James Morrisby

17

Ian Bowie on 1st May 2021

James Morrisby and Ann Brooks were early convict settlers of Norfolk Island about whom much has been said but not a lot is known for certain, particularly about their lives before their convictions in England. A reason for this is that on the one hand public access to official archives in both the United Kingdom and Australia was restricted until the 1960s while on the other hand families with convict ancestors either stayed quiet or simply did not know about the details. These restrictions and inhibitions seem to have been particularly the case in Van Diemen’s Land, ie Tasmania (which is where James and Ann ended up) until after 1962. I knew nothing of James and Ann until told of them by a cousin in 1994. Other descendants did know more and earlier but families are not always good at sharing inherited information or their own research and until the advent of the internet seldom have had the means of doing so. Since the 1960s some writers have published biographical information on James and Ann but with inconsistencies and errors which often have since been amplified without reference to primary sources or other forms of corroboration. Sources are seldom referenced, which is particularly a problem when relevant primary records cannot be found. Many speculations and misinterpretations in reading the records now abound. I had no intention of researching James and Ann in 1994 beyond noting what had been said in books published then. Nor, as information came online, did I intend to do much more than to save copies of primary records I had seen. But, with intensive exposure to primary records over the last couple of years, I have become uncertain about some information and resolved to try to separate fact from speculation. In this Note I have tried to document information that can be tested against the known primary sources or that appears likely from secondary sources, excluding some of the lesser details of James’ and Ann’s lives in Norfolk Island and Van Diemen’s Land which are summarised elsewhere. I hope I have made it clear where I have drawn inferences or reported speculations. ……………………………………… James is generally believed to have been the James Morrisby baptised in Cawood (Yorkshire) in January 1757, in which case five generations of Yorkshire ancestors have been traced for him (including a father, Luke, said to have been killed in the Cape Breton Island battle of Louisbourg in 1758), but nothing is known of him for certain until he was tried in July 1784 in the Old Bailey for stealing an iron bar and for breaking-in with intent to steal. He was sentenced to seven years’ transportation. At his trial James claimed to have been in ‘the guards’. It has been widely accepted that he enlisted in the ‘Scots Guards’ (correctly, the Third Regiment of Foot Guards) in 1776 and was stationed in the Tower of London; it is possible but unlikely that he served in the composite Guards brigade that fought in America and returned in 1783. Less likely is that he served as a lieutenant in the Life Guards as suggested by other family sources. At his trial he was said to have claimed a wife and five children and, perhaps, to have been a watchman. After two and a half years on the prison hulk Censor in the Thames he was transported on the Scarborough in 1787, arriving in Port Jackson in January 1788. He was moved to Norfolk Island in March 1790 (where he was disembarked from HMS Sirius four days before it was wrecked). By February 1791, he appears to have been living with Ann Brooks on an acre in ‘Sydney’ (now Kingston) and by the expiry of his sentence in July was sharing a sow with her and her eldest son William known as Brooks, possibly the child referred to in Ann’s December 1787 trial who seems to have arrived in Port Jackson with Ann. Ann Brooks (not to be confused with a mother and daughter who arrived in Sydney on the Pitt in 1792, the younger of whom was also on Norfolk Island 1800-1813), was born in the early 1760s and was convicted in London for stealing two linen bed sheets. From London court and other records, she may have been any one of: a then-21-year-old daughter of Charles M’Ginnis; a slightly older Ann Lavender who may have become Ann Brooks in the early 1780s; or a completely different Ann Brooks; all living on the fringes of ‘respectable’ society at the time. This Ann (who appears in primary records only as ‘Brooks’ or ‘Moresby’ from 1787) was sentenced to seven years’ transportation and arrived in Port Jackson, reportedly with William, on the Lady Juliana subject of Sian Rees’ book The Floating Brothel, in June 1790. She was sent to Norfolk Island on HMS Surprize two months later by which time she was pregnant with her second son, who became known as Richard Larsom, fathered by an unknown seaman or convict (Larsom, perhaps, Simon Lavender, perhaps) who presumably had been her ‘protector’. It is said, but without a primary record, that James and Ann were ‘married’ by the Reverend Richard Johnson during the latter’s three weeks on Norfolk Island in November 1791 (if so, perhaps reflecting a concern for good order amongst the convicts rather than for any previously married states). Confusingly, Ann’s five children with James (all born on Norfolk Island), along with Richard (nothing seems known of William after 1801) were recorded as ‘Lavender’ in 1805, as they had been in 1802 excepting ‘Dinah’ (sic, who was named Brooks) but her three eldest sons were recorded as ‘Brooks’ in 1792-5. To add to the confusion Richard was listed as ‘Richard Brooks Lavender’ in 1802. In 1791 James was granted twelve acres of arable leasehold between Watermill Creek and the Mount Pitt Path (now Taylors Road) and by October 1793 when he was annotated as a blacksmith (he had enlisted as a labourer) he had cleared seven acres, probably with the help of assigned convict labour. This lot (‘known as Morrisby’s Farm’) appears to have been enlarged to 16 acres in 1794 in which year Governor King described him as ‘industrious’ and prevented him from selling up. Perhaps James, as his sentence had expired, had been planning to return to England. That lease was put into the name of James’ eldest son in 1796. Subsequently, James later took up a further 22 acres nearby, and he purchased another 34 acres (which is beside where an airport runway is now located) in 1802 when he was a constable. He also crewed on the island tender servicing HMS Reliance in 1798/99. In December 1807, on an 1804 recommendation by Lt Governor Foveaux, James and Ann left behind their small house and barns when the Norfolk Island settlement was being closed down and they were evacuated with their five shared children on HMS Porpoise in 1807 to Van Diemen’s Land where James initially was granted 80 acres in the Clarence Plains near Rokeby in exchange for his Norfolk Island leases. Richard followed them, Ann died in 1813 and James remarried in 1816 to Eleanor Murphy who died in 1821. James continued farming Belmont Lawn until his death in 1839, acquiring more land including land in Hobart (he had helped the Constables arrest a bushranger in 1817) which he assigned to his eldest son in 1818 and 300 further acres in Muddy Plains, Clarence Plains, which he was granted in 1828. James appears to have acquired further land also from his son in law, George Smith who married Grace the elder daughter and second of the five children of James with Ann in Hobart in 1810. The Smiths’ youngest son Henry was later to marry an unrelated Henrietta Letitia Smith, to become two of my great grandparents and the reason for my interest in Henry’s grandparents. As to the wife and child(ren?) James left behind in England, little is known for certain but a likely wife (Mary Eaves) and child (Catherine Dorcas Morrisby who married William Davison and later George Davison) have been linked to him – in which case it may have been his wife who died in a London poor house in 1823.

