Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
Michael Connors was transported on the Phoebe Dunbar, departing 2nd Jun 1853 and arriving 30th Aug 1853 with 37 passengers.
704 ton ship built at Sunderland in 1850. 1853 voyage: Kingston, Ireland direct to the Swan River, Western Australia - 89 days (8 deaths at sea, 2 at harbour). Also on this voyage were 93 pensioner guards and their families. Convicts transported are currently being listed (not yet complete).
Phoebe Dunbar (generic)References
| Primary Source | Western Australian convicts --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. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26783779 |
Claims
"Jacqui Graham - WACC Phoebe Dunbar Project"
Photos
No photos have been added for Michael Connors.
Convict Notes
FOOTNOTE: 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.
OTHER RECORDS: Michael Connor Birth: 1832 Death: 11 August 1853 at sea; on voyage out from typhus Convicted: Cow stealing and sentenced to 10 years, on 24 June 1850 at County Waterford, Ireland. Family Status: Unmarried as at 3 June 1853 Occupation: Labourer Convict No.: 2330 Transported: To WA on the Phoebe Dunbar leaving from Kingston, County Dublin, Ireland, on 3 June 1853. He had been collected from Ireland prison. He died on the journey. (https://waconvicts.fhwa.org.au/g0/p94.htm#i2330) --000--
MEDICAL RECORD: The journal of the Phoebe Dunbar’s medical officer, John W Bowler, shows that MICHAEL CONNOR [sic] contracted typhus three weeks before he died: “Folios 21-22: Michael Connor, aged 21, convict; case number 8; disease or hurt, typhus. Put on sick list, 18 July 1853. Died 11 August 1853.” (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11542199) --00--
ABOUT THE DREADFUL VOYAGE ... By Weaver, P (2004) at https://fremantlebiz.livejournal.com/37766.html “Part 1. Irish prisoners for Western Australia on Phoebe Dunbar & Robert Small in 1853 This is the first part in series of eight which were extracted from a public talk which I gave at the Old Fremantle Prison celebrations in June 2000: On 30 August 1853 the 704 ton hired British convict ship Phoebe Dunbar hove-to in Owen’s Anchorage off Fremantle, Western Australia. On board was a consignment of 286 mostly Irish convicts and 29 British pensioner guards with their families, numbering 21 women and 42 children. A few days earlier on 19 August a similar sized consignment of Irish prisoners and British guards had arrived at Fremantle on board another hired convict ship, the Robert Small. Robert Small lost nine convicts and the figure would have been higher had it not been forced to put into Rio de Janeiro to off-load 150 tons of putrefied ballast, a black peat-like mixture of sand and Dutch clay. A medical board of enquiry convened at Fremantle laid most of the blame on the ballast, ‘...the smell of which was most offensive and likely to prove a fertile source of disease.’ However, had the leaky ship not inadvertently stopped off in South America where fruit and vegetables were purchased the death toll probably would have been much higher than nine. Surgeon Superintendent Harvey Morris - doctor on at least three other convict shipments to Norfolk Island and Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) had by his own admission deliberately falsified his records by registering only one third of those who came to him sick. His intention, as he wrote in his shipboard journal, was to instil in the prisoners a false sense of confidence in his abilities: ‘It is always advisable in a Convict Ship, especially when diseases are numerous, to keep the sick list down, as it is termed, with a view of deceiving the general body as regards the healthiness or unhealthiness of the Ship; and the more effectually to do this it is often necessary to keep the names of some off the list who ought to be there, and to register those of others who have little or nothing the matter with them...’ Those passengers on board the other ship, the Phoebe Dunbar, were not so fortunate, being obliged instead to endure a non-stop, 89 day voyage from Ireland. The ship put to sea from Kingston Harbour on 2 June 1853 and by mid-June an epidemic described only as a ‘fever’ had broken out. Most people including the guards and their families were ill at one time or another, and diarrhoea was common throughout the ship. On the 21 June the first convict, a young man aged 21 died of typhus and by the end of July symptoms of scurvy were appearing in many of the prisoners. Most convict deaths occurred in August as the ship was bearing down on the Western Australian coast. Medicines which were carried on board were in the main ineffective. Although Surgeon Superintendent Bowler subsequently claimed that large doses of mineral acids and quinine were the most effective as remedies, this may have been because