Chapter 4 - Ann Finds a Husband

Chapter 4.

Ann finds a Husband.

Now that Ann Parker and Maria Smith had arrived in Sydney with the other 106 women and girls, they found that they were still in a prison without walls, and that they still had to serve their sentences, seven long years for each of them. Governor Bligh would have had then all paraded before him on the deck of the ship to tell them what was expected of them, and that he was in charge, and he wanted to know if there were already any complaints about their voyage or their treatment or health.

He would have then told them that all convicts had to work and that they could be placed with some settler as their master. The Government would provide their rations, but they had to work for nothing as a servant. But, for women and girls, there was another choice. If they wished, they could become a wife for some man already there. They were all dressed in their own dresses and not in those which had been given to them by the Navy Board. Then the officers of the N.S.W. Corps, who were still single, came on board, and they had the first choice for a wife, if they found a suitable one on deck, and the girls had made the best of their appearance. The Sergeants and Corporals had the next choice, and then the Privates and the convicts who had been there for a considerable time and who had some property. They were entitled to obtain permission from the Governor to take a female convict for themselves. Those of the women who were not thus chosen were brought on shore and they were told that they were not free to roam the Town of Sydney where it was too dangerous for a woman to go out on her own.

They were placed in a barracks called the Female Factory where they would have to work on weaving or picking old hemp rope to pieces to make oakum for stopping leaks in ships, and other handwork for women. There was a Female Factory in Sydney where they were housed for a start.

Ann Parker was now 18, but she was no oil painting, with her pale, pock marked face, and we are not sure if Daniel Brien was there, looking for a wife, before she left the ship. He might have called in at the Factory at a later date to find her still there and still single. When Daniel, who was nearly 40 years of age and had been in Sydney since 1791 on his own, asked her to become his wife at his little house out at Seven Hills, she could not hope for a better future, and your little Grannie may have replied, "Yes, please". She was about to get a home of her own and her own man to look after her. But I must tell you all about Daniel Brien first.

22 Clapton Square, Hackney, the school from which the clothing was stolen, under renovation in 1980

He was a lad of 19 in 1787, living in that part of London called Hackney. Then, on 7th February, some brickmakers were working in a field in Hackney, getting clay for bricks, and they noticed two youths, walking across the field, one carrying a large bundle. The brickmakers suspected that something was wrong there and, as rewards were given by the Justices to people who grabbed thieves, the brickmakers decided to ask a few questions. If you arrested a highwayman, the reward was about £40. But, for arresting thieves, the payment might be only £10, but it was still good money. Daniel Brien then came up and said, "'What's the matter, Jack?". "Give me the bundle. Come across the road, for I'll not be stopped by anybody. "

He then took the bundle and said, "Go and fetch your mother. These things are going to the washerwoman to be washed." So Jack and his mate went off to see Jack's mother and the brickmakers arrested Daniel Brien and took him down to the Justices at Shoreditch with the bundle, which turned out to be washing from a ladies' college and that it had been stolen from there. But Daniel had the bundle handed to him, so he was charged with stealing clothes worth £7.6.0/- in a dwelling house.

Now, this was a serious offence, and in 1714, the English Parliament changed the law, and people found guilty of stealing things worth more than 40/- from houses were sentenced to death by hanging, as happened later to little Ann Parker. And that is what happened to Daniel Brien. He was charged before a Justice of the Peace at Shoreditch where he was sent for trial before a Judge and Jury at the big court of the Old Bailey. At that time, Daniel could not give evidence for himself. He could only make an unsworn statement from the dock. His defence was, "I was going across the field and saw two men came running past. I thought I knew one of them, and I saw three men running after them. I ran up to see what was the matter, and said 'Jack. What is the matter ?' He said that he had some things to take to the washerwoman for his mother, and these men would not let him, and I said, 'I will take care of these things while you fetch your mother.' He went away and never returned. And they kept me."

Above: An Old Bailey Trial (Circa 1790s)

So the Jury did not give him full marks for his story. If he was not the thief, he was a receiver of stolen property. So he was found guilty, and the Judge put on the black cap and read out the same sentence that was imposed on Ann Parker twenty years later.

He was put into the Newgate prison, and every month, all of the convicts who were waiting to be hanged were brought up before the Old Bailey, and they were all ordered to be held for another month. It was on 21st February that he received his sentence, and this went on until 19th September, 1789, when they had so many prisoners under sentence of death that they gave all 140 of them a choice of transportation to New South Wales, or the rope. Quite a number preferred to be hanged but, in the end, they were all transported. Daniel Brien accepted transportation for seven years, so that he would be a prisoner in New South Wales until 1796.

Although Daniel Brien had been sentenced to death on 21st February, 1787, he missed out on receiving a ticket for the First Fleet which was due to leave for New South Wales on 12th May, 1787, but all the tickets had been issued. The First Fleet did not leave until the next day, for the seamen had all gone on strike. The foundation of Australia was held up by a strike, so strikes are not unusual in our history.

