I pulled out my unorganised records and found the little information I had on him. Martin Cupit, my maternal Grandmother's grandfather. On scanning my records, I spy a mention that her (my grandmother) other grandfather was born at the Cascade Female Factory. Presumably this means his mother was a convict and it starts me on my search for his mother, Eliza Rose.
Just to put her in a little context, Eliza was one of the 12,500 female convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1803 to 1853. Approx half of these women were Irish.
These women were tried in Ireland and shipped off to the other side of the world, often with one or two children in tow. Once docked in Hobart, the women were disembarked and they were trekked on foot, early in the morning ( to avoid mixing with the respectable locals) the few miles to the Female Factory, which was situated quite nicely out of town under the shadow of the mountain by the rivulet. Here they were processed, set to work and had their children taken from them. The children were sent to the Queen's orphanage in New Town. For many, it would be unlikely they would ever be reunited.
For many Tasmanians, like me, its difficult to remove yourself from the sterotype and almost caricature of the convict. We grew up in the era when the convict stain was lifting from the fabric of our families' stories. We would pull the dirty linen from the closet and wear it as a bit of a badge of honour to state we had a convict in our past, but having very little understanding of what this really meant.
Convicts in New Holland 1793 Wikipedia convicts in Australia
Back to Eliza. Eliza arrived in Hobart on 15 December 1842 on the Waverley. On processing and the beginning of her record, it states she had one child with her. Five days later that child, Emily, age 4 is admitted to the Orphanage. I can't imagine the horror and heartbreak of saying goodbye to your child in such a way. And for the children, the trauma of maternal deprivation and subsequent institutionalization in such a dreadful place as this.
"There were 463 children at the institution, of whom 411 were the children of convicts and seven were Aboriginal. Reports indicate that conditions within the school were harsh: the buildings were sparsely furnished and cold; food was often in short supply; and many of those responsible for caring for the children treated them harshly. Epidemics of scarlet fever, measles , whooping cough and scarletina exacted a heavy toll amoung the children in the Orphan School."
Orphan School source ABC.net.au
Eliza was probably in some sort of service when she conceived her fourth child. The father's identity and the circumstances can never be known. Her record shows a few misdemeanors (more in Part II ), but back to the female factory for her to have her baby. After her final punishment of the crime of 'getting pregnant' she was a Class 3 inmate, the worst, and was sentenced to heavy labour, the bleakest corner of the Factory where the solitary cells and the wash yard were placed. The women washed and ironed for themselves, the staff and the citizens of Hobart. This meant carting water, heating it, scrubbing the heavy clothes, drying and heating and handling the heavy irons. How they dried the clothes through winter is a mystery.
The Factory is a fascinating place to visit. The day I went was sunny but cold. I wasn't sure where it was and I ended up following a rubbish truck. This was my first clue that I was in the right place and the history of the factory. Situated at the Hobart Tip, indicative of the attitude of the then society's wishes as to how to deal with these women. They were the lowest of the low and its taken many years to lift the social amnesia and banishment of these women from our memories and stories. Not only were they banished from their homeland, but then banished from their families stories and memory. These women were the mothers and founders of thousands and thousands of Tasmanians and Australians who built our heritage. The site of the factory had been forgotten and gradually degraded over the decades until it was saved from complete demolition in the 1960's by the National Council of Women of Tas. It had been the "ultimate act of erasing the suffering of convict women from the historical record" to quote Christina Henri.
The death of 1148 babies between 1829-1856 who are buried somewhere under a road outside the factory, inspired Christina Henri to start her baby bonnet project which grew into the Roses from the Heart project which aims to commemorate every convict woman with a replica bonnet.
Needless to say, now I know more of Eliza's life, I will be making her a bonnet.
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a sea of bonnets: Sew Make Believe.wordpress.com
References:
linc tas names search/convicts
Female Convicts Research Centre Inc
Friends of the Orphan School orphanschool.org.au
Christina Henri. Redeeming Memories a visual investigation into the lives of convict women
Thanks for writing this.. tonight I've just discovered Eliza Rose is my 5 x great grandmother.
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