Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
Bridget Heslin was transported on the Sugar Cane, departing 12th Apr 1792 and arriving 17th Sep 1793 with 102 passengers.
Sugar Cane, was a 403 burthen ton merchantman and convict ship that was dispatched in 1793 from Ireland to Australia. She was launched in 1786 upon the Thames River. Under the command of Thomas Musgrave, she sailed from Cork, Ireland, on 12 April 1793, with 110 male and 50 female convicts. During the voyage a mutiny by the convicts was put down and a convict executed. She arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales on the 17 September 1793. The Sugar Cane left Port Jackson for Bengal in late 1793.
Sugar Cane (generic)References
| Primary Source | NSW State Records |
Claims
"Bridget is my 5x great-grandmother"
Photos
No photos have been added for Bridget Heslin.
Convict Notes
Report f the trial of Bridget ESLIN (She was transported as "Eslin, not Heslin) Freemans Journal, Saturday 21 July 1792 page 4: "Mary Hughes and Bridget Eslin, for stealing out of a bleach green at Rathgare, forty yards of linen, value 2l, the goods of Mr Osbry. They were stopped loaded with the spoil by a revenue officer, who suspected that the bundle contained smuggled goods; Guilty to the value of 4s 6d - to be transported for seven years. " A singular instance these young women exhibited of the incorrigible perverseness of early depravity. The father of both was hanged, and the mother and brother of one of them were transported, within the short space of two years, for similar offences."
In 1815, Bridget married Robert Hobbs (Third Fleet Convict, 1791, "Active"), She and Robert had a long term relationship which had started soon after her arrival in the colony. It would appear that they had 10 children over the years. Sainty & Johnson; 1828 Census of New South Wales: Page 193... [Ref H1969] Hobbs, Robert, (Sen), 64, free by servitude, Active, 1791, 7 years, Protestant, farmer, Pitt Town. 7 acres all cleared and cultivated, 1 horse, 45 cattle. [Ref H1970] Hobbs, Hester, 56, came free, Sugar Cane (Bridget? Came Free???) [Ref H1971] Hobbs, Edward, 24, born in the colony. [Ref H1972] Hobbs, Sarah, 13, born in the colony. Several other members of the family are also mentioned, with their own families.
Bridget, her family and friends were members of a gang who stole bleached linen from the bleach greens in Dublin. There has been well documented data from the Freeman’s Journal, published Dublin to support this theory with articles printed in 1785, 1789, 1791 and 1792. Known gang members were Patrick Haslin (father), executed, his wife involved but her name not given, their known children were Patrick (transported, "Boddingtons", 1793), Bridget (transported, "Sugar Cane", 1793), John (fate unknown), Joseph Kearns alias Dungan (transported, "Boddingtons", 1793), Mary Hughes (transported, "Sugar Cane", 1793), Michael Dooley (probably executed), Thomas Hughes (fate unknown). # The 'Bleach Greens" were a sunny grassed hillside, where the linen from the affluent homes was washed, bleached and dried. This sometimes took several days and was a known spot for theft of linen.
Arrived in Port Jackson in 1793 on 'Sugar Cane' Convicted in Kilmainham Quarter Sessions, Dublin City