As the London spring began to take away the winter chill George Seymour remained in the overcrowded Newgate prison for some weeks. Then he and the other prisoners were shackled and chained together, loaded into boats and rowed down the river to Sheerness and the decaying hulk of the once proud Bellerophon, the warship whose decks saw the surrender of Napoleon Bonaparte. Here, as punishment, they laboured waist deep in the muddy waters of the Thames on dock-works and other tasks while waiting for their transport to Botany Bay.

At the end of summer the newly fitted out transport Asia was ready for its human cargo. Almost two hundred shackled prisoners clambered aboard their new home as best they could. Once on board, the crew handed them a straw mattress and a blanket. They stumbled down to the storage decks, which the carpenters had turned into a prison. Although the season was the end of summer charcoal braziers might have been lit below deck to dry out the timbers, despite the ever-present risk of fire.

Transportation was not to be taken lightly. In those years it meant a four month journey across the world’s oceans to the other side of the world. Sometimes ships disappeared without trace. Disease was inevitable; the deadly trio of typhus, bloody fluxes and after months at sea scurvy could kill. Not everyone lived to see the end of the journey.

Some days later all the other cargo was loaded, the ship was ready and the tide was right. Her master gave his orders through the mate and other officers, the sailors laboured at their tasks. Asia began to move down the estuary on the beginning of a journey that would not see it return to England for the best part of a year.

The blacksmith went in among the prisoners and struck off their irons. They were no threat to crew or to society when locked below deck.

Once out of sight of land, according to usual practice batches of the convicts were allowed to come on deck for fresh air and exercise. On the first stage Asia’s course lay south and west through the Atlantic into the tropics towards South America

The ship likely made a stopover in Rio or another port in Brazil for fruit and vegetables to supplement the monotonous diet of salt meat and ships biscuit. The combination of exercise and fresh fruit account for the fact that only one person died during the journey.

Once re-supplied Morice set course south through the Atlantic towards the colder waters of the southern ocean, where strong easterly winds circled the globe almost uninterrupted. The cold and howling gales of the roaring forties had been used in the time of the Dutch navigators of the 1600’s to hasten their journey to Batavia. The same winds were used by the British to reach its settlements on the east coast of what was now Australia.

For a few weeks the convicts were unable to have their fresh air and exercise because of the rolling and pitching of the ship in the heavy seas. Their discomfort was increased as water sloshed over the deck and oozed down through cracks in the decks above. In time, bedding and clothing became dripping wet. When the master turned his ship northwards there must have been a collective sigh from crew, convicts and their guards alike. The weather grew calmer as the ship made its way up the New South Wales Coast. Officers and the crew celebrated Christmas with an extra ration of grog.

Arrival

Asia sailed in through the heads and made her way down the harbour to Sydney Cove on the following Thursday. With shouts from the crew and the rattle of chains the ship dropped anchor. For almost the first time in months the constant rocking and pitching of the ship ceased. Over the next few days the crew and merchants and their workmen unloaded the ship’s cargo, delivered mail despatched to the colony all those months earlier. The convicts were not the highest priority. They were secure enough below deck and their feeding and other necessities taken care of by the crew.

Just over a week after Asia arrived the governor, Lachlan Macquarie, made his usual inspection of the ship and the convicts. He spoke to the officers, crew and some of the convicts to gauge their treatment and to hear any complaints.

As the convicts staggered ashore after their months at sea, they lined up stripped to the waist for inspection by government clerks. In their books they noted his height, the equivalent of 1.7m, that he had a pockmarked ruddy complexion, sandy hair and grey eyes. They recorded no scars or tattoos. They recorded that his religion was Protestant and his calling was harness maker. They ensured that the sessions date of his trial and the sentence were included in the documents.

Meanwhile after little more than a month spent refreshing supplies and reconfiguring the storage decks for transport of tea and other goods, Asia sailed out of Sydney for Indian ports and home.

