Convicts Sent to Newcastle
1804
Having been abandoned by Government towards the end of 1802, the possibility of establishing valuable commercial enterprise coupled with a desire to remove the worst of the Irish insurgents from Sydney district in the aftermath of the Rebellion at Castle Hill, encouraged Governor King to re-settle Coal River.
Names of Convicts Sent to Newcastle in 1804
Convicts from the Castle Hill Rebellion were among prisoners sent to the Second Settlement at Coal River in 1804. Many of them worked in the early coal mines at the settlementThomas Brady arrived on the Minerva in 1800. He became clerk to the Commandant at Newcastle and was still in the settlement in 1810. He died in 1819;
John Brown - Irish convict, arrived on the Minerva in 1800;
John Burke arrived on the Anne in 1801;
Bryan Byrne arrived on the Rolla on 12 May 1803;
John Cavenagh arrived on the Atlas in 1802;
John Coleman arrived on the Earl Cornwallis in 1801;
Robert Cooper arrived on the Coromandel in 1802;
Thomas Desmond arrived at Port Jackson on the Atlas in 1802. He made many attempts at escape from the settlement;
Cornelius Dwyer arrived at Port Jackson on the Atlas in 1802;
Phillip Dwyer arrived on the Sugar Cane in 1793. He was not sent with the rebels in March, but early in April 1804 for violently and inhumanely beating Mary Carroll;
Thomas Graham arrived on the Glatton in 1803;
John Griffin arrived on the Anne on 21 February 1801;
John Hughes alias John McCarthy arrived on the Glatton in 1803;
Matthew Lee arrived in Port Jackson on the Boddingtons in 1793;
Cornelius Lyons arrived on the Rolla in 1803. One of the leaders of the Castle Hill rebellion. Received 200 lashes for his part;
William Maughan alias Maum arrived on the Minerva in 1800. He was an associate of Joseph Holt and employed as a school teacher before being sent to the river;
Florence McCarty arrived on the Minerva in 1800. He was an Irish patriot and very active in politics in Ireland;
Bryan McCormick arrived on the Atlas in 1802. Sentenced to be hanged for his part in the rebellion but later reprieved;
Owen McDermott arrived on the Atlas on 30 October 1802. He was an active participant in the rebellion. Sentenced to 200 lashes and sent to the Coal River;
David Morrison arrived on the Atlas in 1802;
Edward Mundy arrived on the Glatton in 1803;
Francis Neeson arrived on the Rolla in 1803. Later severely punished for attempting to escape from the settlement;
Patrick O'Brien arrived on the Marquis Cornwallis in 1796;
William Page arrived on the Pitt in 1797;
Bryan Riley arrived on the Boddingtons in 1793. Severely punished for an escape attempt at Coal river in May 1804. Later became a constable at Parramatta;
William Russell arrived on the Minerva in 1800.;
Dennis Ryan arrived on the Atlas in 1802. An active participant in the revolt;
Joseph Samuels arrived on the Minerva;
Martin Short arrived on the Minerva in 1800 and was an active participant in the revolt;
Neil Smith or Smythe arrived on the Atlas in 1802. Severely punished for his part in the rebellion at Castle Hill and later punished again when he attempted to escape from Newcastle;
Bryan Spalding arrived on the Britannia in 1797 and was active in the rebellion at Castle Hill;
Andrew Tiernan arrived on the Atlas in 1802. Severely punished for planning to murder Lieutenant Menzies at Newcastle in 1804;
John Welsh arrived on the Minerva in 1800
Joseph Brayley/ Brearly per Earl Cornwallis, a miner by trade, was apprehended at Kissing Point upon a suspicion of burglary was examined and as the evidence though strongly presumptive was not thought sufficient to continue the grounds of prosecution, he was drafted for Newcastle as was Philip Dwyer per Sugar Cane also, for violently and inhumanely beating Mary Carroll. They were both sent to Newcastle in April 1804.
More about many of these convicts and the rebellion at Castle Hill can be found in Jack Delaney's 'Newcastle, Its First Twenty Years: The Irish Rebellion and the Settlement of Newcastle 1804' (ISBN - 646 43855- 7)
and
Lynette Ramsay-Silver, Australia's Irish Rebellion: The Battle of Vinegar Hill, 1804, Watermark Press, Sydney, 2002 (first printed 1983); ISBN 0 94928 461 0
References
[1] Sydney Gazette 3 March 1805
