| Notes |
- The earliest reference to JOSHUA PECK comes from records held at Kew in London which indicate that Joshua Peck, aged 18, occupation Hair Dresser, departed England for Maryland USA on the Russia Merchant. United States passenger list show him arriving in Maryland in 1774.
Revolutionary War records make mention of a Joshua Peck of Maryland who served from 1777 until 1779 when he was discharged as a deserter. A Helen Peck, wife of Joshua Peck sought a military pension in Connecticut, which means her husband could have died, deserted or been taken prisoner of war. Assuming that Joshua may have been taken prisoner of war may explain his return to England. There was a Mill Prison at Plymouth where prisoners of war were held during the war with America.
It was at nearby Exeter where, on 20 March 1786, Joshua Peck was sentenced to be transported for 7 years to "lands beyond the seas" for theft of three linen shirts, two cloth coats and other goods (a total value of 35 shillings) from three owners, and a second count of housebreaking and stealing three silver castors and other goods, although found not guilty of the housebreaking.
In the same court on the same day, Mary Brand was convicted of highway robbery and sentenced to death. Her death sentence was later commuted and she was also to be transported to Australia. Mary married Will Bryant shortly after arriving in Botany Bay and, on 28th March 1791, together with their two children and several other convicts, they escaped from Botany Bay in a stolen government boat. Although illiterate and uneducated, Mary showed remarkable courage and leadership both before and during their escape and it was Mary’s strength which saw them all survive the marathon voyage of over 3000 miles to arrive safely in Batavia where they were captured and placed on the HMS Gorgon to be returned to England. William Bryant perished during their return voyage to England along with Mary’s 2 children and some of the other escaped convicts. Somehow Mary survived it all to be returned to England where, thanks to the persistence of lawyer James Boswell, she was released and later pardoned, and allowed to return to her family in Fowey, Cornwall. More about Mary’s incredible escape can be read in Judith Cook’s book “To Brave Every Danger”
Whilst awaiting transportation to Australia, Joshua (along with Mary Brand) was placed on the Dunkirk Hulk which was moored in Portsmouth. In addition to housing "local" prisoners it also served as a collection point for prisoners from various goals as they were assembled for the First Fleet. Conditions there were so bad at one time that the officer in charge complained "many of the prisoners are nearly if not quite naked." The women prisoners held on board were brutalised by the marines supposed to be guarding them. The superintendent of the Dunkirk hulk wrote a shocked protest to the authorities on 25 August 1784, which resulted in a Code of Orders being drawn up to protect the women. Joshua’s behaviour whilst on the Dunkirk Hulk was reported as being “tolerably decent and orderly”.
The First Fleet left England for Australia on 13th May 1787 stopping at Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town, where food supplies were replenished. The fleet arrived at Botany Bay between 18th and 20th January 1788. Even though it had been recommended by Captain James Cook in 1770 as a possible location for a settlement, its lack of fresh water made it unsuitable for settlement, so they moved north arriving at Port Jackson on the Australian East coast on 26 January 1788. Botany Bay had other shortcomings as well, it was open to the sea, making it unsafe for the ships and Captain Arthur Phillip (the Colony's first Governor) considered the soil around Botany Bay was poor for crop growing.
Joshua departed Plymouth on board the Charlotte, but at some stage during the trip, possibly at Cape Town, he was transferred to the Scarborough along with several other convicts who were skilled in either trades or agriculture. These convicts were sent on ahead of the others in order to commence construction works and to prepare ground for crops etc ahead of the arrival of the remainder of the fleet. As you will read later, Joshua had had agricultural experience whilst in the USA.
The Scarborough at 420 tons was the third largest ship in the fleet. The master was a John Marshall.
At Port Jackson Joshua was assigned to work for the medical staff in the laboratory tent, and was one of a group involved in, but acquitted of, the theft of wine in July 1788. Journals kept by the governor read:
Thursday 3rd July
During the day Thomas Chadwick reported that the wine for the sick was getting low. Mr White ordered the bottles to be filled again. Nine were filled and put into a chest, which was locked.