Most of the population of the colony lived and worked in the many settlements established on more fertile soil at towns like Parramatta, the Hawkesbury settlements and even across the mountains at Bathurst and Argyle. However thousands still lived and worked around the port, especially on the east side of Sydney Cove. The area was a busy mercantile centre of wharfs, warehouses and stores. In Sydney Town itself an irregular grid of streets had evolved, with some prodding from the governor. Macquarie’s new Barracks for prisoners not assigned privately lay at the far end of Macquarie Street.

The official residence of the governor on the east side of the Tank Stream was an area popular with officers and people of the better kind but the governor spent more time at his other residence at Parramatta.

The aboriginal people of the Eora Nation were never common in the small area around Sydney Cove, Warrane they called it. They still lived on the outskirts of a town that had grown over three decades of white occupation and women of the Cammeraygal and other Eora clans still fished the harbour waters from bark canoes. During the day little plumes of smoke rose from their on-board fires. The native people were more common around the other settlements.

Assignment

Unlike many whose assignment was to private individuals, Colonial officials dispatched George to the New Lumber Yard.

Assignment was a lottery. A newly arrived convict might find his master harsh and unforgiving. Some discovered their master was a tough but good man, demanding hard labour but in his (or her) own way not giving cause for bitterness and personal resentment. Women convicts sometimes found themselves in the position of a common law wife, which might be a blessing or a curse.

The first lumber yard was established by Governor Phillip no more from a few hundred metres from Sydney Cove near what became Bridge Street, about where the later, heritage-listed Burns-Philp Building stands. By the time George Seymour arrived the original lumber yard had been superseded and moved to the outskirts of the town at Brickfield Hill.

Brickfield Hill: an evocative name, where in the early years bricks were baked for housing but much more for paving roads. The brick works were notorious as a place of hard labour for recalcitrant convicts. While the name Brickfield Hill survived into the 1960’s as an address within the city, the brickworks were long gone.

Transport of the products of the works to the road-works was in wagons hauled by oxen or handcarts pushed along the tracks by men.

The lumber yard and the barracks for the road-making gangs were near the brickworks and not far from the Sydney burial ground. It was a place of hard labour, and of punishment too, as many of the workers were twice-convicted criminals. They wore a peculiar uniform, half yellow and half black, and were often shackled together with leg irons. The Yard was government operated and those opposed to Governor Macquarie used the fact as a further grievance against him. Timber for the yard was felled in the vicinity of what is now Lane Cove and towed down river to Cockle Bay, whence it was dragged by manpower uphill to the yard.

While not in the class of the hardest convicts, it was unlikely that George could exercise his skills as a saddle and a harness maker. For him it was a place of hard, physical labour. Fortunately he was here for little more than a year. His food rations and clothing needs were supplied by the Colonial government.

Around this time there was an enquiry into the management of the government lumber yard under Major Druitt, an ally of the former governor, Macquarie. A man named Charles Ellis, an employee at the yard, had alleged Druitt was mismanaging the yard to his own profit. At the enquiry George Seymour was one of those called as a witness.

Soon afterwards the authorities reassigned him. His new master was James Blackman, who was one of those who prospered in the colony. He may be the free settler who arrived about 1804 or he might be the man who arrived with a seven year sentence about 1801. If he is the latter, by the time he received George as an assigned convict his term was long expired and he was a respectable inhabitant of the colony.

The Carters’ Barracks was near the brick-making yards and held those prisoners who deserved special punishment and pushed the hand carts. George’s assignment to Blackman lasted only a couple of months. This might be because soon afterwards his master moved across the mountains to settle at the developing inland settlements at Bathurst.

Another man who did well in the colony, Charles Wilkins was an emancipated convict. He arrived about six years before George, with a seven year sentence and with his own sentence expired could employ a convict servant. He probably employed George for his trade.

They lived in the Brickfield Hill area at first, but soon after moved to George Street, near Bridge Street. Here, they were neighbours of William and Sarah Steward, and their daughter Mary. In the middle of that year, Mary gave birth to a daughter, Selina.

