Francis MacNamara Timeline

Robert Russell c 1837: Phoenix Hulk moored at entrance Billy Blue's Bay [Lavender Bay]
Courtesy National Library of Australia

• 1811 Francis MacNamara born in Cashel Tipperary ( or Wicklow, or Cork) in the first half of the year.
• 14 January 1832 sentenced to 7 years transportation
• 18 January 1832 MacNamara's use of poetry in court reported in the Kilkenny Journal
• 10 May 1832, age 21, sailed from Cork on the prison ship Eliza II, trade described as Miner. Among his fellow prisoners for the journey were 43 Whiteboys
• 18 June 12 Lashes - 'Poet on the Eliza' Bob Reece
• 8 September 1832 arrived in Sydney, assigned as servant to John Jones of Sydney
• 3 January 1833 sentenced to 6 months gaol served in an ironed-gang on Goat Island in Sydney Harbour
• 17 June 1833 Macnamara Francis, Eliza, from Ditto 'Runaways Apprehended' (Sydney Gazette p. 1.)
• 27 May 1833 returned to Hyde Park Barracks
• June 1833 absconded and recaptured and sentenced to flogging, on 24 June received 50 lashes
• 1 July 1833 sentenced to a month on the treadmill for disobedience
• Absconded again recaptured and on 24 August 1833 was sentenced to 12 month in irons
• 3 September 1833 sent to Phoenix Hulk on Sydney Harbour to serve his sentence
• 1 February 1834 flogged with 25 lashes for having a stolen shirt
• 3 March 1834 75 lashes for insubordinate conduct
• 25 August returned to Hyde Park Barracks
• 26 January 1835 3 days in the cells (solitary confinement) for being absent from duty
• 18 February 1835 25 lashes for disobeying orders
• 9 March 1835 100 lashes for obscene language
• 16 April 1835 12 months in irons
• 16 May 1835 36 lashes for insolence
• 8 June 1835 50 lashes for threatening language
• 8 August 1835 75 lashes for destroying a government cart
• 14 December 1835 50 lashes for refusing to work
• 16 March 1836 sent to Phoenix Hulk
• 25 March 1836 25 lashes for neglect of work
• 15 August 1836 10 days in the cells for being found drunk
• March 1837 2 months on treadmill for absconding
• 25 March 1837 refused to mount treadmill 50 lashes
• May 1837 returns to Phoenix Hulk
• 31 December 1837 presence on Phoenix recorded in muster for the census
• 1838 assigned to Australian Agricultural Company as shepherd on the Peel River and then Stroud till October 1839
• 23 October 1839 Trimingham manuscript written containing 4 poems: A Convict's Tour To Hell, A Petition from the Chain Gang at Newcastle, A Petition in Behalf of the Flocks and For the Company Underground
• 1 November 1839 Newcastle Gaol - sentenced 12 months in an Ironed Gang
• 9 November 1839 Forwarded to Sydney
• 5 December 1839 Discharged from Wooloomooloo Stockade sent to Parramatta Gaol
• 7 December 1839 Disposed of to Stockade Parramatta
• 4 January 1840 50 lashes for mutinous conduct
• 8 February 1840 A Dialogue Between Two Hibernians in Botany Bay published in the Sydney Gazette under the name Francis MacNamara
• 30 May 1842 captured by sergeant Michael Doyle at the foot of Razorback: Francis McNamara, per Elisa; John Jones, per Lady Macnaughton; Edward Allen, per Asia; William Thomson, per do; William Eastwood, per Patriot. Capture of Bushrangers reported in Sydney Gazette 2 June
• 6 June 1842 Admitted to Sydney Gaol
• 8 July 1842 tried at Assizes of Sydney for being at large with fire arms on his person and sentenced to be transported to Van Diemen's Land for Life
• 11 July 1842 three month stay on Cockatoo Island awaiting transportation to Van Diemen's Land
• 14 October 1842 departs Sydney with 24 other prisoners for Van Diemen's Land
• 29 Oct 1842 arrival in Hobart per Waterlily
• 25 December 1842 meets bushranger Martin Cash in Port Arthur, entertains prisoners with his verse beginning with his introductory "crow"
• 25 Sept 1843 seven days solitary confinement for disobeying orders
• January 1847 receives ticket-of-leave
• September 1847 receives conditional pardon
• 1 January 1848 name appears in Launceston Census?
• 21 July 1849 gains Certificate of Freedom
• 8 September 1853 reported in the Sydney Morning Herald as working with a party of gold miners at Tambaroora, Hill End NSW
• 1 March 1861 calligraphic work on Calf Family Record near Mudgee NSW
• 29 August 1861 death in Mudgee NSW
• 18 June 1862 Article with local stories about Frank the Poet at Meroo in the Bathurst Free Press
• 7 October 1865 Article about Frank the Poet extemporising verse in 1835 in Sydney Police Court in the Bunyip
• 24 December 1881 attribution of "Travellers Welcome"song to Frank the Poet in the South Australian Weekly Chronicle
• Frank the Poet mentioned by Owen Suffolk in his autobiography Days of Crime and Years of Suffering serialised in the Australasian newspaper (1867) reprinted by the Gippsland Times (1898)
• 1885 First publication of 'A Convict's Tour to Hell', in a booklet titled 'The Song of Ninian Melville' a poem by Henry Kendall
• 27 December 1900 A Convict's Tour to Hell: published in the Cumberland Times 
• 1 January 1892 Victoria Museum - Frank the Poet exhibit, an example of his penmanship
• 28 January 1893 Convict's Tour to Hell: cited by Telemachus in the Oakleigh Leader 
• 7 September 1900 in the Western Champion (Parkes, NSW) 
• 12 December 1900 "Martin Cash" play includes Frank the poet as a character. 
• 22 August 1903 attribution of 'The Poor Exile from the Shamrock Shore' in the Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal 

