Citation
MacFie, Peter and Hargraves, Nigel. The empire’s first stolen generation: the first intake at Point Puer 1834-39. Tasmanian Historical Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1999: 129-154.
Also presented as “The Empire’s First ‘Lost Generation’: The 1834 ‘class’ at Point Puer Juvenile Prison, Van Diemen’s Land. Peter MacFie and Nigel Hargraves: Exiles of Empire Conference, Centre for Historical Studies, School of History and Classics, University of Tasmania, July 1998
Later published as:
Point Puer Boy Convicts’ Establishment, Van Diemen’s Land [Tasmania] : the first 68 boys, January 1834 / Peter MacFie & Nigel Hargraves.c 2000, (30p)
Outline
A study of the first group of boys sent to Point Puer Juvenile Prison on the Tasman Peninsula. Why they were there, how they fared at ‘The Point’ and what became of them later in life.
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Excerpt
On 10th January 1834, sixty eight boys who were a nuisance at the Hobart Prisoners Barracks were sent to a new site selected for them across the bay from Port Arthur Penal Station. These boys had arrived in Van Diemen’s Land along with other juvenile offenders and adult convicts toward the end of 1833 on either the Isabella or John 2.. [1] They weren’t the first boys transported from Britain; some had arrived in Sydney, others had been sent to Macquarie Harbour. Twenty two boys had been sent to Port Arthur in 1830 to train as sawyers.[2] But in the sense that the sixty eight who arrived as the first intake to the new purpose-built juvenile institution of Point Puer, they can be called Australia’s first ‘lost’ generation. Within two years Britain was sending ships with dedicated cargoes of boys to Pt Puer.
The process bears uneasy parallels with the British child migrants sent to Australia post World War II, and the forced integration of aboriginal families over the last fifty years. The new ‘accidental’ institution of Pt Puer was the first in the English speaking world, pre-dating Parkhurst – the juvenile facility on the Isle of Wight – by 4 years. [3]
The contrast between the myth surrounding Pt Puer and the real subculture is an area that had received little attention from historians. John West’s description of Pt Puer as ‘as an oasis in the desert of penal government’ has been repeated from Hooper to Lloyd Robson through to Robert Hughes. But did the reformation and trade training really work?[4] Research on the first sixty eight reveals that the optimism was ill-placed and repeated without question for 160 years. Only by a study of what really went on at the penal station, and the final history of the boys as adults can the success or otherwise of Pt Puer be established.
If we cannot get to the realities behind the veneer of officialdom, how can we really understand the workings of an institution such as Pt Puer. In particular, what was the impact of such an experience on its inmates and their subsequent role as parents, employees and employers?
Most of the records of Pt Puer have been destroyed. Surviving are the boys’ conduct records. When the records of the boys were collated in chronological order patterns began to appear. Boys who offended collectively, or abused others or escaped or dallied on the rocks behind the Point could for the first time be identified. The ring-leaders and rebels were revealed when the dates fell into line.
This paper is an interpretation of the collated research, as well as other research, such as on the descendants of some of the boys. From them we can see evidence of the “Dobbers and Cobbers” ethos. [5]
Where were they from? The Isabella boys were mainly from London/Middlesex and the Home Counties. Three were from Edinburgh, and one each from Glasgow and Inverness. Two came from Bristol, one from Devon.
The John 2 boys predominantly came from the Midlands – Stafford, West Riding, Leicester, Chester, Lancaster, with a further small group from Middlesex/London. William Bowles was an outsider too, convicted at Gloucester but a native of the West Indies, and described as ‘complexion fair’.[6]
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[1]CON 86, AOT.
[2]Brand, Ian Penal Peninsula, p Hobart, nd, p. 6.
[3]Peter MacFie’s interest in Pt Puer grew from being Port Arthur site historian from 1983 until 1990. In 1985 a summer history program resulted in the arrival of Canadian born historian, Dr Robyn McLachlan. With the help of other summer volunteers, we assembled the Pt Puer Lads Database. Robyn collated the data from two ‘graduation lists’ of boys ready for employment, in 1837 and 1841, totalling 118 ‘lads’.
While at Port Arthur, research into Pt Puer led PM to family enquiries, only to find that Fred Hooper -whose book based on his 1955 MA thesis “The Point Puer Experiment” popularised the Point- had been a childhood friend of his mothers’. When PM visited Fred at his home in Koo-Wee-Rup, Victoria in 1987, Fred explained that his father was the Methodist clergyman at the church in Launceston attended by PM’s parents-to-be in the 1930’s. In addition, Fred had stayed with PM’s family in the 1950’s when researching his thesis in Hobart.
Nigel Hargraves is a descendent of John Hargraves, one of the original Pt Puer class of sixty eight. Nigel has undertaken extensive archival and genealogical research into the Pt Puer boys.