Mr White was wakened about midnight by the noise of vomiting outside his tent. Joshua Peck was outside, very much in liquor and unable to stand. White called the sentry at the hospital and the corporal of the guard. They got a light and searched PeckÂ’s tent, where they found a tea kettle containing red wine. White then woke Balmain and went to examine the wine cask in a tent nearby. They found a kettle under a spile hole in the cask. They woke Arndell and went to the laboratory tent, where they found Small in a state of beastly drunkenness and unable to speak. They examined the hospital servants but all were asleep in bed, except Chadwick, whom they found staggering with intoxication. Chadwick and Peck were sent up to the guard, but Small was too drunk to be moved.
Wednesday 16th July
The Court of Criminal Jurisdiction tried Thomas Chadwick, Joshua Peck and John Small. They were charged with feloniously stealing, and taking and carrying away, on Thursday 3rd July, at about 12 at night, one gallon of red wine of the value of 3/6, the property of the crown, from the store tent at the hospital.
John White, William Balmain, Corporal Martin Connor, Samuel Lightfoot, John Small, Captain Shea and Captain Tench gave evidence. The accused were acquitted and the documents were signed by Collins.
On 2nd October 1788 Joshua was sent to Norfolk Island on the Golden Grove along with 41 other men and women in what was to be Norfolk IslandÂ’s second group of settlers from Sydney.
In 1789 Joshua was aware of a plot of a mutiny on Norfolk Island, although not directly involved in it. The plan, to take place when the next ship arrived, was for the commandant to be captured as he returned from a visit to his small farm inland. Others were then to be taken including the doctor and his assistant, and the marines as they returned from cutting cabbage palm, and their muskets taken from them. After this each boat from the ship would be seized as it came to the landing stage and its crew captured. The one of the island boats would row out, and tell the captain that their boats had struck trouble ashore so enticing more men to leave the ship so they too could be captured. By then the convicts would be more than a match for the few sailors left on board and the insurrectionists would seize the ship and sail off to freedom.
However, Robert Webb, one of the free-men gardeners blew the plan which had been told to him by a convict woman who lived with him. The suspected ringleaders, William Francis, John Thompson, Samuel Pickett and Joshua Peck were taken into custody on their return from cabbaging. Joshua Peck swore to answer every question the commandant should put to him relating to the scheme, and after hearing evidence from John Bryan, and taking depositions from the men (Joshua's deposition can be read in Hilton Peck's book) the commandant ordered that Pickett and Francis be put in irons as it appeared that they were the principals in the scheme, and irons also be placed on John Thompson for stealing 2 cobs of Indian corn from the property of Commander King. Joshua Peck was cleared of any involvement.
By July 1791 Joshua was subsisting on a Sydney Town lot, with 106 rods cleared and ten rods of timber felled. By December of that year he was a member of the night watch for Grenville Vale, and in the following month, to enable him to work in his leisure time, he was given possession of 12 acres and two sows as "a deserving convict not yet free by servitude".
In August 1792 Joshua Peck shared a sow which produced a litter of ten, with William Blackhall, Ann Yeoman and Mary Frost.
It was Mary Frost who would later become Joshua's wife. It is unclear if they were formally married - no record of the ceremony has survived. It may have taken place, however on Norfolk Island in 1791 when Reverend Richard Johnson visited the island and married a number of couples. They were recognised as "married" on the records of the birth of their first child, William in 1792. Together they had 11 children although there is confusion about this number.
In an oath made on behalf of her grandson James in 1844 Mary stated she had 10 children. Joshua's petition to Governor Brisbane in 1823 states he had 12 children, but only 11 names can be found, being:
William1792
Elizabeth1793
John1794
Mary Ann1796
Jane1798
Thomas1803
Joshua jnr1803
Jeremiah1805
CharlesChristened 1808
JamesChristened 1808
Sarah1808
Joshua and Mary left Norfolk Island on the Chesterfield around March or April 1793 and took up a 30 acre grant at Prospect Hill on 20 February 1794. This grant was increased by 50 acres in May 1797.
In January 1800 Joshua put his name to the petition from Prospect settlers protesting the high cost of living. In that year he was listed with five acres sown in wheat and six ready for planting maize. He was off stores (i.e. no longer supported by the Government) but his wife and five children were still supported publicly.
