Interlude: random things
Apr. 16th, 2012 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithSome notes from this afternoon, from things at museum that are of no interest to anyone but me so stop reading
When I got in today, I sat down to the box that I'd left two weeks ago (on account of it being Easter last week and therefore the museum wasn't open, the behind the scenes parts anyway) and the top page was a warrant signed by John Price. There are two items that fit this description, one with a registration number and accompanying description "Warrant signed by John Price" and another without a number. When I came across the latter, I assumed it was the one referred to, wrote the number on it and put it away. Two weeks ago I came across another one with the correct number, grumbled about it, wondered who John Price was that his signature was so noted, recorded the location of each item and removed the number from the first item, which was therefore sitting on top of my workbox. (It's been folded in six and has torn along the folds, so I put cardboard behind it to sort of hold it together. It stands out.) During the two weeks just gone I had read that Price was a commandant on Norfolk Island. However, on looking at the much folded piece of paper, he was a police magistrate in Hobart when he signed it. So, of course, I had to find out a bit more.
It seems he was commandant just after the revolt on NI, and oversaw the resulting trials and mass hangings, and he seems to have been, well, the man responsible for much of Norfolk Island's lovely reputation. Also the basis of Clarke's character Maurice Frere in For The Term Of His Natural Life. After the NI settlement was closed, he became Inspector-General of Penal Establishments in Victoria and in 1857 was beaten to death by a bunch of prisoners from one of the hulks (Success actually.) Obviously a popular man.
I should say one or two of the stones struck him, for he put up his hand, immediately. It was his right hand, but I cannot say for a certainty. Ashe turned round, his hand was at the back of his head. I did not positively see any stone strike him. He stooped down as he turned, and came towards me, and the whole body of the men rushed between him and myself, and stones were thrown at him, and in the direction of myself and the chief warder. (From report on inquest in the Argus)
Then I got down to recording the remaining contents of the box, which involved lists of prisoners transferred from (English) hulks to transport ships. These were interesting because they listed name, crime, age, trial details and behaviour in gaol/hulk. Nothing unusual there, but usually when I'm looking at such things, I'm after a particular person, or its just a list of names and numbers. I haven't read through a complete list, with comments. It was, yeah, interesting. I might transcribe one rather than try to give examples. (But a rather disreputable lot on the Westmorland at least.)
Next box promised to be rather dull, if heavy. Heavy enough that I decided to leave it on the shelf and just note its registration number, which identified it as an accounts book for a local business. One little problem in that its registration number was the same as for another unrelated item and I'd noted that one of these numbers was probably a typo (both had 1958 numbers, and one should have been 1959). The other item was a big book. Big as in, every person who sees it says "That's a big book". Big as in, it lives on a bottom shelf in a box with warnings about being heavy and it must only be lifted by 2 people. We'd pulled it out last year and although it had no number or description on it, once we looked at its contents and checked the date range against the list in my spreadsheet it was obviously "Launceston police records book, 1854-55".
Anyway, back to today's accounts book, I asked Ross (the Community History Guy) to help me take it out to see what number it actually had on it. So after afternoon tea, we pulled it out and opened it up, and two things were immediately obvious. It did have the correct number, it being written inside the cover, and it wasn't an accounts book. Names, charges, witnesses, result, under the supervision of Willam Gunn (police magistrate). Another police record book? So this seems to be what the number belongs with, so what about the earlier bigger book? (Insert bad words.)
Noting the date, Ross had me look for a case he knew about but we couldn't find it. We picked out a few names at random and found them in newspapers reports via Trove, including one I might read up some more on, and many pages from March 3 (drunk in the street, drunk in a public place, drunk in a public house(!), assaulting constables etc)
Country Visitors. — With the races, arrived many labouring men from the country to witness the sports, and a corresponding increase of names of offenders appeared on the charge sheet at the police-office on Monday. Forty-five offenders were introduced into the presence of the Police Magistrate during the day, that gentleman remarking that most of the delinquents were men from the country, who, receiving high wages, came to town to have a "spree". (From the Cornwall Chronicle
See what happens when you pay workers too much?