17

Ian Bowie on 14th September 2020

[a fully referenced version of the following is available as a PDF file]: James Morrisby and Ann Brooks were early convict settlers of Norfolk Island about whom much has been said but not a lot is known for certain, particularly from before their convictions in England. A reason for this is that on the one hand public access to official archives in both the United Kingdom and Australia was restricted until the 1960s while on the other hand families with convict ancestors either stayed quiet or simply did not know about this . These restrictions and inhibitions seem to have been particularly the case in Van Diemen’s Land, ie Tasmania, which is where James and Ann ended up, until after 1962 . I knew nothing of James and Ann until told of them by a cousin in 1994. Other descendants may have known more and earlier but families aren’t always good at sharing inherited information or their own research and until the advent of the internet seldom have had the means of doing so . Since the 1960s some writers have published biographical information on James and Ann but with inconsistencies and errors which have often since been amplified without reference to primary sources or other forms of corroboration . Sources are seldom referenced, which is particularly a problem when relevant primary records are not known. Many speculations and misinterpretation in reading the records now abound. I had no intention of researching James and Ann in 1994 beyond noting what had been said in books published then. Nor, as information came online, did I intend to do much more than to collect copies of primary records. But, with intensive exposure to new primary records over the last couple of years, I have become uncertain about some of my information and resolved to try to separate fact from speculation and mistakes here. In this brief note I’ve tried to document information that can be tested against the known primary sources cited in the end-notes, or which appears likely from the secondary sources also referenced or circumstantial evidence, excluding some of the lesser details of James’ and Ann’s lives in Norfolk Island and Van Diemen’s Land which are summarised elsewhere . I hope I’ve made it clear where I‘ve drawn inferences or reported speculations. ------------------ James is generally believed to have been the James Morrisby baptised in Cawood (Yorkshire) in January 1757 , in which case five generations of Yorkshire ancestors have been traced for him (including a father, Luke, said to have been killed in the Cape Breton Island battle of Louisbourg in 1758 ), but nothing is known of him for certain until he was tried in July 1784 in the Old Bailey for stealing an iron bar and for breaking-in with intent to steal. He was sentenced to seven years’ transportation . At his trial James claimed to have been in ‘the guards’. On the strength of this a 1776 enlistment in the Third Regiment of Foot Guards has been found but his service record is uncertain: he may have been a lieutenant; he is said to have been stationed in the Tower of London; he may have served in the composite Guards battalion that fought in America; and it seems likely that he was discharged after the American battalion returned in 1783 . At his trial he was said to have claimed a wife and five children and, perhaps, to have been a watch-man . After two and a half years on the prison hulk Censor in the Thames he was transported on the Scarborough in 1787, arriving in Port Jackson in January 1788 . He was moved to Norfolk Island in March 1790 (where he was disembarked from HMS Sirius four days before it was wrecked) . By July 1791, at the expiry of his sentence, he appears to have been living with Ann Brooks on an acre in ‘Sydney’ (now Kingston) and was sharing a sow with her and her eldest son William, known as Brooks and possibly the child referred to in Ann’s December 1787 trial who seems to have arrived in Port Jackson with Ann . Ann Brooks (not to be confused with a mother and daughter who arrived in Sydney on the Pitt in 1792, one of whom was also on Norfolk Island later ), was born in the early 1760s and was convicted in London for stealing two linen bed sheets. From London court and other records she might have been any one of: a then-21-year-old daughter of Charles M’Ginnis; a slightly older Ann Lavender who may have become Ann Brooks in the early 1780s; or a completely different Ann Brooks; all living on the fringes of ‘respectable’ society at the time . This Ann (who appears to have been recorded only as ‘Brooks’ or ‘Moresby’ from 1787) was sentenced to seven years’ transportation and arrived in Port Jackson, reportedly with William, on the Lady Juliana subject of Sian Rees’ book The Floating Brothel’, in June 1790 . She was sent to Norfolk Island on HMS Surprize two months later (by which time she was pregnant with her second son, who became known as Richard Larsom , fathered by an unknown seaman or convict (Larsom, perhaps, Simon Lavender, perhaps ) who presumably had been her ‘protector’. It is said, but without a primary record , that James and Ann were ‘married’ by the Reverend Richard Johnson during the latter’s three weeks on Norfolk Island in November 1791 (if so, reflecting Governor King’s concern for good order amongst the convicts rather than for any previously married states ). Confusingly, Ann’s five children with James (all born on Norfolk Island ), along with Richard (nothing seems known of William after 1801 ) were recorded as ‘Lavender’ in 1805, as they had been in 1802 excepting ‘Dinah’ (sic, who was named Brooks) but her three eldest sons were recorded as ‘Brooks’ in 1792-5 . To add to the confusion Richard was listed as ‘Richard Brooks Lavender’ in 1802 . By October 1793 James was known as a blacksmith and had cleared seven of the twelve acres of a lot along Watermill Creek where an airport runway is now located . In 1794 Governor King described him as ‘industrious’, refused then to allow him to sell up and apparently enlarged the lot to 22 acres. I wonder whether James then, as his sentence had expired, had been planning to return to England. Subsequently, James later took up a further 16 acres there in his son’s name and he purchased another 34 acres in 1802 when he was a constable . He also crewed on the island tender servicing HMS Reliance in 1799 . In December 1807, on an 1804 recommendation by Lt Governor Foveaux , James and Ann left their small house and barns behind when the Norfolk Island settlement was being closed down, and went with their five shared children on HMS Porpoise in 1807 to Van Diemen’s Land where James initially was granted 80 acres in the Clarence Plains near Rokeby in exchange for his Norfolk Island leases. Richard followed them , Ann died in 1813 and James remarried in 1816 to Eleanor Murphy who died in 1821 . James continued farming Belmont Lawn until his death in 1839, acquiring more land including land in Hobart (he had helped the Constables arrest a bushranger in 1817 ) which he assigned to his eldest son in 1818 and 300 further acres in Muddy Plains, Clarence Plains, which he was granted in 1828 . Among the children of Ann with James Grace, their elder daughter and second of their five children together, married George Smith in Hobart in 1810 : their youngest son was to marry an unrelated Henrietta Letitia Smith, to become two of my great grandparents and the reason for my interest in James and Ann. As to the wife and child(ren?) James left behind in England, nothing is known for certain but a likely wife (Mary Eaves ) and child (Catherine Dorcas Morrisby who married William Davison and later George Davison ) have been linked to him – in which case it may have been his wife who died in a London poor house in 1823 .

