New Insights into Visiting Mariners

A digital version of the 1800 muster lists for New South Wales, released yesterday by the NSW Parliamentary Library, offers new insight into some of the early European settlers, and some of the mariners who visited the colony around that time.

This is the earliest (surviving) set of census records for the colony, 12 years after their first arrival – a transcript has been available since 1988, but this is the first time that the original documents have been accessible by the public.

They were on loan to the Mitchell Library for some years, but they are the property of the NSW Parliament and were returned in 1980 when the new building was completed. The Parliamentary Library, where they are now kept, does not know how they were acquired.

The originals are useful for several reasons. Some names are missing from the transcripts. Words/names were crossed out and replaced with others, the significance of which is not always clear from the typed version. And when viewed in the original, abbreviations sometimes read differently.

Professor Carol Liston from Western Sydney University spoke at the launch about the significance of these documents, and when someone asked whether non-residents were listed, she referred to a Captain Melvill, who (she observed) was apparently not a military officer.

Having done a great deal of primary research on Thomas Melvill, the Third Fleet whaling captain, I realized that this would be the individual in question, and it occurred that I might conduct a quick test of this new resource, checking what else we might learn about visiting mariners.

As it turns out, we can. The new insights fall into two categories: land purchases by visiting captains, and evidence of sexual relations between seamen and convict women on the outward voyage.

Land Purchases

A number of the visiting ships’ captains saw commercial opportunities in the colony, purchasing property with the intention of establishing a trading house or a farm. To date, we are aware of William Raven, Thomas Melvill, William Wilkinson, Patrick Campbell, Michael Hogan and Charles Bishop. None of these settled permanently, but Eber Bunker, master of the William & Ann (1791) and the Albion (1799), did, purchasing a farm at Petersham and bringing out his family, before passing away in the colony in 1836.

Thomas Melvill

It was already known that Thomas Melvill, the master of the Third Fleet whaler, Britannia, had purchased land in the colony, but one of the muster lists tells us more.

‘Capt. Mevill’ (or Melville – the name was spelt both ways and the original text is difficult to read) is named as the holder of two blocks: the primary entry is for an emancipated convict, John Stogdell (or Stockdale), who is recorded as Melvill’s agent.

Melvill is listed in the index of the published transcript, the 1788 Red Book entitled ‘Musters and Lists, New South Wales and Norfolk Island, 1800-1802’. But on turning to the primary entry, only Stogdell’s name is recorded.[1] Without access to the original, Melvill's mention has remained a mystery.

The Britannia (1791) was the first ship to catch a whale off the coast of NSW (see newsletter on The Melvill Cup). Melvill returned to Sydney in another whaler in 1794 and purchased 90 acres of land at Parramatta on the north side of the river, from Robert Webb, a former crew member of HMS Sirius, the First Fleet flagship. This came to be known as Melville Farm, but the captain settled at the Cape of Good Hope with his family, and never took up residence in the colony. It was later farmed by his daughter and son-in-law, George Evans, who sold 60 acres to Owen Bunker (son of another Third Fleet whaler) in October 1805.

The sale to Bunker is recorded in the 'Old Register', but we only know the details of Melvill’s 1794 purchase from an original title document in the possession of his descendants. It was previously unknown that Melvill had a second block of land or that Stogdell had acted as his local agent.

Charles Munn

Elsewhere in the lists, the NSW Commissary, James Williamson, is described as the agent for Charles Munn with respect to 65 acres of land at Concord.

Munn was the master of the Marquis Cornwallis on her second voyage to NSW in 1798. He was then 28 years of age, having progressed through the ranks of East India ships. His situation on the Marquis Cornwallis is unclear, given that Michael Hogan, a commanding figure who was the ship’s owner and had captained her on her first voyage to the colony several years earlier, was also on board.

There is no other evidence that Munn purchased real estate in the colony – he is not listed in the 'Old Register'. The mention of Munn’s holdings in the 1800 muster can be found in the published transcripts, but not in the primary column, so there has never been any interest in pursuing him.

Hogan also acquired a farm in the Hawkesbury, which was managed by one of his crew members who settled in the colony. Munn returned to the East India Company’s service and died in 1809, and never came back to NSW.

Sexual Relations with Convict Women

Until 1817, it was conventional for the officers and gentlemen, and in some cases, the seamen, to form sexual relationships with some of the female convicts on the outward voyage. Government was fully aware of the custom, and it was mentioned from time to time in the press, in a tone of bemusement rather than scandal. It was only with the rise of the Evangelicals at the end of the Anglo-French Wars, that any attempt was made to regulate it. In this period, when a blind eye was being turned, the gentlemen were expected to behave with discretion, and the women were euphemistically referred to as housekeepers or cleaners.

Contrary to what has sometimes been claimed, Arthur Phillip did not prohibit cohabitation on the First Fleet, although he was concerned that the young women were not coerced. Of the 25 ships in this period (1787 to 1800) which carried female prisoners, we have had evidence of cohabitation or casual sexual encounters on 20, and with the other five, there was simply a lack of sources. The muster book adds another to the former list.

Officers of the Earl Cornwallis

One of the 1800 muster documents lists men and women who were off stores (meaning they were not drawing provisions from the government store house), and around 70 percent of these are women. In most cases, this was because they were living with or married to another settler who was independent of the government stores. Six of them were being supported by men from the Earl Cornwallis when the census was taken, possibly still living on board the ship with them.

The Earl Cornwallis was a convict transport which carried both male and female convicts. She arrived in Sydney Cove in June 1801 and sailed for Calcutta (now Kolkata) in early October, which means that this part of the muster must have been taken in that period.

The six women and their partners were:

• Elizabeth Crouch, who is listed in the muster as the cook for James Tennant, the master of the ship. It would have been universally understood at the time that she was his mistress. Elizabeth was around 17 years old.

• Sarah Leadbetter was living with ‘Mr Brown E C 1st Offr’. The published transcript described him as ‘Mr Brown “Earl Cornwallis” 1st Office’. On a careful reading, it would have been reasonably clear that ‘office’ meant ‘officer’ and that he was the chief mate, but the handwriting in the original almost certainly reads ‘Offr’. This was John B. Brown, who is identified in other records as the chief mate.

• Philis (Philadelphia) Pounds was living with ‘Mr Scott Do [E C] 4th Offr’. On sailing from England, Robert Scott had been the 5th Mate and was evidently promoted in the course of the voyage.

• Ann Baker was listed with ‘Mr May E C’. We do not have a complete list of the ship’s officers, and May is not mentioned in the known sources – but the use of ‘Mister’ implies he was not an ordinary seaman. It is likely that he was the 2nd or 3rd Mate.

• Ann Tustin is listed with ‘Mr Watkins’ of the Earl Cornwallis. Again, this must be one of the ship’s officers, and probably the 2nd or 3rd Mate. In this case, the original entry initially read ‘Seaman EC’, with the first word crossed out, and ‘Mr Watkins’ written in. He was not an ordinary seaman.

• Elizabeth Scatlock (or Scoltock) was living with an unnamed seaman from the Earl Cornwallis.

In Summary

Close reading of the original 1800 muster lists now available on the NSW Parliament and Museums of History NSW websites can provide us with valuable new insights into the early colony and the activities of some of the mariners who visited around the turn of the century.

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[1] Carol J. Baxter (ed.), Musters and Lists, New South Wales and Norfolk Island, 1800-1802, Sydney: Australian Biographical and Genealogical Record, 1988.