39	in hospital	6 attendants, 33 patients

Source: Convicts at Moreton Bay 1824-1859 – Mamie O’Keeffe

In 1831, convict numbers peaked at 947. Another 250 military and administrative staff, made the total population in 1831 around 1200. In that year there were 40 convict  women with 7 children incarcerated in the Female Factory. When sentences expired very few new convicts arrived at the settlement and the convict population fell away to 374 in 1835. In 1831 the civil population was 15 male, 2 female and 7 children, the military counted for 106 males, 16 females and 29 children.

In 1836 there were 311 male prisoners, 71 female prisoners, 22 children (0f which 14 are offspring of the female prisoners). On the military side there were 60 soldiers as well as  the Commandant, Superintendent of Public Works, Assistant Colonial Surgeon, Deputy Assistant Commissary General, Agriculture Superintendent, Superintendent of Convicts, Commissariat Storekeeper and the Commandant’s clerk.

The stats for 1838 are: 207 male prisoners, 77 females, total of a 284.

Close to 90% of all convicts were below the age of 40, with the majority of them in the 20-24 range. Only 6% were female. On average there was one soldier for every 6-8 convicts.

In 1839, transportation to Moreton Bay had totally ceased. There were less than 100 convicts at that time. 

By that time 2200 convicts had passed through the convict settlement.  81 of them were sentenced to a penal settlement of 14 years and 88 for life, the rest were short-term prisoners with sentences less than 7 tears. In all 220 convicts died in the penal settlement (10%), a comparative high number of deaths within the British penal system, especially when taking into account that the majority of prisoners was under the age of 40.

In November 1839 NSW Governor Richard Bourke  mentioned in his report to Britain that the maize grown at Moreton Bay was valued by him at £1046, and the cost per convict head per annum at £13.

With the closure of the penal colony those with higher offenses were send to Norfolk Island the rest to Sydney. Fifty ‘ordinary prisoners of the Crown’ were send to Brisbane to facilitate the change to a free settlement. In the early 1850s ex-convict and their families still counted for around 20% of the total population.

Harshest penal colony in Australia

Logan was at occasions criticised by his superiors of ordering punishment of up to 500 lashes.  However, being these leaders all being military men their view was based on discipline and punishment, so they let the local commanders basically alone.  This also applied to Governor Thomas Brisbane. Ironically, the Scottish clan name Brisbane is derived from the anglo-french ‘brise bane’ meaning ‘break bone’ or ‘bonebreaker’. All of this continued in a period where social sciences started to move politicians more towards a prison regime based on rehabilitation.

Between February and October in 1828, 11,000 lashes were inflicted on 200 convicts.  Each lash with the dreaded ‘cat o”nine’ left swollen marks all over the back of the victim. According to the records from the convict settlement, the Book of Trial, 128 men received 50 or more lashes. In comparison the average in the rest of NSW was 41 lashes. One of them – a 23 year old convict who received 200 lashes died  a few days later in the hospital. He certainly was not the only one. At occasions lashed were continued after the victim lost consciousness. These records also mention one convict who received 300 lashes (he apparently survived this). Records from between 1835 and 1842 indicate that 70% of the prisoners received at least once a flogging, in comparison in the rest of NSW that average was 25%. What these records don’t list are the floggings that were handed out in the field, there were several trees were prisoners were tied too when being flogged for problems caused while outside the barracks. In Logan’s time the flogger was known as “Old Bumble” and was a nasty piece of work and hated by the prisoners. Obvious the flogger didn’t live in the barracks as the others would gladly kill him. In Petrie’s time the flogger was Gillian and lived in a hut at the Commander’s Garden (he also tended this garden- what a contrast).

