Whitley: Some Random Reminiscences

From Some Random Reminiscences Lower Hunter River 1855-1857 by Thomas Whitley

The Australian Agricultural Company has recently found a historian of its 50 years of existence between 1824-1875, when the author, Mr Gregson, officiated as General Superintendent 1876-1905. The company is merely glanced at in these sheets principally from having employed the labor of a number of servants assigned from the government. Among them was one long remembered by his survivors in the district. Mr Holdstock, in 1857, having business occasions at Stroud, becoming detained from misarrangement and finding several hours unoccupied, sought out an “ Old Hand “ – a relic of the past – who had been a fellow-assignment with the person above referred to, ‘Frank the Poet’ known in his ‘Company’ name as Goddard; but, presumably later, as Frank Macnamara. Holdstock induced this ancient, who was wholly illiterate but possessed of good memory, to select a master-piece from his repertory of the ‘Poet’s’ productions for recitation. The ‘Tour to Hell’ became thus transcribed, and its loan conferred upon the return from Stroud. Some items of light revision, ‘Oscar for Uskett, etc.,etc., were necessary, of course, in such circumstances, and the following copy is direct in descent from that so obtained and made in my own hand. Macnamara is said to have been a lame man, dying in Sydney, about 1853.

Some Random Reminiscences p.15

Occasional reference to Frank the Poet is met with, indicating that other specimens are extant, but giving no clue of access to them. It is remarkable that the lapse of so many years has (added) no other to the specimen captured by Holdstock. An article touching on the composition and singing of old Bush Ballads-- of which only an undated fragment can be referred to--appeared in a Sydney Bulletin many years ago, and incidentally mentions the "Poet", thus– "At the station hut... the nasal quaver of the "Old Hand" might be heard as he vaunted the glories of some old time bushranger 
       Who was hunted up and down my boys, 
       Like an old man kangaroo 
       But I'll fight 'em ten to one, says he 
       Says Bold Jack Donohue. 
Or, perhaps as he gives a doggerel reminiscence of the ill-famed island-prison denounced in Frank the Poet's scathing valediction, as 
       Squatters' home and prisoners' hell 
       Land of Sodom, fare thee well. 
where 
       They yoke us up like horses, 
       All in Van Diemens Land.

see Cultural Collections, University of Newcastle's photostream

Seizure of the "Cyprus Brig" in Recherche Bay

A Song by Francis MacNamara

Thomas Whitley transcription 1891 State Library NSW

Came all you sons of freedom, a chorus join with me,
I'll sing a song of heroes, and glorious liberty.
Some lads condemn'd from England sail'd to Van Diemen's shore.
Their country, friends and parents, perhaps never to see more.

When landed in this Colony to different masters went,
For trifling offences, to Hobart Town Gaol were sent,
A second sentence being incurr'd we were order'd for to be
Sent to Macquarie Harbour, that place of tyranny.

The hardships we'd to undergo, are matters of record,
But who believes the convict, or who regards his word?
For starv'd and flogg'd and punish'd, depriv'd of all redress,
The Bush our only refuge, with death to end distress.

Hundreds of us were shot down, for daring to be free,
Numbers caught and banished, to life-long slavery.
Brave Swallow, Watt, and Davis, were in our noble band
Determin'd at the first slant, to quit Van Diemen's Land.

March'd down in chains and guarded, on the Cyprus Brig convey'd,
The topsails being hoisted, the anchor being weighed.
The wind it blew sou sou' west and on we went straightway,
Till we found ourselves wind bound, in gloomy Recherche Bay.

Twas August eighteen twenty nine, with thirty one on board,
Lieutenant Carew left the Brig, and soon we passed the word.
The Doctor too was absent, the soldiers off their guard,
A better opportunity could never have occurred.

Confined within a dismal hole, we soon contriv'd a plan,
To capture now the "Cyprus", or perish every man,
But thirteen turn'd faint-hearted and begged to go ashore,
So eighteen boys rush'd daring, and took the Brig and store.

We first address'd the soldiers "for liberty we crave,
Give up your arms this instant, or the sea will be your grave.
By tyranny we've been oppress'd, by your Colonial laws,
But we'll bid adieu to slavery, or die in freedom's cause."

We next drove off the Skipper, who came to help his crew,
Then gave three cheers for liberty, 'twas answer'd cheerly too.
We brought the sailors from below, and rowed them to the land,
Likewise the wife and children of Carew in command.

Supplies of food and water, we gave the vanquish'd crew,
Returning good for evil, as we'd been taught to do.
We mounted guard with watch and ward, then haul'd the boat aboard
We elected William Swallow, and obeyed our Captain's word.

The morn broke bright, the wind was fair, we headed for the sea
With one cheer more to those on shore and glorious liberty.
For navigating smartly Bill Swallow was the man,
Who laid a course out neatly to take us to Japan.

