Convict Guide - published 2006 - Manual / Resource - Page 181
Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration
Chapter 15: Norfolk Island
15.1
Background to the records
Occupation of
Norfolk Island
Governor Phillip's Instructions of 25 April 1787 had ordered him to send
a detachment to Norfolk Island as soon as circumstances permitted.
(Australian Encyclopaedia, 4th ed., vol. 10, p.161). Historians disagree
as to why the decision should have been made, but the British
government indicated that it was 'anxious to secure the same for us and
to prevent it being occupied by the subjects of any other European
power'. (Australian Encyclopaedia, 4th ed., vol. 10, p.161).
Appointment of
superintendent/
commandant
On 12 February 1788, Phillip appointed Philip Gidley King
Superintendent and Commandant of the island and on 5 March 1788
King landed there with a group of soldiers and convicts. Others were
sent to relieve the strain on the mainland where food was scarce.
From 1788 to 1814 the island existed as an extension of the penal
settlement in New South Wales. In 1800 Governor King appointed Major
Joseph Foveaux commandant of Norfolk Island. (Whitaker, Joseph
Foveaux, pp.55-80). He ruled the island firmly describing his methods
as 'vigorous if not exactly conformable to law'. (Hughes, Fatal Shore,
p.100).
Reasons for settling
Norfolk Island
It has been claimed that one of the reasons for settling Norfolk Island
was the Royal Navy's need for flax and Norfolk Island pines. (Blainey,
The Tyranny of Distance, pp.30-31). Whether this was so is a matter of
dispute but the British government did show some interest in the
possibility of cultivating flax. By the early 1800s, however, these
expectations had not materialised and the Island was no longer needed
and Van Diemen's Land was available for convicts. (Hughes, Fatal
Shore, p.119).
Reasons for leaving
Though the settlers were reluctant to move, the settlement was steadily
reduced over the years following Lord Hobart's order in 1803 to remove
part of it to Van Diemen's Land. (Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies,
pp.184-185). Rough seas and suitable landing sites posed difficulties in
supplying provisions and communications, such considerations being
'influential in the decision to close the settlement'. (Nobbs, Norfolk
Island and its first settlement, pp.4, 162).
Abandonment of the
island by 1814
By 1810 the population had decreased to 117 and in 1813 plans were
put in train for the abandonment of the Island. It was finally deserted in
February 1814. (Hughes, Fatal Shore, p.119, Nobbs, Norfolk Island,
p.158).
Revival of Norfolk
Island penal
settlement in 1825
In 1824, as pastoralists were settled across the mainland, the Colonial
Office decided to revive the penal settlement on Norfolk Island as a
place of banishment for the worst re-offenders. On 6 June 1825, Major
R. Turton, with 34 troops, 6 women and children, and 57 convicts,
reoccupied the island. In 1827 the women and children were withdrawn
in line with Governor Darling's policy of making the settlement 'a place
of extremist punishment, short of death'. (Australian Encyclopaedia, 4th
ed., vol. 7, p.162).
Harsh punishments
for convicts on the
island resulted in
rebellion against
authority
In 1829 when James Morisset was appointed commandant there were
211 convicts on the Island. By 1834 there were close to 700 convicts,
all employed by the government which, according to personal accounts
of convicts and visitors, inflicted on them harsh punishments verging on
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State Records Authority of New South Wales