Moreton Bay  had become notorious for the harshness of its punishment regime – especial under the regime of Logan. However, his successors, James Clunie (1830-1835) surpassed him in brutality and his successor Foster Fyans (1835-1837) nicknamed ‘Flogger’ Fyans’ was not much better. They were all military men and they all had served in colonies with large number of slaves and were used to issue harsh punishment without much respect for human life. Logan in particular was hated by the convicts forcing them to work by hand from sunrise to sunset. The convicts had to sleep on board on the floor and were not provided with bedding. At its peak between 1830 and 1832 the barracks were overcrowd and rapidly became filthy. Without access to clean water dysentery and other deceases followed.

Another example of the harsh treatments was the fact that Logan had ordered that draft animals were not allowed within the penal settlement. The carts were build so they could be pulled by prisoners. When the Female Factory was moved to Eagle Farm a bullock was used for transport between the two sites. For the same purpose the doctor was now allowed to have a horse and buggy

Death was often the only escape from this regime of terror and several convicts committed crimes in the hope they would be hanged for that. Hangings could not be authorised by the Commandant. Those who committed  serious crimes such as murder would have to go to court in Sydney. It could be that the judge than ordered the hanging in Moreton Bay. There are only a few known cases that this happened. Runaways Charles Fagan and John Bullbridge, who consequently committed a house robbery in Port Macquarie were hanged in 1830, in front of the convict barracks. In the sentencing it was also stated that this this should be an example for other prisoners, contemplating their escape.

Two Turrbal Aboriginals (whose prosecution could be done without the court) were hanged on the wind mill for the murder of Assistant Surveyor Granville Stapylton.

I haven’t come across any other official executions. A significant number of convicts will have directly or indirectly died because of access flogging combined with insufficient food, exhaustion and excessive heat conditions. However, they were not recorded as such. Most of the time they were simply listed as died in hospital.

It is therefor no wonder that many convicts tried to abscond. Moreton Bay was an open prison, with the Australian Bush as its wall.  There were over the period  a staggering 700 recorded absconders (of which 98 were never captured). It is remarkably that escapes were made with those heavy  chains around their legs. Most of them returned back to the settlement because there was no way they could survive in the bush. Some received shelter from the Aboriginals, others were killed by them. As rewards were given to Aboriginals who capture absconded convicts they became actively involved in capturing them.   Amazingly some escapees made it all the way to Sydney, where they often were captured and send back to Moreton Bay. Some never showed up anywhere and were assumed to have been perished in the bush. While few made it the large number of escapes was an administrative nuisance  and created significant extra work for the military.

Logan was equally hated by the Aboriginals. Just before his planned return to Sydney, Logan went out on one his many exploration trips this time to an area known as Somerset. When he didn’t return Dr Cowper lead a party of soldiers to search for him. His bludgeoned body was find by Cowper and he concluded that Logan was murdered by Aboriginals. It has been suggested that this could perhaps have happened when he forcefully tried to enter their lands. Looking the way Logan was buried in a shallow grave, face down, rumours in the settlement had it that soldiers and/or convicts had murdered him.

The song Moreton Bay Song may have been composed soon after Logan’s death on 18 October 1830.

The end of the penal settlement, but not of transportation

Indecisiveness had been the hallmark of the policy regarding convict settlements and/or free settlement. Running penal colonies had become a financial burden to the British Government. There were also increasingly more voices in the British Parliament who advocated for stopping the transportation system as it did not really deter criminals. Britain was also worried about rebellions, such as the one in the American colonies that led to Britain losing these colonies.

As early as 1832 there were plans to abandon the Moreton Bay penal colony. During 1839 and 1840 Britain wanted to reduce the overall transportation and instead increase the number of prison hulks on the Thames. 

The place started to look deserted as only a small part if the buildings remained  occupied. The end of the convict era in Moreton Bay continued to reflect that situation.

In November 1839 NSW Governor Richard Bourke supported the British move to end of transportation. In that year the decision was also made to close down Moreton Bay and to reduce the number of prisoners to 300 – all short-term sentence men but also included all 57 female prisoners. A steamer picked them up and brought them to Sydney By now the number of convicts had dwindled to levels which made it nearly impossible to maintain the convict settlement. The convicts were mainly used on the cattle stations, for basic repair and maintenance and general administrative tasks.

