Free Settler or Felon
Convict and Colonial History




Convict Ship Guildford - 1822


Embarked: 190 men
Voyage: 119 days
Deaths: 1
Surgeon's Journal: Yes
Previous vessel: Mary Anne arrived 20 May 1822
Next vessel: Asia 24 July 1822
Captain Magnus Johnston
Surgeon James Mitchell
Prisoners and passengers of the Guildford identified in the Hunter Valley region

The Guildford was built on the River Thames in 1810.[1] She made eight voyages to Australia with convicts - 1812, 1816, 1818, 1820, 1822, 1824, 1827 and 1829.

The Convicts

The convicts transported on the Guildford came from counties in England, Scotland and Wales - York, Somerset, Stafford, Chester, London, Lincoln, Lancaster, Middlesex, Surrey, Norfolk, Warwick, Derby, Worcester, Kent, Kent, Stirling, Hereford, Bristol, Nottingham, Monmouth, Ayr, Dumfries, Edinburgh and Glasgow. There was also a soldier who was court-martialled at Chatham

Military Guard

The Guard consisted of one Lieutenant, one Serjeant, one Corporal and twenty Privates and 6 women and 3 children belonging to the 3rd Regiment.

Other ships bringing detachments of the 3rd regiment included the Guildford, Shipley, Asia, Surry, Mangles, Asia, Countess of Harcourt, Henry, Princess Royal, Eliza and Brampton

Departure

The Guildford departed London on 7 April 1822

Port Jackson

The Guildford arrived in Port Jackson on 15 July 1822 nine days before the Asia.

Surgeon James Mitchell

James Mitchell kept a Medical Journal from 9th March to 24 July 1822.

In a summary in his Journal after he reached Port Jackson he wrote:

It gives me very great pleasure to state that the number of sick on this voyage was comparatively small when it is taken into account the number of Guards, convicts (in all 232) cooped up which in a small place for such a length of time and for the safety of the ship the prisoners were only allowed on deck in divisions, added to this the greater part of them were those who had led a rustic life and accustomed to a vegetable diet. However to the kindness of Providence, to the liberality of Government in supplying wine and preserved meats and to the discipline I enforced amongst them by keeping them moving about as much as possible, their beds up in the nettings and to the cleanliness of the prisons and their own persons as also from the attention paid to ventilation, I ascribe the healthy state in which the men landed. The boy Wharton that died shortly after leaving England was worn out with sea sickness, and anguish of mind owing to his degraded situation. The 12 cases of Catarrh and pneumonia were produced by our running down in a high southern latitude and the prisoners dress being too thin for such a climate. [2]

Convicts Disembarked

The men were disembarked on 24th July 1822.

Assignment

One hundred and four prisoners were sent to Parramatta by water on arrival. Twenty-four were to remain at Parramatta and the remaining eighty to be sent from there into the interior. Another forty-two were also sent to Parramatta by water and were to be sent on to Windsor to be distributed to various settlers there. Further correspondence in the Colonial Secretary's Papers reveal that another nine men were sent to the Penrith district. The greater number of them having been unaccustomed to labour and having been brought up chiefly as cutlers and button makers, the Settlers were not satisfied to receive them under the usual regulation of wages. Six men who were rejected were sent to the Superintendent at Emu Plains. The tenth man John Perry was assigned to the private service of Mr. Jamieson at Sydney.

The youngest prisoners were Daniel Aitcheson, James Holloway, John Howard, William Moor, Michael Parker and Isaac Penn who were all sixteen years of age.

Notes and Links

1). John Patterson who arrived on the Guildford was assigned to private service at Newcastle soon after arrival. He was one of eleven pirates who seized the cutter Eclipse from the harbour in 1825. Find out more here

2). James Mitchell was also employed on the convict ships Neptune in 1820 and the Guildford in 1824

3). Prisoners and passengers of the Guildford identified in the Hunter Valley region -

Aitchison, Daniel

Allison, Thomas

Brown, John

Buxton, Thomas

Catterall, Samuel

Chalker, Charles

Chipp, Samuel

Collins, James

Davis, John

Davis, Samuel

Dawson, Peter

Ellison, Job

Evans, William

Garner, John

Garrett, Joseph

Honey, James

Howard, John

Hughes, Richard

Isaacs, Abraham

McInnes, John

Mellor, James

Musgrave, John

Ramsey, John

Smith, Robert

Summers, Francis

Sutcliffe, Samuel

Tuffts, Edward

Wadsworth, William

Warburton, Samuel

Warner, William

Wilson alias Patterson, John

References

[1] Bateson, Charles Library of Australian History (1983). The convict ships, 1787-1868 (Australian ed). Library of Australian History, Sydney : pp.344-345, 384

[2] Ancestry.com. UK, Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1817-1857. Medical Journal of James Mitchell on the voyage of the Guildford in 1822. The National Archives. Kew, Richmond, Surrey.

[3] National Archives - Reference: ADM 101/31/3 Description: Medical and surgical journal of the Guildford convict ship by James Mitchell, Surgeon and Superintendent for 9 March to 24 July 1822 during which time the said ship was employed in a voyage to New South Wales