While I was doing some research for my post about Montville (no. 79), I happened to come across the story of James Davis, a man whose life began in Scotland in 1807, but who arrived in Australia in 1825, where he was to remain until his death in 1889. I found his story so fascinating and intriguing that I thought I would share it with you.
I know that there are already several historical references and incomplete biographies of James Davis in existence, some written as long ago as 1895. However, I would like to add some additional information, as well as my own thoughts, about how I imagine James, himself, might have faced the incredible challenges that he had to deal with during his lifetime. I think it will take several blog posts to do it justice. Today’s story is about his early life, and his voyage to Australia.
James Davis was born in Scotland (baptised 2 August 1807), and grew up in Broomielaw, which was part of Glasgow’s harbour area. I’ve read that he was a “small” boy, had “flaxen” hair, light blue eyes and a “very freckled complexion”. He probably did not attend school when he was young, as school attendance did not become compulsory in Scotland until later, when the 1872 Education Act came into force. Before that time, children living in a “working class” area of Glasgow, would almost certainly not have been able to benefit from a formal education.
In some of the many accounts of his later life, James is described as having been of a “roving disposition”, which the dictionary says is a “tendency or inclination to wander, travel, or move around frequently, rather than staying in one place.” Although there does not appear to be much information available about James’ early life, I like to think of him as an inquisitive, little, blond boy, keen to explore the world around him.
When he was 14 years old, James was apprenticed to his father, who was a blacksmith, but he was restless and keen to seek his own adventure, and he did not work with his dad for very long. In 1824, when he was 16 years old, he “deserted his forge”, left home and, with three other youths, travelled to the south of England, where, unsurprisingly, they got themselves into some trouble. Sadly, James was apprehended and accused of stealing “half a crown” from a church in Surrey.
The records show that he appeared, not long thereafter, before the “High Court of Justiciary” in Glasgow, where he was found guilty and sentenced to “Transportation”, for fourteen years. He had only just reached his 17th birthday, 1 month earlier.
How did James react to this sentence? We don’t know, but I can imagine that he would have been frightened of the prospect of so suddenly, and permanently, being removed from his family and friends, not knowing what might lay ahead, or where exactly he would be taken. Or perhaps, a less likely reaction (but still possible) was that being young and used to living in misery and poverty, he was, at least to some extent, looking forward to experiencing a different environment. He would have seen the ships arriving and departing from Glasgow, and, maybe, his “roving disposition”, described earlier, had made him open to “exploring” new and faraway places.
One month after his sentencing, he was moved, together with 10 other prisoners, from Glasgow to Edinburgh, where he stayed in goal, waiting until he was transferred to London, for his “transportation” to Australia. Before he left Edinburgh, however, he and the other 10 prisoners, were addressed by the chaplain of the prison. The local newspaper, the Edinburgh Advertiser, reported on the chaplain’s address (in November 1924) as follows:
“The eleven convicts belonging to Glasgow, before leaving the prison, were each presented with a pocket Bible, a collection of Tracts, and a catechism, neatly stitched. The delivery of the Bibles and Tracts was prefaced by a most impressive and feeling address from the Rev. James Morrison, chaplain of the prison.”
As James had probably not learned to read or write, the pocket Bible, tracts and catechism may not have been of much benefit to him, but the chaplain’s address would, almost certainly, have made an impact and would have made him think.
I am not sure how James was moved from Edinburgh to London, but it is likely that he was first taken to the prison hulk “Justitia”, moored on the River Thames, and from there was transferred, with many others, on 28 March 1825, to the “Minstrel”, a ship which was also moored on the Thames.
The Minstrel, which James, along with 120 other convicts, boarded, was a sailing ship of only 357 tons, with a crew of 56, under the command of captain Charles Arckoll. It was guarded by a detachment of 33 men of the “57th Regiment of Foot”. This meant that more than 200 people were cramped together on this small sailing ship, for their long voyage to Australia.
The Minstrel left the Thames on 10 April for the short voyage to Portsmouth, from where it would sail, a week later, to Australia. It must have been an eventful day for James, to be entering the North Sea on this sailing ship. He and all the other convicts would be down in the holds of the vessel, unable to see out, but they would have felt the movements, and they would have heard all the activity on the deck above them. Among James’ fellow prisoners were several men and boys from Scotland, possibly including some who had been with him when he was arrested in Surrey. They would all suffer the same uncomfortable experience of a small ship heaving up and down in the choppy sea and, almost certainly, some would be horribly seasick. Perhaps James escaped the worst of it, but we don’t really know. The Minstrel arrived safely in Portsmouth, from where, on 17 April, it began its voyage to Australia.
