Patrick Killeen

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Dianne Jones on 4th October 2021

1867, 30 September: Boarding the Hougoumont “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 [true, but he was a minor Fenian teenager called Bartholomew Moriarty, not the Fenian leader Mortimer 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.” (Sydney Morning Herald, Thu 19 Dec 1867, p4, available at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271?searchTerm=hougoumont) --0--

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Dianne Jones on 4th October 2021

Those letters and branding: At some point during his incarceration in England, Patrick Killeen was more than “marked” with the letters “BC” (as noted on his Millbank record). He was branded, twice. Once with “BC” and again with a “D” (according to his West Australian Convict Record and the WA General Register). The practice of branding was continued by the British until 1871, according to Phillip Hilton’s thesis, “Branded with a D on the left side”. Until 1829, any soldier could be branded but after that it was reserved for deserters who were “marked on the left side, 2 inches (5 cm) below the armpit, with the letter ‘D’, such letter to be not less than an inch long” (Wikipedia). Hilton says branding deserters was “a means of humiliating offenders” (2010, p140, https://eprints.utas.edu.au/17678/2/Hilton_Thesis.pdf), but he doesn’t say how the branding happened and there are conflicting versions among writers. For example, Peter FitzSimons (2019) refers to barbaric fire brandings of the four Fenian deserters among the “Catalpa six” who escaped from WA to America in 1876, while others such as Amos (1987) describe painful tattooing using India ink and an awl. A post on the Irish Garrison Towns website (http://irishgarrisontowns.com/d-for-deserter/) says both practices were used – hot iron/fire branding being the preferred method until around the mid-19th century when it was replaced by tattooing: “A new device was created to mark the soldiers’ skin with ink, or even gunpowder… The large, blunt points [on the branding tool] hint at the pain it caused as a spring mechanism forced these points into the skin. Regimental doctors described the practice as ‘cupping’.” Simon Barnard’s book “Convict tattoos: Marked men and women of Australia” (p55) has several shots of one of these spring loaded, brass “branding instruments” manufactured by John Weiss & Sons of The Strand, London. Barnard says they were used by medical officers to tattoo army deserters. The head of the “Weiss’ Invention” model holds 47 needle points arranged in the shape of a “D”, all clearly capable of puncturing human skin. So, too, the points of the brass instrument featured on the Science Museum of London’s website. Made by Savigny & Co of London, its adjustable points “still bear traces of ink” and were pushed through the skin by a spring-powered mechanism. Savigny & Co was “better known as a major manufacturer of surgical instruments in the 1700s and early 1800s”. The Museum says branding was abolished in 1829, except for army deserters. After this, the mark was tattooed on the body until the practice was abandoned altogether in 1879 (https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co155799/branding-tool-for-marking-deserters-london-england-1810-1850-branding-tool). Notoriously bad soldiers were also branded with “BC” (bad character), according to Wikipedia. Aside from Patrick Killeen, only one other man sent to WA on the Hougoumont carried the dual markings of “D” and “BC” – military Fenian John Foley. --0-- Footnote: William Leonard, the Military Transport private who faced court martial on similar charges at the same time as Patrick Killeen, was convicted and sentenced to five years' penal servitude. He was similarly branded and also sent to Millbank (#3497). From there, he was transferred to Chatham Prison in February 1868. --00--

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Dianne Jones on 4th October 2021

1867, 4 July: Patrick Killeen was admitted to Millbank at Westminster in London. Most likely the journey from Dublin was via the Irish port of Kingstown, for passage by boat to Holyhead in Wales. From there it was 300 miles south by road to London for the 16 military and civilian Fenians transferred at this time. On arrival at Millbank, Patrick Killeen was listed as prisoner #3495, and a “Government prisoner”. He was 20 years old, single, able to read and write imperfectly, a Roman Catholic, a former driver in the Royal Artillery, No.1463, and now a labourer. His crime was “coming to the knowledge of an intended mutiny in Her Majesty’s army” for which he was “discharged with ignominy and marked with the letters BC”. By this time he had served 22 days in special / solitary confinement (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners 1866-67).

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Dianne Jones on 4th October 2021

Fenians and imprisonment: In his thesis, “The Fenians and Australia c1865-1880”, Keith Amos (1987) says all of the Fenians transported to WA on the Hougoumont “had been arrested, tried and sentenced between September 1865 and August 1867 for a variety of roles in a concerted but ill-fated attempt forcibly to establish Ireland as an independent republic. Immediately after the first convictions, sympathetic countrymen began to agitate for official recognition of Fenians as political prisoners, hoping that certain privileges accorded to Daniel O’Connell and the Young Irelanders might be granted, the most important being physical separation from ordinary criminals.” Their efforts were unsuccessful. Amos says “all Fenians were treated at first as ordinary criminals. Shortly after sentence, beards were cut off, hair cropped, clothes exchanged for prison dress, and photos taken as the prisoners held before them black slates bearing their names and numbers inscribed in chalk. Most served about three months in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, where they were lodged in separate cells and worked during the day, in solitude, picking coir. They were then shipped to England to serve a further six months solitary confinement at Pentonville or Millbank, and progressed from there to Chatham, Portsmouth, Portland, or for intractables, Dartmoor, where limited conversation was permitted during gang labour and one letter allowed each month. Conditions were undoubtedly harsh, stretching sanity to the limit under the stress of solitary confinement, and physical health to the point of collapse under heavy labour. On the whole though, most Fenians were not singled out for worse treatment than other convicts unless, like O’Donovan Rossa, they attracted attention with acts of defiance.” (1987, pp110-111) —0—

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Dianne Jones on 4th October 2021

Court martial: 1867, 27 April: The convening of Patrick Killeen's court martial in Dublin was covered by the local press and republished in the Illawarra Mercury, 18 June 1867, p4): “Fenian trials: …The general commanding the forces in Ireland has issued instructions for the assembling of a general court martial at the Dublin Royal Barracks tomorrow, the 27th [April], for the trial of driver Patrick Killeen, royal artillery, and private William Leonard, military train, on charges of complicity in the Fenian conspiracy. Colonel Nugent as officiating judge advocate, and Colonel Fielding as prosecutor.” --0-- 1867, 29 April: Patrick Killeen was convicted by court martial at the Royal Military Barracks, in Dublin, of mutinous conduct – "concealing a mutiny" having "deserted to join a Fenian rising" while a driver in the Royal Horse Artillery (Amos, 1987, p372). He was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude. It’s likely that he was held at the military prison at Arbour Hill, on a small site north of the River Liffy and near the site of the old Provost prison. Built in 1845-88, Arbour Hill served solely as a military detention centre (PD O’Donnell, Dublin Historical Record, Vol 25, No 4, p145). After his conviction, he would have been dressed in convict garb and then sent to Mountjoy convict prison, also in Dublin. --00--