The Coromandel was built in India in 1793 and owned by Reeve and Green.
DEPARTURE
The Coromandel departed Portsmouth on 8th February 1802 and on 12 February in company with the Perseus departed Spithead.
PORT JACKSON
The Coromandel was the first convict ship to sail direct without touching anywhere. She came direct, the first convict ship to do so, and arrived in Port Jackson on 13 June 1802.
Only one prisoner died on the voyage out. Captain Stirling was commended by Governor King on arrival......for the judicial measure you adopted and persevered in, added to the liberal comforts supplied by Government, gave you the heartfelt satisfaction, when you arrive at that part of your voyage when you were to determine whether to go into the Brazils or not, of seeing the unhappy people under your care in a state of health and strength equal to undertake the remainder of their voyage, which humanity and a faithful adherence to your charter party induced you to accomplish rather than go into Rio Janeiro which enabled you to perform your voyage in four months bringing every prisoner into this port in a state of high health, cleanliness and fit for immediate labour.[1]
The healthy state in which the Coromandel and Perseus arrived requires my particularly pointing out the masters of those ships to your notice. It appears by the log books, surgeon's diaries and the unanimous voice of every person on board those ships that the utmost kindness to the convicts. This, with the proper application of the comforts Government had so liberally provided for them and the good state of health all the people were in, induced the master of the Coromandel to proceed without stopping at any port. He arrived here in four months and one day, bringing every person in a state of high health, and fit for immediate labour; and although it appears that the Perseus necessarily stopped at Rio and the Cape, yet the convicts were in as good condition as those on board the Coromandel; nor can I omit the great pleasure felt by myself and the other visiting officers at the grateful thanks expressed by the prisoners and passengers for the kind attention and care they had received from the masters and surgeons, who returned, an unusual quantity of the articles laid in by Government for the convicts during the voyage. ... Governor King to the Transport Commissioners 9th August 1802 [2]
Five pipes of port wine were received in the colony by the Coromandel. They were distributed to the commissioned officers, civil and military in Sydney and Norfolk Island. The free emigrant settlers on the Coromandel were chiefly from the Scottish border. They had been induced to emigrate to New South Wales, on receiving a free passage from Government with the promise of a grant of one hundred acres of land each on their arrival in the colony and rations for a certain period afterwards from the King's stores. [4]
FREE SETTLERS
Free passengers on the Coromandel/ Perseus[3]:
1. Zachariah Clarke, his daughter Ann. Zachariah Clarke died 5 December 1804. Ann Selby and Isabella Suddis
2. Andrew Johnston and his wife Mary Beard Johnston and children, Thomas aged 10 years, William aged 8 years, John aged 5 years, Alexander aged 3 years and Abraham aged 8months.
3. George Hall and his wife Mary and children, Elizabeth aged 9 years, George aged 7 years, William aged 5 years, John aged 6 months
4. John Johnston and wife Elizabeth Lewins Johnstone. Find out more about the John Johnston - Windsor and Richmond Gazette 2 April 1926
5. John Howe and his wife Frances and child Mary aged 3 years
6. James Davidson and his wife Jane Johnston Davison and children John 3 and a half years, James20 months. Select here to find out more about the family of James Davidson who settled at Portland Head.
9. William Stubbs and his wife Sarah and children William aged 5 years, Sarah aged 3 years, Elizabeth aged 1 year.
10. John Turnbull and his wife Ann Warr Turnbull and children, Ralph aged 10 years Mary aged 5 years, James aged 4 years and Jessica aged 19 months.
An account of the free settlers on the Cormandel from the Windsor and Richmond Gazette .....
MEMORIES OF EBENEZER. PIONEERS OF THE HAWKESBURY. Mr. George Reeve, of 99 Wells street, Newtown, sends us the following interesting notes on the "Coromandel's" first trip to Australia in 1802, and the Ebenezer pioneers of the Hawkesbury: —
Dr J. D. Lang relates how Governor Gidley Philip King mustered these estimable free settler pioneers on the quarter deck of the 'Coromandel' shortly after their arrival at Sydney, to ascertain their respective views, resources and abilities.
