Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
James Goodall was transported on the Robert Small, departing 1st May 1853 and arriving 19th Aug 1853 with 30 passengers.
655 ton ship built in Newcastle, UK 1835. Conveyed convicts and passengers from England to Western Australia. Also carried approx. 100 free passengers. The register of convict passengers is currently being listed but not yet complete.
Robert Small (generic)References
| Primary Source | Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930 for James Goodall; Convict Department; Estimates and Convict Lists (128/1 - 32) --00-- https://waconvicts.fhwa.org.au/g0/p93.htm#i2312 |
Claims
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Photos
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Convict Notes
NOTE: 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.
FREMANTLE JAIL RECORD: GOODALL, James; inmate 2312, arrived 19 Aug 1853 per Robert Small Alias: GOODHALL Date of Birth: 1823 Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Soldier Sentence Place: Ireland Sentence Period: 14 years Ticket Leave Date: 27 Dec 1855 Conditional Pardon Date: 2 Jul 1859 Certificate of Freedom Date: 21 Jul 1865 (https://fremantleprison.com.au/) --00--
OTHER: Birth: 1823 Convicted: Court Martial and sentenced to 14 years on 21 July, 1851, at County Cork, Ireland. Family Status: Unmarried Occupation: Soldier Transported: To WA on the Robert Small arriving at Fremantle, Western Australia, on 19 August 1853. He had been collected from Ireland prison. Convict No.: 2312 Ticket of Leave: Granted on 27 December, 1855, at Western Australia. Conditional Pardon: Granted on 2 July, 1859, at Western Australia. Cert. of Freedom: Granted on 21 July, 1865, at Western Australia. (https://waconvicts.fhwa.org.au/g0/p93.htm#i2312). --0--
1854, 28 November: James Goodall, #2312, admitted to Convict Hospital, treated for dysentery etc, discharged on 30 November. Listed as 31, former sawyer, “employed in Prison” (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930 for James Goodall; Convict Establishment, Medical; Medical Registers By Patient, 1854 (M13)). --0--
IN WA: 1853, 19 August: On arrival in WA, he was listed as convict #2312, 30 years old, 5’9½” tall, dark brown hair, grey eyes, dark complexion, stout build, no distinguishing marks; soldier; single, no children (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930 for James Goodall; Convict Department; Estimates and Convict Lists (128/1 - 32)). --0--
NEWSPAPER REPORT OF THE VOYAGE: “The voyage of the Robert Small has been a most disastrous one, arising we understand principally from the nature of the ballast, said to consist of swampy earth, but more probably of Thames ‘silth’. After leaving Cork the ship met with very heavy weather and got leaky, the ballast choked the pumps, and she put into Rhio to refit, in which great assistance was afforded by Her Majesty's ship Sharpshooter, lying there. It is also said that the ship caught fire, which was extinguished by the united exertions of the crew and convicts, the latter being reported by the Surgeon Superintendent as having throughout the voyage behaved exceedingly well, and mainly contributed by their assistance in bringing the vessel into port. Dr. Harvey reports the guard as being mutinous and that there was nothing to prevent the convicts taking possession of the ship if they had been so inclined. Owing to the fermentation of the ballast there has been much sickness, and we regret to say, no less than eleven deaths, comprising three of the guard and eight convicts [10 convicts died – 8 at sea; 1 in the harbour and 1 in the Convict Hospital]. A Court of inquiry is directed to be held to report upon the state of the ship, and also into the occurrences of the voyage. Capt. Walker we believe knew nothing of what the ballast consisted of, having only joined the ship eight days previous to her sailing; this gentleman is well known in the merchant service, as a most able and competent officer of long standing and experience, and had the honor some years since of conveying Capt. FitzGerald to the Gambia, when he went there to assume the Governorship of that colony.” (Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News, 26 August, 1853, p2 at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3174637) --00--
ABOARD THE ROBERT SMALL: 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... 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...’” --0--
TRIAL: 1851, 21 July: Court martial, County Cork, 14 years, 7th Hussars – cavalry regiment was stationed in Dublin at this time (https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/6097/page/618/data.pdf) --0--