Parkhurst apprentices
Encyclopedia
The Parkhurst apprentices were juvenile prisoners from Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight
, sentenced to "transportation beyond the seas" and transported
to Australia
and New Zealand
between 1842 and 1852. Either before leaving England or on arrival at their destination, they were pardoned on the conditions that they be "apprenticed" to local employers, and that they not return to England
during the term of their sentence. In the ten years between 1842 and 1852 nearly 1500 boys aged from twelve to eighteen were transported to Australia and New Zealand from Parkhurst Prison.
John Hutt
received from the Colonial Office a circular asking if the colony would be prepared to accept juvenile prisoners who had first been reformed in "penitentiaries especially adapted for the purpose of their education and reformation". After seeking comment from the Western Australian Agricultural Society, Hutt responded that "The Majority of the Community would not object to boys not above 15 years of age...." but that the labour market could not support more than 30 boys per year.
Between 1842 and 1849, Western Australia
accepted 234 Parkhurst apprentices, all males aged between 10 and 21 years. As Western Australia was not then a penal colony
, contemporary documents scrupulously avoided referring to the youths as "convict
s", and most historians have maintained the distinction. An opposing view, held for example by Gill (2004), is that the Parkhurst apprentices were convicts, and that their apprenticeship constituted convict assignment
.
Parkhurst apprentices were employed by a broad cross-section of Western Australia
's businessmen and officials, including many of the colony's ruling class. Among the long list of Parkhurst apprentice employers were Governor
Andrew Clarke, Frederick Irwin
, George Fletcher Moore
, Anthony O'Grady Lefroy
, William Locke Brockman
, Thomas Brown
, George Walpole Leake
, Walter Padbury
, Stephen Stanley Parker
, Rosendo Salvado
and George Shenton Sr
.
The assimilation of Parkhurst apprentices played an important role in the later acceptance of convicts in Western Australia.
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
, sentenced to "transportation beyond the seas" and transported
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
between 1842 and 1852. Either before leaving England or on arrival at their destination, they were pardoned on the conditions that they be "apprenticed" to local employers, and that they not return to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
during the term of their sentence. In the ten years between 1842 and 1852 nearly 1500 boys aged from twelve to eighteen were transported to Australia and New Zealand from Parkhurst Prison.
Parkhurst apprentices in Western Australia
Early in 1839, Governor of Western AustraliaGovernor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
John Hutt
John Hutt
John Hutt was Governor of Western Australia from 1839 to 1846.Born in London on 24 July 1795, John Hutt was the fourth of 13 children of Richard Hutt of Appley Towers, Ryde, Isle of Wight. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, and in 1815 inherited Appley Towers...
received from the Colonial Office a circular asking if the colony would be prepared to accept juvenile prisoners who had first been reformed in "penitentiaries especially adapted for the purpose of their education and reformation". After seeking comment from the Western Australian Agricultural Society, Hutt responded that "The Majority of the Community would not object to boys not above 15 years of age...." but that the labour market could not support more than 30 boys per year.
Between 1842 and 1849, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
accepted 234 Parkhurst apprentices, all males aged between 10 and 21 years. As Western Australia was not then a penal colony
Penal colony
A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
, contemporary documents scrupulously avoided referring to the youths as "convict
Convict
A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison", sometimes referred to in slang as simply a "con". Convicts are often called prisoners or inmates. Persons convicted and sentenced to non-custodial sentences often are not termed...
s", and most historians have maintained the distinction. An opposing view, held for example by Gill (2004), is that the Parkhurst apprentices were convicts, and that their apprenticeship constituted convict assignment
Convict assignment
Convict assignment was the practice used in many penal colonies of assigning convicts to work for private individuals. Contemporary abolitionists characterised the practice as virtual slavery, and some, but by no means all, latter-day historians have agreed with this assessment.In Australia, every...
.
Parkhurst apprentices were employed by a broad cross-section of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
's businessmen and officials, including many of the colony's ruling class. Among the long list of Parkhurst apprentice employers were Governor
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
Andrew Clarke, Frederick Irwin
Frederick Irwin
Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Chidley Irwin was acting Governor of Western Australia from 1847 to 1848.Born in 1788 in Enniskillen, Ireland, Frederick Chidley Irwin was the son of Reverend James Irwin. In 1808, he was commissioned into the 83rd Regiment of Foot...
, George Fletcher Moore
George Fletcher Moore
George Fletcher Moore was a prominent early settler in colonial Western Australia, and "one [of] the key figures in early Western Australia's ruling elite"...
, Anthony O'Grady Lefroy
Anthony O'Grady Lefroy
Anthony O'Grady Lefroy CMG , often known as O'Grady Lefroy, was an important government official in Western Australia before the advent of responsible government....