Observing an old grey-haired man in their number, who acknowledged he had been three years in business in London, the Governor exclaimed, 'One foot in the grave and the other out of it! What brought you here, old man?'. It is noticed as a remarkable fact that Governor King was the first of the two to have both feet in the grave, as he died in London during the year 1808, aged 49 years, and was buried in Tooting churchyard. The worthy old pioneer from Annan, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, John Turnbull, to whom the remark was made, was 52 years of age at that time, and used to go on horseback to Sydney and back again to his grant, between Ebenezer and Sackvine, for many years, until his death on June 7th, 1834, aged 86 years. A treasured relic which belonged to this 'Coromandel' pioneer is a small family bible, dated 1817, with an inscription by his own hand stating that he had 'agreed to contribute £5 per year to a minister for Ebenezer chapel.' That bible is now in the possession of Mr. John Turnbull, living nearby the Methodist Church, Sackville — a grandson, himself over 81 years of age.
What patriarchal ages they live to in the good old Hawkesbury district! For comparison I give the ages of all the other pioneers when they landed: —
Ralph Turnbull (married Miss Grace Cavanough), who lies buried in St. Thomas' Anglican cemetery at Sackville, near the grave of his father-in-law, Owen Cavanough —was then only ten years of age. Andrew Johnston was 35 years of age. George Hall, 39 years. John Howe, 28 years. James Mein, 41 years. John Johnston, 24 years. The latter died unmarried so far as I can ascertain, and like all the before mentioned (with the exception of John Howe and Ralph Turnbull) their mortal remains are interred at Ebenezer, next to where they worshipped during life, in the oldest Protestant church still standing in Australia— Ebenezer Chapel.
William Stubbs, unfortunately, was drowned three years after his arrival. His widow, Sarah Stubbs, married James Paynter, a seaman and one-time associate of Owen Cavanough I on the flag-ship frigate 'Sirius.' All the numerous members of the Stubbs family in the Hawkesbury district to-day are descendants of William Stubbs II, who as a little chap of eight years was a witness of his father's drowning. The first William Stubbs was buried, along with Sarah, his wife, and James Paynter and other members of the family, in the great stone vault on the grant on the Pitt Town side of the river, opposite Howe's original grant (Bennett's). I am at present unable to give William Stubbs' age at landing in Sydney; nor that of James Davison, not least in estimation or respect, who came from Alnwick in Northumberland, England, of which county and the adjoining ones of Cumberland and Durham, mostly all the 'Coromandel's' first trip passengers were natives, with exceptions of John Turnbull and James Mein. Howeve, rin my re- searches concerning all of the families as listed, and their life's work, I located this announcement in the 'Sydney Herald' (the predecessor of the great 'Sydney Morning Herald' of our period) under date April 18th, 1831, Vol. 1, No. 1: —
DEATHS. Died at Portland Head on the 13th inst. (13th April, 1831), Mr. James Davison, an old and respectable settler. Ninety years have passed, and what changes since James Davison's death! This 'Coromandel' pioneer's grave is also to be seen in Ebenezer burial ground, ad- joining the little chapel of many memories. John Howe, the most famous of all that came by the 'Coromandel' on that occasion, through his active work for, the settlement, has entirely disappeared in the male descent, but through his daughters there exist thousands of worthy people — the Dights, the Loders, the Doyles, the Dargins, and the Whites. John Howe was notable as settler, bridge builder, store-keeper, auctioneer, coroner, chief constable, ex- plorer (he led two expeditions over-land north from Windsor to the Upper Hunter — 1819 and 1820) pioneer of Singleton and of 'The Green Hills,' Morpeth.
Evidently there was something fascinating about 'The Green Hills' of Windsor, as a name to be remembered by re-perpetuation. In a vault tomb with table top in St. James' Church of England burial ground, Morpeth, are inscribed the following modest lines, with no indication whatever of the pioneer's labors, or the wonderful deeds done by him during his life to make Australia and its resources available to all who came after him: — Sacred To the Memory of JOHN HOWE. who departed this life the 19th Decr., 1852, Aged 78 years. That burial was the last of all the notables that arrived by the ship 'Coromandel' in 1802, and who were so brusquely, but sympathetically interviewed by the good and humane Governor King 50 years previously. - Windsor and Richmond Gazette 8 July 1921
5). List of Hunter Valley/ Newcastle convicts of the Coromandel....
John Carter James Field;
James Groom
William Nichols
John Price
William Rushton;
Joseph Sampson
George Tilley
REFERENCES
[1] HR NSW, vol. IV, p. 796
[2] HRA, Series 1, vol. III p. 5
[3] HRA, Series 1,vol. III, p. 383
[4] An historical and statistical account of New South Wales: both as ..., Volume 1 By John Dunmore Lang, p.89
