John Griffin

343

Maureen Withey on 13th March 2021

Irish Convict Database, by Peter Mayberry. John Griffin, age on arrival, 20, Per Anne I (1801), Tried at Enniskillen Fermanagh Co, 1798, Life. Irish Rebel. DOB, 1781. Remarks: NSW 1804 Castle Hill Revolt. Died 1820, Sydney. Present at 1811 muster. ---------------------------------------------------- With reference to the Castle Hill Rebellion, in the same book, on pages 93, 94, Anne-Maree Whitaker states that convict, John Griffin, was at a place called “There and Nowhere” and was taking a paper stating when the insurrection would begin and details of the password, which Philip Cunningham had given him to take to Bryan Fury at Hawkesbury, Griffin was unable to read, and showed the document to Louis Bulger, (who was also a convict who arrived on Anne) who could read but not write. The paper set the start of the rising for Sunday 4th March and the password as St Peter. Bulger advised him to destroy the letter. This breach of secrecy led to the authorities being warned, as on the Saturday before the rising, another convict, Keogh spoke to an overseer who passed the information on to his master, and the magistrate sent a constable to Hawkesbury to find Griffin. ---------------------------------------------------- John Griffin (Anne) Born in about 1781, Griffin was a United Irishman convicted in April 1788 in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. He was flogged for his involvement in the Castle Hill Rebellion. In 1811 Griffin was at Port Dalrymple (now Launceston, Tasmania), and received a conditional pardon in 1814. He died in Sydney in January 1820. From Anne-Maree Whitaker's, "Unfinished Revolution"