Coincidentally (I probably should say “Incredibly”), another convict ship left the same day from the same place for the same destination, with another “James Davis” on board. This ship, the “Norfolk”, carried another James Davis, who had been sentenced to 7 years for housebreaking. He was “a pale, dark-haired 19-year-old man, with an inward cast on the left of his grey eyes. He stood just a hairsbreadth over 5 feet. He was a native Londoner and worked as a carter.” This James Davis arrived in the colony of New South Wales on August 18, 1825, 4 days before our James arrived there. The James Davis from London will have nothing further to do with this story, but I included this little tidbit to prove my point that this is indeed a strange tale.
To get some idea of what life on board a ship to Australia was like at that time, I found a book titled “Broomielaw” (which also happens to be the name of the Glasgow area where James grew up) by Scottish author, Jim Hewitson, about one such voyage, “a journey that could last months, through some of the cruelest seas and the harshest on-board conditions imaginable”.
I have not been able to find the exact route taken by the Minstrel to Australia. It was described as “direct”, but it took 127 days. Convict ships often stopped for provisioning in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, off the coast of northwestern Africa. They would then cross the Atlantic Ocean to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, to take on fresh water and food, and from there would continue to Cape Town in South Africa for more supplies, and, if necessary, to do repairs. This all had to do with the prevailing winds, because wind was all these sailing ships had, to power them forward. From the Cape of Good Hope, they would then sail across the Southern Ocean to Australia. The “direct” voyage may have meant sailing directly from Portsmouth, via Rio de Janeiro, to Sydney because that would have reduced the travel time to around 3 and 4 months, which is not too far off the 127 days of the Minstrel.
The overcrowding and poor sanitation on convict ships meant that there was a high risk of disease outbreaks. Fortunately, for James, the Minstrel had a qualified naval surgeon, a Mr Hugh Walker, on board. From 1815 onwards, naval surgeons had to be “qualified” and they had to be able to deal with common illnesses, such as dysentery and scurvy, as well as being able to deal with fractures and injuries and with monitoring the convicts’ diet.
Hugh Walker kept a Medical Journal from 19th March (which is 9 days before the convicts boarded the Minstrel in London) to 26 August 1825 (9 days after arriving in Port Jackson). His journals of this and other voyages make for some interesting reading. They referred to “the daily cleaning of the prison and hospital quarters, mustering of the convicts on deck, position of the ship and temperature at noon, the opening of casks of provisions and the treatment of the sick.”
Walker’s journal for the Minstrel voyage shows that he had to treat 11 people in the ship’s hospital, 8 convicts, 2 young girls and 1 soldier. The first person he treated was 31 years old, who had ulcers on his legs. He had come from the Justitia convict hulk and was taken ill as early as 5 April, when the Minstrel was still moored on the Thames in London. He stayed in the ship’s hospital for almost 3 months.
A week after departing Portsmouth, on 28 April, 3 people were admitted to the hospital: a convict, 18 years old, with “epilepsy”, a little girl, 11 months old, with fever, and a soldier, 19 years old, with “epilepsy” and seasickness. They were all discharged after spending some time in the hospital. I don’t know how the little girl came to be on board, because apart from the convicts, only the 56 ship’s crew members and the 33 soldiers were mentioned in the sources I have found.
The surgeon’s journal also mentioned a girl, 4 years old, “of very delicate constitution, being a twin. Has symptoms of worms, hardness and fullness of the abdomen and is considerably emaciated with a pale countenance. Taken ill, 28 May 1825. Died 5 June 1825.”
In June several convicts were affected with constipation and had been administered “occasional cathartics”. In early July there was an outbreak of scurvy in approximately twenty of the men. The official records state that the Minstrel “suffered no convict deaths en route”. They did not refer to the death at sea of the little girl mentioned in the surgeon’s journal.
The Minstrel arrived in Port Jackson on 22nd August 1825, where James set foot on land a few days later. To put this in perspective, the Minstrel was only one of many ships used for the “transportation of convicts”. Between 1788 and 1868 more than 800 ships, “transporting” more than 160,000 convicts, arrived in Australia.
James was 18 years old when he arrived, and, at that point, he would have been blissfully unaware that he would live for another 64 years, and, that he would later be forever known as “Duramboi”, the “Wild White Man”.
O.P.
P.S. On Sunday, 26 October, you will be able to read more about James and his adventures in Australia in a post titled: “James Davis – Moreton Bay”.