Convicted And Banished From Ireland

 For many years some Australians were not necessarily all that keen on seeking out their genealogical roots. Too often the search would reveal ancestors who were prisoners transported to Australia from England for various crimes, both serious and minor.  Considering that transportation to Australia existed as a form of punishment from 1787 to 1851, grandparents and great grandparents in Australia could, until recent decades, have had a convict past that they preferred to remain hidden.  Although once considered a shameful family secret, claims to convict ancestry for some now seem to add a certain cachet to one’s family line.

Our family, although in Canada, is also able to remotely claim convict ancestry in Australia.  I have previously written about Sam Gray (1782-1848) of Ballybay, Ireland, a notorious religiously intolerant bully and local enforcer who ended up in constant scrapes with the law.  Relationship to him is through James Hutchison (1901-1988), maternal grandfather to my sons.  James’ maternal grandmother Florinda Gray (1840-1920) was, according to family lore she passed on, a niece of the loathsome Sam.

The previously written Sam Gray article makes makes a made brief reference to Sam’s son James Gray who was transported to Australia.  Online archival sources have since been of significant assistance in fleshing out more of his story.   

James Gray was one of the Duke of Richmond’s 111 all male convict passengers when it sailed from Dublin September 21, 1843, all of whom landed safely in Hobart 103 days later on January 2, 1844.  At first blush, James Gray, born in 1820 in Ballybay, County Monaghan would seem to have been an unlikely candidate to bear the stigma of being a transported convict.  He had been a twenty-two year old law student at the time of his July 15, 1843 trial for subornation of perjury.  Loyalty to his father had, however, in the end outweighed any regard for ethical conduct or respect for the law that one would expect of an aspiring lawyer. 

James’ father Sam Gray was an intolerant Orangeman, loan collector, cheat, and ruffian who in many ways “ran” the town of Ballybay.  In 1843, once again in conflict with the law, Sam was arrested and in custody for allegedly having discharged a firearm at another.   In an effort to secure bail for his father, James, with misguided loyalty, arranged for an acquaintance to personate  doctor and falsely swear an affidavit that his father’s supposed poor health could not withstand the rigours of incarceration pending trial.  The hope had been that this would tip the balance in favour of his father being admitted to bail pending trial "to enjoy the care of family and servants".  After James’ role in the affair was discovered by authorities, he was tried in Dublin, found guilty, and sentenced to one month in prison followed by transportation abroad for seven years for his role in procuring the perjured affidavit.

Meticulously kept convict registers of the time describe James as a five feet, seven and one half inches tall brown whiskered twenty-two year old first offender.  Apparently somewhat of a model prisoner, James rather surprisingly at some stage during in his early years as a prisoner even supported the Governor in opposing the then growing movement favouring abolition of the policy of transportation — the very practice responsible for his presence in Tasmania.  A local newspaper had unflatteringly described such abolition protests events as involving "mobs of convicts organised in support of the Governor." The newspaper went on to say that supporters included "a miscreant called Gray, son of the Monaghan murderer of that name and himself transported for forgery … the mob leader".  

With James's conduct as a prisoner noted as exemplary, he nanaged to receive his ticket-of-leave in 1847, just some three years after his arrival.  The next year, as was then required when wanting to marry, he sought and received permission to marry Mary Newton, a “free woman”.  After their April 29, 1848 marriage, he subsequently then received his own certificate of freedom in 1853. 

James Gray In Later Life 

James, just as he had been a model prisoner, went on to be a model citizen, becoming first a successful civil servant as Director of Roads and eventually a member of the Tasmanian parliament.  He served West Hobart from 1872 to 1877 and Sorell from 1882 to 1889.  An ardent Irishman who named his Davey street home Ulster Lodge, it was written at the time of his death that James was noted for his eloquence, habitual anti-government stance, and devotion to causes of the underprivileged.  James died in office on January 21, 1889 and is buried in Hobart’s Cornelian Bay Cemetery.  Despite his shameful behaviour as a young man which led to his banishment to Tasmania, James’ story in the end is one of redemption.

One of James Gray’s first cousins, the previously mentioned Florinda Gray, great grandmother to my sons, immigrated to Canada about 1880.   Despite the tenuous family relationship my children have with James (first cousin four times removed), a snippet of Australian convict heritage is still theirs to claim should they wish to do so.   

David Arntfield