Brian Frank Smith today at 11:53 AM
William Mitchell - ‘Charlotte’ First Fleet Marine- by Brian Smith.
William Mitchell was a British Marine private belonging to the 3rd Plymouth Company assigned to Captain Lieutenant Tench. He was 31 years of age when he arrived with the First Fleet on board the Charlotte in 1788.
He was looking resplendent in his marine uniform of bright red jacket, and white facing and black bicorn hat when recalling evidence, he gave to the first court hearing assembled in Port Jackson, just thirty-six days after the arrival of the First Fleet.
"I know the prisoner as Samuel Barsby", he told the court, as he proudly threw out his chest.
He [Samuel Barsby] had earlier been wrangling with another convict while in liquor, and when some other members of the Marine Corps tried to intervene in order to stop the quarrelling, the prisoner turned on them. He struck one marine with the broken part of an adze on the side, which was then wrested from him. Two of the guards were ordered by the officers to take him away. The prisoner was making much disturbance.”
It was in this manner that Samuel Barsby was to become the first defendant, in the first criminal trial to be held on Australian soil after the arrival of the First Fleet, when the first Court of Criminal Jurisdiction was convened at Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, by Judge Advocate, David Collins, on 11 February 1788.
“I gave evidence that I ordered prisoner Barsby to be quiet on pain of me running him through the body, but he would not but dared me to do it and on being so dared, I struck him with my bayonet, which was bent by the blow.
When the sergeant saw the bent bayonet he ordered me, to take note of whatever the prisoner might say. I remember the prisoner saying that he would not be confined by any bougre on the island and that he was upset by being brought there by a lousy drummer, Benjamin Cook, as well as being kept under by a parcel of Marines.”
William Mitchell was excitedly relating the historic events to his lady friend, Jane Fitzgerald. He stood fully upright when proudly telling her,
“The Judge asked me how the bayonet got bent and I told him that the prisoner bent it by pushing against it near the socket.
When he asked me if the prisoner appeared to be in liquor, I told him that I thought he appeared sober enough because he seemed to know what he was doing.
I told the Judge that although I only struck the prisoner the one time, I had good reason to strike him more than once.”
“I also told him that the marine who I relieved that day told me to strike the prisoner if he continued to cause too much trouble.”
The convict, Samuel Barsby, was found guilty and sentenced to receive 150 lashes with the cat-of-nine tails. The first conviction in the new colony was complete.
The altercation William Mitchell was referring to occurred when he was on sentry duty at Port Jackson about 6:00 p.m. on the Friday afternoon of 8 February, only two weeks after the arrival of the First Fleet to set up the new penal colony.
Just two days before, 107 women convicts, who had been shipped from England on board the Lady Penrhyn, were finally allowed to disembark after being forced to remain on the ship until sufficient clearing had been achieved in the wild, virgin bush land that would allow their accommodation to be set up. All the women convicts looked immaculate as they stepped out of the longboats on reaching the shore where William Mitchell was on guard duty. He couldnꞌt believe his eyes when he first caught sight of them. He had never seen convict women look so clean and well groomed. Their clothing was no longer ragged, and they all appeared to be enjoying a perfect fit.
Not long after all the women were landed, and they had managed to erect their white canvas tents, a violent thunderstorm erupted bringing with it a downpour of rain, thunder, and lightning that struck a tree under which some domestic animals had been sheltering. The tree was split down the middle and several animals were killed.
That night the authorities appeared to have withdrawn the guard as the womenꞌs camp was overrun with convict men, many of them being ꞌin liquorꞌ as a result of over-indulgence in an over-supply of rum.
William Mitchell welcomed the free night by renewing a shipboard romance he had enjoyed on the voyage out with a pretty convict woman by the name of Jane Fitzgerald. He and Jane spent the night together with her being grateful in that it gave her a certain protection from the many women-hungry convicts hanging around the camp, some of whom were acting like predators exhibiting a certain Dutch courage from the readily available rum.
