| Notes |
- Little is known of MARTIN HARDY prior to his marriage to Mary Ann Peck on 28th October 1854. We do know, however, that he came to Tasmania sometime between 1849 and 1852 on the "Australasia" as a free settler, and possibly as crew. Martin Hardy’s occupation recorded on his marriage certificate is “Sailor” and a Martin Hardy, aged 23, is recorded as being a seaman on the TAMAR in September 1854 on a voyage from Adelaide to Launceston via Sydney & Portland. Coincidently, the Tamar, a government owned brig, was built at Macquarie Harbour in 1828 during the time when both Thomas and William Peck would have been imprisoned there.
It is possible that Martin came to Australia from Yorkshire, England, as he is remembered by family members as being referred to by his nickname of “Yorky”.
Mary Ann and Martin Hardy were farming on land owned by Sir Richard Dry at Quamby near the present day Whitemore in the Westbury district when their first child Martin was born on 20th June 1855.
Sir Richard DryÂ’s father, Richard Snr was born in 1771 near Wexford, Ireland. He was the son of a gentleman farmer and became a wollen draper. A Protestant, he was convicted in Dublin in September 1797 on the political charge of being a united Irishman and sentenced to transportation to New South Wales for life. He arrived at Port Jackson on 11 January 1800 aboard the Minerva. He was later transferred to Norfolk Island, then returned to Port Jackson in 1805. From there he went to Port Dalrymple and being well educated, Governor Paterson appointed him to the position of storekeeper to the Northern settlements in 1807. He married Ann Maughan, a free woman of Irish parentage, whom he had met in Sydney. Ann was the daughter of a Sydney merchant. On 11 April, 1809 Richard Dry received a free pardon.
In addition to the land that Richard already owned, Governor Macquarie granted him 500 acres in 1811 and also supplied rations and three convict servants for twelve months. The grant, part of Quamby's Plains, near Westbury, was called Belle Vue and later became Quamby. By 1827 Richard owned about 12,000 acres, farming cattle and sheep.
Richard was a respected citizen of Launceston. In 1822 he became assistant secretary to the Port Dalrymple branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society. In 1828 he was one of the founders of the Cornwall Bank and in 1832 of the Tamar Steam Navigation Co. Richard and Ann had five daughters and two sons. The eldest Harriett, born in 1811, married Dr. Thomas Landale and lived at Elphin. Eliza married Dr. James Richardson and their only daughter, Ellen Richardson, was later adopted by Sir Richard Dry. In 1814 Maria was born, but died at the age of 18. Ellen born in 1823, married Major Rodham Cath Davison Horne. Jane was born in October 1829, but died the same year. Of his two sons, Richard (born 15/6/1815) became a distinguished politician and William (born 1820) was the first Tasmanian born to receive holy orders.
Richard Dry senior lived from 1830 until his death in 1843 at his farm, Elphin, near Launceston.
Richard junior was born in 1815 at Elphin Farm near Launceston. He was educated at Kirklands, the boys school conducted by Rev. John Mackersey at Campbell Town. Richard was "a good six feet tall, well built with wavy, chestnut hair and blue eyes". At 21 he made a voyage to Mauritius and British Indian ports, and on his return devoted himself to farming Quamby which had been left to him by his father in 1843. He was placed on the Commission of the Peace in 1837 by Sir John Franklin, who was impressed with Richard's personality and steady character. On 8 February 1844, Lieut-Governor Eardley-Wilmot nominated him a non-official member of the Legislative Council.
On 27 April 1853 Richard married Clara, fifth daughter of George Meredith of Cambria. George Meredith had arrived in Hobart on 13 March 1821, with his wife, two young sons, and three daughters, the children of his first wife, and a young cousin, John Meredith, on the ship Emerald.
Richard and Clara had no children, but adopted the daughter of Richard's sister, Eliza. They lived at Quamby until 1856 where their hospitality made the colonial period house a notable centre. A fall from his horse in 1854 seriously affected his health, and forced his retirement. Richard and Clara then went for an extended visit to England and Europe. While abroad he was knighted by Queen Victoria, the first Tasmanian-born citizen to be so honoured, and one of the first Australians.
In 1866 Richard, although still in poor health, was persuaded to become Premier. Towards the middle of 1869 his health deteriorated and he died on 1 August 1869 at his Hobart house. He was a devout member of the Church of England and at his own request was buried at St Mary's, Hagley, Tasmania, which he had built and endowed.
