Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
James Wilson was transported on the Hougoumont, departing 10th Oct 1867 and arriving 9th Jan 1868 with 281 passengers.
875 ton ship was built at Moulmein in 1852. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/on-this-day-in-history-australias-last-convict-ship-docks.htm ---------------------------- Incorrect Image ....This is a four masted steel hulled Barque in the drawing , im surprised Australian Geo didn't do a bit more research on this .......The Hougoumont was a works ship on the Forth Bridge Project in 1885 ....the one potrayed as a drawing in Aust Geo is the later version of this ship.....the photograph i have attached is the correct and original convict vessel. --00-- 1867 "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. 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." Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Thu 19 Dec 1867, p4, English Shipping, available on Trove at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271?searchTerm=hougoumont.
HougoumontReferences
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/19, Page Number 265 (135) |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
Claims
No one has claimed James Wilson yet.
Photos
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Convict Notes
CRIME: "Desertion and mutinous conduct" (see UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners 1866-1867; and Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9599 - 10128 cont. (R16)). --0-- TWO PHOTOS of JAMES WILSON / JAMES THOMAS: Taken in 1866 while he was an inmate of Mounjoy Prison, Dublin, and labelled Images ID 1111434 and 1111364, they are available online at https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-975f-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 (see The New York Public Library Digital Collections, 1866).
The Great Australian Escape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalpa_rescue Well documented ,published and promoted escape of the Militant Fenian band of convicts from Perth
James Wilson was a Fenian who was transported as a convict to Western Australia. Born James McNally in Newry, County Down, Ireland on 6 February 1836, little is known of his early life. He apparently joined the British Army at the age of 17 (enlisting under a false name) to avoid arrest for the battery of a police officer. He served in India before returning to Ireland where he became a Fenian, being sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1864. The following year he deserted, along with Martin Hogan, from the British Army in anticipation of an expected Fenian uprising. On 10 February 1866, he was arrested by the police who discovered him hiding in a safe house in Dublin. They were betrayed by an informant, Patrick Curran. Wilson, along with other military Fenians were tried, found guilty of desertion and mutinous conduct, and sentenced to death. However, this sentence was later commuted to penal servitude for life, and they were transported to Western Australia. In October 1867, Wilson and sixty one other Fenians began the long sea voyage on board the Hougoumont to Australia. Life in Fremantle was hard. Wilson had been sentenced to penal servitude, and found the monotony and work involved so hard to bear that he wrote to a New York journalist, John Devoy entitling his letter, A Voice From the Tomb after having been in jail for some nine years. Devoy was moved enough by Wilson's description of the conditions under which he and his colleagues laboured to begin collecting money amongst the American-Irish community to organise their rescue. Enough money was collected and a whaling ship, the Catalpa, was purchased and George Anthony was hired to captain the ship. In 1876, the Catalpa sailed to Western Australia and rescued Wilson and five other Fenian prisoners. Initially the Royal Navy sought to halt the progress of the Catalpa and recapture the men, but after being fired upon once, Anthony raised the American flag. After this, the British did not fire upon them again and the ship sailed unimpeded to New York, the journey taking some four months. Wilson settled in Rhode Island, where he got married and lived out the rest of his life. In 1920, Wilson met with Éamon de Valera who was touring the United States, trying to gain support for his Irish Republic. Wilson died in November 1921.