John Giles Price

John Giles Price (20 October 1808 – 27 March 1857),[1] was a colonial administrator in Australia. He served as governor of the convict settlement at Norfolk Island from 6 August 1846 to 18 January 1853, and later as the inspector-general of penal establishments in Victoria, during which he was "stoned to death" by angry prisoners.[2]

Price had aristocratic connections which aided him in securing the position. Although he was initially seen as restoring order after an incompetent predecessor, Price scoffed at the idea of rehabilitation for convicts. An enthusiasm for flogging for trivial breaches of discipline and extreme corporal punishments of his own devising led to his regime being denounced. He left to farm, but was given responsibility for another prison in which his strongly punitive measures provoked a violent reaction.

Early life

Price was born in Trengwainton, Cornwall, to a slaveholding family.[3][4] He was the fourth son of Sir Rose Price, first baronet, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Charles Lambart and sister of Frances, wife of the second Earl Talbot.[1] Price studied at Charterhouse and Brasenose College, Oxford without taking a degree, and arrived in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land in May 1836 with letters of introduction from influential relatives. There he farmed in the Huon River district and married Mary, the eldest daughter of James Franklin and ward of Sir John Franklin,[5] lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1836 to 1843.

Career

In 1839 Price was appointed muster master of convicts and stipendiary magistrate. In 1846 he suffered an unknown illness and was recommended by Surgeon Bedford to take leave of absence 'or else he will be laid up seriously'.[5] However, he was appointed commandant of Norfolk Island in July of that year, to replace Major Joseph Childs. One of Price's first duties was to arrange for the trial of 26 convicts alleged to have been involved in murders during the Cooking pot uprising of July 1846 at the end of Childs' administration. Twelve convicts were hanged in October, and five others shortly after. The executions broke the power of the feared 'Ring' clique of inmates. Price was a tall burly man who affected an extravagant style of dress and used underworld slang. He openly announced his intention was to break the inmates and went among them with few guards to emphasise his dominance, although he also carried two pepper-box pistols.

Prices's ability to speak the argot of the criminal underworld made a deep impression on convicts and some thought he must have actually been imprisoned himself. A critic, Reverend Thomas Rogers, said that he would disguise himself as a constable and move around Hobart, seeking disorderly characters. Hazzard claims that "he seemed to know, with terrifying accuracy, the way a criminal's mind worked, and this, coupled with his merciless administering of the Law, gave him an almost hypnotic power over them". Another suggestion was that Price, who had an extremely close relationship with a convict overseer, was homosexual and had gained his knowledge and flashy dress sense from moving in the covert rough trade gay scene during his earlier life in England.

Backed by Governor Denison, Price was answerable to no one but himself and he invented a series of punishments to cow his wards. Routine work cutting coral was done while chained to 36lb weights. Inmates were subject to flogging for the slightest infraction, and putting balm on a flogged man's wounds became an offence. His innovative corporal punishments included much use of restraints such as a cage over the head with a prong that immobilised the tongue and made breathing difficult, or an all encompassing steel frame that men were kept in for more than a week. By 1852 public disquiet caused Denison to privately remonstrate with Price. Hughes' claims that, in Hobart "the suspicion that the commandant was out of control, that the island's remoteness from Hobart had permitted some cancer of his soul to metastasise wildly, could not entirely be allayed". He hints at a connection between Price's unspecified illness in 1846, and "the morbid ferocities of his rule".

Price "ruled by terror, informers and the lash" according to one modern writer, a contemporary historian noted the "merciless exercise of his authority". Bishop Robert Willson, following his third visit to the island in 1852, described the harsh punishment of the convicts. He observed "the state of the yard, from the blood running down men's backs, mingled with the water used in washing them when taken down from the triangle – the degrading scene of a large number of men … waiting their turn to be tortured, and the more humiliating spectacle presented by those who had undergone the scourging … were painful to listen to". When Willson asked Price to explain the increased use of corporal punishment, the commandant "defended his use of flogging, to which he professed great aversion, as necessary to enforce obedience to regulations, especially those controlling the use of tobacco".

Price returned to Hobart in January 1853 as the British government intended to abandon Norfolk Island. He was appointed inspector-general of prisons in Victoria in January 1854, to deal with the problem of crime arising from the gold rushes in that colony.

Death

On 26 March 1857, he visited prison hulk convicts living under his regieme employed at Williamstown. Accompanied by a small number of guards Price went toward the men but his party was quickly surrounded by about a hundred inmates. Almost immediately his guards broke and ran after a barrage of rocks. Price also tried to escape but he was knocked down and severely battered with the iron bars and hammers of the workers.. He died next day,[1][6] and following the inquest, fifteen convicts were tried for murder, seven being hanged.[7][8]

The seven convicts were Thomas Williams, Henry Smith (alias Brennan) & Thomas Moloney were hanged on the 28 April 1857, Francis Brannigan, William Brown & Richard Bryant hanged on the 29 April 1857, and John Chisley hanged on the 30 April 1857.

After his death Price has, in Hughes' opinion "remained one of the durable ogres of the Australian imagination", featuring in Price Warung's tales and as the basis for the cruel commandant Maurice Frere in Marcus Clarke's For the Term of his Natural Life (1885). Hazzard calls him "a rock of a man against whom some might lean with confidence; others he might crush without pity", while his biographer concludes that "he was a man of great personal strength and considerable courage, and was capable of sentimental as well as merciless deeds".

Price is also featured as the villain in T.S Flynn's historical novel "Part an Irishman The Regiment "

References
  1. Mennell, Philip (1892). "Price, John" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  2. CJ Coventry, "Links in the Chain: British slavery, Victoria and South Australia" Before/Now 1(1) (2019), 34, https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:23672/datastreams/CONTENT/content
  3. Coventry, "Links in the Chain," 34.
  4. The Australian Encyclopaedia, Grolier
  5. Barry, John V. "Price, John Giles (1808–1857)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 14 July 2013 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  6. "Funeral of the Late Mr. Price". Bendigo Advertiser. 31 March 1857.
  7. "MURDER OF JOHN PRICE, ESQ., BY CONVICTS". The Freeman's Journal. Sydney. 4 April 1857. p. 2. Retrieved 30 June 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. "THE MURDER AT WILLIAMSTOWN". The Argus. Melbourne. 30 March 1857. p. 5. Retrieved 30 June 2014 – via National Library of Australia.
  • Barry, John Vincent (1964) The Life and Death of John Price: a study of the exercise of naked power. Parkville, Victoria: Melbourne U. P.
  • Hazzard, Margaret (1984) Punishment Short of Death: a history of the penal settlement at Norfolk Island. Melbourne: Hyland ISBN 0-908090-64-1
  • Hughes, Robert (1987) The Fatal Shore. New York: Alfred A. Knopf ISBN 0-330-29892-5
  • T.S. Flynn (2016) Part an Irishman, ISBN 9781537139869
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