A few weeks later the government issued a call for all residents of Sydney to attend a muster station. Of the people of interest to this story at this point the official recorded the following:

George Seymour Convict (Asia), servant to C Wilkins; Sarah Stewart came free (Kangaroo), wife to T Stuart (an obvious clerical error); Mary Stewart, age 18, [also] came free per Kangaroo, daughter to T Stuart and Selina Stewart, age 3 months, born in the colony, he recorded as the daughter to Charles Wilkins.

The attribution of paternity to Wilkins is most likely an understandable error by the muster officer. The father was almost certainly a soldier named Hugh Barns who died soon after Selina was born.

A single woman in Mary’s position was vulnerable, although not as much so as we might think in our times. For reasons now lost with the passing of time George decided that he and the young woman should marry, despite the difference in their ages of about ten years. Had he already married in London’s St Martin in the Fields Church near Trafalgar Square? If so, his wife was not in the colony and semi-official policy indicated that in such circumstances the spouse, being on the other side of the world, was as good as dead.

Accordingly he applied to the Colonial authorities for permission to marry Mary, who for reasons now unfathomable called herself Mary Yench.

Marriage and further assignment

On the three Sundays previous to the proposed marriage the minister of St Philip’s announced their names were from the pulpit (the banns were read) so that if any person knew of a reason why the couple should not marry they could speak up. The day after that last Sunday of October saw George and Mary standing before Richard Hill, who pronounced them man and wife.

A few months later, in the following year, the government re-assigned George to his father in law William Steward, who resided in Clarence Street. William ran into difficulties. Part of his obligation as the master of a convict was to pay contributions to the government for his servant’s services. Twice in the following year, William was named in the Colonial Secretary’s correspondence for being in arrears for his assigned convict mechanic, George Seymour (Sadler [sic], Asia, 1820).

About 1824 George and his wife lived at Windsor, still as an assigned convict. As a convict George could not carry on a business, although he was able to work for his own benefit. But Mary had two children now, and the Colonial authorities would assign a married convict of good behaviour to his wife. Accordingly, in the spring of 1825 he wrote his petition to Governor Brisbane humbly requesting that he be assigned to his wife. Local Justices of the Peace William Cox and John Brabyn endorsed the petition and John Cross also signed the document. The Governor, through the Colonial Secretary, quickly gave his assent and the 1825 Muster of the colony recognises the fact. He was still a convict, and liable to work for the government.

In the 1825 Muster, William Steward (Fortune) was free by servitude and was a house keeper at Sydney. Sarah Stewart [sic], her daughter Mary Stewart and granddaughter Selima [sic] Stewart age 3 years appear to have mustered at the Sydney station but it may be that the 1824 muster entry was not updated. George Seymour was still a convict but was now assigned to his wife at Windsor.

While still a government servant assigned to his wife George charged a man named Charles Kable who was a free settler with stealing a horse. After earlier hearings in lower courts, the case went to the highest court in the colony, the Supreme Criminal Court, which alone possessed the power of life and death over convicted criminals. The prosecutor and defendant, the lawyers, a jury of twelve men and court reporters for the few newspapers assembled in the courtroom. “All rise,” the clerk commanded as the Sir Francis Forbes in his robes and wig entered the room and took his place on his elevated throne.

The Sydney Gazette reported that the Attorney General had

presented an information against Charles Kable, charging him with stealing a horse, the property of George Seymour, at Windsor [...] From the evidence of [Seymour] it appeared, that on the night of the 23rd of May, he left the animal, the subject of the prosecution, together with five others, in an enclosed paddock, at a short distance from, and within sight of his dwelling. That, on the following morning, he found it had been taken away, in consequence of which he gave information to the district constable, and also published an advertisement offering a reward of £5 for any information that might lead to a discovery. He also went himself in search and amongst other places, he made some enquiries of the keeper of the Parramatta toll-gate, and from whom he received such intelligence as led him to make further enquiry of a person named Ellison, in Parramatta [who] informed him, that the prisoner, Kable, had offered to him a horse for sale, on the 24th of May, answering the description, in every respect, as to marks and age, of that which had been stolen.”

The newspaper reported further evidence for the prosecution regarding the theft and the attempt to sell the animal. Following the close of the prosecution, the defence put its case.

