Particulars of the awful execution of nine transports at Sidney, New South Wales : on the 4th of September last : copied from the London Sun, March 10th, 1846
- Bib ID:
- 6609111
- Format:
- Book
- Online Version:
- National Library of Australia digitised item
- Description:
-
- Liverpool : Scott, Printer, 1846
- 1 sheet : illustration ; 51 x 19 cm
- Summary:
-
A broadside recounting the capture and execution of nine convicts transported to New South Wales, illustrated with a woodblock print of five of the prisoners hanging from the gallows. According to the broadside, 'a desperate gang of runaway transports infested the fertile district of the Bowpastures [sic, likely meaning Cow Pastures], and the peaceful inhabitants of that region were kept in a continual state of alarm'. The capture of the elusive gang followed the theft of a watch from a 'public house about three miles from Parromatta [sic] on the Sidney [sic] Road'. A 'shrewd officer' by the name of White, set up a sting, successfully entrapping a woman named Margaret Heslam (or Haslem), 'who kept a beer-house, and was supposed to shelter bushrangers and to dispose of their booty.' Her sentence was commuted from fourteen years to one year on the condition that she assist in capturing the 'much dreaded "Bringelly Gang"', which she accomplished by getting them drunk and disabling their guns. She 'poured hot water into the touchholes of their pieces and then cautiously let in the police.' Seven men were arrested: Robert Coogan, Chas. Geary, David Smith, Samuel Gregory, Peter Brown, William Roberts and James Tompson (five of whom were transported from Liverpool). The following day mounted police found two women hiding in a cave: Catherine Hayes and Mary Ann Phillips (respectively transported from Toxteth Park and Prescot, both near Liverpool), along with 'an immense quantity of articles that had been stolen from various parts of the country.' The prisoners were tried 'in August last,' found guilty and sentenced to death. 'On the 4th of September the whole of them were executed. Whilst on the drop they appeared penitent, and were launched into eternity in the presence of a vast assemblage of spectators.'
- Biography/History:
-
Preliminary research indicates that content of this broadside is probably a work of fiction. No other account of these executions has been found in any other newspaper, and it does not appear in its supposed source, in either the morning and evening editions of the London Sun of Tuesday, 10 March 1846. The names have not been located in convict indexes, and according to the Statistics of New South Wales from 1837 to 1851 there were only three executions of criminals in New South Wales in 1845. 'Scott' is not listed as a printer in the 1843 edition of Gore's Directory of Liverpool, but the crude woodcut, random use of italics and misspellings suggests he may not have been a long established professional printer.
- Notes:
-
- Caption title.
- Also available online http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-255499682
- Subject:
- Also Titled:
-
- Particulars of the awful execution of nine transports at Sydney, New South Wales
- Awful execution of nine transports at Sidney, New South Wales
- Copyright:
-
Copyright Undetermined
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- Reason for copyright status:
- Cannot determine publication date because this record has an open range of dates
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Literary Dramatic Musical
- Published status:
- Published
- Publication date:
- 9999
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