Patrick Moore

Patrick was transported on the Britannia to NSW. The Britannia sailed from Cork in Ireland on 10 December 1796 with 144 male and 44 female convicts on board. Eleven convicts died on the voyage.

Ireland in the 1790s had a population of over 5 million people. However, only the ruling Protestant class, about 10% of the population, was entitled to vote or to sit in parliament. The majority of the land in Ireland was owned by Church of Ireland emigrants from England. Ireland was independent in theory but in practice it was ruled by the English parliament who severely restricted the growth of the Irish economy.

The Defenders were formed in the mid-1780s by Catholics in response to the failure of the authorities to take action against the Protestant Peep o' Day Boys who launched night time raids on Catholic homes, under the pretense of confiscating arms. Catholics were prohibited from possessing arms under the terms of the Penal Laws. By 1786 the Peep o' Day Boys and Defenders were opposed to each other and involved in confrontations. The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 with its ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity provided fresh impetus to the reform movement in Ireland. By 1790, influenced by the Freemasons they had become a secret oath-bound fraternal society. Law and order deteriorated in the countryside and government repression intensified, culminating in a brutal campaign against the Defenders in 1795. School teacher Laurence O'Connor, one of the defender leaders was tried in Dublin then taken to Naas in Kildare where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. His head was placed on a pole where it remained for many years above the entrance to the goal. Defender attacks were taking place in the counties of Kildare, Dublin, Longford, Meath and Westmeath from July 1795 to March 1796

The Britannia’s male convicts, including Patrick Moore, (sentenced to life), were mostly Defenders. In August 1796, 191 convicts were taken from the New Prison in Dublin and put on board a vessel from where they were bound for Cork. They waited 3 months in Cork Harbour aboard the Elizabeth, until the Britannia was ready to sail to NSW.

Under the command of Thomas Dennott, Britannia departed Cork on 10 December, carrying 144 male and 44 female prisoners. The ship’s journal reports that it sailed into gales, cold, foggy weather and lashing rain, arriving in Rio de Janeiro on 11 February, 1797 for a one month stay. 35 prisoners, with provisions, were sent in the long boat to a nearby island to recuperate from the rigours of the voyage and to combat scurvy and other ailments. The log also noted that 'several of the female convicts [were put] in irons for fighting and drunkenness'. Whilst on the island there was a rumour of a mutiny and many men were punished.

A few days out from Rio, convict informers reported that the prisoners were planning to mutiny and seize the ship. Captain Dennott ordered a search of the prison, and finding many small weapons secreted away, ordered the ringleaders to be savagely punished. A large number of men received a huge number of lashes and were then thrown back into the prison with neither water nor medical aid. Prisoners died from the results of the brutal floggings.

In Sydney Harbour on 1 June 1797, at 10.30am, two Government boats carrying officials approached the Britannia to prepare for the landing of the remainder of the prisoners. A suit of clothing was handed to each prisoner, and by 11.00am the embarkation commenced. In the first boat went 69 male convicts; the second took 35 male and 10 female convicts. Both boats were bound for Parramatta and Rose Hill.

Charles Bateson in his book “The Convict Ships” states..... “The combination of a callous and brutal master and a weak, incompetent surgeon made the voyage of the first Britannia one of the worst in the history of transportation. There was one death to every 17 prisoners embarked, 10 men and one woman dying out of 144 men and 44 women; but the convicts were brutally mistreated and the survivors were landed in a wretched and emaciated state.” The number of suicides and the harsh corporal punishment meted out to both males and females resulted in an enquiry being held after the ship reached Sydney. Governor Hunter declared, “of some conjecture of mutiny”, that Dennott kept the prisoners "confined in irons and flogged them unmercifully. Even the women received three or four dozen cuts from a cane for the most trivial offences.....". Ten male convicts and one female convict died during the course of the voyage.

Patrick Moore became a blacksmith at Parramatta, married Rose Green who then bore him three children.

He was granted 60 acres (240,000 m2) in Botany Bay on August 25, 1812, and used the land for farming. He and wife Rose were among the first European families to live in and raise their children in Botany Bay. Patrick Moore, later became a founding member of St Mary's Cathedral.

He died in 1851 at the age of 82.