The free settlers in the various Australian colonies lobbied for an end to the system in order for them to exploit the lands further north. However, the government in London still refused to open up Moreton Bay for free settlers. Instead it opted for the winding down of the settlement as a penal colony. The outstations became neglected and the buildings in the settlement hardly received any maintenance. Commander Cotton however was the first commander who insisted that the future of the colony had to be based on free settlers and as such he did what ever he could with that aim in mind. He finally stopped the discussion of moving the settlement to elsewhere. It is thanks to him the Brisbane received a lifeline beyond the convict settlement. 

Only 94 convicts remained in Moreton Bay, still without any decision about the future of the colony. There also remained 26  military and a  surgeon. Reports also indicate that more convicts would be send to Moreton Bay for the clearing of more land, this time in relation to opening up the settlement. They were also promised that if they completed their sentence in Moreton Bay they would be allowed to settle there. 

For the next decade labour shortage hampered the development of the Darling Downs and the squatters kept pushing the government  for more convicts to be send to Moreton Bay. In general the town folk were against this.

More than a third  of the remaining convicts were employed to look after the government’s very valuable cattle and sheep assets, mainly in Limestone.  While the plan was to sell these assets. It wasn’t until 1848 before that was finalised. Of the remaining original convicts only  7 convicts were allocated for the township and another 8 used as boatman. Two years later in 1841, the total population of Brisbane (town only) was 200, of which 132 convicts , 130 of them being in government service. Of the 29 free people one was an ex-convict, 15 were children and there were 8 men and 7 women.

In 1844 there were still 114 convicts in government service. 59 of them in the Agriculture Department, 11 in the Engineering Department, 3 in the hospital, 7 worked for the Harbour Master, 11 for Colonial Services, 14 for the Commissioner of Crown Lands, 8 at the Survey Department and 1 at the Commissariat.

In 1846 the personas over 21 years old  – including the Darling Downs –  numbered 1547 men and 320 women, Of those who were or had been convicts were 850 men and 30 women.

Transportation didn’t stop with the closure of the penal settlement. There was  an on/off situation as the British Government still wasn’t sure what to do with transportation. A new category known as ‘exiles’ started to arrive. They consisted of convicts  that had finished their sentence but who were not allowed  to stay in or return to England. While Melbourne and Sydney rejected the exiles, Moreton Bay, short of labour  welcomed them. In 1849 two ships with 225 exiles arrives in Moreton Bay. The following year another 292 exiles arrived. There were now more convicts in Queensland than at at time during the penal colony period.

There were also ex convicts namely from Tasmania who drifted north. In all 73000 convict ended up in Tassie of which  13.500 women. Between 1850 and the early 1900s, between 35-50000 moved out of Tassie. They were seen as undesirables  by the settlers in NSW and Victoria. Moreton Bay was seen as being more suitable for those undesirables.

At the census of 1851 the adult population stood at 5690 men and 1180 women, of whom 2117 and 107 had been transported. However during the decade Moreton Bay now also wanted to get rid of their ‘lashing period’. Some ended up at Dunwich asylums. A relative low number of  300 ex convicts ended up here (of 21000 people who ended up here 8000 were  not ill but simply paupers).