221

D Wong on 9th July 2015

From: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tasmanianfamilies/morrisby.html JAMES MORRISBY (circa 1757-1839) On 7th July 1784 James Morrisby was sentenced in the Old Bailey to transportation for seven years for theft of a 10lb iron bar valued at 10 pence. He had been observed wrenching it from the window it secured. James was a blacksmith and stated that he had serve about 10 years in the Guards and that he has a wife and five children. A James Morrisby from Cawood had enlisted in the Scots Guards on 3rd April 1776 he was aged 19, 5ft.7ins. tall and had brown eyes. James was transferred from prison to the "Censor" hulk on 6th September 1787 and on 24th February 1787 he was transported by wagon for embarkation on the "Scarborough" three days later. The "Scarborough" was one of the convict transports of Australia's "First Fleet". James was transferred to Norfolk Island aboard the "Sirius" in 1790. In July 1791 James was living on a Sydney town lot and sharing a sow with Ann Brooks, also known as Ann Lavender, and her son William who had been transported aboard the "Lady Juliana" with his mother as part of the Second Fleet. By early December James and Ann occupied 12 acres at Mt. Pitt Path (lot No. 57), this had increased to 34 acres by 1796. The family had increased by the birth of six children between 1791 and 1805. James, Ann and five children left Norfolk Island to travel to Van Diemen's Land aboard the "Porpoise" in December 1807 as part of the demise of the first Norfolk Island settlement. They left behind them 55 acres of land, 14 of which were sown in grain, 10 in pasture and the rest fallow. They owned 7 hogs and held 200 bushels of maize in store. Their buildings were valued at £90 included a house 12ft x 26ft, boarded floored and shingled, two floored barns and one outhouse. In April 1809 James held 80 acres at Clarence Plains (now Rokeby) in Tasmania. Ann Morrisby aged 51 was buried on 2nd February 1831. James married Eleanor Murphy, a convict who had arrived aboard the "Catheron" 18th November 1816 in Hobart. James Morrisby was buried at Clarence Plains on 29th May 1839. Eleanor, his wife, had been buried on 14th February 1821.