Then sound your golden trumpets, play on your tuneful notes
The "Cyprus Brig" is sailing, how proudly now she floats.
May fortune help the noble lads, and keep them ever free
From Gags, and Cats, and Chains and traps, and Cruel Tyranny.

Notes

The two-masted Cyprus Brig can be seen in this fragment of Augustus Earle's 1825 "Panorama of Hobart"
The brig is the second vessel to the right of the flag pole. (Dixson Galleries, State Library of NSW)

The Cyprus Brig was rebuilt by convicts in 1825 at Macquarie Harbour, the 'Gates of Hell'. The brig was seized and used for escape by other convicts in Recherche Bay, August 1829. Naturally this escape story was a favourite of Tasmanian prisoners. MacNamara would have certainly heard this story during his time in Tasmania, it has many of the hallmarks of his writing where 'record' can rhyme with 'word' (especially for an Irish voice) and the ballad shows no hint of retreat from fierce support for rebellion and condemnation of tyranny.)

Recently the historian Nick Russell discovered that the convict story of their visit to Japan in 1830 was verified by a Japanese painter of the time as shown in the image below

Watercolour picture of a British-flagged ship that arrived off the coast of Mugi, in Shikoku, Japan, by the Samurai Hamaguchi.

Photograph: Tokushima prefectural archive

Read More in the Guardian 

In his  History of Tasmania (1845) John West seems to have heard at least the first line of MacNamara's ballad "Came all you sons of freedom, a chorus join with me"

West wrote:

The capture of the Cyprus in Recherche Bay, on the voyage to Macquarie Harbour, was a stiring episode in the history of transportation. It excited vast interest in Great Britain, and was dramatised at a London theatre. The prisoners, who wage war with society, regarded the event with exultation; and long after, a song, composed by a sympathising poet, was propagated by oral tradition, and sung in chorus around the fires in the interior. This version of the story made the capture a triumph of the oppressed over the oppressors. The stanzas set forth the suffering of the prisoners by the cruelty of their masters, who they daily attempted to please. It related their flight from torture to the woods, and drew but a dreary picture of the life of an outlaw. It passed through the details of conviction and embarkation, and then described the dashing seamanship of the pirates in managing the bark, once destined to carry them to that place of suffering; but which bore "bold Captain Swallow", to the wide ocean and liberty.

See Thomas Whitley notes about MacNamara
See also Cyprus Brig sighting: Sydney Gazette (1829)
Listen to Jack Davies sing the Cyprus Brig from a 1961 field recording

Francis MacNamara's Convict Record

MacNamara's hand written Tasmanian record reads:

2558 McNamara Francis Eliza (2) and Waterlily 29 Oct 1842

Extracts from Sydney Records Arrived 8 Sept 1832 was tried at Killkenny 15 February 1832 for Stealing Sentd. 7 Years 24 June 1833 50 Lashes absconding from duty 1 July 1833 1 month TreadWheels disgraceful conduct August 1833 12 months Irons absconding 2 times 1 February 1834 23 Lashes for having stolen shirt 3 March 1834 75 Lashes Insubordinate Conduct January 26 1835 3 days of Cells absent from duty 18 February 1835 25 Lashes disobedience of orders 9 March 1835 100 Lashes obscene Language 15 April 1835 12 Months Irons assaulting a Constable May 16 1835 36 Lashes refusing to work & insolence 8 June 1835 50 Lashes Threatening language 8 August 1835 70 Lashes destroying Govt property 31 Oct 1835 36 Lashes destroying a Govt Cart 14 Dec 1835 50 Lashes refusing to work 26 March 1836 25 Lashes neglect of work 15 August 1836 10 days Cells found drunk 4 January 1840 50 Lashes Mutinous Conduct was again tried at the Assizes of Sydney on the 8 July 1842 for being at large with fire arms on his person and sentenced to be transported for Life Single Roman Catholic 25 Sept 1843 pwl Disobedce of Orders 7 days solitary confinement

[ Original online - Archives Office of Tasmania – digitised record Item: CON31-1-32 ]

Notes

The floggings carefully recorded above show that in his first ten years in New South Wales MacNamara received a total of 590 lashes in 12 separate floggings.

Joseph Lycett : Hyde Park Barracks (Frank the Poet 'did time' here)
Courtesy National Library of Australia

On receiving sentence in Kilkenny MacNamara responded with an epigram

I dread not the dangers by land or by sea

That I'll meet on my voyage to Botany Bay

My labours are over, my vocation is past

And 'tis I'll rest easy, and happy at last

He certainly didn't envisage what was in store for him for the next decade! He was originally transported for seven years for stealing a piece of plaid, ten years later, having suffered from the brutal treatment enumerated above he was then transported for life to Van Diemen's Land. This second sentence was commuted to ten years then to seven and, after he gained his freedom (1849) he left Launceston for Portland.