John Mcdonnell

343

Maureen Withey on 7th November 2022

Irish Convict Database, by Peter Mayberry. John McDonnell, Prince Regent I (2) 1824, age on arrival, 23, Tried 1823, Galway Town Galway Co. Life, 1801, Native place, Tralee Kerry Co. Trade, Porter. Remarks: Executed, hanged received 2 dozen lashes for fighting. Date of death 1832, Norfolk Island. -------------------------------------------------- WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23. Before the Chief Justice. John McDonnel, Aaron Price, Thomas Moss, Lawrence Cleary, and Patrick Clinch, were indicted for a burglary and robbery in the house of Thomas White, at Wallis's Plains, on the 5th of August last—Guilty. Remanded. Sydney Gazette, 28 Nov 1825. -------------------------------------------------------- Supreme Criminal Court. Before the CHIEF JUSTICE. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9. The following prisoners were brought up and received sentence:— Thomas Ross, John McDonell, Aaron Price, Lawrence Cleary, and Patrick Clinch, convicted of a burglary and robbery in the house of Mr. Winder, at Wallis's Plains, on the 24th of August last.—Death. His Honor, in passing sentence, admonished the prisoners that there did not appear to him, from the nature of the case on which they were found guilty, to be any circumstance which would induce him to recommend to His Honor the Acting Governor, a mitigation in the sentence of the law. Sydney Gazette, 8 Dec 1825.

343

Maureen Withey on 7th November 2022

AWFUL STATE OF NORFOLK ISLAND AND MORETON BAY. On Monday, the prisoners in the gaol who had been found guilty in the Supreme Court, were taken there to receive their respective sentences. Francis Mullins and John Macdonald, two prisoners from Norfolk Island, who had been found guilty of striking one Smith at that settlement, with a pick axe, with intent to kill him, were first put to the bar. Mr. Gurner asked them in the usual manner, if they had anything to offer to the Court, previously to judgment being pronounced? Macdonald said, that in the first place, Mullins was innocent of the crime of which he had been convicted, for that himself and Smith being weary of life, through the sufferings they endured at Norfolk Island, had resolved to commit some crime sufficiently heinous in its nature, to compel the Commandant to send the perpetrator to Sydney, that he might there be tried and hanged. That for this purpose they tossed up which was to strike the blow. That the lot fell upon him, Macdonald, to strike the blow. And accordingly, he struck Smith with the pick axe. That Mullins, on seeing the blow, ran back and endeavoured to prevent it, and in consequence of his struggling both with him (Macdonald) amid the deceased, he had been mistaken for one of the perpetrators of the crime. After explaining at further length on this point, he began to describe the severities practised at Norfolk Island by the Commandant, (Lieutenant Colonel Morrisett) in his government of the prisoners there. He himself, he said, had been six years in irons, when at length his legs began to swell, and the Surgeon of the settlement (Dr. Ross, now in Sydney) had ordered them to be taken off till he should be better. That the Commandant one day on meeting him (Macdonald) found fault with his being without the irons, and afterwards mustered all those whom the humanity of Dr. Ross had eased pro tempore of their fetters, and ordered them to wear them on some part of the body, if they could not wear them on their legs, to wit, round their middles, or round their necks. That the Commandant ordered scourging to be administered to one man to the extent of six hundred lashes, one hundred to be administered every morning until the culprit had received the whole. (Ed.:The cat-o'nine tails at Norfolk Island is very heavy—the thickness of a wheaten straw, as heavy as a man-o'-war's cat ; while the number of lashes far exceed those in the navy.) He said, that if such men as Captain —— or Captain Sturt, had been Commandants, the felons at Norfolk Island would be content, they being humane, just men. But that under Colonel Morriset, their lives were only a lingering death. Twelve men were at this moment in chains, in the cells, sentenced for life. Judge Stephen here interrupted the prisoner. He said that, the present was not the time or place to make such statements. He might represent them in the proper quarter. The Clerk of Arraigns then called upon Mullins to state, if he had any thing to offer to the Court before judgment was pronounced? Mullins stated, that he had been only ten months at the settlement when the occurrence took place ; that he took no further part in it than to prevent the murder which he considered was about to take place, and that for that purpose he had thrown himself between the parties. Sentence of Death was then passed upon both prisoners. After the sentence was passed, Macdonald requested the Judges to allow Mr. Edward Smith Hall's clerk to go down to the gaol, to take down for the information of the proper Authorities, the information he had now laid before the Court, and further information which he had to communicate. Judge Stephen replied, that any request of that sort had better be made by the prisoner in the proper quarter. The prisoners were again about to address the Court, apparently oppressed with a desire, as dying men, to lay what they conceived the awful state of Norfolk Island, before their Honors the Judges; but the Court seemed to consider, they could not hear more with propriety, for while one of the prisoners was speaking, orders were given to take them from the bar. There was but one feeling in the Court, on the Bench, and off the Court. Horror, mingled with pity. We wish the Court had directed the Sheriff to attend to the request of the men, in permitting them to employ a reporter to write their petitions for them. It is not customary for gaolers to let men under sentence of death petition the Governor on politics. The Court seems to us a very proper place to hear all the men had to say. We can see nothing either unconstitutional or irregular in the Judges listening to the statements of dying men, when called upon for judgment. Such statements justly produce pity in the breast of the Court, and how shocking it seems to deny dying men the means of exciting the pity of the Judges? Sydney Monitor, 22 Feb 1832. The above article, from the Sydney Monitor, and its continuation, which set out the cruelty endured by the convicts at Moreton Bay as well, was reprinted in the London newpapers, and eventually led to an improvement in conditions there.

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 5th January 2021

New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents. Ship: Prince Regent 3 Name; John McDonnell Age; 23. [1800] Trade; Porter Offence; Trial; Galway - 1823 Height; 5 ft. Complexion; Ruddy Hair; Dk. Brown Eyes; Blue Noted against name; HANGED at Norfolk Island 1832 ----------------------