Martin and Mary Ann remained in the Westbury region living what appeared to be a normal family life for the next five years, during which time three more children were born, Mary Ann on 6th October 1856, Margaret Ellen on 25th June 1858 and Jeremiah Thomas on 6th December 1859. It was around this time that Martin Hardy met a man who would be a major influence on his life and who probably led indirectly to his death. The man was James Wynn.
James Wynn was born at Market Drayton, Shropsire in around 1818 to parents William and Betty Wynne. Also in the family were brothers John, Thomas, Robert, Richard and Edward, and sisters Anne and Ellen.
On 16th October 1843 at the Shrewsbury Quarter Sessions Court in the county of Shropshire, Wynn, a farm labourer, was sentenced to 7 years transportation to Australia for stealing a shirt and some ducks, and with “assault with intent at rape”. Wynn’s convict papers recorded that at the time of his trial he was married to wife Mary and had 2 children.
Arriving in Hobart on the “Barossa” on 6th September 1844, Wynn was described as 5’8½”, with ruddy complexion, oval head, dark brown hair & whiskers, and hazel eyes. He was noted as having several tattoos including a mermaid, spade, diamond and anchor on his left arm below the elbow, a woman with flowers, an anchor on his right arm below the elbow, and two birds on his breast.
On arriving in Tasmania James Wynn was assigned for 15 months on a chain gang at Browns River. On 18th November 1845 Wynn was reprimanded for misconduct for “asking a man for tobacco”. On 16th December 1845 he was released from the chain gang and over the course of the next few years was assigned as a convict labourer to a number of different farmers around the Westbury district of Tasmania.
Much of WynnÂ’s time as a convict labourer in the following years was spent on the wrong side of the law. He was repeatedly in trouble for disobedience of orders, absence without leave, neglect of duty and had also faced further assault charges.
On 26th December 1845 he was assigned to a Mr Franks of Fingal for 1 month. In January 1846, whilst assigned to a Mr Grant, also of Fingal, he was given 4 days solitary confinement for being drunk and later in April was sentenced to 3 months with hard labor for disobedience of orders.
In February 1847 shortly after being assigned to Mr Peter Vallack of “The Oaks”, Westbury, Wynn was given seven days solitary confinement for disobedience of orders. Just 4 weeks later he was again in trouble, still while under assignment to Peter Vallack, for being absent without leave, neglect of duty and disobedience of orders, and received as punishment 14 days hard labour.
In October 1848, James Wynn was granted a ticket of leave but in August 1849 was again in trouble with the law, being fined for “unlawfully assaulting and beating Mr John Pollard of Longford”
On 3rd October 1850 at the Oatlands Supreme Court, Wynn was tried for stealing 9 pigs valued at £15, the property of James Falconer and Ronald Gunn. He was found guilty and given 2 years imprisonment. His ticket of leave was revoked and Wynn was ordered to be sent to “Cascades”. Located at Koonya, approx 95km from Hobart and 15km from Port Arthur, Cascades was established as a convict outstation in 1841 and by 1846 there were nearly 400 convicts working in the area.
On 18th April 1852, Wynn was released on probation, but it wasnÂ’t long before he was in trouble again, however. On 14th July 1852 whilst assigned to a Mr Cahill of Oatlands, he received three months hard labour for disobedience of orders and using threatening language to his master. On 22nd November 1852 at Bethune he was reprimanded for drinking at a public house.
In August 1854 he was granted a further ticket of leave but just 4 months later in Launceston, James Wynn was in further trouble for “breach of the master and servants act in assaulting his master” a Mr C Stacey of Riverside, and was committed to a further 3 months solitary. Shortly after he was again in trouble in Launceston for using abusive language and absence from his residence and received another 3 months hard labour. It was also recommended that he not be allowed to reside in the districts of Longford or Launceston.
Perhaps it was this recommendation which helped James Wynn to seemingly stay out of trouble for the next few years, however, he later returned to the Westbury district where at some stage he met Martin Hardy.
On 2nd October 1860, when Mary Ann Hardy was pregnant with her and Martin’s fifth child, Thomas Robert (born 4th April 1861), Martin Hardy and James Wynn stole 28 bushels of wheat valued £10 and 8 bags of wheat value 8s from Peter Vallack, to whom Wynn was assigned as a convict labourer in Westbury several years earlier.
The two were tried in Launceston on 21st December 1860 and on being found guilty were convicted to 2 years imprisonment with hard labour at the penal settlement at Port Arthur.
