James Martin

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 11th August 2022

OTHER: For more details of his convict life, see (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p140). --00--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 11th August 2022

IN VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, JAMES MARTIN, convict #27984, was listed as a labourer; 23 years old, 5’2” tall with light black hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion. He was single, Catholic and literate. Native place: King’s County. He said he had been transported for “malicious assault, a man was struck with a stone in the side”. Gibraltar report “good” (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p140). Family: Sister Bridget -- Bengal (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai48227). --0--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 11th August 2022

3 February, 1853: He was sent aboard the St Vincent for transportation to VDL (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --00--

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 11th August 2022

On Gibraltar, JAMES MARTIN was described as 27 years old, sentenced to 7 years for “malicious assault”; first conviction; “bad” character; born in King’s County; Catholic; brown hair, light hazel eyes and a fair complexion, 5’2¾” tall; literate; labourer; single; relatives/family – in King’s County (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 11th August 2022

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/). --

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 11th August 2022

SENT TO GIBRALTAR: 3 October, 1851: MARTIN, JAMES #1934, 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]). --

Level 218

Dianne Jones on 11th August 2022

TRIAL: 5 March, 1849: MARTIN JAMES was tried in King’s County and sentenced to 7 years’ transportation for malicious assault (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p140). --00--