Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
John Banks 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 243 (124). --0-- Edgar, W. (Bill) (2018), “The precarious voyage of her majesty’s convict ship ‘Nile’ to the Swan River colony, late 1857 – and the unexpected aftermath.” The Great Circle, 40(1), 20–43. --0-- England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892; England; Lancashire; 1866 |
| 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 |
Claims
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Photos
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Convict Notes
NOTE: Year of Birth is taken from official records but day and month are not known. The latter dates have been entered as 01/01 because the site does not allow those fields to be left empty.
DEATH OF JOHN BANKS (IS THIS "OUR" JOHN?): From the Truth, Sat 12 Nov 1904, p5: "A Heartless Medico. John Banks' Death. The Barbarous Treatment of a Dying Septuagenarian. We desire to direct the attention of the Colonial Secretary to the scandalous treatment meted out to John Banks, about 71 years, a recent inmate of the Geraldton Old Men's Home. Accompanied by a fellow inmate, J. B. H. Hewett, 74 years of age, Banks, who was in a dangerous state of health, was bundled on to the s.s. Julia Percy, and told to report himself at Fremantle. When the Julia Percy reached the wharf Banks was, to put it moderately, at the point of death. He was delirious, while his body was in a frightfully swollen condition. The poor old septuagenarian was in the mortal stages of heart disease. Dr. Hope was telephoned and advised of the condition of Banks. The dying man was promptly sent to the local hospital, where skilful medical attention availed him not, for the world-weary sojourner CROSSED THE GREAT DIVIDE the same night. The medicoes who examined Banks assert that, in his then state of health he should not have been permitted to make the trying journey from Geraldton. Manifestly, it was largely instrumental in hastening his death. We are informed that Dr. Hungerford is the medical superintendent of the Geraldton home and hospital, and as both these institutions are located on the same block of land, Dr. Hungerford evidently exhibited a scandalous disregard of his responsibilities in sending Banks to Fremantle, instead of shifting him from the State home to the State hospital at Geraldton. It is to be hoped an inquiry will be held into the case, for charges are made against Dr. Hungerford of grave dereliction of duty." --0--
IN WA: From his Fremantle jail record: BANKS, John; inmate #9657, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1828 Place of Death: Fremantle Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Labourer Literacy: Semiliterate Sentence Place: Lancaster Crime: Murder Sentence Period: Life Ticket of Leave Date: 1 Jun 1878 Comments: General servant, labourer, road worker, hay maker, self-employed (https://fremantleprison.com.au/).
5 October, 1867: He was sent from Portsmouth to board the Hougoumont for transportation to WA (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for John Banks; Portsmouth Prison; Registers of Prisoners; 1866-1868). --00--
18 April, 1867: He was admitted to Portsmouth prison, Cumberland Street, Portsmouth -- inmate #912 (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for John Banks; Portsmouth Prison; Registers of Prisoners; 1866-1868). Portland, Portsmouth, Chatham and Spike Island in Ireland were listed public works stations and the second stage in the penal process. After separate confinement, prisoners were “placed on work parties at various locations, most commonly naval stations, where maintenance of facilities was vital for the effective protection of Britain’s far flung commercial and military influences around the world. While there, attitude and behaviour were monitored closely. In theory, only after consistently positive reports was a prisoner moved on to the third stage of his incarceration—transportation.” (Edgar, p40) --0--
10 October, 1866: Admitted to Millbank prison, Westminster, London -- inmate #2506. Listed as 34 when convicted, single, Roman Catholic, a steam loom weaver, able to read only. Next of kin -- his brother Peter, 16 Nile Street, Preston (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for John Banks; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1866-1867). In Millbank, he would have been kept in separate confinement. “After a sentence of transportation was handed down, the prisoner entered into a separate stage where he was placed into an individual cell, isolated from others, apart from brief periods of exercise and attendance at chapel. However, no communication of any kind with other prisoners was permitted at any time. The philosophy behind this penal methodology had its provenances in the religious, monastic traditions; i.e., that in the isolation of his cell the malefactor would be able to contemplate the errors of his way, unadulterated by the negative influences of former contemporaries, and be reformed.” (Edgar, 2018, pp39-40) When first put into practice, the mandated period of separate confinement was 18 months. By the late 1840s, authorities had conceded that such conditions of imprisonment were “injurious to many prisoners’ mental health” and the stint was reduced to 12 months. Periods of separate confinement were reduced further “as a prisoner displayed good behaviour tendencies” (Edgar, p40). Millbank, Pentonville, Wakefield and Mountjoy in Ireland were the “Probation” or “Separate” prisons, as were some local jails. --0--
JAILS: 23 July, 1866: He was held at Lancaster Castle County Gaol -- served 2 months 16 days (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for John Banks; Register of Prisoners; 1866-1867). --0--
NEWSPAPER report of his trial on 23 July, 1866: 27 July, 1866, from the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, p2: "THE MURDER AT PRESTON: A discharged soldier named John Banks, aged 34, was tried and sentenced to death yesterday at the Lancaster Assizes, for having murdered a woman named Ann Gilligan in June last. The death of the woman was caused by an attack of the most brutal kind on the part of prisoner, and the judge, Baron Martin, said that he thought the crime one of the clearest cases of wilful murder ever brought into a court of justice..." A witness testified that he had seen Ann Gilligan "lying on the floor with her head bleeding. Prisoner then took the deceased by the hair of the head and dragged her to the top of the stairs, saying, 'Your hair may want combing in the morning. She fell to the bottom of the stairs, and the prisoner again dragged her up, trying to throttle her at the same time. The prisoner afterwards... stamped upon the deceased with one foot. Witness said, 'For God's sake. Jack, let her alone; are you going to murder her?' He replied, 'Yes, by God I will, if she does not do different. She has taken 3d. out of my pocket.' The prisoner then desisted till about five clock in the morning, and in the meantime deceased had been got to bed. She got up about five... moaning very much. Prisoner then went and kicked her, and she fell with her head against the fire grate. The poor woman lingered until the following morning, when she expired." The doctor who performed a post mortem said "there were external bruises all over her body. The immediate cause of death was rupture of the bowel, which might have been produced by anyone jumping upon her." A deposition, taken from Ann Gilligan the day before she died, was read in court: "I, Ann Gilligan, do solemnly declare that on Monday night, I and Banks had been at a public house together. We were coming home when he said had lost some money out his pocket. I said, 'I know nothing about it' then he knocked me down two or three times. He took me by the hair of the head and threw me down the stairs. I was laid moaning, when he jumped upon me. I feel myself in great pain and think I shall die from the injuries received." (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/) --0--
TRIAL: 23 July, 1866: John Banks was sentenced to death for the murder of Ann Gilligan, "his body to be buried within the precincts of the prison" (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for John Banks; England; Lancashire 1866). The sentence was clearly commuted to transportation for life at some stage, but so far no documents have been found to this effect. --0--