they were so repulsive that patients were reluctant to come back for more. Mineral acids as medicine had their origins in the 13th century and included nitric, sulphuric and hydrochloric acid. They were frequently mixed with wine to disguise the vile taste. Bowler was supposed to ensure that lemon juice was distributed about every three days in order to counteract scurvy, but his journal indicates that this did not happen. When this was queried at the enquiry in Fremantle he offered the excuse that the ‘temperance men’ on board would not take lemon juice mixed with wine, and that this was the reason it was not distributed more frequently. He also claimed that the stock of ships biscuit had deteriorated soon after departure and that as a result it could not be distributed to the prisoners. Including civilians, sixteen persons died on the ship en route to Swan River [including Michael Connors] or while it was at Owen’s Anchorage off Fremantle. In addition, three more convicts died not long after disembarkation, and eighteen of the Phoebe Dunbar convicts died before their tickets-of-leave had expired.” --00--
1853, 11 August: DEATH MICHAEL CONNORS, aged 22, died from typhus, at sea (Register of Convicts on Convict Ships, 1851-53, image 128 at https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2308603007/view). --0--
EMBARKED ON THE PHOEBE DUNBAR: From the Freeman’s Journal, 3 June, 1853, p 2: “KINGSTOWN. June 3, 1853.-Wind N.E. by N. This evening the Phoebe Dunbar, convict ship, was towed out of harbour, having on board two hundred and ninety-five convicts, chiefy young men; she took the northerly course, and while I am I now writing (half-past nine p.m.) has cleared the banks. Should the wind remain in the present point she will reach the Tuscar Light on to-morrow evening. Heretofore convicts, when in harbour, were allowed to come on deck in squads, which enabled those remaining below to cleanse deck, &c., but this arrangement, conferring such benefits, has not been resorted to in the Phoebe Dunbar; since she received her human freight they have been stowed between decks. On yesterday I was permitted to visit her interior, accompanied by her commander, seemingly a most humane man, who, I am disposed to think, may have perhaps exercised a sound discretion in deviating from former arrangements -- such a number crowded below must be productive of the worst results. The unfortunate creatures, from their appearance, seemed perfectly resigned to their fate; many of them I observed reading their prayer-books, and now that they have leisure time may, perhaps, be the means for mature reflection and a fixed determination to make amends for their past life. I cannot state whether there is a chaplain in charge.” (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000056/18530603/003/0002) --00--
“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). Spike Island in Ireland, Portland, Portsmouth and Chatham in England 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) --00--
NEWSPAPER REPORT OF HIS TRANSFER TO SPIKE ISLAND: 1850, 4 October: “Convicts sent to Spike Island, 12, on Monday, the 30th [September], and on Tuesday, 1st October: Henry Stokes, sheep stealing, 7 years’ transportation. Patrick Twohill, burglary and robbery, 15 years’ do [ditto]. Cornelius Roche, larceny, 7 years’ do. John Murphy, Declan Mahony, George Haywoon, Michael Connors, Owen Connors, Patrick Connors, Patrick Kearney, cow stealing, 10, years do. James Hart, otherwise Brien, larceny, 10 years’ do. Patrick Lynch, cattle stealing, 7 years’ do. Thomas Gleeson, or Buckley, James Magrath, cattle stealing, 10 years’ do. Morgan Flaherty, Denis Brien, John Stokes, sheep stealing, 10 years’ do. John Kennedy, burglary and robbery, 10 years’ do. Patrick Roach, John Melican, grievous assault, 7 years’ do.” (Waterford News, 4 October, p3 at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000889/18501004/042/0003) --0--
COMMITTAL, TRIAL, JAIL: 1850, 24 May: Just one day after his release, he was again admitted to Waterford Gaol; committed by William Christmas to stand trial for cow stealing. Listed as inmate Michael Connors, 20, #592, previously in the jail as #225, three previous committals (Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924 for Michael Connors; Waterford; Waterford; 1850; image 25). 1850, 24 June: Tried at Waterford and sentenced by Assistant barrister James Bessonnet to 10 years’ transportation. 1850, 30 September: Sent from Waterford Gaol to Spike Island Prison in Cork Harbour. --0--
1850, 28 March: JAIL – Admitted to Waterford Gaol, Michael Connors, inmate #225 – second committal; tried 4 March, 1850. His time expired on 23 May 1850. Notation says: “See #769 of 1849” (Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924; Waterford; Waterford; 1849-1887; image 216). --0--