Thomas Barrett (convict)

Thomas Barrett (c. 1758–27 February 1788) was a convict transported on the First Fleet to the colony of New South Wales. He created Australia's first colonial art work, the Charlotte Medal, which depicts the arrival at Botany Bay. He was also the first person to be executed in the new colony.

Thomas Barrett
Bornc. 1758
London
Died27 February 1788(1788-02-27) (aged 29–30)
Colony of New South Wales
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
NationalityEnglish
Known for
Conviction(s)
  • Theft
  • Being criminally at large in England[1][2]
Criminal penalty

Life

England

Barrett was born around 1758 in London.[3][4]

He was accused and tried on 3 July 1782 for the theft in May of silverware from a house, but acquitted.[3][5]

Transportation to Australia

On 11 September 1782 Barrett faced trial in the Old Bailey again, for the theft in July of several items from a house.[6] He was found guilty, and sentenced to death, but that sentence was commuted to transportation. He spent the next 18 months in a prison ship moored on the River Thames,[lower-alpha 1] before being transferred to the convict ship Mercury, which sailed for Georgia in March 1784.[3][7]

A few days into the voyage a group of convicts, including Barrett, mutinied and took control of the ship. Bad weather forced them to return to England, where they abandoned the ship and fled, before being recaptured. Barrett was again sentenced to death, and again he was reprieved; during the mutiny he had intervened to save the life of Mercury's steward, and to prevent the captain's ear being cut off, and so his death sentence was commuted to transportation. Once again he was sent to a prison ship, this time in Plymouth, until 1787[lower-alpha 2] when he was included in the first group of convicts to be sent to Britain's new penal colony in New South Wales.[3][7]

The First Fleet left England in May 1787, with Barrett aboard the convict transport ship Charlotte. En route, the fleet stopped at Rio de Janeiro, where Barrett was caught buying food from local boatmen[9] with forged coins, which he had made from belt buckles, buttons and spoons. According to the ship's surgeon John White, the workmanship was of high quality and the forgery was only detected because of the poor quality of the metal.[3][7][10]

Charlotte arrived at Botany Bay on 20 January 1788, but the convicts remained onboard until the fleet sailed to Port Jackson six days later. It was during this time that Barrett created the Charlotte Medal as a memento of their arrival, at the request of White, from a silver kidney dish and using tools provided by White. The medal is considered to be the first work of Australian colonial art.[3][9][11] He also create a smaller and less elaborate copper version of the medal for White's servant, William Broughton.[4][7][12][lower-alpha 3]

Within a month of disembarking at Port Jackson, Barrett was in trouble with the law again. He and three other convicts were tried and found guilty of the organised theft of rations from the stores. Conditions in the new colony were harsh, food was scarce, and Governor Arthur Phillip had previously warned the convicts that stealing would be punished by death.[7] Barrett and two of his co-conspirators were sentenced to execution; the other two were subsequently reprieved, but Barrett was hanged on 27 February 1788, becoming the first person executed in the new colony.[2][4] The body was left to hang for an hour, then buried nearby.[3][11][13] The area became known as Hangman's Hill;[7] it is in the locality of what is now known as The Rocks. A Royal Australian Historical Society plaque on the corner of Essex and Harrington Streets marks the approximate location.[2][3][7]

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See also

Notes
  1. Before 1775, Britain had transported convicts to its colonies in North America, but with the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, transportation to the American colonies was suspended.[7][8] Instead transportees were held in prison ships, pending the end of the war.[7]
  2. After the revolution, the newly independent America refused to accept convicts from Britain.[3][7]
  3. The roles of Barrett, White and Broughton in the creation of the medals are generally accepted as mostly likely to be the case, but some of the sources[2][4][7][11][12] allow for a degree of uncertainty.

References
  1. "The Charlotte Medal". Australian National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  2. Kieran Hosty (2008). "The Charlotte Medal". Signals. Australian National Maritime Museum (84): 12–15. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  3. Troy Lennon (2018-02-26). "Thomas Barrett, the man who carved the Charlotte Medal, was the first convict executed in Sydney". The DailyTelegraph. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  4. Dr John M. Chapman (1998). "The Solution of the Charlotte Enigma" (PDF). Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia Inc. 9: 29–30. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  5. "Thomas Barrett". The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913. Old Bailey Proceedings Online. 1782-07-03. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  6. "Thomas Barrett". The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913. Old Bailey Proceedings Online. 1782-09-11. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  7. Philip McCouat (2015). "Colonial Artist, Thief, Forger and Mutineer: Thomas Barrett's Amazing Career". Journal of Art in Society. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  8. A. Roger Ekirch (1985). "Bound for America: A Profile of British Convicts Transported to the Colonies, 1718-1775". The William and Mary Quarterly. Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. 42 (20): 184–200. doi:10.2307/1920427. JSTOR 1920427.
  9. "Arriving". The National Museum of Australia. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  10. John White (1790). "Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales". Project Gutenberg Australia. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  11. Seamus Bradley (2008-07-06). "Expert in fakes sells the final work of the First Fleet's great larrikin forger". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  12. "What is the Charlotte medal and why is it of such immense significance to Australia?". The Perth Mint. 2013-12-05. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  13. "Thomas Barrett [Baret] - 1788". New South Wales Capital Convictions Database, 1788-1954. Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History. Retrieved 2019-03-10.


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