The Moruya & District Historical Society has recently published, with funding from the NSW Cultural Grants Program, a book which explorers the lives of the convicts who were assigned to the Broulee Moruya region or who settled here after their sentences had expired.
The books is titled Assigned.
It has been researched and edited by the Genealogy volunteers of the Society.
Assigned is 188 A4 pages and available as a comb bound printed book ($35 + 12 postage) or as a downloadable pdf file ($25).
Wendy Simes, Librarian at the MDHS said "We aim to introduce our readers to the convict labour force who cleared the land, built the fences and helped to create the prosperity of the district. The early landowners, who were the convict masters and their properties are briefly described. Musters and punishment records found in the Broulee Court House records are transcribed along with a statistical analysis of the convicts assigned to the area. Each convict is described in detail and their successes and failures documented."
"The early landowners, who were the convict masters, and their properties are briefly described. Our convict information is taken from the Broulee Court records and the records that are available on each individual convict. "We actually know more about the appearance of the convicts than we do about some of their masters. We have recorded all the information we can find on each individual convict, from their height to their distinguishing marks and tattoos, and their successes and failures. "One particular convict, John Brown, rather overdid it with his tattoos, they read as follows – (picture of) Woman, Margaret Brown in blue ink, heart in red ink on right arm; man and woman, 1835, M B, “Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband” lower left arm. Some are stories of success and respectability others like Joseph Luty stories of punishment and continuing crime which neither 50 lashes nor the treadmill seemed to be able to reform. The book includes many court reports of our convicts original crimes. If these can be found they often give a different picture from the one that might have been imagined. Such was the case of Irishman Stephen Butler. Having read from his convict indent record that he was a widower with 2 children convicted of manslaughter you might feel some sympathy for the man and his family, however the court case reveals that it was his wife he murdered and in a particular nasty way. Some of the court cases also leave us wondering about the social customs of the day. One witness for the defence in the case of Joseph Walton said “she was going to a public house to fetch a jug of drink for her husband: it was between twelve and one.” This was at night! Or the young lady in London who was robbed when returning home from the Pawnbrokers after fetching some items for her father at 9 o’clock at night. Although there are many individual stories to be found in the pages of this book it is intended to provide a detailed reference source for anyone seeking more information on the convicts and to give some idea of the conditions in the area during the 1830’s and 40’s. You can order the book HERE: https://www.mdhs.org.au/pdfs/order_form_convicts.pdf