Back to the original big book with its warnings. When we pulled that out and, on closer examination, it was tables of something tallied by date. Once I jumped over it and read it from the other side (see, big!), it seemed to be noting the number of hours? worked off a sentence. Considering the years, it was possibly recording probation period work, so we grabbed a name at random and went to the archives site to see if our man was on the convict index and what was he up to on the date given. Getting sentenced to 14 days hard labour for being drunk it seemed. Back to the book and (noting the 14 next to his name) it seemed the book was recording the serving of this sentence. Ross noted that the magistrate was Wm Gunn and went to check the big-but-not-that-big police records book. I grabbed another name (Samuel Box) to confirm what we thought, and found that on the date given he was sentenced to three months hard labour for being drunk. Ross meanwhile was getting excited because he found our first guy's case in the record book and he went to find Jon the Curator. I went back to the big book that confirms Box still had 88 days to go at the end of the last recorded month, and then I found his case in the big book. And Jon comes in and gets excited too. Documents that tie in with each and provide a new perspective (in this case, the actual details of a sentence being carried out).
We went back to the archive records to see if we could find a reference to the case that wasn't in the book by looking up the conduct record for the guilty party, but there were half a dozen matches with the same name so we only checked two. I was curious to see an entry in the index for a local conviction for 1871 (after the time, I thought, when they were differentiating between Imperial prisoners and local). One of those we did look up, after the usual getting in trouble, getting TL, getting CP, had an entry in a different/bold hand noting he'd been tried for attempted rape in 1871. I went back to check the other 1871 entry to see if it was the same case, despite one being born locally and one being in import, but it was a different date and for sheepstealing. (Two guys, same not-that-common surname, convicted same year, I wonder how often they got mixed up?)
Then the "This museum will be closing in 15 minutes" announcement came over the PA and I thought it should get packed up so I could get to the library before it closed.
So what was my rather interesting (and educational) afternoon. And I wonder why my brain keeps ticking over with new ideas to write
When I got in today, I sat down to the box that I'd left two weeks ago (on account of it being Easter last week and therefore the museum wasn't open, the behind the scenes parts anyway) and the top page was a warrant signed by John Price. There are two items that fit this description, one with a registration number and accompanying description "Warrant signed by John Price" and another without a number. When I came across the latter, I assumed it was the one referred to, wrote the number on it and put it away. Two weeks ago I came across another one with the correct number, grumbled about it, wondered who John Price was that his signature was so noted, recorded the location of each item and removed the number from the first item, which was therefore sitting on top of my workbox. (It's been folded in six and has torn along the folds, so I put cardboard behind it to sort of hold it together. It stands out.) During the two weeks just gone I had read that Price was a commandant on Norfolk Island. However, on looking at the much folded piece of paper, he was a police magistrate in Hobart when he signed it. So, of course, I had to find out a bit more.
It seems he was commandant just after the revolt on NI, and oversaw the resulting trials and mass hangings, and he seems to have been, well, the man responsible for much of Norfolk Island's lovely reputation. Also the basis of Clarke's character Maurice Frere in For The Term Of His Natural Life. After the NI settlement was closed, he became Inspector-General of Penal Establishments in Victoria and in 1857 was beaten to death by a bunch of prisoners from one of the hulks (Success actually.) Obviously a popular man.
I should say one or two of the stones struck him, for he put up his hand, immediately. It was his right hand, but I cannot say for a certainty. Ashe turned round, his hand was at the back of his head. I did not positively see any stone strike him. He stooped down as he turned, and came towards me, and the whole body of the men rushed between him and myself, and stones were thrown at him, and in the direction of myself and the chief warder. (From report on inquest in the Argus)
Then I got down to recording the remaining contents of the box, which involved lists of prisoners transferred from (English) hulks to transport ships. These were interesting because they listed name, crime, age, trial details and behaviour in gaol/hulk. Nothing unusual there, but usually when I'm looking at such things, I'm after a particular person, or its just a list of names and numbers. I haven't read through a complete list, with comments. It was, yeah, interesting. I might transcribe one rather than try to give examples. (But a rather disreputable lot on the Westmorland at least.)
