Caroline Purcell - Voyage to NSW Aboard the Sovereign
Caroline Purcell was part of a group of 119 female prisoners who sailed from The Downs to NSW aboard the Sovereign in 1829. The Downs is a sheltered area off the coast of Kent, and was often used by convict ships before making the journey to NSW, most probably because it allowed the convicts to adjust to life at sea.
Caroline Purcell’s entry in
the Manifest of the Sovereign
The Sovereign was one of twenty-one convict ships arriving in New South Wales in 1829. Four of those carried a total of 492 female prisoners.
The following is an account of the 102 day voyage, largely drawn from the journal of the ship’s Surgeon, George Fairfowl – you can find the reference material here.
CONVICTS EMBARKED
The first group of convict women came on board on 21 March 1829, with the remainder embarking on the 27th. They would stay on the ship anchored in The Downs for almost a month.
Although many of the women were from London and had been tried at the Old Bailey (including Caroline – you can read more about her trial here), there were also women who had come from other parts of England, and some had travelled a great distance under very difficult circumstances. Several women when being brought from Liverpool, were chained together on the top of a stagecoach, which overturned during the night journey, causing them to be thrown onto the road. One woman, Mary Williams, received a deep gash in her calf when her irons ploughed into it.
DEPARTURE
The Sovereign departed the Downs on 23 April 1829 with 119 women and 23 free children (belonging to various convicts), along with ten passengers.
SURGEON GEORGE FAIRFOWL
The surgeon on board was George Fairfowl and he kept a Medical Journal from 7 March to 14 August 1829 and recorded careful details of the measures he employed to keep the women occupied and under control on the voyage.
At first the convict women were disposed to be disorderly, however under George Fairfowl's rules:
By admonition and steady punishment they learned that perseverance in improper conduct invariably tended to their own discomfort.
They were made to rise at 7 in the morning, and when dressed, to roll up neatly their beds, pillows and blankets in a hard roll. After this the prison was swept out, and such parts as were wet dried up, and when this was properly done, and not before, breakfast was served out.
After breakfast when the weather permitted, they were all sent up on deck, carrying with them the utensils they had used at their breakfast, and the prison received a thorough cleaning. It was then locked up until noon, to prevent any going below without express leave, and it was well ventilated by means of stoves burned in the water closets and by windsails. These were the regular times of cleaning the deck; but one mess daily received charge of it and was responsible for it being at all times dry and clean. The water closets were also washed out three times a day, and oftener when required, and each time sprinkled with the solution of chloride of lime.
The women and children were mustered on Sundays and Thursdays, and inspected to see that their hair was combed and their persons, linen and stockings were clean. Cheerful and innocent amusements among themselves were encouraged, and provided the songs were not licentious, singing was permitted until 8 o'clock, except on Sundays and Thursdays.
On Sunday mornings church services were read to them; on the quarterdeck when the weather permitted, and in the evening in the prison. On Thursday evenings the service was read in the prison, and as they were permitted to sing the psalms and hymns which many, having been trained to it in Newgate, did with considerable taste and melody, it became a pleasant duty, instead of an irksome task, and was rarely omitted. It served a purpose of keeping them occupied at a time when they were usually all crowded together in the dark, and inclined to quarrel or to play mischievous tricks on each other, for want of useful employment.
Although George Fairfowl was under no illusions that the women were reformed on arrival in Sydney, he nevertheless thought they had improved their behaviour and demeanour under his guidance.
ARRIVAL AT PORT JACKSON
None of the prisoners died on the voyage out, and the Sovereign arrived in Port Jackson on 3rd August 1829.
Port Jackson in the 1820's - artist James Taylor
CONVICT MUSTER
A muster was held on board by the Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay on 5 August 1829, where he noted the following:
The convict indents reveal their names, age, religion, education, marital status, family, native place, trade, offence, date and place of trial, sentence, former convictions, physical description and to whom assigned on arrival. There is also occasional information such as colonial sentences, family members already in the colony and deaths.
Their ages ranged from 15 years to 57 years of age. At least fifteen of the women brought some of their children with them although there were many who left children behind in England.
Approximately twenty women were identified as residing in the Hunter Valley region in the following years.
Portrait of Alexander Macleay, Colonial Secretary
DISEMBARKING
The Australian reported on the landing of the women:
On Friday morning last, the Sovereign set her female cargo upon terra firma, being a commixture of all sorts, though for the most part strapping wenches, whose looks and persons did not appear to have suffered greatly from a long sea voyage. The greater portion have been assigned away.
God knows how you can come off a relatively small sailing ship that’s just travelled across the world for 102 days and still look like a “strapping wench”, a phrase that would generally not pass muster nowadays. The last time I stepped off a plane after travelling to London, I took one look at myself in the mirror and thought “you, my friend, are about as far from being strapping as a man can get”. And that was after just 27 hours watching movies, eating and drinking.
Anyway, forty of these “strapping wenches” were sent to the Female Factory at Parramatta. Caroline was not one of those, instead being assigned to Joshua Moore’s Liverpool property. For more on that story, and how she met her husband to be, John Casey, click here.
Written by Rob Landsberry, last updated 13 May 2023