Jim Jones at Botany Bay

A song by Francis MacNamara ?

Oh listen for a moment lads and hear me tell my tale
How o'er the sea from England's shore I was compelled to sail
The jury says he guilty sir and the hanging judge says he
For life Jim Jones I'm sending you across the stormy sea

And take my tip before you ship to join the iron gang
Dont be too gay at Botany Bay or else you'll surely hang
Or else you'll surely hang he says and after that Jim Jones
It's high upon the gallows tree the crows will pick your bones

You'll have no chance for mischief there remember what I say
They'll flog the poaching out of you out there at Botany Bay
The waves were high upon the sea the wind blew up in gales
I'd rather have drowned in misery than come to New South Wales

The winds blew high upon the sea and the pirates came along
But the soldiers on our convict ship were full five hundred strong
They opened fire and somehow drove that pirate ship away
I'd rather joined that pirate ship than come to New South Wales

For night and day the irons clang and like poor galley slaves
We toil and moil and when we die must fill dishonoured graves
But bye and bye I'll break my chains into the bush I'll go
And join the bold bushrangers there Jack Donahoo and Co

And some dark night when everything is silent in this town
I'll kill the tyrants one by one and shoot the floggers down
I'll give the law a little shock remember what I say
They'll yet regret they sent Jim Jones in chains to Botany Bay

Notes

First published in "From Old Pioneering Days in the Sunny South, by Charles MacAlister". (Published Goulburn, NSW, 1907) This is the most defiant of the transport ballads. Russel Ward writes of the song: "Instead of an implicit acceptance of the rules of society, there is an explicit assumption that society itself is out of joint, and even a hint that in the new land society may be remoulded nearer to the heart's desire".
Although not collected in the field the song has had a remarkable new life since the 1950's, often sung where a song of defiance is called for. The song was first recorded by Ewan MacColl on a 78rpm record for the Wattle label in 1956. In Westminster Hall in London in the early 1970's A.L. Lloyd sang it to a huge audience at a rally for the release of Angela Davis the American radical.

Sydney Gazette Thursday 2 June 1842 p.3

Is Jim Jones the work of Francis MacNamara? The evidence in the song itself suggests it is at least possible ... its uncompromising defiance, its unusual construction, the absence of any moralising conclusion. The first three verses, threats in the voice of the English judge, the next three of description, defiance and retribution in the voice of the prisoner. The song is set to an Irish tune Irish Molly O, a tune MacNamara would certainly have known. The verses can certainly sound Irish when read aloud. Interesting that such a dramatic song was never discovered in the field and although it has been attributed to MacNamara, perhaps it was written by MacAlister although he does not claim it. MacNamara often put the names of his heroes (and his enemies) in his verse in this case Jack Donahoe and Jim Jones. MacNamara was arrested in 1842 with four other prisoners including John Jones and was transported for a second time to Van Diemen's Land where he would have heard convict ballads and stories, vibrant source material for the poetry of a man who regularly declaimed:

                                 My name is Frank MacNamara
                                 A native of Cashel, County Tipperary
                                 Sworn to be a Tyrant's foe
                                 And while I live I'll crow