Next box promised to be rather dull, if heavy. Heavy enough that I decided to leave it on the shelf and just note its registration number, which identified it as an accounts book for a local business. One little problem in that its registration number was the same as for another unrelated item and I'd noted that one of these numbers was probably a typo (both had 1958 numbers, and one should have been 1959). The other item was a big book. Big as in, every person who sees it says "That's a big book". Big as in, it lives on a bottom shelf in a box with warnings about being heavy and it must only be lifted by 2 people. We'd pulled it out last year and although it had no number or description on it, once we looked at its contents and checked the date range against the list in my spreadsheet it was obviously "Launceston police records book, 1854-55".
Anyway, back to today's accounts book, I asked Ross (the Community History Guy) to help me take it out to see what number it actually had on it. So after afternoon tea, we pulled it out and opened it up, and two things were immediately obvious. It did have the correct number, it being written inside the cover, and it wasn't an accounts book. Names, charges, witnesses, result, under the supervision of Willam Gunn (police magistrate). Another police record book? So this seems to be what the number belongs with, so what about the earlier bigger book? (Insert bad words.)
Noting the date, Ross had me look for a case he knew about but we couldn't find it. We picked out a few names at random and found them in newspapers reports via Trove, including one I might read up some more on, and many pages from March 3 (drunk in the street, drunk in a public place, drunk in a public house(!), assaulting constables etc)
Country Visitors. — With the races, arrived many labouring men from the country to witness the sports, and a corresponding increase of names of offenders appeared on the charge sheet at the police-office on Monday. Forty-five offenders were introduced into the presence of the Police Magistrate during the day, that gentleman remarking that most of the delinquents were men from the country, who, receiving high wages, came to town to have a "spree". (From the Cornwall Chronicle
See what happens when you pay workers too much?
Back to the original big book with its warnings. When we pulled that out and, on closer examination, it was tables of something tallied by date. Once I jumped over it and read it from the other side (see, big!), it seemed to be noting the number of hours? worked off a sentence. Considering the years, it was possibly recording probation period work, so we grabbed a name at random and went to the archives site to see if our man was on the convict index and what was he up to on the date given. Getting sentenced to 14 days hard labour for being drunk it seemed. Back to the book and (noting the 14 next to his name) it seemed the book was recording the serving of this sentence. Ross noted that the magistrate was Wm Gunn and went to check the big-but-not-that-big police records book. I grabbed another name (Samuel Box) to confirm what we thought, and found that on the date given he was sentenced to three months hard labour for being drunk. Ross meanwhile was getting excited because he found our first guy's case in the record book and he went to find Jon the Curator. I went back to the big book that confirms Box still had 88 days to go at the end of the last recorded month, and then I found his case in the big book. And Jon comes in and gets excited too. Documents that tie in with each and provide a new perspective (in this case, the actual details of a sentence being carried out).
We went back to the archive records to see if we could find a reference to the case that wasn't in the book by looking up the conduct record for the guilty party, but there were half a dozen matches with the same name so we only checked two. I was curious to see an entry in the index for a local conviction for 1871 (after the time, I thought, when they were differentiating between Imperial prisoners and local). One of those we did look up, after the usual getting in trouble, getting TL, getting CP, had an entry in a different/bold hand noting he'd been tried for attempted rape in 1871. I went back to check the other 1871 entry to see if it was the same case, despite one being born locally and one being in import, but it was a different date and for sheepstealing. (Two guys, same not-that-common surname, convicted same year, I wonder how often they got mixed up?)
Then the "This museum will be closing in 15 minutes" announcement came over the PA and I thought it should get packed up so I could get to the library before it closed.
So what was my rather interesting (and educational) afternoon. And I wonder why my brain keeps ticking over with new ideas to write
no subject
Date: 2012-04-16 08:08 pm (UTC)You are a cur and a liar!
so stop reading
Shan't. Won't.
In a perfect world you'd get a grant to digitise this. There's a dissertation in this - so maybe the local university?
no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 09:51 am (UTC)That'd be the university whose local campus doesn't have any Australian history units (despite the Head of History & Classics being based here). It's been added to the list of things to be dealt with one day. Or I could do it myself :)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-18 10:06 am (UTC)I wish :)
Still waiting for museum to give me some work that they've been promising for years.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-17 03:43 pm (UTC)