Kable’s lawyer Mr Rowe objected to the indictment on the ground that the prosecutor was not in law capable of holding property. He had admitted in his evidence that he was convicted of felony and sent to this country. The lawyer argued that, according to all ancient and modern authorities, persons in his situation were not capable of acquiring property, “until the blood was purged either by pardon, or by the expiration of the term for which they had been sentenced. They were for civil law purposes, legally deceased. He contended that the rule in civil law by which criminals could neither sue nor be sued equally governed criminal proceedings against a person by a convict. Therefore, Seymour’s indictment of Kable was unsupportable.

The Attorney General [Mr Saxe Bannister] rose to inform the judge, the parties, the jury and reporters that he would have to consider the situation. In reply the Chief Justice told those in the courtroom that he was unwilling to impede the course of justice on a mere technicality. He permitted the jury to consider its verdict. After consultation, without retiring, the foreman stood and announced the unanimous verdict of Guilty. The Chief Justice remanded the prisoner Kable until the legal point could be clarified.

The following week Mr Saxe Bannister reported that the incompetence of Seymour to prosecute was not relevant. Other parties could prosecute Kable, or it might be that the defendant stole a horse which was the property of the Crown. About seven weeks later, the prisoner stood once more before the Chief Justice, Mr Abbott, to hear his fate. Abbott pronounced a sentence of death.

Not long after this the Reverend Mr Meares complained that Seymour had acted towards him in a very unbecoming manner and that he had made a very disrespectful answer to him in the street. The case came before the Windsor Local Court. The defendant expressed contrition that he had been impertinent, and the complainant was satisfied. Further, the reverend gentleman put forward on George’s behalf mitigating circumstances relating to his previous master. The magistrate reminded him that because of the boon granted him of being assigned to his wife an unbecoming deportment was ungrateful in the extreme. He admonished the prisoner and discharged him.

The Colonial government passed laws in 1828 for a Census of the colony. In November of 1828 clerks, constables and other officials visited as many homes as they could. Among the many inhabitants of Windsor recorded by these officers were the Seymour family:

George, age 30, [Convict], ship Asia, 14 years, Protestant, occupation baker; Mary, age 24, came free, ship Kangaroo; Selina (now Seymour), age 6; George, age 2 and Kezia, age 3 months.

In addition to working with George and looking after her family Mary Seymour busied herself in the millinery business. One of her customers was less than satisfied with Mary’s work. Mary Holland sued Mrs Seymour. The tale was written up in the Sydney Gazette, obviously by a man.

Mrs Holland had a Leghorn bonnet, but which had too great a poke, or too small a poke; or was a round or two, too much in the crown, or there was a narrowness or unseemliness in its shape, which Mrs. Seymour, the bonnet-maker, was deemed the proper person to employ to alter, and so to correct the oddities or supposed imperfections in taste and fashion. Alas! The bonnet was more and more out of Mrs. Holland's taste when it was returned, than before it was sent to be cured. It now appeared a good deal too small, and "what have you done with the stuff?" brought down a retaliation equally galling, "You —; what do you — what does a native know about Leghorn?" Dear me, here was the deuce to pay about four and four-pence. One of the parties was now bound to keep the peace, but we won't say which, so that she may not be dismayed, and that both may forget and forgive the little pique, and live neighbourly for the time to come.

The reporter seems amused at Mrs Seymour’s superior attitude. She had come to Sydney (as a child) but Mary Holland was born in Sydney.

A significant change occurred in George’s status occurred when the government exempted him from labour for the government, although he was still a prisoner assigned to his wife.

About three years later the government issued George with a ticket of leave, which made him almost a free man. He was confined to the Windsor Police District, and the privilege could be cancelled should he offend. He also might be asked to present the ticket to a constable on demand.

At last, fourteen years after his trial before Justices Bayley and Garrow, the authorities issued George with the much valued certificate of freedom. The document includes records of his trial, the sentence, the ship and a physical description of George (to reduce the possibility of impersonation). George was a free man at last.