Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
Francis Fury was transported on the St Vincent, departing 28th Dec 1852 and arriving 26th May 1853 with 214 passengers.
St Vincent (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 92, Class and Piece Number HO11/17, Page Number 639 (322). --0-- Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/ |
| 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
31 May, 1853: Francis Fury was held at the Prisoners’ Barracks, Hobart Town (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p58). 10 June, 1853: Admitted to Hobart Hospital. 8 July, 1853: Returned to Prisoners’ Barracks. 27 July, 1853: Readmitted to Hobart Hospital. 29 August, 1853: FRANCIS FURY died in Hobart Hospital; no details of his illness are given (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p58). --00--
IN VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, FRANCIS FURY was listed as convict #27915, a farm labourer, 26 years old, 5’5½” tall with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. He was single, Roman Catholic, and illiterate. Native place: County Longford, Ireland. Family: Mother Catherine; brothers Bernard, James, Patrick, Hugh, Michael and Thomas; sisters Ellen and Bridget – all at his native place (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai25251; and https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-47$init=CON14-1-47_00158_L). Note: According to his brother James's VDL convict indent, the family called him Frank. --0--
3 February, 1853: Sent aboard the St Vincent for transportation to VDL (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --00--
On Gibraltar, FRANCIS FURY was listed as 24 years old when convicted, sentenced to 7 years for “being of a party, one armed"; first conviction; born at Longford; Roman Catholic; light brown hair, blue eyes and fair complexion, 5’5¼” tall; semi-literate; labourer; single; relatives/family – at Longford. --0--
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/). --
TO GIBRALTAR: 3 October, 1851: FURY, FRANCIS, #1985, arrived on Gibraltar from Ireland per Rodney. He was held on the Europa hulk (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --
1848: Spike Island – known as “Ireland's Alcatraz” – sits at the mouth of the harbour at Cork. The original Napoleonic era fortress was converted to a convict prison in 1847, the worst year of the Great Famine (1845-1852). It was “an important holding centre for convicts transported to Australia and Bermuda” and a “hell on earth”. Most of the more than 1000 convicts buried on the island by the time the prison closed, in 1883, died in the first decade of its operation (https://www.ucc.ie/en/archaeology/research/projects/thespikeislandproject/). --0--
14 April, 1848: Francis Fury was sent from Richmond jail to Spike Island, Co Cork. Note: His co-accused, James Fury (his brother) and John McRoyan, were sent from Richmond jail to board the Hyderabad on 18 May, 1849. When she sailed for VDL on 23 May, she carried 300 male convicts. Five days after the Hyderabad's arrival, John McRoyan died in Hobart Hospital (on 31 August). --0--
JAIL: 23 December, 1847: Francis Fury was admitted to Richmond jail, Dublin, inmate #3092. Listed as 20 years old on admission, born 1827; convicted at Longford, Dublin, for “being of a party (one armed) who entered the house of Bridget McWade & stole 16 stokes of meal, the goods of Henry McWade, on the night of the 2nd Jan 1847”. He was described as 5’5¾”, blue eyes, fair hair and fresh complexion; a blacksmith; Roman Catholic; single, neither reads nor writes (Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924 for Francis Fury; Dublin; Richmond (Bridewell); 1847-1887). --0--
TRIAL: 24 February, 1847: Francis Fury, James Fury, Patrick McWade and John McRoyan were convicted of robbery – stealing meal at Longford – and sentenced to seven years’ transportation (Kings County Chronicle, 3 March 1847, p4). --0--