Joseph Cope

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Dianne Jones on 17th July 2022

IN VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, Joseph COPE was listed as convict #27878, a silk weaver, 37 years old, with a previous conviction for stealing (unlike the hulk record). He was single, Protestant, from Macclesfield, and able to read and write a little (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai14908). Family: Brothers John, Thomas, William and Jessie; sister Ann — all at his native place. For further details of his life as a convict in VDL, see his Conduct record at https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p34 and his Indent record at https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-47$init=CON14-1-47_00146_L. --00--

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Dianne Jones on 17th July 2022

His hulk record at Bermuda listed him as 29 years old, sentenced for arson (his first conviction), native place Macclesfield, Church of England; black to grey hair, hazel eyes and a fair complexion; single, 5'3½" tall, able to read and write; and a weaver. --00-- TO VDL: 3 February, 1853: He was sent aboard the St Vincent for transportation to VDL (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --00--

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Dianne Jones on 17th July 2022

TO GIBRALTAR: 4 March, 1851: COPE, JOSEPH #1597, arrived on Gibraltar from England per Cornwall. Held on the Europa hulk (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). Gibraltar and Bermuda were listed public works stations (and the second stage in the penal process). 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 11am and 5pm, which they drank from a trough. 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, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/. --0--

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Dianne Jones on 17th July 2022

NEWSPAPER REPORT OF TRIAL: 6 August, 1847: “Joseph Cope and John Kirkham were charged with having on the 13th of July set fire to a stack of hay at Macclesfield, the property of Thomas Cook. Verdict, Guilty. Sentence each to be transported for fifteen years.” (Sun (London), p4, at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/) --00--

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Dianne Jones on 17th July 2022

TRIAL: 31 July, 1847: Tried, convicted and sentenced to 15 years at the Chester Assizes for setting fire to a stack of hay above 10 tons (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for Joseph Cope; England; Cheshire; 1847). --0--