Welcome!
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The Female Convicts Research Centre promotes interest in the female convicts of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), by encouraging and facilitating research. From 1803 to 1853, 12,500 female convicts were transported to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), as punishment for crimes, mainly theft. After serving their sentences they were released into the community. Their transportation left a lasting legacy. The Female Convicts Research Centre encourages research into these female convicts, mainly through its database, website and seminars. When you register with the FCRC, you gain access to our database where you will find information entered by our volunteers as we attempt to reconstruct the life course of each female convict. We update this website and our database regularly and sometimes daily, as our volunteer transcribers continue to provide new information. Please bookmark this page and return soon.
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The Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History. |
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Nine books have made the longlist for the State’s most significant book prize, the Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History. On the list is The Convict Letter Writer by Alice Meredith Hodgson (Forty South Publishing Pty Ltd). Meredith Hodgson was a respected researcher on colonial history of Tasmania, a supporter and researcher for the Female Convicts Research Centre and contributor to the books on convict women published by Convict Women's Press. Meredith contributed two chapters to Convict Lives at the Ross Female Factory in 2011 and, with Lucy Frost, edited Convict Lives at the Launceston Female Factory in 2012. Meredith’s annotated transcription of an 1854-55 diary was published in 2014 under the title Miss Leake’s Journal. This book explores daily colonial life in an elite rural household in the Tasmanian Midlands. Sadly, Meredith passed away in 2019 and the FCRC honour Meredith’s publication The Convict Letter Writer. The Dick and Joan Green Family Award for Tasmanian History $25,000 biennial award recognises high-quality published works that make a significant contribution to our understanding of Tasmania’s past and seeks to celebrate books on the island’s history and cultural heritage. To view the complete longlist please go to the following web page: https://www.media.utas.edu.au/general-news/all-news/longlist-announced-for-prestigious-tasmanian-book-prize The shortlist for the award, which is managed by the University of Tasmania, will be announced on 1 May 2020, with the winner revealed in June. |
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COMA Tasmania March Seminar ''The Witches' Cauldron': medical histories of the Hobart Rivulet and South Hobart'
The COMA Tasmanian March Seminar has now been cancelled.
Save The Dates:
| 2020 | Postponed | FCRC's 2020 Seminar: The Early Years. |
| 2021 | 2nd May | FCRC's 2021 Seminar: Health, Diet & Intemperance. |
Recent Updates
Convict Stories:
- GODWIN, Mary per Sea Queen 1846. By Don Bradmore (28/03/2020)
- SMITH, Elizabeth, per Morley 1820. By Don Bradmore (21/03/2020)
- BRADLEY, Margaret per Sea Queen 1846. By Don Bradmore (21/03/2020)
- FITZPATRICK, Ann per Sea Queen 1846. By Don Bradmore (13/03/2020)
- McDEVITT, Eliza per Phoebe 1845. By Don Bradmore (7/03/2020)
- FISHER, Ann per Mary III 1823. By Don Bradmore (25/02/2020).
- MANNING, Mary per Persian 1827. By Don Bradmore (February 2020)
- CORFIELD, Susan per Mary III 1823. By Don Bradmore (21/02/2020)
- WOMACK, Jane per Aeolus 1809 & WOMOCK, Jane per Maria 1818 ('a twist of fate'). By Rhonda Arthur (07/02/20).
- DYER, Elizabeth per Royal Admiral 1842. By Don Bradmore (13/02/2020).
Convict Ships:
- Ships - Angelina 1844 (transcribed by Rhonda Arthur 31/03/2020).
JE Ring MD RN was Surgeon Superintendent. The ship put into port at Santa Cruz for water and refreshments. A convict nurse in the ship’s hospital had a violent temper and was dismissed for bad conduct. Three convicts died, one unexpectedly who was found dead by a woman who slept next to her, the second from enteritis but gangrene set in, and another was a young girl who managed to conceal a longstanding complaint and was given a black wash and a blue pill. Two infants also died, and another convict, who was a laughing stock to all, after arrival was admitted to the insane asylum.
- Ships - Elizabeth & Henry 1847 (transcribed by Colleen Arulappu 14/03/2020). In his journal Surgeon, Harvey Morris, said that the medical cases were not worth writing about except for the way in which he was able to use phrenology to explain the behaviour of some of the women. He compared two women who gave birth on board; one who lacked interest in her child and treated him cruelly and the other a loving mother whose frail child barely survived its birth and died within hours. He also wrote about the importance of punishment and lamented that the pregnant or nursing women were exempt. An occasional glimpse of life on board with the remark about one of the pregnant women dancing naked at night on the prison deck.
- Ships - Cadet 1849 Surgeon Superintendent's Journal (by Colleen Arulappu 15/02/2020). There was Cholera on board the Cadet before it left England and three deaths occurred which kept the ship a couple of weeks in Plymouth Sound. One of the dying women gave birth to a seven month-old infant and the labour was a surprise to the surgeon and the doctor from the Royal Naval Hospital. Another death, Jean Armour, Case 20, was sudden and unusual, as was the reason for not performing an autopsy.
Other Updates:
- Research Seminars - Convict Women at the New Norfolk Asylum - papers by Leonie Mickelborough and Margaret Schmidt (12/01/2020).