By 1802 they had 100 acres, 30 of them cleared of which 4 were sown in wheat and 8 ready for maize. They held 5 bushels of maize and by then all the family was off stores. Unfortunately the farm was sold in 1803 to help meet creditorÂ’s demands. In an advertisement for its sale in the Sydney Gazette on 26 March 1803, JoshuaÂ’s farm was described as being well watered with a good dwelling house and barn and six acres of standing corn.
In 1803 Joshua and Mary returned to Norfolk Island and lived there on a 25 acre farm, possibly in the Phillipsburg area. They had 15 acres planted in grain, 10 hogs and a store of 300 bushels of grain.
Sometime during 1804, Joshua and Mary were visited by two naked runaway convicts, one of whom was George Bruce, who later wrote an account of his adventures, entitled 'The Most Wonderful Adventures of a Man'. In it he recorded that Joshua brought them some old rags to cover their nakedness, they were fed, and Mary informed the runaways that the settlers who had harboured them the night before intended to inform on them.
Joshua owed the crown £3/1s/11¼d when, in 1806, a decision to close down the settlement at Norfolk Island and relocate its residents to Van Diemen's Land was conveyed from London to Governor William Bligh.
Joshua and Mary departed for Van Diemen's Land on the 'Porpoise' as third class settlers, meaning they were to be victualled and clothed from the public stores for 12 months, to be allowed the labour of 2 convicts for the same period and to be in all other respects assisted as new settlers. They left on 26th December 1807 with their six children and arrived at Hobart 17th January 1808. Some of the younger children were baptized in Hobart in 1808.
Joshua and Mary settled in the Derwent Valley, Joshua and one of his sons William taking up land grants at New Norfolk in 1813. Joshua held 45 acres of land there and in September 1815 was a signatory to the petition for a Court of Criminal Judicature. By 1819 they were living in Northern Tasmania and were recorded in the muster of that year and the next. Then came a new encounter with the law.
The Hobart Town Gazette of 9 June 1821 reported in a supplement that Joshua Peck snr, William Peck, Joshua Peck jnr and Thomas Peck, were placed on trial, charged with "having feloniously killed sheep, the property of our Lord and King", and another charge of "having feloniously killed a heifer, the property of Thomas Daly".
At the trial of the Pecks in 1821 the overseer of the Government flock, Thomas Daly, referred to a "stock-yard in Camden Plains, about 9 miles from Launceston" and said that "the prisoners lived about three-quarters of a mile from this yard and were the only settlers who lived near the place. He had tracked sheep to within 100 yards of the prisoners' dwelling, down to a creek."
Since December he had lost about 30 sheep. John Bourke in evidence said he had lived at the prisoners' house briefly, having rented 80 acres of land adjoining to Peck's. He saw Joshua jnr and Thomas bring the carcasses of three sheep and cut them up in the house at night. He said "... the family fed chiefly on salt mutton and beef, but the Pecks had no sheep of their own." Evidence was also given by Ann Seaton who, it appeared, had lived with John Bourke, and supported his evidence. Thomas Calvin who had been assigned as a government servant to the Pecks, remembered five sheep being "brought in from a hill by the Sugar Loaf (in Camden Plains)". Sugar Loaf is a prominent hill at what became known later as Talisker.
All 4 men were found guilty and sentenced to be transported to Newcastle, NSW, for 14 years. Jeremiah was not with his father and brothers when they were caught stealing sheep from the Government farm.
In 1823, during his period of imprisonment at Newcastle, Joshua Peck petitioned the then Governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, for mitigation of his sentence to return to Tasmania to grow tobacco, as he had several years experience as overseer of a tobacco plantation in North America. The response to his petition was as follows:
"Too well known already is the culture and manufacture of tobacco to require the mitigation of your sentence to Newcastle for the purpose of establishing this industry in Van DiemenÂ’s Land"
Joshua senior died in custody at Newcastle in on 25th February 1825, aged 69. He had no occupation recorded.
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Abt 1756 - 1825 (69 years)
