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1808: Saturday 6 February, 1808: American Capt. Mayhew Folger in Topaz is off Pitcairn Island and thinks he sees smoke. He is surprised as he thought Cataret had described the island as unpopulated. Not until after February 1808, was it known that Pitcairn Island had become Fletcher Christian's hideaway.
See Robert V. J. Varman, The Bounty-Tahitian Genealogies of Pitcairn Island descendants on Norfolk Island. Central Coast, NSW, 1992

Shelton's Contract, No. 30, dated 22 March 1808, account with William Wilson, for Speke, 98 convicts. Shelton charged £117/11/-.
Speke I (1), 473 tons, Capt. John Hingston, surgeon J. Macmillan. Departing Falmouth on 18 May, 1808 - Arriving Sydney 18 November 1808. (Counting Royal Admiral 2, this was Wilson's second attempt at contracting.)

1808: (Shelton's Contract No. 31, taken with Messrs Buckle and Boyd, in the ship Admiral Gambier. And Eolus. Dated 22 June, 1808, 278 convicts, Shelton charged £383/6/6d to make the contract. Departing 2 July 1808: Arriving - (Something is known of the genealogy of Buckle here, but not of Boyd.)

1808: Shelton's Contract No 31, taken with Messrs Buckle and Boyd, in the ship Admiral Gambier 1. (And Aeolus?) Dated 22 June, 1808, 278 convicts. Shelton charged £383/6/6d. Departing 2 July 1808 - Arriving Sydney 20 December 1808.

Departing 2 July, 1808 from Portsmouth, convict ship Admiral Gambier (1), Capt Edward Harrison, possibly for Buckles, 501 tons, Capt. Edward Harrison - Arriving Sydney 20 December, 1808. Contractors, Buckle and Boyd. Shelton's Contract No. 31 dated 22 June, 1808, for 278 convicts.

1808: Late 1808 departed from, unknown, convict ship Aeolus 289 tons, Capt. Robert Addie - Arriving Sydney 26 January, 1809. Possible contractors were Buckle and Boyd.

1809: Convict ship Experiment II, contractor, P. E. Mestears (Peter Evet, of London), 146 tons, built Georgia, Capt. Joseph Dodds, surgeon unlisted. Departing from Cork, 21 January, 1809 - Arriving Sydney 25 June, 1809. She early sailed from Cork with a West India convoy.

1809: Convict ship Indispensable 2, 350 tons. Capt. Hy Best, surgeon William Evans. Departing 2 March 1809 - Arriving Sydney 18 August, 1809. Indispensable, Contractor, whaler of Blackheath, Daniel Bennett. Shelton Contract No. 32, with Bennett dated 24 February, 1809, for 62 convicts.

1809: Convict ship Boyd, 392 tons. Capt. Jn. Thompson. Surgeon unnamed. Departing from Cork, 2/3 March, 1809 - Arriving 14 August, 1809. The contract does not appear to have been made out by Shelton.

1809: Shelton's Contract No 33, with Messrs Buckle and Boyd, their second contract, dated 12 August, 1809, for ship Ann 2. Capt. Charles Clarke, 221 convicts. Shelton charged £298/17/6d. Departing late 1809 - Arriving Sydney 27 February, 1810. Owner unknown, surgeon unlisted, no other details. (Pemberton has suggested the owners or contractors may have been J. & W. Jacob (?) She sailed from NSW with some wool cargo. (Pemberton, The London Connection, pp. 420ff.)

1809: London Docks: Joseph Moore acquired what became Lady Dock, part of Surry Commercial Docks.

Convict and other ships 1810-1820 to Australia

Continued....

1810: Shelton's Contract No 34, contract with George Faith (an unknown name), ship Canada 2, dated 3 March, 1810, for 135 convicts. Shelton charged £245/8/-. Departing 23 March, 1810, from England, 393 tons, owned Reeve and Green, Capt. John B. Ward, surgeon unlisted. Arriving Sydney 8 September, 1810.

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1810: Shelton's Contract No. 35, with George Garnett Huske Mannings/Munnings, Esqr. (an unknown name), for ship Indian, dated 5 July, 1810 for one man only. Otherwise, for 276 convicts. Shelton charged £253/12/2d. Indian, 522 tons, Capt. Andrew Barclay, destined for more such voyages; surgeon Maine, Departing 18 July 1810 - Arriving 16 December, 1810. The last convict ship departing in 1810.

1820s: Capt John Coghill. He began working life as a mariner for Browns in the country trade in India. He argued with Browns, then arranged to sail to Australia for Buckles, Bagster and Buchanan of London, with whom he also ended in dispute. He made four voyages to NSW in the convict transport Mangles, in 1820, 1822, 1824 and 1826. A property owner, he was elected an MLC for NSW, and became a director and shareholder of Bank of Australia, suffering by its collapse in 1843. By 1829, John had brought out his brother William and his family to assist with NSW property management. In 1838 John helped finance one of the first overland expeditions to Port Phillip in partnership with John Hepburn of Smeaton Hills near Creswick in Victoria. Coghill had a young nephew, Donald Coghill, whom he brought to NSW, only to exploit the lad as an employee. Capt. John Coghill, wife unknown, had four daughters. (See Christine Wright, '"Rogues and Fools": John Coghill and the convict system in New South Wales', Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 3, No. 2, October 2001., pp. 38-60. Pemberton, London Connection, p. 67.)

More to come here (work-in-progress)

Stop press for late entries

See also, Marjorie Tipping, Convicts Unbound: The Story of the Calcutta Convicts and their Settlement in Australia. South Yarra, Vic., Viking O'Neil, 1988.

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