Located on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania's far south-east, Port Arthur is named after the Governor who established it, Governor Arthur, and began operating in 1830 as a timber station. In 1833 it became a prison settlement for male convicts, housing both those who were transported from overseas and those free settlers who were colonially convicted. Port Arthur quickly established a reputation as being 'a hell-on-earth'.
Eaglehawk Neck is the small isthmus between the Tasman Peninsula and the nearby Forestier Peninsula. In the days of the penal colony, dogs were tethered in a tight line across the neck to prevent escapes. The line was continually patrolled and guard posts were established in the nearby hills. No prisoner ever broke through this barrier although some did swim or sail to freedom.
During the 1840s, with its captive resource of convict labour, Port Arthur became a near self sufficient secondary punishment prison settlement, producing ships, sawn timber, clothing, boots and shoes, bricks, furniture, vegetables and other goods.
This productivity waned in the 1850s and 1860s following the cessation of Britain's convict transportation system and the subsequent lack of newly arrived young transportees. The prison closed in 1877 and many of the settlement's main features, including the Penitentiary and the Church, were gutted by fire during the next two decades.
In Port Arthur Bay stands the Island of the Dead with its 1100 convict, free settler, prison staff and military graves.
After their trial Wynn and Hardy were detained in the prisonerÂ’s barracks in Launceston until they departed for Port Arthur on 14th January 1861, arriving at the penal settlement on 16th Jan 1861.
Shortly after, on 27th Feb 1861, both James Wynn and Martin Hardy absconded from their chain gang for a period of 7 days. Wynn, for his trouble received 21 days in solitary confinement and Hardy 14 days. They were both to later receive additional punishment in the “Separate Prison” at Port Arthur.
The Separate Prison of Port Arthur was modelled on the experimental Pentonville Prison in London, and changed the predominant disciplinary mechanism from one based upon harsh physical punishment to one based on a notion of mind control. It operated at Port Arthur from the 1850s until the penal settlement closed. The Separate Prison was established as a harsh punishment designed to penetrate the minds of even the hardest of criminals, instilling regret for the crimes they had committed and a determination to reform.
Ninety three rules governed the inmates of the Separate Prison and the most rigidly enforced was that of silence. The system made this silence the predominant rule with matting on the prison floors and felt slippers were worn over the boots of both inmates and staff, to maintain quiet. When outside their cells prisoners were required to wear caps with a cloth face piece to eliminate contact with their fellow inmates.
Time outside the cells was restricted to 1 hour per day in single exercise yards, and visits to the chapel on Sundays. In chapel they were allowed to sing and worship.
Convicts identity was further removed by their name never being used that being replaced by a number corresponding to their cell. Their daily lives were regulated by bells rather than the spoken word. Infringing the rules of the Separate Prison generally earned the transgressor time in the "Dark" or "Dumb" cell. This tiny cell, with metre thick sandstone walls and multiple solid wooden doors in its entry passage, was sound proof and completely black. Although prisoners could be sentenced to 30 days in the Dark cell it was seldom used for such periods as 48 hours was normally sufficient to calm the most refractory of men.
Around 30th July 1862, Martin Hardy left Port Arthur for the prisoners barracks at Launceston and on 2nd August 1862 was released from detention and given his freedom to return to his wife Mary Ann and their children at their home at Quamby. Wynn however was to remain at Port Arthur for a further three months before being released.
In July 1863, eleven months after MartinÂ’s release from prison Martin and Mary AnnÂ’s sixth child Charles was born.
After seventh child Joshua's birth in 1865, Mary Ann and Martin Hardy moved to the North East and settled at Scottsdale. Their property consisted of 50 acres on the North East side of Ringarooma Road, not far from the corner of the road to Launceston. Originally it extended from the road back to a creek at the rear, but in later years was subdivided and parts of it sold.
The precise circumstances of Mary Ann & Martin’s move to Scottsdale are not known. Perhaps it was to make a clean break from the Westbury area and help put behind them Martin’s association with James Wynn and his subsequent imprisonment at Port Arthur. Whatever the reason, Martin’s prison sentence and particularly the time he spent in the Separate Prison, where the predominant disciplinary mechanism was one of mind control, quite obviously affected Martin’s mental health. Whether Martin Hardy was a heavy drinker before his imprisonment we will never know, but we can quite confidently assume he was after his release, as The Cornwall Chronicle reported in 186? that Martin had fallen into the fire one evening in a fit of “delirium tremens”, requiring medical attention.
