Walter Paisley

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Elliott Oglethorpe on 15th May 2022

Walter Paisley, age 13, convicted of breaking into a house along with his brother and four supposed friends lowering him in through a window. When the burglary went wrong, Paisley's brother and friends ran off leaving Paisley all by himself. He was tried in the assizes in Buckinghamshire and sentenced to 7 years in Point Puer Juvenile Prison off of Port Arthur, Tasmania. He arrived with 68 other boys on the Issabella in 1833. Only 27 days into Paisley's sentence he had his first sample of solitary confinement given one week for "insubordinate conduct" towards Superintendent Montgomery. Five months later Paisley's friends were sentenced to solitary and Paisley amused them by sitting outside the cells reciting obscene stories. For this he was locked up for a week. On another occasion he was punished for attempting to smuggle tobacco to a friend confined in the cells. When Paisley himself was locked he refused to be quiet, singing blaspheming and shouting obscenities. As time went on Paisley's conduct became increasingly violent. He destroyed his work in the carpenter's shop, struck a fellow boy with a spade, punched the schoolmaster and threatened others with a stolen lancet and, after being caught in possession of a chicken which had been stolen from the Superintendent's garden, he attacked one of the boys who had provided evidence against him. Walter was released from Point Puer in 1838 and arrived in Launceston on Christmas Day. He stayed clear of trouble for a full year before he was arrested and put on trial for burglary with Thomas Dickenson for robbing the house of Felix Murphy in Liverpool Street he was sentenced to life transportation with a recommended 4 years in Port Arthur where, as a bad character he was to be strictly watched. On another 16 occasions mostly for misconduct and disobedience of orders. He was discharged to the Colonial Hospital in Hobart in April 1844 and thereafter sent to the invalid station at Impression Bay. In November 1998 at the Wooden Boat Festival at the Maritime Museum, the oldest boat taking pride of place in the display, was built in 1871 by 52 year old Walter Paisley. His carpentry skills coming to use after all those years in Point Puer. After Walter got released from prison, he was a timber gatherer down in the Huon Valley. He met John Wilson, a fellow wooden boat builder. John presented the boat that Walter and John made to his wife, Dinah as a wedding present in 1872. Dinah used the boat almost every day, running family errands in the way we'd use a runabout car today. She was still using it up to her 88th Birthday in 1937. The boat is still in the Maritime Museum Tasmania Archives today To see the sources I used, here are the URLs: http://maritimemuseumsaustralia.com/profiles/blogs/he-s-a-very-naughty-boy https://ehive.com/collections/3906/objects/391588/walter-paisley-dinghy