, William Locke Brockman
William Locke Brockman
William Locke Brockman was an early settler in Western Australia, who became a leading pastoralist and stock breeder, and a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council....
, Thomas Brown
Thomas Brown (Western Australian politician)
Thomas Brown was an early settler in colonial Western Australia, and a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council....
, George Walpole Leake
George Walpole Leake
George Walpole Leake was a Western Australian barrister and magistrate and nephew of George Leake...
, Walter Padbury
Walter Padbury
Walter Padbury was an Australian pioneer and philanthropist.Padbury was born at Stonesfield, near Woodstock, in the English county of Oxfordshire. He arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia in the Protector with his father on 25 February 1830, but in the following July his father died...
, Stephen Stanley Parker
Stephen Stanley Parker
Stephen Stanley Parker was an early settler and pioneer of Western Australia and a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council....
, Rosendo Salvado
Rosendo Salvado
Dom Rosendo Salvado Rotea OSB was a Benedictine monk, missionary, bishop, and bestselling author, as well as the founder and first Abbot of New Norcia, in Western Australia.-Early life:...
and George Shenton Sr
George Shenton Sr
George Shenton was a pharmacist, merchant, banker and philanthropist in colonial Perth, Western Australia.George Shenton was born in Winchester in England on 2 January 1811, the second of four sons of a wealthy silk manufacturer. At the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to a pharmacist named...
.
The assimilation of Parkhurst apprentices played an important role in the later acceptance of convicts in Western Australia.
List of ships
List of ships that brought Parkhurst apprentices to Australia and New Zealand| Ship | Arrival | Parkhurst apprentices |
Colony |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simon Taylor Simon Taylor (ship) The Simon Taylor was a barque used to transport convicts to Western Australia.Built in 1824 for Meek and Co., it was constructed at the Blackwall Yard on the River Thames in London. On completion, it was registered to S. Taylor. It weighed 431 tons, the passenger deck was 140 feet long, and there... |
August 1842 | 18 | Western Australia |
| St George | November 1842 | 92 | New Zealand |
| Shepherd | October 1843 | 28 | Western Australia |
| Mandarin | October 1843 | 51 | Tasmania |
| Mandarin | November 1843 | 31 | New Zealand |
| Halifax | December 1844 | 18 | Western Australia |
| Strathedin | December 1845 | 74 | Tasmania |
| Cumberland | January 1846 | 16 | Western Australia |
| Maitland | October 1846 | 70 | Victoria |
| Thomas Arbuthnot Thomas Arbuthnot (ship) The ship Thomas Arbuthnot was a fast sailing ship, weighing 523 tons , 621 tons . She carried the first Australian gold from Australia to England 1851... |
May 1847 | 89 | Victoria |
| Joseph Somes | September 1847 | 84 | Victoria |
| Marion | January 1848 | 125 | Victoria |
| Orient | March 1848 | 51 | Western Australia |
| Eden | February 1849 | 62 | Victoria |
| Ameer | February 1849 | 50 | Western Australia |
| Hashemy | abt July 1849 | 29 | Tasmania |
| Randolph | August 1849 | 85 | Victoria |
| Mary | October 1849 | 53 | Western Australia |
| Adelaide | November 1849 | 30 | Tasmania |
| Blenheim | July 1850 | 85 | Tasmania |
| Maria Somes | August 1850 | 30 | Tasmania |
| Nile | October 1850 | 30 | Tasmania |
| Rodney | November 1850 | 40 | Tasmania |
| Mermaid | May 1851 | 43 | Western Australia |
| Lady Kennaway | May 1851 | Tasmania and Norfolk Island | |
| Pyrenees | June 1851 | 29 | Western Australia |
| Minden | October 1851 | 30 | Western Australia |
| Aboukir | December 1851 | Tasmania | |
| Fairlie | March 1852 | 30 | Tasmania |
| Equestrian | August 1852 | Tasmania | |
| Oriental Queen | October 1852 | Tasmania | |
| Dudbrook | February 1853 | 1 | Western Australia |
| Lincelles | January 1862 | 1 | Western Australia |
Further reading
- Gill, Andrew (1997) Forced labour for the west : Parkhurst convicts 'apprenticed' in Western Australia 1842-1851 Maylands, W.A. : Blatellae Books, ISBN 0959347259
- Gill, Andrew (2004). Convict assignment in Western Australia: The Parkhurst 'Apprentices' 1842–1851. Blatellae Books, Maylands, Western Australia. ISBN 0-9593472-6-7.
- Statham, Pamela (1981). Why Convicts I: An economic analysis of colonial attitudes to the introduction of convicts in Stannage, C. T. (ed) (1981), Studies in Western Australian History IV: Convictism in Western Australia, University of Western Australia.