They gathered together 24 prisoners for transportation who were waiting in the Newgate Prison, Daniel Brien being No. 6, and they were put on board a little ship called the "Douglas" in the Thames in December, 1789, and they were taken down to Plymouth where they were all placed aboard the "Dunkirk" hulk, and old warship lying there, which was being used as a prison. The "Dunkirk" sometimes held both men and women convicts. The men convicts were probably employed in gangs, to work on or to repair ships of the Royal Navy there.

Daniel Brien was kept there on the "Dunkirk" for another fifteen months before a ship was ready to take a large batch of male convicts. This time it was the "Salamander", and she had been fitted up, just like the "Sydney Cove", as a prison, so that, in the case of trouble, only a small number of convicts had to be handled at the one time.

Nine ships were eventually collected together for the Third Fleet for Sydney, but they did not sail together. The "Salamander" was a ship of 312 tons, and she left Plymouth on 27th March, 1791 together with the "Atlantic" and the "William and Ann". They were soon scattered in bad weather, and they were not often together, but they all joined up again at Rio de Janeiro on 28th May, and they left together on 12th June. From Rio, this Division sailed directly to Sydney, going down to the level of the Cape of Good Hope and using the Roaring Forties to blow them all the rest of the way to Sydney.

The "Atlantic" was the first to arrive on 20th August, 1791, the "Salamander" arriving the next day after a voyage of 147 days, and the "William and Ann" sailed in seven days later.

The "Salamander" had been built in a Thames yard in 1776, and she had a cabin and two decks. Five convicts died on the way out. "Salamander" was one of the nine ships, all of which had been provided by the Shipping Agents, Camden, Calvert and King, for £45,000 to take all of those convicts to New South Wales. She left with 106 male convicts on board and delivered 101. On their arrival, they were in a very weak state. They had been carrying enough rations to last them nine months, but they had been on short rations for 21 weeks, so they were given full rations again and rice was on the menu instead of peas. There was an escort of twelve soldiers for the N.S.W. Corps on board, but their Sergeant had deserted on the day on which they left England.

On their arrival, the convicts were paraded before Governor Phillip for inspection. Sydney had only been founded a little over three years before. There were only Government Officers, Marines, and soldiers of the N.S.W. Corps there, and the remainder were convicts, both male and female, 2013 men and 345 women. And he had just received three more shiploads, and six more ships were on the way. There were just three settlements. Botany Bay was of no use, for it was all sand, and the country around Sydney would not feed a goat. But there was better land up the River at Parramatta and there were more convicts there than in Sydney. Out on Norfolk Island, it was better, with a warmer climate and better soil, and they were growing crops and vegetable gardens there. It was decided to send the "Salamander" on to Norfolk Island. But all the stores and cargo on board had to be unloaded and re-loaded, for there was no pier or wharf out there and everything had to be loaded into boats. The ship was refilled with convicts, but we do not think that Daniel Brien was one of them, for he was a witness at a wedding at Parramatta between convicts Thomas Smith and Mary Martin on 4th March, 1792. The "Salamander" sailed for Norfolk Island on 4th September 1791.

What happened then to Daniel Brien who had been left behind in Sydney ? We are lucky that George Barrington, another convict who had arrived in the "Albemarle" on 13th October, 1791, has left an account of what happened on his ship when the convicts were paraded:

"Upon their landing they were entirely fitted with new clothes from the King's Store, and their own things were burnt, to prevent any infectious disorder that might have been in the ship from being introduced into the Colony."

All the tradesmen, carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers, stonemasons and others were put aside to work on the construction of buildings in Sydney, and the remainder were sent up to Parramatta or Toongabbie or out to Norfolk Island.

Barrington's party was sent by boat up the River to Parramatta and he was present when about 400 men were mustered there. We are fairly sure that Daniel Brien was at Parramatta by then and that he was subsequently included in the convicts who were placed out to Toongabbie. After 200 years it is difficult to find out exactly where he might have been at the time, and the records often include him as Daniel Bryan. But nearly every notation places him at Parramatta, and his term of imprisonment expired in 1796.

Barrington writes giving his impression of Parramatta as he disembarked. He writes:

"The convicts houses form a line in front, at some distance, they have a small garden, and those who have been industrious, seem very comfortable. I proceeded through the different gangs of people at their respective occupations, and found them more attentive to their businesses and respectful of those over them than I could possibly have imagined. Some were employed in making bricks and tiles, others building store-houses, huts, &c., a great number clearing the grounds, bringing in timber, and making roads. Others at their different callings, such as smiths, gardeners, coopers, shoemakers, tailors, bakers, attendants on the sick, &c."

A Western view of the settlement at Toongabbie, circa 1794, showing creek, crops, and convict huts.
Photo - Courtesy State Library NSW.

But an account by George Thompson, which was published in 1794, does not omit any of the true conditions out at Toongabbie.