Unfortunately in 1868 when Mary Ann Hardy was pregnant with their eighth child, further tragedy was to unfold for the Hardys when, on 7th January, in another fit of delirium tremens, Martin Hardy committed suicide.
The "Cornwall Chronicle" on Saturday 11th January 1868 reported his death as follows:
SUICIDE AT SCOTTSDALE - A man named Martin Hardy, a small farmer at Scottsdale, committed suicide Wednesday last, by hanging himself on a tree in the bush. He had previously attempted, while labouring under "delirium tremens", to stab himself with a knife, but was prevented by his wife and others, who took the knife from him and quieted him for a time. He afterwards rushed away in great terror to the bush, and when found hanging he was quite dead. An inquest was held on his remains before Alfred William Brewer, Esq., of Bowwood, Bridport, Coroner, yesterday, and the verdict must, from the nature of the evidence, that the deceased hanged himself while labouring under a fit of temporary insanity.
The coroners finding is transcribed below:
An inquisition indented taken for our sovereign lady the Queen, at the house of Mary Ann Hardy at Scottsdale, in the county of Dorset within the island of Tasmania, this ninth day of January 1868 in the thirty first year of the reign of our sovereign Lady Victoria, by the grace of god of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen defender of the faith, before me Alfred William Brewer Esquire, one of the coroners of our said Lady the Queen for the said Island and it's dependencies, on view of the body of Martin Hardy then and there lying dead, upon the oaths of Thomas Diprose (Foreman) Joseph Heazlewood, Thomas Heazlewood, John Cunningham, Alex Farquhar, Thomas Tucker, Benjamin Hewitt, good and lawful men of the said Island and duly chosen and who, being then and there duly sworn and charged to enquire for our said Lady the Queen when where how and after what matter the said Martin Hardy came to his death, do upon their oath say that the said Martin Hardy, not being of sound mind, memory and understanding, but lunatic and distracted, on the 7th day of January in the year aforesaid, one end of a certain piece of cord unto the limb of a certain tree growing in Scottsdale did fasten, the other end thereof about his own neck did fit tie and fasten and therewith then did hang suffocate and strangle himself, of which said hanging suffocation and strangling, he the said Martin Hardy then eventually died, and so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oath aforesaid, do say that the said Martin Hardy, not being of sound mind, memory and understanding, but lunatic and distracted in the manner and by the means aforesaid, did kill himself.
Martin and Mary AnnÂ’s eighth child Rosetta Charlotte Elizabeth was born at Scottsdale on 28th May 1868 and on 7th February 1869 was baptised at the Scottsdale home of Thomas Beswick.
On the same day as Rosetta's baptism, Mary Ann Hardy married David Jones. It is unclear of the extent to which David Jones played a part in Mary AnnÂ’s life, however, it could have been minimal, as Mary Ann was later known as Mary Hardy although her death on 10th December 1899 is registered as Jones.
Martin and Mary Ann Hardy are buried together at the Ellesmere Cemetery at Scottsdale.
For some 5 years after his release from Port Arthur in 1862, James Wynn appears to have stayed out of the trouble which seemed to follow him, although was later to be tried, but acquitted, in Launceston in 1867 for sheep stealing.
In September 1870 James Wynn was charged with breaking and entering the house of William Holyoake of Deloraine, a licensed hawker, and stealing various clothes and other articles valued at £15. He appeared in court on 28th March 1871 and was sentenced to a further 5 years at Port Arthur. It was during this period of imprisonment that the above photograph was taken. It was one of 78 identification photographs of 70 Port Arthur convicts taken by Thomas J Nevins shortly before the settlement was closed. The original photo is annotated on its reverse with Wynn’s name, the ship he was transported on, and the words 'Taken at Port Arthur 1874'
Wynn was released from his second term Port Arthur in March 1875, 2 years before the penal settlementÂ’s eventual closure in 1877.
James Wynn’s freedom was short lived, however, and it wasn’t long before he was back in prison, this time on Hobart, for a further eight year term after being tried in Launceston on 19th September 1876 on a charge of stealing pigs from James Barr of Hagley. He was also charged with a second count of “having been convicted before of a felony”. The judge, in sentencing, ruled that as this was Wynn’s second offence for stealing pigs and that he had a long record of petty crime that there was no reason not to grant the maximum penalty of eight years with hard labour.
Nothing more is known of James Wynn after his discharge from prison on 6th March 1883.
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Abt 1832 - 1868 (36 years)