Convict property from the penal settlement

While at the closure of the penal settlement it still wasn’t clear what would happen with the settlement, surveyors were ordered in 1839 to survey land that could be sold to new settlers and plans were developed on what to do with the government buildings. A basic agreement on this was reached in 1840, but again it would take another two years before finally the convict era ended and the settlement was opened up to free settlers. The Female Factory was rented out and became a wool store for a few years and the Commissariat was turned into a private store. In 1842 seven rooms in the Convict Barracks and three other buildings were opened for lease. A few months later all the premises were occupied. Most buildings were in deplorable stage, dirty and often leaking. The government as the owner was unwilling to make the necessary repairs and it was up to the lessees to do this at their own expense, with no guarantee that their lease was extended on a year by year basis. In 1847 the government decided to divide the land and building  in the settlement into 10 allotments. Sales of some of the buildings started in 1849, parts of the barracks, parts where the court was situated were kept in government hands. Some of the most dilapidated buildings such as the boat-shed and the cottage at the wharf, lumberyard shed and the garden cottage were demolished. The engineering barn became a church.

Convicts who stayed in Brisbane

The 2nd offenders all went back to Sydney, 39 stayed behind in Brisbane. Furthermore the colony received a group of 55 prisoners of the Crown to assist in establishing the free settlement. Twenty two were assigned to the surveyors – see below – three were employed at the hospital, one to the pilot crew at Amity Point, four as boat crew for the settlement, the rest were assigned were needed. The 200 soldiers were also withdrawn, leaving the protection of the colony in charge of volunteers.

NSW Governor George Gipps declared by Proclamation on 11 February 1842, that Moreton Bay was now officially open for free settlement. He visited the free settlement a month later on March 24th. He criticised the width of the planned roads, especially Queen Street and famously declared that “this was a waste of such a lot of land for a street in a place that will be nothing else but a paltry village“. After Gipps left, Surveyor Warner ignored the order and thanks to him we the width of Queen Street as it is now.

While food production had been a problem at the start of the colony when it started to close down in 1839 it had 900 cattle and 4500 sheep at its various stations.

While there were only a rather few prisoners at the start of the free settlement several of them stayed on in Brisbane after they received their ticket of leave. But there also  seem to be a few prisoners left from the original prison system. Andrew Petrie reported that he did have several of these ex-convicts working for him. Sadly he also reported that several of them had gone insane or where in the edge of it. In Tom’s words: ‘they had been knocked silly in Logan’s time’. The names Crancky Tom and Deaf Mickey speak for themselves, another one Daley succumbed to alcohol. Convict Laurence Kelly was in 1839 assigned as overseer to Andrew Petrie, who pleaded with the Commandant for “any indulgence that may be granted to him”. Kelly was allowed to stay in the free settlement. The same applied to Francis Black, who had been a constable since 1837 and reached the of end of his service in 1840 after which he was also allowed to stay in Brisbane.

In May 1842 Andrew Petrie, Stuart Russel and Captain Joliffe went in the settlement’s whale boat  on an exploration north along the coast. They were the first white people to ‘discover’ the Mary River. On this trip they also picked up two absconded convicts David Bracewell and James Davis, after Andrew Petrie assured him that it was safe to him to return.

James became a respectable storekeeper. James had lived for 13 years with the aboriginals, spoke their language and new a lot about their customs, here he received the name of Duramboi.  He had a son by his aboriginal wife, with whom he stayed in contact. However, he refused to talk about this, even Andrew Petrie could not pursue him to tell his stories. Nevertheless, he was regular asked by the government and the merchants to assist with translations with Aboriginal people.  He was married twice and in 1889 was murdered by his 2nd wife.

David Bracewell was sent to the penal settlement at Moreton Bay in 1827. He was a repeat absconder and stayed in between for several years with Aboriginal people. In 1839 he absconded again. After he returned to Brisbane in 1842 he was given work at Wolston near Goodna, on a property owned by the humane Stephen Simpson, crown lands commissioner, but while felling timber on 28 March 1844 he was crushed by a tree.

Another escaped convict John Sterry Baker was one of the fist convicts in Moreton Bay, he arrived here in 1825. However, a year later he escaped and stayed for 14 years with the Aboriginal tribe in the Lockyer Valley. In 1840 he went back to Moreton Bay and gave himself up. He became an interpreter for the government and died in Brisbane in 1860.