"About four miles from this place (Parramatta), is another settlement, Toongabby, where the greatest number of convicts are, and work very hard, (there is also a good crop of corn standing and promises well) their hours for work are from five in the morning till eleven, they then leave off off till two in the afternoon, and work from that time till sunset. They are allowed no breakfast hour, because they seldom have anything to eat. Their labor is felling trees, digging up the stumps, rooting up the shrubs and grass, turning up the ground with spades or hoes, and carrying the timber to convenient places. From the heat of the sun, the short allowance of provisions and the ill-treatment they receive from a set of merciless wretches (most of their own description) who are the superintendents, their lives are truly miserable. At night, they are placed in a hut, fourteen, sixteen or eighteen together (with. a woman, whose duty it is to keep it clean, and to provide victuals for the men when at work), without the comfort of either beds or blankets, unless they take them from the ship they came out in, or rich enough to purchase them when they come on shore. They have neither bowl, plate, spoon, nor knife, but what they can make of the green wood of the country, only one small iron pot being allowed to dress their poor allocation of meat, rice, &c; in short, all the necessary conveniences of life they are strangers to, and suffer everything they could dread in their sentence of transportation.............The women have a more comfortable life than the men; those who are not fortunate enough to be selected for wives, (which every officer, settler, and soldier is entitled to, and few are without) are made hut-keepers; those who are not dignified with this office, are made to make shirts, frocks, trowsers, &c, for the men, at a certain number per day; occasionally to pick grass in the fields, and for a very slight offence are kept constantly at work the same as the men."

But the Settlers Muster Rook, 1800, records the following:

"Nov 1794 Dnl. Bryan. Number of Hogs - No Cattle or Horses - Wheat - On or Off Stores Off.
Women On or Off Stores. 1 on. Children 3 on store."

Had he become a husband for some widow with three children ?

Daniel Brien was a Catholic. In 1803, A Special Order was issued by the Governor on 12 April, 1803 requiring all Roman Catholics to register. Those in Parramatta had to register with the Clerk of the Magistrates' Court there. Under the 0rder, Rev. James Dixon issued Regulations, the first Clause reading:

"They will observe, with all becoming gratitude, that this Extension of liberal Toleration proceeds from the Piety and Benevolence of OUR MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN, to Whom, as well as our Parent Country at large, we are (under Providence), indebted for the Blessings we enjoy."

Services were to be held in rotation Sydney, Parramatta and Hawkesbury on Sunday at 9 a.m., the first service at Parramatta being held on 22nd May, 1803. There were another six clauses in the Regulations regarding good behaviour and preventing worshippers attending at a place where they were not registered. We have not been able to locate the list of registrations at the Court House at Parramatta.

It was on 5th March,1804, that about 330 Irish convicts at Castle Hill rioted and set off across country for the Hawkesbury. Daniel Brien was probably living in that area, and they might have searched his hut and taken any firearms.

They were easily rounded up by a small detachment of the N.S.W. Corps who rushed them at a place now called Vinegar Hill. Quite a number of them were hanged after this incident. We do not know if Daniel Brien was affected. There were no further convict riots after this.

We then find him listed in the first convict muster which has been preserved and which was taken in 1806. Male convicts at Parramatta were required to attend at the Court House there at 9 a.m, on 12th August. He is noted as

"Daniel Bryan Salamander F.B.S. (Free by Servitude)
Labourer Parramatta."

Then we come to the most important happening in his history, the purchase of his first farm. Its first owner was Samuel Harding who was given a Crown Grant of 30 acres, being allotment 163
in the Parish of Prospect on lst August, 1799. He sold the bottom ten acres to Joseph Kerans for £16
on lst June, 1804. Kerans (or Kearnes) sold it to Benjamin Carver on12th January, 1806, and
Carver sold it to Hugh Doherty on 29th 0ctober, 1806. And Daniel Brien bought the ten acres from Doherty on 23rd February, 1807 for £35. None of the documents mention a hut or a house on this farm, but he might have had a house of some kind there.

But it made him eligible to select a wife under the rules laid down as I have already mentioned earlier. He might have heard that the "Sydney Cove" was arriving with a load of girl convicts, and he may have been there to select a wife immediately on her arrival. She was not the prettiest girl there for, according to her personal description which was endorsed on her Certificate of Freedom on 1st May, 1826, she was only 5 feet in height, with a sallow and pock pitted complexion. But he had his own small farm of ten acres off Vardy's Road, and his term as a convict had expired in 1796. Years ago, there were some bricks on the land from the remains of the chimney of the old house. All that we know is that she became his wife by being selected on board the ship in June, 1807 or from among the girls in the Female Factory at a later date.

So that, when they went off together after he selected her as his wife, they probably lived in a hut on those ten acres. So far as we know, the actual position of that hut would have been at 15 Brett Street, King's Langley, just off Vardy's Road, where the remains of an old brick chimney were still on the land before it was used for modern housing. If you are ever out in that area, have a look at 15 Brett Street, for you will be thinking about that argument that Grannie was having there with her second husband, Bill Smith, in 1865.