Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
Jeremiah Aher was transported on the Hougoumont, departing 10th Oct 1867 and arriving 9th Jan 1868 with 281 passengers.
875 ton ship was built at Moulmein in 1852. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/on-this-day-in-history-australias-last-convict-ship-docks.htm ---------------------------- Incorrect Image ....This is a four masted steel hulled Barque in the drawing , im surprised Australian Geo didn't do a bit more research on this .......The Hougoumont was a works ship on the Forth Bridge Project in 1885 ....the one potrayed as a drawing in Aust Geo is the later version of this ship.....the photograph i have attached is the correct and original convict vessel. --00-- 1867 "The hired convict ship Hougoumont, which has been taken up by the Government for the conveyance of a numerous party of convicts to Freemantle, Western Australia, left the Nore on October 1, and proceeded down Channel, after receiving on board 150 convicts from the establishments at Chatham and Millbank. The convicts from the Chatham establishment, at St. Mary's, embarked from the dockyard on board the paddle-wheel steamer Adder, Mr. W. J. Blakely, and were in charge of a numerous party of convict guards and wardens, all heavily armed. Among the convicts shipped were a party of fifteen Fenians, who were engaged in the late conspiracy in Ireland, together with the officers and crew convicted of scuttling the ship Severn, and some others who have achieved notoriety from their crimes. The Fenian convicts, like the remainder of the prisoners, were chained together in gangs, but it was observed that they were kept apart from the other convicts in a portion of the vessel by themselves. The steamer Petrel also took down a number of convicts from the establishment at Millbank for shipment on board the Hougoumont, in charge of a strong escort and convict guard. On Tuesday, October 8th, the Hougoumont arrived in Portland roads. Shortly before midday ninety convicts were marched down to the Government pier at Portland under a strong escort of the 12th Light Infantry. The party included twenty-three Fenian convicts, among whom it was said, was Moriarty. The Government steamer employed in the breakwater service was used for conveying the convicts on board the Hougoumont transport ship. The convicts were chained together on embarking, and on board the steamer a strong guard of marines from her Majesty's ship St. George was formed, and saw the convicts safely placed on board the Hougoumont. The Governor of the penal settlement at Freemantle, Captain Young, is on board the Hougoumont, and returns in that ship to his sphere of duty after paying a visit to his native land." Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Thu 19 Dec 1867, p4, English Shipping, available on Trove at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271?searchTerm=hougoumont.
HougoumontReferences
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/19, Page Number 259 (132) |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
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Convict Notes
FOOTNOTE 2: Fremantle Jail records give Jeremiah's date of birth as 1844, and place of birth as Ballymacoda, County Cork (which is probably the address that should be listed for his father in the Millbank Prison records).
FOOTNOTE: Between his trial, on 2 May, 1867, and transportation 5 months later, Jeremiah Aher - along with 13 other Fenians - was held at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. Mountjoy, opened in 1850, was originally intended as the first stop for men sentenced to transportation... [who] would spend a period in separate confinement before being transferred to Spike Island and transported from there to Van Diemen's Land" (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountjoy_Prison). From Mountjoy, Jeremiah Aher and the others were sent to Millbank Jail in Westminster, London. It, too, served as a holding facility for convicted prisoners before they were transported to Australia. He is listed on the Millbank records as a carpenter, 23, single, Roman Catholic, able to read and write imperfectly, convicted of treason and sentenced to 7 years. He had spent 2.4 months in "separate confinement" since his conviction. His father - Jeremiah Aher Snr, of Ballymoody in County Cork - had visited him in jail. He was sent from Millbank for transportation on the Hougoumont on 30 September, 1867 (see UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners 1867-1868).
He is my Great Aunt's Uncle and she said another family member has his pardon from the Queen.
Jeremiah was listed as 24 years old on arrival in WA, 5’7 ½” tall, dark brown hair, blue eyes, fresh complexion, stout, a cut mark on forehead, a stoppage in speech, single, literate, RC. From the J S Battye Library of West Australian History Collection: AHER, JEREMIAH Jeremiah Aher was born on 4 December 1841 in Ballymacoda, County Cork, Ireland. He participated in the March 1867 Fenian rising, was arrested and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. With many others he was transported to Western Australia, arriving on the Hougoumont on 9 January 1868. Jeremiah was given a certificate of Freedom in 1869. He married Mary Ann Brennan in 1873 and in 1876 was involved in helping other Fenians escape Western Australia in the ship Catalpa while gaining passage to Sydney for himself and his family on the Northern Light, and then onwards to San Francisco, America, where he died in 1926. Jeremiah Aher California Great Registers Name: Jeremiah Aher Event Type: Voter Registration Event Date: 16 Oct 1890 Event Place: 126 Fern Avenue, San Francisco, California, United States Age: 45 Birth Year (Estimated): 1845 Birthplace: Ireland
Left Australia and finally settled in San Francisco (USA) with his family.