Bound for Botany Bay
Every March we celebrate World Book Day. The development of the book and book culture in Scotland is the subject of a major project at Edinburgh University's Centre for the History of the Book, lead by Bill Bell. The project looks specifically at literacy and reading practices, relations among publishers, authors and readers and media production technology. It highlights Scotland's immense contribution to the story of the book both within Scotland and internationally. One project is of particular interest for its links between Scotland and Australia. Discovering the true nature of people's literary ability on convict ships to Australia is just one small project amongst many at the Edinburgh Centre for the History of the Book but it has thrown some revealing light on the early prisoner settlers and their role in developing the country.
Scotland exported many governors and administrators to Australia, who helped turn a very young fledgling colony into a dynamic nation. However, as many Australians and others will often remind us, the roots of the British settlement of the country lay in its use as a place of punishment. In a much less enlightened age, The Mother Country used it as a place to send her unwanted criminals, political dissidents and other undesirables. Of the 150,000 convicts transported to Australia, around 8,000 were sent from Scotland (amounting to 5 per cent of the males and 9 per cent of the females, a relatively low proportion). However many of these Scottish prisoners were highly literate and went on to play a useful role in developing the country.
In 1770, Captain James Cook (son of a Scot) had landed at Botany Bay, establishing British claims to the huge, uncharted continent. It was in 1786, that the Prime Minister William Pitt (the Younger) decided to establish a convict colony at Botany Bay. Prime Minister Pitt believed that a convict colony along with a military presence at Botany Bay would assure British naval and commercial supremacy in the South Pacific. Sending convicts to what was then considered the remotest place on Earth, with little likelihood of return, would be a horrific punishment. The government hoped this punishment would strike terror in the hearts of would-be criminals. It took a 252-day voyage across 15,000 miles of treacherous open seas, for the ships to eventually reach Botany Bay. Unbelievably, for the first 20 years, prisoners were chained up for the entire 8 month journey.
The first fleet entered Botany Bay in January 1788. This is commemorated on Australia Day with fireworks, parades, arts, crafts, food and family entertainment. It's seen as a celebration of Australian culture and way of life. For those convicts who disembarked in Sydney Cove in 1788, however, the first Australia Day was a bewildering experience. Unused to stretching their land legs, they stumbled through the wild woods in which they had landed. It was two weeks before enough tents and huts had been constructed for the female convicts to disembark.
Records kept on board those first ships heading for Australia show that many of Scotland's convicts were well educated. One in particular shows that a young Scottish housebreaker, carried a Bible and had twelve other books in his possession, as he boarded the Eliza in 1819. This may have been typical.
Holed up in the hulks awaiting the dreaded voyage to begin, it was common practice for transportees to spend their days engraving their love-tokens, which they would then give as final mementoes to friends and relatives. Many used the 1797 copper cartwheel penny. Inscriptions range from just the name and date of deportation to elaborate poems and etchings of convicts in chains and boats. Written material on board ships ranged from these love tokens and popular tales to the production of full weekly newspapers. The Voice of Our Exiles was published on board the Clara in 1864 in which the editor quotes the likes of Ovid and Cervantes seemingly from memory. There are records of debating societies, recitals from Shakespeare and the publication of a weekly journal aboard the Hougomont in 1867.
Gentleman criminals and the pickpockets, who also happened to be avid readers, mixed with those who broke books up to form playing cards and smoking material. The combination of the official attitude that the voyage should be used to educate the convicts and the already existing literate prisoners meant that many stepped onto Australian soil able to read for the first time and with the skills to take a prominent place in the new society. This defies the old world's image of the passengers as incurable criminals unable to read or be part of a useful society. In fact, many on the ships carrying convicts to the penal colony of New South Wales were often better read than the willing emigrants.
The influence of Scots on Australian politics, professions, and commerce was disproportionate to their numbers. In the developing Australia, Scots were overrepresented among graziers, politicians, businessmen, bankers and investors. Many of these literate prisoners also went on to become valuable members of the new society with key jobs in education and government. One notable was George Howe, a former felon, who became the continent's first printer. In 1803, under the watchful eye of the Governor, he founded the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. His other achievements included the publication of Australia's first illustrated book “Birds of New South Wales" with notes by the gentleman Scots convict, James Grant.
Thomas Watling of Dumfries, an educated young artist turned forger, turned his undoubted skills to legitimate use during his time in Australia giving a visual record of life in the new world by sketching native plants, animals and aboriginals. Over 500 of his drawings are still housed in the Natural History Museum in London.
Scots too played a major part in converting Australia from a penal colony to a modern, dynamic and liberal nation. And from the earliest times.
Lachlan Macquarie who is known as the Father of Australia, was born in 1762 on Ulva, off the island of Mull, in Scotland. In 1810 Macquarie became Governor of New South Wales penal colony. The previous Governor had been Captain Bligh of the "Bounty". Macquarie devised an imaginative policy of encouraging the former convicts to settle in Australia. A wealthy class of 'Emancipists' (former convicts) sprung up when the Governor began to integrate reformed convicts in the fledgling society. Australia might be a different place if Macquarie had not succeeded. He transformed the colony into a thriving state and Sydney from a shanty town to a Georgian city. He is still highly regarded with place names around Sydney which celebrate both him and his wife.
The place of ultimate terror for newly arrived convicts was Norfolk Island, 1,000 miles east of Sydney. Set aside for the worst adult criminals, this island prison kept convicts working in chains. Flogging was commonplace, as was the use of an instrument called a cat'o nine tails. This was a whip made of leather strands, with a piece of lead attached to each thong. Sir Thomas Brisbane wrote of the prison at the time:
I wish it to be understood that the felon who is sent there is forever excluded from all hope of return.
Indeed a high number of prisoners preferred suicide to enduring the abominable conditions. However, even Norfolk Island had its moment of enlightenment. Scotsman Alexander Maconochie went to Australia as a government official in favour of reforming convicts rather than brutalizing them. He proposed a system of rewarding convicts with "marks" for hard work and good behavior. After earning a certain number of these marks, the convict would be set free. Thus the actual length of time a convict served depended on how fast or slowly he earned his marks. In 1840, Maconochie was made commandant of Norfolk Island. He immediately ended flogging and gave each convict a plot of land to grow vegetables and tobacco. Maconochie's system worked. During his five years as commandant, he discharged almost a thousand convicts. Only 2 percent of them were ever convicted again of a serious crime.
The project to map literary ability on convict ships to Australia is one amongst many at the Centre for the History of the Book. However it highlights that far from consisting of an illiterate rabble as some histories would have us believe, the truth is in fact that many of those who went to Australia were very well read. Furthermore many thrived in business and became prominent members of Australian society.
Today the Scottish love of the book is as strong as it ever was. With a burgeoning list of new promising authors in Scotland, this rapport is set to continue.
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