Another early convict was Morgan Edward, he arrived here in 1826, he was one of the convict who stayed after 1839 and was attached to the surveyor James Warner.

Jacob Lord made a successful transition from convict to free man and received his Ticket of Leave in 1843 and was allowed to stay in the district. 

Matthew and Stuart Thomas were among the ‘ordinary’ prisoners who arrive in 1839. Matthew received his Ticket of Leave in 1846 and three years later he had a publican’s licence and was running St Patrick’s Tavern in Queen Street. Business was booming and he bought more land in town. On Queen Street on the eastern side, three blocks away from Albert Street he built the Donnybrook Hotel (later known as North Brisbane Hotel). Behind the hotel was a bridge over the creek over which supplies were brought into the premise, including a daily load of barrels with ‘fresh’ water from the reservoir that stood where now the Supreme Court stands. In the cottage he had build behind his hotel he opened a school ran by his daughters Mary and Margret 18 and 16 respectively at that time. The school had 22 students. Matthew bought more land this time at Kangaroo Point and a boat for river trade. His brother Stuart also stayed in Brisbane, but died at Matthew’s place in 1857. Stewart died in 1873, but left a large family behind that spread through Brisbane.

In 1838, John  McGrath was send to 15 years of transportation. We later on find him and his brother Darby in the Kenmore district where they secured a 700 acres pastoral lease on Moggill Creek. Over time he held several leases between Moggill and Taringa. He married Mary Pacey in 1850. McGrath bridge the first one over Moggill Creek is named after this early pioneer, who died in 1868.

In 1848 ex-convict Joseph Willis was mentioned, when his daughter Hannah married in the church that was converted from the former convict carpenters shop.

By the 1850s it was estimated that 20% of the population of Brisbane were ex-convicts and their families.

Another successful ex convict is William Robert Howes Weeks. He had become the editor of the Courier. He was one of the major people buying up land in Brisbane during the auctions in 1853.

We also know the name of a few female prisoners who stayed in Brisbane.  Hannah Rigby was married to George Page, with whom she had two sons. George was transported to Moreton Bay in 1826 and Hannah, after she had stolen 30 yards of ribbon followed him in 1830. In September 1832 a third child (James known as Jimmy) was born however, his father was James Hexton the boat pilot at Amity Point on Stradbroke Island (he was a free man who had served at the British Nany). In February 1837, she was transported back to Sydney, where she (most likely deliberately) stole two hats and was send back to Moreton Bay in October that year, where she was reunited with her son, who during her absence had stayed with his father. During the wind-down period of the  penal settlement in 184o she was one of 5 convict women who was assigned as servants. She became a servant at Doctor Ballow, who recommended her for a certificate of freedom.  James Hexton died in a boat accident in April 1851 and Hannah died of a stroke in October 1853, at that time she lived in a hut at the slums at the back of Queen Street near the military barracks.  She was buried at the cemetery at St John’s Church, there were now the Treasury Hotel stands.

Another notable female convict is Marie Langley at the age of 34 she was transported to Moreton Bay in 1840 after she received a 10 year sentence for counterfeiting six pence coins. She received her Ticket of Leave in 1845 and a few months later in December that year she married ex convict Henry Skinner, he arrived in Moreton Bay in 1839 and received his Ticket of Leave in 1842. This is the only known marriage of a Ticket of Leave woman in Queensland. They build up a successful business in cattle and real estate in Brisbane, Milton and Enoggera. Henry died in 1851 and Marie in 1878, she is buried in Toowong Cemetery, however her headstone is no longer there.

The building of Brisbane

Convict History of Brisbane TOC

1 The name “Croppy” used in Ireland in the 1790s was a reference to the closely cropped hair associated with the anti-powdered wig (and therefore, anti-aristocratic) French revolutionaries of the period. Men with their hair cropped were automatically suspected of sympathies with the pro-French underground organisation the Society of United Irishmen, and were often seized by the British administration and its allies for interrogation