Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
Luke Fullam 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 262. Amos, Keith (1988), “The Fenians in Australia, 1865–1880”, Sydney. --0-- Keneally, T. (1998), “The great shame and the triumph of the Irish in the English-speaking world”, Random House, New York. --0-- Waters, Ormond D.P. (1996-97), “The Escape of the Fenians, Western Australia, 17 April 1876”, in Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 95-107. |
| 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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Convict Notes
DEATH: 1870, 24 February: Luke Fullam died on this date, according to the Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985. Name Luke Fullam Death Age 50 Birth Date 1820 Death Date Abt 1870 Death Place Western Australia Registration Date 1870 Registration Place Australia Registration Number 4473 “Luke Fullam (died 24/02/1870) & his brother Laurence (died 1871) [sic] are both buried somewhere in what was the old Skinner Street Cemetery, Fremantle. A school was later built on top of the graves that hadn't been moved.” (Elsie Gorman, 2021, at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Hougoumont_1868_-_Ship_Tree) --00--
LIFE AFTER HIS PARDON: From Tom Keneally, p610: “The pardoned Fenians who had stayed in Western Australia would live orderly and, by the standards of the time, generally satisfactory lives. Former convict constable Hugh Brophy, who was in partnership with Noonan and had built the bridge across the Swan, became a building contractor in the Melbourne of the great boom times of the 1870s, and, living until after World War I, died in the flu pandemic of 1919. Some of the others had shorter lives. Brophy’s partner Noonan married the daughter of a respected Western Australian Irish family and died in Perth in 1885. The two oldest Fenians were Tom Duggan and Luke Fullam. Duggan, after tutoring privately for a time, became a teacher in a school near the Western Australian town of Northam and had a long life, but Luke Fullam and his brother Lawrence, both of them suffering from tuberculosis, did not long survive. They worked at their trade of shoemaking and, after Luke’s death in 1870, Lawrence married an Irish woman [Bridget Doyle in 1871], but died [on 5 June, 1872] while his son was still an infant. The brothers were buried side by side in Fremantle Cemetery.” Note: When the Fenian soldier Patrick Keating -- who was also transported to WA aboard the Hougoumont -- died in January 1874, he was buried in a grave next to Luke and Lawrence. The exact location of the three graves is not known. --0--
FREE PARDON: 1869, 5 February: Luke Fullam was one of 35 Fenians who had been transported to Western Australia (as well as others imprisoned in Great Britain) who were given Free Pardons / “unconditionally discharged” by the House of Commons. For a full list, see the Melbourne Advocate, 22 May 1869, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169267360?. —0— 1869, 15 May: Luke Fullam received his pardon from the Resident Magistrate at Fremantle (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9599-10128 cont. (R16)). --0--
AT WEST GUILDFORD: From Tom Keneally, p583: “In Western Australia the rainy season coincided with winter — June, July and August. Inadequate road camp structures, whether in the Perth-Fremantle area or further south in Bunbury, were incapable of keeping moisture out, and the scant bedding could not combat damp and cold. For the middle-aged and consumptive Fullam brothers, Luke and Lawrence, former Drogheda shoemakers, the winter at McGarry’s West Guildford camp near Fremantle was most dangerous.” --0--
From K Amos (1988), p367: Fullam, Luke, born 1822, brother of Lawrence; unmarried, shoemaker, Drogheda, Louth, literate, RC, convicted Dundalk 16/7/67: 'in the mob which appeared in arms in Drogheda market place on 5th March 1867'; treason-felony, 5 yrs; Portland prison (inmate #6324); Fremantle prison, Clarence road party, Fremantle prison hospital (inmate #9740); 4 letters home, character good. Release: Free Pardon 15/5/69; shoemaker, Perth; died 24/2/70, from sunstroke or consumption; buried at Fremantle cemetery. --0--
From his FREMANTLE JAIL record: FULLAM, Luke; inmate #9740; arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1822 Place of Birth: Drogheda, County Louth Place of Death: Perth Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Shoe maker Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Dundalk, Louth Crime: Treason Sentence Period: 5 years or 2 years Comments: One of 62 Fenians transported on the Hougoumont, the last convict ship sent to Australia. Its arrival at Fremantle on 9 Jan 1868 signalled the end of transportation to this country. Brother of Lawrence FULLAM (9739) (https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/research/convict-database/). --0--
On arrival in WA, LUKE FULLAM, convict #9470, was described as a shoemaker, 45, single, no children, Roman Catholic, reads and writes; 5’8” tall with brown hair (bald), light grey eyes, and a medium stout build. Father – sister Elizabeth English, Old Hill, Drogheda (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9599-10128 cont. (R16)). --0--
OFF THE WA COAST: 1868, 9 January: From transportee accounts, Ormond Waters (1997, p100) describes their arrival off the WA coast and transfer next day to the mainland: “The Fenian prisoners were the last to be taken ashore from the Hougoumont in small boats and brought to ‘The Establishment’ as Fremantle Prison was called. One convict described the scene in a letter home: ‘Very early on the morning of the 10th, we were put on shore in Fremantle, and marched through the little town of that name to our destination, The Prison. Here we lay for some two days, going through the ordinary routine of prisoners on the first reception. Dressed in a suit of Drogheda linen, ornamented with a red stripe and black bands, typical of the rank we hold in the colony. To wit, convicts.’ [Note: This is, in fact, from a letter written by Patrick Wall to his parents. More on this below.] The prison rules were harsh. There was a long list of offences, the penalty for which was death. Cells measured seven feet by four feet wide by nine feet high. Prisoners slept in hammocks.” —0—
TRANSPORTATION: 1867, 8 October: The Fullam brothers were sent from Portland jail, Grove, Portland, Dorset (Luke was inmate #6324), to board the Hougoumont for transportation to WA. 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) “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 [only two were on the Hougoumont – Thomas Berwick and Lionel Holdsworth, each sentenced to 20 years for fraud], 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 [not “the” Moriarty, though; this was Bartholomew Moriarty, aged 17]. 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.” (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 1867, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271). —00—
Correction re JAILS – DUNDALK TO KILMAINHAM 1867, 27 March: The Fullam brothers were sent from Dundalk jail by train to Kilmainham prison, Dublin. Luke’s record from Kilmainham reads: NAME: Luke Fullam ADMISSION AGE: 44 ROLE: Prisoner BIRTH DATE: 1823 BIRTH PLACE: Agher, County Meath, Meath, Ireland ADMISSION DATE: 27 Mar 1867 ADMISSION PLACE: Dundalk, Dublin, Ireland CHARGE: TREASON FELONY JAIL: KILMAINHAM IDENTIFICATION NUMBER: 422 PARTIES INVOLVED: 1 He was described as 5’9½” tall with grey hair, grey eyes, and fresh complexion; literate; Roman Catholic; committed for trial by Dr William Carte, at Kilmainham, on 1 April; living at James Street, Drogheda; shoemaker (Ireland, Prison Registers, 1790-1924 for Luke Fullam; Dublin; Kilmainham; 1850-1871). --0--