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Description of the trial and execution of Thomas Barrett in Arthur Bowes Smyth's journal, February 1788

By
Arthur Bowes Smyth
Contributed By
National Library of Australia
[MS 4568]
(from Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth, 1787 March 22-1789 August)

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Appears in
Sydney’s Oldest Unsolved Murders
Subjects
Convicts Crime Death and Dying Diaries Law and Order Punishment
People
Barrett, Thomas Hall, Joseph Lavell, Henry Ross, Robert Ryan, John Smyth, Arthur Bowes
Events
Execution of Thomas Barrett 27 February 1788
Artefacts
First Fleet Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth, 1787 March 22-1789 August

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Smyth, Arthur Bowes

National Library of Australia

Sydney’s Oldest Unsolved Murders

With colonisation came numerous acts of violence inflicted upon the First Nations people, including murder. It was several years, however, before murders were committed in Sydney by the colonists upon each other. Identifying Australia’s oldest case of unsolved murder in this context is not necessarily a straightforward task.

Diaries

Crime

Punishment

Death and Dying

Law and Order

Convicts

Smyth, Arthur Bowes

Ship's surgeon and ornithologist who recorded several now extinct species.

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Execution of Thomas Barrett 27 February 1788

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Convict Thomas Barrett was the first person to be executed in the new colony. The forger, believed to be the artist responsible for the Charlotte Medal, was convicted on 17 February 1788, with three others, of stealing food from the government stores, and sentenced to death. One of the men was sentenced to be flogged, while the other two sentenced to hang were instead given a last minute reprieve and banished from the colony. Barrett's execution was carried out on the same day as the trial, and he was hanged at 6pm on a gallows tree that stood on a hill between the male and female camps on the western side of Sydney Cove, close to the where the intersection of Essex and Harrington Streets in the Rocks is today.

Barrett, Thomas

Convicted thief and forger who was involved in the mutiny on the Mercury in 1784 and arrived in Sydney in the First Fleet. The Charlotte medal, Australian earliest colonial art, is believed to have been engraved by him while on board the Charlotte. He was the first man hanged in Sydney after stealing food in February 1788.

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Lavell, Henry

Convict Henry Lavell, or Lovell, arrived in Sydney on the Friendship in 1788. Convicted of theft and forgery in London in 1782, he had been sentenced to transportation to America for life but escaped before departure in the convict mutiny on the Mercury in 1784. Recaptured, he was transported to New South Wales. In early 1788, he and three of his fellow escapees were sentenced to death for stealing food, but only one, Thomas Barrett, was hanged. Given a reprieve, Lavell was sent to Pinchgut with Joseph Hall, until June. In 1790 he was sent to Norfolk Island, returning to Sydney in 1793. He was given an absolute pardon by Governor Hunter in 1798 and by 1801 had left the colony, apparently for England. In 1789 he had a son, James Lavello, with an Aboriginal woman, possibly named Borra Borra.

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Hall, Joseph

Convict who arrived in Sydney as part of the First Fleet. He was convicted in London 1784 of highway robbery and sentenced to 14 years transportation to America, but escaped after a convict mutiny on the Mercury. He was recaptured and departed for New South Wales on the Charlotte in 1788. After being sentenced to hang, with three of his fellow mutineers, for the theft of food in February 1788, he was given a reprieve and sent with Henry Lavell, one of the others charged, to Pinchgut until June. He was sent to Norfolk Island on the Sirius in 1790 and eventually received a conditional pardon, after which he settled on Norfolk Island.

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Ryan, John

Convict who arrived in Sydney as part of the First Fleet. He was a silk weaver who was convicted in London in 1784 of theft and sentenced to 7 years transportation to America, but escaped after a convict mutiny on the Mercury. He was recaptured and departed for New South Wales on the Charlotte in 1788. With three of his fellow mutineers, he was convicted of the theft of food in February 1788. Sentenced to 300 lashes, he was given a reprieve. He was sent to Norfolk Island on the Sirius in 1790 where he married and had a child. He and his family returned to Sydney in 1793.

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First Fleet

Fleet of eleven ships which left England in 1787 to found a penal colony in Australia. It consisted of two Royal Navy Vessels, three store ships and six convict transports which carried over 1000 convicts, marines and seamen to the colony.

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Ross, Robert

Marine who as Lieutenant-Governor under Governor Phillip caused undue friction and unrest both in Sydney and Norfolk Island, and was happy to be recalled in 1791 to resume his military career in England.

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Journal of Arthur Bowes Smyth, 1787 March 22-1789 August

Journal by Arthur Bowes Smyth held in the National Library of Australia (MS 4568) concerning hia voyage to Australia in 1787 on the Lady Penrhyn, his stay in New South Wales and the trip back to England in 1789. Two other fair copies of the journal exist, one at the State Library of New South Wales (ML Safe 1/15) and the other at the British Museum (Add MS 47966)

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