The Neptune: A Biography of Convict Women

In this blog author Nichola Garvey discusses the experiences of convict women travelling from Britian to Australia aboard notorious transport ship ‘the Neptune’.

The captain and the first mate ‘beat women convicts without mercy… like man opposed to man in quarrel. And in particular one Hannah Hawkins was [kicked in the crotch so hard] that she did not recover the same when she landed in Botany Bay nor for weeks afterwards.’

‘The Neptune’ Convict Ship. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

This statement was made by William Churchill, Quartermaster, about the ill-fated Second Fleet transport ship the Neptune. He, along with 22 other crew, had been summoned to give evidence in London in 1792 at the trial of the captain, Donald Trail, and his first mate, William Ellrington, for the murder of a convict and a crewmember on the ship’s outbound journey to New South Wales two years earlier. More than forty percent of the Neptune’s 500 convicts, comprising some 420 men and 78 women, died on the voyage or shortly thereafter. This was the highest mortality rate of any convict ship during the period of transportation to Australia. The fleet was operated by slave contractors; Captain Trail had also been Master on slave ships. But unlike the slave ships, there was no incentive to land the convicts in good health.

Punishment of disobedient female convict on route from Britian to Australia c1789. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

When I decided to write a group biography about the women of the Neptune it was because I was inspired to know who they were and what happened to them after having survived such a brutal transportation experience. Little did I know, however, that there were so few primary sources for any of the women of the Neptune and no writing whatsoever by their own hands.

There was one exception. Elizabeth Macarthur, the wife of soldier John Macarthur and a prolific letter and journal writer, described Captain Trail as a ‘perfect sea monster’. Having commenced their journey to the colony aboard the Neptune, when the opportunity arose after six weeks for the couple to be transferred to the Scarborough they took it. In so doing Elizabeth’s account of life on board one of the most notorious transport ships in Australia’s history was cut short.

It was an unexpected boon when I was alerted to the existence of the court depositions by fellow convict historian Dr Gary Sturgess, who also lent me his copy of the archive (the originals reside at the National Archives at Kew, England, and are yet to be digitised). Within those court transcripts there were broad references to the women of the Neptune as a group and in a few rare instances some were named specifically. Hannah Hawkins, named in the quote at the start of this blog, was one of them. Another was Jane Elley, who was brutally punished for speaking to one of the crewmembers through a partition:

Sarah Cobcroft, one of Australia’s first free settlers, arriving in Australia on the Neptune. By Joseph Backler, 1856. State Library of New South Wales, ML 169.

First Mate Elrington jumped down on her with all his weight as she descended the ladder and beat her mercilessly so as to disfigure her face and make her eyes swell very much.  Then Trail beat her and put her in irons around he hands and feet and a collar around her neck fastened with a chain of 14 inches so that she could not stand or lay down for two days.

The only other woman to be named specifically was Ann Wheeler. She, it turns out, belonged to one of the biggest criminal families in London at that time: the McCoul family. She also fell foul of Captain Trail, and although there are no accounts of him beating Ann Wheeler, he did throw her trunk into the ocean when they arrived at the New South Wales settlement. At a time when there were no bank accounts, a trunk of clothing and household linens often represented an individual’s entire personal wealth. His throwing it overboard was not an insignificant act.

All three women, Hawkins, Wheeler and Elley were outspoken.  While we do not know what Hannah Hawkins did to anger Trail, we do know she was sentenced to 25 lashes for insubordination six weeks after arrival in the colony.  As for Jane Elley, she was one of the most loquacious women to speak up for themselves at trial, with 130 words in her own defence (the average being 46 words spoken at trials held at the Old Bailey – or what was transcribed of them).

The journal article I wrote, ‘Women in a Fragmented Archive: the story of the Wilful Murder’ was an opportunity to bring a largely unknown archive to light. It offered both a rare account of life on board ships in the earliest years of transportation and an analysis of first-hand references to the women of the Second Fleet. The court transcripts have largely lain hidden in the archive. They have been barely referenced in the convict historiography and only rarely referenced in the slavery historiography. They have offered me the opportunity to anchor my own research, and they also highlight how the archives continue to reveal, much like the ocean giving up its lost treasure, only occasionally, but ever so wondrously.

Trial of four British Seam from the Neptune in 1807. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Captain Trail and William Elrington of the Neptune were acquitted, with the attorney who took down all 23 depositions and prosecuted the case ordered to be struck off the rolls. At the same time another captain, John Kimber of the slave ship the Recovery, was also acquitted at a trial for the murder of a 14-year-old girl on his vessel. His accusers were charged with perjury. At a time when the maritime industry facilitated trade, discovery and colonisation, its importance to the wealth of nations meant its actors and actions were often excused while the champions of justice were punished in their stead. The treatment of slaves and convicts were a mere means to an end.

Nichola Garvey is a non-fiction writer and the author of a number of corporate histories including for Lendlease, Fortescue and Wagners as well as a published biographer.  She is currently undertaking her PhD in biography at the ANU focusing on a group biography of convict women of the Second Fleet, aka ‘The Death Fleet’, of 1790.

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