[4]MacFie, P. ‘The Pt Puer Lads:’ a reappraisal with the aid of a computer, THRA, 33, p. 51-5.
[5]MacFie, P. Dobbers and Cobbers: informers & mateship among convicts, officials and settlers on the Grass Tree Hill Road, Tasmania 1830-50, THRA, 35/p. 112-27. TL.
Boys referred to who were from other ships have their boat identified (except where cited by other authors); all others are either from the Isabella or John 2.
[6]CON 18/11, CON 31/5, AOT.
Indexed Words
Aboriginal families
Absent Without Leave
alcohol
Allen, William
Armstrong, George
Arthur, Lt. Gov. George
assignment
Axtell, George
B&W
Ballarat
bathing
beef
bibles
black-market
blankets
boat-builders
Booth, Charles O’Hara
Bowles, William
Boyes, William
Boys, Thomas
Brailsford, William
Brandz, William
bread
Bread and Water
Briggs, Thomas
British child migrants
Brown, Simeon
builders
Burnham, Edward
Burrows, Samuel
Butters, Rev. William
buttons
cabbages
carpenters
catechist’s house
catechists
Cavanagh, Robert
chain gangs
chaplain’s house
Charlton, John
Chatterley, William
clothing
Cockerell, John
Collison, James
commandants
Cooper, Richard
corporal punishment
crayfish
Creswell, William
Cummins, William
daily schedule
De Marsa, Joseph
diet
dobbers
dobbing
drownings
Durham, Rev Edward
escapees
Evans, John
fighting
fish
fish soup
Fisher, James
fishing
food
Forster, Matthew
Forsyth, John
fowls
Franklin, Lady Jane (Sir John)
Franklin, Lt. Gov. Sir John
Freeman, William
fresh meat
gambling
games
Gardener, Edward
gardens
Geelong
Gilham, George
goats
Gray, Sarah (Mrs Thomas)
Gray, Thomas
Greensmith, Samuel
Groves, Richard
hair-cuts
Hall, William
hammocks
Harding, Nathaniel
Hargraves, Nigel
Hargreaves, John
Hawkins, Allan
Hibbert, Joseph
Hobart Prisoners Barracks
Holmes, Charles
homosexual practices
Hooper, Fred
Hopkins, Charles
horrid crimes
Howling, V
Hughes, Robert
improper language
informers
insolence
insubordination
intoxication
Isle of the Dead
Jackson, George
Jeffrey, William
jetty
Keefe, John
Kelly, Thomas
King’s Orphanage
Knight, Sarah
La Place, ?
labourers
Lang, R.
lashes on the breech
Launceston
Lees, Benjamin
Lempriere, Thomas James
Lisdillon
Longford
Macquarie Harbour
Manton, Rev John Allen
marbles
Martin, Peter
McCourt, ?
McKnight, John
McKnight, William
McLachlan, Robyn
Mecombe, William
mess hall
Miles, Alfred
military
63rd Regiment
Mitchell, Catherine (Mrs John)
Mitchell, John
Mollyneux, Daniel
Montgomery, ? (Mrs Supt. John)
Montgomery, Supt. John
nailors
New Town
Nixon, Bishop Francis
Norfolk Bay
Norfolk Island
officers’ houses
Opossum Bay
Paisley, Francis
Paisley, Walter
Paisley, William
Palmer, Thomas
Parker, Thomas
Parkhurst
pipes (smoking)
Player, Thomas
Point Puer
Pollard, John
pork
Port Arthur Penal Station
potatoes
Poultney, Robert
prayers
profane language
Pt Puer Lads Database
pudding
Queen’s Orphanage
Randall, Walter
Reading, David
religion
Anglican
Church of England
Church of Scotland
Methodist
Quakers
Wesleyans
religious boys
religious services
Robson, Lloyd
Ross, James
rugs
salt meat
Sarah Island penal station
saw-pits
sawyers
SC
school
school room
schoolmaster
sexual behaviour
ships
Aurora
Euralyus(hulk)
Francis Charlotte
Isabella
John 2
Mangles
Norfolk
Tamar
William Metcalf
shoemakers
Simpson, Edward, Booth
Simpson, John
Simpson, Rev. William
singing
Smith, James
Smith, John
Solitary Confinement
Stanfield, William
Stanton, Benjamin
Stanton, Benjamin jnr
stealing food
superintendents
Superintendent’s Quarters
tailors
Tams
Tarrell, Benjamin
Tasman Peninsula.
Tatler, Henry
Tatlow, Henry
Taylor, Alfred
Terry, George
The Rocks
tinsmiths
tobacco
turnips
violence
water supply
Webb, William
West, John
Wheeler, Robert
Wilmot, Lt Gov. Eardley
Wiltshire, Charles
Wiltshire, Francis
workshops
Wright, John