Love letters from Ireland 1799

Joseph Davis (c1760-1823) was a convict found guilty of high treason on Dublin in 1798 and sentenced to transportation for seven years. He was one of a large number of men who had been apprehended for administering an unlawful oath (considered a rebel offence by the authorities) on 1 October 1797. The group were given time to put their affairs in order before leaving the country. While on board the Minerva in Cork harbour awaiting transportation to Sydney, Davis penned an emotional love letter to his wife. The letter survives to this day.

My dear Mary,
This day I received your letter and it gives me great satisfaction to find in the post circumstances that you, my mother and the four children are well. I hope little young John will get over the cough. I am myself tolerable well in health.… I often think of our mutual attachment to each other and my children but them times are over. I am very sure we will soon sail. Every preparation denotes it. However let me be in my part of the world, you, your mother and the children will be my chief concern. I wish I could in some measure think my health be better. I am exactly nine months on board this day and 18 months in confinement. …I hope you have fortitude to withstand this great trouble and distress for tho we may be separated in this life, we should get happiness. Pray keep up your spirits we may meet again. I am extremely sorry to hear a complaint of [my daughter] Sally, I thought she promised to have better times and I strictly desire for her to mind her schooling and every other thing you or her grandmother desire for her to do. She must know how such things put me in my present situation. Not being with her, therefore inform her if she has any respect for her father, that she will mind his direction or she will repent when it’s too late.I have not a sufficiency of words to acknowledge the kindness of your mother to you and the children, she has my prayers. I don’t know what might have been the consequences only for her, and I request she will continue her kindness and to pay a strict attention to the morals of the children.…The complaint of that lump in my belly is much the old way, no tenderness here will do any service. The reality I can’t say I got my health very bad but is entirely unable to bear hardship, sometimes weakness bordering on fainting attacks but wear off again.When you have an opportunity, give my best respects to Mr and Mrs Spencer, your sister Anne… Give my respects to the two Goodmans and Mr Donney with them, let them know Brady and Mulhall [also on board the Minerva] and the remainder of us seven are well. It gives me great pleasure to hear from you and often wonder at your neglect (I forgive you) and your mother has me affection with you the same as ever…Show this letter to my friend and cousin, [he] is next to your mother and the children… grant him peace in this life and happiness in the next. Give my duty to your mother, my love and blessings to the children and I hope Sally will be an ornament not a discredit to me. Many times I think of them, therefore I desire that they will take your advice on every particular and mind their education, particularly if in any way able to give it them and the blessing of God almighty be with you and mother is the wish of your ever loving husband. Jos. Davis.

N.B. If anything comes relative to my pardon or any attention in the family send me and if we go away too suddenly I am afraid you or your mother will not survive to see the children provided for but I pray God you both may… I would be contented if you write, don’t forget the directions, Capt Cox, Minerva, love from me.

This is an extract from the forthcoming book by Barbara Hall on the convicts of the Minerva, which arrived in Sydney in 1800. The book is scheduled to be published by Irish Wattle in 2012. Stay tuned for more soon!

1798 Rebellion and the Act of Union

On this day in 1798 the famous Irish rebellion against British rule had begun, which ultimately failed and lead to the transportation of hundreds of Irish patriots to Australia.

Want more? Find out more at Ask About Ireland. AskAboutIreland is an initiative of public libraries together with local museums and archives in the digitisation and publication of the original material from their local studies' collections.

Image courtesy of National Library of Ireland.

Laurence Butler: 1798 rebel and Sydney's first cabinetmaker of note

Irish rebel Laurence Butler (1750-1820) led an extraordinary life. Originally from Ferns in County Wexford, he was 48 when he took part on the 1798 Uprising in Ireland, and not much older when he was subsequently transported for life for his actions.

He was charged with “aiding, abetting, and assisting the murder” of George Grimes, a Protestant in the Yeomen militia (accused of murdering a Catholic blacksmith for making pikes), and of acting as a rebel captain. Witnesses at the trial did not confirm that he ordered or assisted the murder, only that he was at the scene of the crime. Laurence’s defence was that he was forced to participate, a common plea at these trials. It was also revealed that he carried the colours at the Battle of Tubberneering, the rebels' major victory during the uprising.

Laurence arrived on the Atlas 2 in October 1802. He is now recognised as Australia's first cabinetmaker of note, having a large manufactory in Pitt Street (now Angel Place next to Martin Place), and employing several journeymen and apprentices. He also had a general merchandise business. Known customers were Sydney notables, John Blaxland, John William Lewin, and Rev Rowland Hassall. He also made furniture for the Supreme Courts building and the chambers of Judge Advocate Jeffrey Bent.

Conditionally pardoned in 1813, he made many useful acquaintances – John Oxley, and Elizabeth Macarthur, among others, endorsed his first petition for a pardon. D'Arcy Wentworth recommended he be granted 100 acres at Lilyfield (now part of the Callan Park Hospital grounds, pictured above), which neighboured Lieutenant-Governor George Johnston and Captain John Piper's properties.

For a convict exiled to the other side of the world, Laurence did very well for himself. His estate when he died was worth $2000, and consisted of the 100-acre grant, two adjacent houses in Pitt St and a house in Kent.

The research on Laurence is kindly provided by Barbara Butler. Barbara is seeking contact with anyone researching Laurence. If you can help, please contact Irish Wattle so we can put you in contact.

The Irish Memorial in Waverley, Sydney

Yesterday we visited the Irish Memorial at Waverley cemetery in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

The marble and mosaic structure was built in 1898 to commemorate the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and particularly the part played by Michael Dwyer, 'the Wicklow Chief'.

Michael Dwyer, born in Wicklow, Ireland, in 1772, was 26 when the 1798 Rising against English rule began. He led the English on a merry dance until December 1803, when he surrendered on condition he and his colleagues be sent to America. However, the English reneged and sent them to Botany Bay aboard the Tellicherry in 1806.

Governor Lachlan Macquarie gave him a full pardon in 1814. Dwyer died 11 years later, aged 53, and was buried in Sydney's Devonshire St cemetery (where Central Station now stands).

In the lead up to the centenary of the uprising, the Irish community in Sydney campaigned to have a memorial erected for the Wicklow Chief and his colleagues. The £2000 needed was raised by the Irish in Sydney, country towns in NSW and in Queensland, Victoria and New Zealand.

On 22 May 1898, Dwyer's remains, and that of his wife's, were moved from Devonshire St to the memorial in Waverley. It was the largest funeral Sydney had seen with 400 horse-drawn carriages following the hearse in a procession of 10,000 people watched by 100,000 others.

More than 100 years, the memorial still stands in tribute.