Who were the First Fleeters

 

By F.F. Warren White

 

Most of you would know what I am talking about when I speak of “The First Fleet”.

 

This was a fleet of 11 sailing ships that set out from Portsmouth in England on Sunday May 13th 1787 for an epic journey to a pretty well unknown country. This was way to the South East then known as “New Holland, to form a penal colony.

The Journey lasted 8 months and travelled from England to

Rio De Janero in South America, across the Atlantic to Cape Town and then across the Southern Ocean to arrive at Botany Bay on l8th January 1788.

 

The fleet commenced the journey with 1530 people. 1483 people reached Sydney Cove.

This was an amazing feat for those days. It meant that only 47 people died, escaped or went missing during the whole voyage, a credit to the commander Captain Arthur Philip who maintained a strict health and cleanliness order throughout the voyage.

 

Remember of course that in those days there was no such thing as

communications once the fleet disappeared over the horizon,. no phones, no radios..nothing. They were on their own.

 

There were 775 convicts. 587 males and 188 females. The balance being Officers, Sailors and Marines and their families.

 

Now who were these convicts and why were they sent from one side of the world to an unknown country on the other side of the world?

 

To answer this we need to go back to 1688 when James 2nd was virtually knocked off the throne by a group of powerful businessmen in England.

 

England became a tyrannous country ruled by the landed gentry. They got rid hundreds of thousands of rural workers who were forced to try to find work in the cities, during what has been called “The Industrial Revolution”.

 

During this “Revolution” The population of England increased alarmingly.

In 1700 the population was 5 million. In the next 50 years it rose to 6 million and in 1800 it was 9 million people. The country just could not handle its own population. On top of that, the class system became much worse so that the upper class just could not or would not understand the problems of the lower classes.

 

The lower classes were literally starving! They had no money for food or clothing and so they just had to steal to survive.

 

There was no such thing as the dole or pensions or any type of government assistance. That was just not thought of. If you were caught stealing you were punished.

 

Depending on the extent of the crime the offender could be beaten, jailed or even hanged!

 

If a man was jailed or hanged, no thought was given to the plight of his wife or family, they just had to survive the best way they could, by also stealing to live.

 

So the jails filled up. Then at last the government found an easy way to clean out the jails and make some money for the treasury... and that was to sell the convicts to the Americans as slaves.

 

We seem to think that all the slaves in America were blacks. Not so.. there were as many white slaves as blacks in America before the American Revolution.

The only difference was that the white slaves were given their freedom after 3 to 7 years. They could make new start in a new country.

 

This appealed to the downtrodden masses back in England and many people manufactured their own capture for the chance of being arrested for a petty crime with the hope of being transported to the Americas for a short time so that they could gain their freedom and break away from a society that was corrupt and cruel.

 

One such “criminal” was Anthony Rope. At age 26 he was convicted of stealing clothing valued at 35 shillings from his employer. He was arrested and spent a year in jail, awaiting trial.

 

In 1775 the American revolution broke out closing that avenue to dispose of unwanted convicts. The surplus prisoners were housed in old boats called “Hulks” in the rivers and harbours of England awaiting a suitable place to send them to.

 

Anthony was housed in one of these Hulks on the Thames and was put to work constructing roads in the district.

 

The jails were filling up and there was nowhere to put anybody. A study has been made of the conditions of these jails, it would make your hair stand on end.

 

A young woman, Elizabeth Pulley was one of these unfortunate people. She had been in and out of trouble with the law since she was age 15 and had been jailed a number of times for various “petty” crimes. At age 26 she was tried for the crime of stealing food and 2 rolls of worsted valued at at 8 shillings and 5 pence. She was sentenced to hang but her sentence was commuted to 7 years transportation...

 

Where to?

 

On 13th May 1787 Elizabeth was loaded aboard the sailing ship, The Friendship together with 120 other convicts and Anthony was loaded aboard the Alexander with 200 other convicts and they started their journey in the First Fleet to a new life at Botany Bay.

 

It is another story to tell you the trials and tribulations and the mischief that Elizabeth got up to with another 4 Elizabeth’s on that trip.

 

She was a real wild young lady and the 5 Elizabeths as they were known were repeatedly punished, whipped and put in irons on many occasions before they reached Cape Town. At Cape Town they were off loaded and spent the rest of the journey to Australia on the Lady Penrhyn. They quietened down and very little was reported about their doings until they reached their destination.

 

Anthony Rope must have been an ideal convict as nothing was written about his journey.

 

As you all know, Botany Bay was found to be most unsuitable for forming a new colony and so the whole fleet sailed north to Port Jackson, now called Sydney Harbour and anchored there on 25th January 1788.

 

The next day the 26th January Captain Philip and his officers conducted a flag raising ceremony proclaiming the east coast of New Holland as a British Territory.

 

Each year we celebrate this day as Australia bay. The whole country was renamed Australia following representation submitted by Mathew Flinders some 36 years later in 1824.

 

Anthony and other trusted male convicts were put to work erecting barracks and living quarters for the convicts and erecting makeshift accommodation for the Officers and their families.

 

In the meantime the other convicts, including all the female convicts were confined to the ships anchored in Sydney Harbour. Could you imagine how hot and stifling it must have been at that time of the year, particularly when their clothing was mostly heavy worsted material. It must have been unbearable.

On 12th February the convicts were all offloaded to be housed in their separate compounds. Men in one and women in the other. However all good plans of mice and men can sometimes fail.

 

A tremendous storm broke over the camp, completely flattening the compounds allowing the men and women convicts, the marines and anybody else who was so inclined to mix in and join in the greatest orgy that could be imagined. It became completely uncontrollable.

 

That is where Anthony Rope and Elizabeth Pulley met. They were married in a mass wedding ceremony conducted by Rev Richard Johnson on 19th May 1788.

 

Anthony was brought before the court on 25th May, to answer to the charge of killing a goat owned by Lieutenant G. Johnston valued at 6 shillings. The meat was used in a “Sea Pye” to celebrate their wedding. Anthony claimed he found the goat dead along a track and that it had been mauled by a wild animal but the meat was still sweet.

 

Luckily he was acquitted, as a charge like that could have led to hanging or years of hard labour. If that had have happened I would

not be here.

 

You see, our family came from their second child a daughter, Mary Rope who grew up to marry James Tobias Ryan a free Irish settler, and my family came down that line. So that is how we can claim to be descendants of First Fleeters.

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