The convict Samuel Barsby had been one of those drunken predators who stayed up all night having a merry time and taking full advantage of the situation. His problem began when he still had to turn up for work the next morning and it worsened again when he ran out of rum. While working he broke the handle of the adze he was using and decided to go to the store to have another handle fitted. On the way he came across a group of sailors who asked him where the women convicts were camped. They offered him a bottle of rum in exchange for the information. It only took a couple of swills from the bottle and Barsby, once again, became quite intoxicated.
Soon after he came across another convict with whom he was feuding and decided to have a fight with him. It was at this point that the marines noticed what was happening and stepped it to keep the peace. A feat they found hard to accomplish because of his aggression.1
On 9 October 1788, nine months after the claimed infamous night of debauchery and mayhem that took place within the womenꞌs camp, Jane Fitzgerald gave birth to twin boys, William and James, with William Mitchell being the father. Their babies were the first twins to be born on Australian soil with European parents. William and Jane had the babies baptised on
26 October 1788. James, unfortunately, only lived for three months; he died on 15 January 1789.
Only two months later, on the 3rd of March, the still bereaving mother fell foul of the colony authorities and was charged with disobedience. Her case was duly heard and she was ordered to receive twenty five lashes of the cat-of-nine tails. Twelve months later, on 3 March 1790, both Jane and another convict woman, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, along with Jane and Williamꞌs surviving baby son, were among those transported to the new colony on Norfolk Island, but William Mitchell was to remain with his company at Port Jackson.
William knew that the British Marine Corps was to be disbanded in January 1791, to be replaced with the more representative New South Wales Corps. Instead of choosing to return to England, as was his right, he decided he would take his discharge and go to Norfolk Island where he could be reunited with Jane and their son, in order to fulfill his promise to them that he would take up land there and become a permanent settler, and be in the position to offer his family a better life than that which they were currently living.
By March 1791, William Mitchell found himself disembarking at Norfolk Island to be given the news that his family had grown. Sure, Jane was there with little William, but so too was Elizabeth with two 7-month-old baby girls who had been conceived in about January 1790, two months before the two women left Sydney Cove for Norfolk Island.
True to his word, the now free settler applied for, and on 25 November 1791, was granted a 50 acre parcel of land on Norfolk Island, on which he built a small home for his family of Jane and William junior, growing food crops and pigs for the convict community.
William worked his farm for eleven months until he learned of Janeꞌs affair with John Hudson, the boy convict. About the same time Elizabeth Fitzgerald received her ticket of leave and once again became a free woman. William decided to hand in his Norfolk Island land grant on 9 March 1793. When Elizabeth and her two girls, Mary and Susannah, left Norfolk Island on board the Kitty, William and his son were with them.
Back in Sydney, on 11 April 1793 William Mitchell signed up with the recently formed NSW Corps that was to become known as the ‘Rum Corps’; his son, William, was accepted into the Corps as a drummer on 25 June 1800, when only 11 years old.
Jane Fitzgerald arrived back in Sydney from Norfolk Island in January 1801 on board the sailing ship Porpoise. She died in Sydney five years later, on 2 September 1806, at the age of 49 years. She is interred in the Old Sydney Burial Ground.
William Mitchell, and his son, now 21 years of age, returned to England when the disgraced NSW Corps was disbanded in May 1810. He left the NSW Corps, aged 50 years, holding the rank of Corporal.
1,581 words.
William MITCHELL was born c1760 Brandon, County Cork, Ireland
William was a Private with Royal Marines and he arrived in Sydney Cove on 26/1/1788 on "Lady Penrhyn"
William had a relationship with Jane FITZGERALD and they had the following children
• James (twin) 9/10/1788 died 15/1/1789
• William (twin) 9/10/1788
They were the first twins born in the colony
William was sent to Norfolk Island in March 1791
William returned to Port Jackson on "Kitty" in March 1793 (taking son William with him)
William and his son William returned to England in 1810
