Susannah Lallamont

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Beth Taylor on 21st September 2019

On the 12th of November 1812, the ship Emu left England in company with the brig James Hay, bound for the Colony of New South Wales. Lieutenant Alexander Bisset of the Royal Navy was the Commander of the Emu and he had a crew of twenty-two men although the Declaration given to Bisset stated there were thirty-six crew. They carried stores of food to last three months. The ship was a small brig of 182 tons, with two decks and two masts, especially built for service in New South Wales and was armed with ten guns mounted and fitted with a devise to prevent attacks over the side. As well as some stores and a large quantity of ammunition for the Colony, on board were forty women convicts, several with children, having been put under sentence of transportation to Sydney, Port Jackson in the Colony of New South Wales, over 20 thousand kilometres away. At this time Britain was still fighting a war with France (mainly at sea against Napoleon) however in 1812 a second Colonial war with America began, called the War of 1812. The American's grievance was the British insistence upon the right of search of their vessels at sea and the trade blockades which were in place. The Americans started with inflicting heavy losses on English ships using privateers (American government-sanctioned pirates) and their "prizes" were often sailed into American waters and sold. The Americans also invaded Canada, which was under British rule, and set fire to the city of Toronto. The English retaliated with setting fire in Washington to the presidential mansion (the White House). On leaving England, Captain Bisset was handed a Declaration granting him Letters of Marque and Reprizals “for the apprehending, seizing, and taking the ships, vessels and goods belonging to the United States of America”. The war was soon over, but unfortunately the Emu found herself directly in the firing line. In the Bay of Biscay they had parted company with the James Hay and on the 30th of November they were alone when the Holkar, an American privateer approached. Captain Jonathan Rowland was the commanding officer of the larger vessel which was mounted with eighteen guns and a crew of one hundred and fifty. The Emu was vastly outnumbered and most of the crew refused to fight, except for Captain Bisset, a gunner and a landsman. With little choice against such odds, Bisset capitulated, first throwing overboard the ship's papers and other official documents and the Emu was boarded by the Americans. Nearly seven weeks after their capture, on the 17th of January 1813, the crew of the Emu and the forty women convicts were landed at Mindelo on Saint Vincent one of the Cape Verde Islands “with provisions enough for four months”. The Holkar sailed away with the Emu to Providence Harbour, Rhode Island where the ship was sold as a “prize” and the Captain and crew receiving most, if not all, of the money received. The Cape Verde Islands are located in the Atlantic Ocean, six hundred and twenty kms. off the Coast of Senegal, Africa, then under the control of the Portuguese. There seems to be no official record of what happened to the women convicts, their children and the crew during their stay there, but an unverified report states that they were looked after by Catholic nuns. One of the women, Elizabeth King, died on the island on the 29th of January 1813. It must have taken a few months for the news of the ship's capture to be known by the authorities in England and they finally sent the ship Isabella to the Cape Verde Islands for their “rescue”. They arrived back at Portsmouth England (via a journey to Bear Haven, Ireland), about the 12th of October 1813, only for the authorities to be told the women were “….in a state of nakedness and inadvisable of their being landed…” They were kept on board in the harbour for a total of four months until another ship was made ready for a voyage to the Colony, which was the Broxbornebury in February 1814, along with an extra eighty-five female convicts. Not all the thirty-nine remaining women from the Emu made the journey to New South Wales. Five convicts were transferred to the Captivity prison hulk ship in Portsmouth Harbour. Four of these women were granted Full Pardons and one died on the hulk ship. For the other thirty-four it had been a long voyage when they finally arrived in Sydney in July 1814, twenty months after first embarking on the Emu! From the book “Journey to a New Life…” the story of the ships Emu & Broxbornebury by Elizabeth Hook (3rd ed. 2014). I am the author & can be contacted on hookey5609@yahoo.com.au for further info

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Beth Taylor on 21st September 2019

LALLAMONT, Susannah (c1796-1840) Tried - 1 July 1812 London (Old Bailey) Susannah was a daughter of John (or James) Lollemont, a fringe and tassel maker, and Ann his wife. She was baptized at Christ Church, Southwark, Surrey and today Southwark would be classed as a suburb of London, walking distance from the River Thames. Susannah was aged 18 when she was taken before the Old Bailey Court in London in July 1812, charged with her 76 year-old father John Lallamont. The couple were accused of stealing a £10 note from her employer, John Newton. Mr Newton was a chandler (candle maker) and lived at 2 Temple Street, White Friars with his wife, mother and three children; Susannah had been his servant for 10 months. After Mr Newton noticed his money was missing, he checked with the bank and the note was traced back to Susannah’s father. Susannah swore in the Court that her father was innocent; he had thought she had found the money in the street. The Judge believed John Lallamont was innocent of the charge and he was found not guilty (although the records show he had been before the Courts before). Susannah was sentenced to death, but mercy was recommended because of her youth and she was transported for life to New South Wales. Only three months later, in October 1812, John returned to the Court, and was found guilty of the crime of stealing “one pound twelve ounces weight of cheese, value 1s. 6d (15c in today’s money!) the property of George Wood.” Was John attempting to join his daughter Susannah in her banishment to Sydney? Possibly because of his great age, John was not transported, instead he was sentenced to two years in Newgate Gaol and fined one shilling. He died at the workhouse in the Parish of St Giles, London, aged about 82. Susannah gave her occupation as a lacemaker when first sent to the Colony in 1812 on the Emu and finally landed in Sydney in 1814 on the Broxbornebury. For info re her colonial life, see the second entry for Susannah Lallamont on this site listed as a convict on the Broxbornebury

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Virginia Phillips on 23rd September 2018

She was also on the Broxbornebury

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Jeanette Hoy on 5th June 2014

Susannah was aged 18 when taken to the Court in London with her father John Lallamont for stealing a 10 pound note from her employer John Newton, a chandler (he made candles). Susannah married Aaron Walters, an armourer on the Broxbornebury, in Jan 1815 at St. Phillips Church Sydney. Their first child was born in 1816 in Sydney but by 1818 had moved to Cattai, on the Hawkesbury River They had 8 children .

Also known as Susannah Libermont. Married to Aaron Walters 23 January 1815 at St Philips Church Of England Sydney N.S.W. Australia. They Had 8 Children in the MacDonald River/Hawkesbury NSW Area. Susannah was transported on the ship EMU which with a total of 40 female convicts & crew was hijack by American privateers, they were left at Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They where taken back to England & placed on board the ship Broxbornebury, transported to Sydney Cove Australia.

The spelling of her last name was also Lallamont or Lallemont and was around 16-17. the records of her sentencing can be found in The Old Bailey She met Aaron Walters who was an armouror on the Roxonbury coming out to Australia and was a maid for 1 year to a Dr in Parramatta NSW then married him, he was a free man, they lived at Margaret River St Albans near Wisemans ferry she had around 7 children and died at 47. She is my ggggrandmother.