Next club meeting Monday 7th March 2016.

Notices

 

 

 

February Meeting

At the February meeting we had a really good turnout to hear Tim Millet tell us all about Convict Tokens. To begin with Tim told us how he became interested in engraved pieces and how when he worked at Baldwin’s nobody was interested in defaced junk so he was able to secure such pieces for very little money. He explained that most pieces occur on copper cartwheels & halfpenny trade tokens since copper is soft and easy to engrave. The early pieces (pre 1800) tend to be engraved while the later ones tend to be nail punched.

By the mid 1700’s public opinion began to react to people being hanged for petty crimes, mostly for offences concerning property. Any crime associated with a value over 40/- automatically carried the death penalty. Consequently many criminal records show values were deliberately adjusted to 39/-.

Faced with an ever increasing number of prisoners the authorities were looking for a solution and hit upon the idea of transportation. While many prisoners thus avoided being hanged, being told they were being sent to far away unknown lands was a terrifying prospect. Tim showed a print of the times showing offenders being rowed to the holding hulks. Depicted in the background are gallows giving the message is ‘better to be transported than hanged’.

Initially (circa 1760) convicts were sent to the plantations in the Africa, Caribbean & the USA. To make more money the transport ships did a round trip, carrying slaves in appalling conditions. Similarly in the early days of transportation the contract with the ships only defined delivery, not whether dead of alive. Consequently many died and only much later following one very harrowing incident did public opinion curb this barbaric trade.

From circa 1790 and after the Napoleonic wars convicts were mainly sent to Australia where early life was quite brutal. Some businesses were set up, such as timber for the Navy and developing an infrastructure, involving much hard labour. Surprisingly by the mid Victorian times a semblance of normality prevailed with proper governance and some inhabitants developed successful careers and businesses. From circa 1770 to 1845 some 168,000 persons were transported, 10% being women. Life for these women could be particularly traumatic with lots of men looking for creature comforts.

As transportation practically ceased during the period of the Napoleonic wars the majority must have been transported in the final 30 years of the trade, a huge number by any measure. The gold rush of the 1840’s saw a large number of legitimate souls wanting to get to Australia and this effectively saw the end of transportation.

Many of the pertinent records of the time concerned Newgate prison, where after being found guilty, offenders were held. The Governor of the time has left us with a report on the prison that includes comments on daily life and transportation. Life in prison was quite unruly, with frequent quarrels and altercations. He tells how prisoners were taken to redundant navy hulks and held in inhumane circumstances prior to being transferred to the transportation ships. However, while at Newgate family members were allowed to visit and it is during these visits that the transportation tokens were given out. The report includes details of this business and how the tokens were made. Clearly they could be ordered, some being more sophisticated than others. The basic ones are merely nailed punched words, occasionally poetic, but the better ones have idyllic scenes. It is possible to identify differing tokens done by the same hand and the same offender giving remember tokens to several women

Having given much background information Tim then showed several examples of actual tokens. In the 1700’s the Navy was quite popular with the public and so naval images were quite common. Thus the early engraved tokens tend to be ‘Sailors Farewell’ keepsakes to remind love ones of their beloved serving far away. Such tokens tend to be engraved & depict a sailor and lady holding hands, saying goodbye or walking in idyllic surroundings. The transport tokens tend to be nailed punched and more often with just words saying ‘Remember Me’. Sometimes on these tokens the name has been defaced, presumably to avoid the recipient being embarrassed when in a later relationship.

To conclude Tim showed several tokens and told the stories of the poor offenders. These included Thomas Alsop’s token to his mother and who strangled a sheep but was caught covered in blood. A token by a daughter to her farther and another from a lady (Mary Whitlock) who had a wretched life fuelled by drink, the thief David Bates and a Mr Banbury. This latter individual was particularly interesting as he was one of the last ‘Luddites’ convicted of destroying a factory & machinery. Sentenced to death, but commuted to transportation, he made good in Australia and became a big landowner. His descendant became Governor of Tasmania. It is stories like this that make these defaced pieces so interesting and why now they are so eagerly sought.

Many thanks to Tim for a very interesting talk.

 

Future Events.

Past Events

·         40 years ago D Crowther spoke to members on some old coin auctions.

·         In 1976 ago members were given much background information on the prevailing political events in a talk entitled "Political tokens of the turbulent 1790's".

·         In 1986 a club bourse was held.

·         In 2006, the February meeting was the annual auction.

Club Secretary.