Recovering lives : 15 convicts in New South Wales

Abstract

While individual biographies of convict lives have appeared in the literature of Australian colonial history - albeit in truncated form - an aggregate study of convicts selected from a homogeneous group has appeared less often. Thus an opportunity has been missed to examine the commonalities as well as differences of such individuals over time - both before and after their punishment. My thesis examines the lives of 15 convicts who had worked during their bondage at the Australian Agricultural Company in New South Wales. Although the primary purpose is to use the method of micro-prosopography to seek the commonalities, differences and idiosyncrasies of these convicts' experiences, as well as their aggregate, the biographies are important in themselves. By compiling portraits of their lives I have sought to rescue them from what E.P. Thompson famously called 'the enormous condescension of posterity'. Although gaps in the biographies inevitably appear, and more information about some than others has been found, all biographies reveal enough information to highlight broader themes in colonial history - criminality and punishment, alcohol, and economic outcomes - which have been explored extensively. By tracing, where possible, the trajectory of the lives of their families I have also examined the legacy of convicts in the later history of Australia.