Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Transportation
John Ceirans was transported on the Nile, departing 18th Sep 1857 and arriving 1st Jan 1858 with 271 passengers.
Nile (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/18, Page Number 247 (125). Edgar, W (Bill) 2018, “The precarious voyage of Her Majesty’s convict ship ‘Nile’”, The Great Circle, 40(1), 20–43. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26783779 Roscoe, Katy 2018, "Convicts and the sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment" at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/carchipelago/2018/07/25/convicts-and-the-sea-the-naval-influence-on-gibraltar-convict-establishment/ |
| 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
No one has claimed John Ceirans yet.
Photos
No photos have been added for John Ceirans.
Convict Notes
IN WA: From his Fremantle jail record: CEIRANS, John; prisoner #4761, arrived 1 Jan 1858 per Nile Alias: CERANS, MULKERNS Henry, KEARNS, CONNELLEY John Date of Birth: 1833 Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Waterman [A waterman was "a river boatman who was available for hire, or a man who managed the irrigation of English grassland to create water meadows" (https://www.familyresearcher.co.uk/). He was probably the former in WA!] Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Wakefield, Yorkshire, England Crime: Larceny Sentence Period: 10 years Previous Convictions: Yes Ticket of Leave Date: 6 Jul 1858 Conditional Pardon Date: 8 Feb 1864 (https://fremantleprison.com.au/). --00--
THE VOYAGE: John Ceirans’s behaviour during the voyage was “very bad”, according to his WA Convict record. Twice he was flogged -- receiving 24 lashes and 12 lashes. He was confined to a cell for 20 hours, and put in leg irons (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; Character Book for Nos 4508-5585 (R8)). What prompted these punishments? Although a requirement, no journal/full report of the voyage from the ship’s Surgeon Superintendent has ever been located, according to Bill Edgar (2018) whose research fills in some blanks. Around two-thirds of the Nile’s 268 convicts could be considered “serious criminals” by virtue of the violence of their crimes, or their recidivism or both. A point that wasn’t lost on the ship’s crew or warders. Edgar (2018) says between the starting point of the Nile’s voyage at the head of the Thames at Sheerness and her arrival at Plymouth a week or so later to take on prisoners from Dartmoor, two warders “having seen the potential for trouble… decided to refuse duties they could clearly perceive as very dangerous”. They left the ship. Between the Nile’s departure from Plymouth, on 23 September, and her arrival just over 4 weeks later at Bahia (in Brazil), a “litany of frightening incidences took place aboard”. Fearing a mutiny, the captain had nine convicts placed in chains “where they were to stay for the remainder of the voyage”. There was no mutiny. Edgar writes, however: “It had been a near run thing. The prospect of a mutiny had been very real.” Despite the Nile’s arrival off WA late on the night of 31 December, 1857, the bulk of the prisoners were not disembarked for five days. Twelve men were unloaded on 2 January – three bound for hospital and nine who went in chains to Fremantle prison. The latter were the “failed mutineers”, listed as men of “bad character” by the ship’s Surgeon Superintendent in a letter to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (Edgar, pp24-25, 27). They were: John Cirans (Ceirans), John Turnbull, James H Jones, Thomas Ward, George Foxton (alias Thompson), Patrick McBride, Michael Henry, John Ferguson, and George Woodcock (the possessor of at least seven aliases by this time). —00—
17 December, 1856: At the end of his 14 days, he was returned to Millbank, from the Metropolitan Police, and his licence (parole) was revoked. --0-- 7 April, 1857: He was admitted to Portsmouth for a second time (his committal was there in 1851). This time, he served 5 months 2 days before being sent, on 8 September, as prisoner #7/3934, for transportation aboard the Nile ((UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Portsmouth Prison; Registers of Prisoners 1855-1858). --00--
3 December, 1856: He was admitted to Wakefield -- again. This time, he was listed as John Cairnes or Cerans or Connelly or Mulkerns or Henry Kearns, "a reputed thief at Bradford", and "a licence man". He was 24 years old, 5'5¾" tall with a swarthy complexion, black hair and grey eyes. A Romanist, he was a labourer, born in County Sligo and living in Bradford. It's not clear what his crime was but he was sentenced to 14 days' hard labour. --0--
11 August, 1856: He was admitted to Millbank at Westminster in London for one month before being discharged on licence (i.e., given parole). From 1853 onwards the Penal Servitude Act created the facility for individuals serving time in convict prisons to be released part way through their sentence on a "conditional licence" much like the well-established "Ticket of Leave" system in Australia (https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/). John Ceirans's parole was short-lived. After a little over three months he was back in jail. --0--
2 February, 1853: He was transported to the large Gibraltar work station. Gibraltar and Bermuda, along with Portsmouth, Portland and Chatham in England 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). On Gibraltar, as "convicts worked together with free men on the dockyards, lines between them became blurred. Convicts, like seamen, were ‘easily recognised’ by ‘their swarthy, weather beaten complexions…[and] muscular well-knit frames’. The discipline on the penal settlement was also influenced by the naval department, who superintended part of the works. In the 1840s, for example, convicts were provided ‘a half gill of rum’ at 11 AM and 5PM, which they drank from a trough. [vii] This mirrored the daily allowance of diluted rum, known as grog, to Royal Naval seamen in the Victorian era. Convicts were also allowed to use part of their earnings, to buy goods, usually tobacco, which they were allowed to smoke in the evening in the barracks. Though official correspondence cited health reasons for grog allowance, it seems likely that the convict authorities feared insubordination if they were banned from drinking and smoking, which were provided to the sappers and dockyard workers whom they worked alongside.... In 1854, the acting overseer stated that “half of the offences were committed when the men were excited by rum”. For more serious offences, convicts were flogged with a ‘cat o’nine tails’ whip against the ‘flogging mast’, and during an investigation Dr William Baly concluded that the whip which was used was an old naval cat, which was ‘much heavier than any now used in the government prison and hulks at home, or in the army.’" (Roscoe, 2018). After 3½ years, John Ceirans was back in England. --0--
JAIL: 28 January, 1852: He was admitted to Wakefield's West Riding House of Correction (also called Wakefield House of Correction, Wakefield County Gaol, Wakefield Prison and HMP Wakefield), Love Lane, Wakefield, in Yorkshire. “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). Wakefield, Millbank, Pentonville and Mountjoy in Ireland were the “Probation” or “Separate” prisons, as were some local jails. In Wakefield, John Ceirans served 11 months in separate confinement (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Wakefield Gaol; Registers of Prisoners; Undated). --0--
INDICTMENT: 14 December, 1851: John Ceirans was indicted for stealing a leather boot valued at 4 shillings, at Bradford, the property of Squire Whitley (Yorkshire, England, Quarter Session Records, 1637-1914; Wakefield; Indictment 1851 - 1852). --0-- COMMITTAL: 17 December, 1851: He was admitted to Portsmouth Gaol, in Penny Street, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Listed as inmate #3934, single, 19, born 1832, a labourer, able to read and write, Roman Catholic, and charged with stealing. Next of kin -- his mother, Ann Cearns [sic] (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Portsmouth Prison; Registers of Prisoners to 1858). --0-- TRIAL: 7 January, 1852: John Ceirans alias Henry Kearns, alias John Conelley, alias John Mulkerns was convicted at the Wakefield Adjourned General Quarter Sessions and sentenced to 10 years. At this stage, he had 10 previous convictions. --0--