Soldiers at Towrang Stockade

 

Soldiers accompanied convicts on the ships transporting them from England.  The regiments were headquartered either in Sydney, Windsor or at Parramatta.  Detachments were then sent to where the iron gangs were working, such places as Moreton Bay, Cox’s River, Wingello and Towrang.  These were not popular appointments with the soldiers as they were invariably remote from civilisation with primitive conditions and the work would have been tedious.  The Regimental History of the 80th Regiment  records:

No more depressing duty can be found for a regiment than this guarding of convicts or more calculated to destroy the discipline of the Corps. As the vessels arrived from Europe with their cargoes of convict felons, the Military Guard (generally composed of young soldiers, drafts for the regiment) was sent out to the interior in charge of road gangs, without having seen, or been seen, by the major part of the officers of their Regiment. These guards, with few exceptions, were commanded by young officers without experience, and who, for want of other sources of amusement, gladly availed themselves of the society of such of the settlers who casually fell their way, and as was only natural, insensibly acquired their habits.1

However some soldiers had their families with them living in basic accommodation. Two of the three graves at the site belong to civilians.  One woman of 33 years and the other a child believed to be the daughter of a non-commissioned officer.  It is believed there a number of unmarked convict graves in the area.

As the Stockade was the chief penal camp in the southern district between 1833 and 1843, the officers and some of the soldiers were seconded to the mounted police.  Several of the officers were also magistrates.

A garrison at Towrang would comprise one officer, two sergeants, three corporals with up to forty privates.  There would also be an assistant surgeon from time to time.

Some of the soldiers engaged in illegal commercial activity. One example is quoted in the Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser from 1840:

The Military Superintendent over the iron gangs on public works at Towrang, near Goulburn, has lately forwarded his senior sergeant to Head Quarters under charge of a Military escort, to undergo a Court Martial, for breach of discipline. There are two sergeants at each Stockade – the senior as head overseer: the junior as his deputy. Now it appears the senior sergeant at the Towrang Stockade, has been in the habit of separating the mechanic convicts from the labourers – the latter are compelled to work upon the roads – and the former are employed by the sergeant in their respective trades of tailors, shoemakers, wheelwrights, etc., etc., the sergeant supplied them with materials for performing their avocations, and the monies arising from their labour, he placed in his own pocket. 5.

The regiments that garrisoned the stockade were:

17th Regiment of Foot, (Leicestershire Regiment) Captain J Darley 1833-1836.  Also in charge of 2nd Division Mounted Police.

50th Regiment of Foot (West Kent Queens Own Buff), Leut R Waddy 1837-9, also with the Goulburn Mounted Police.

 80th Regiment of Foot (Staffordshire Volunteers), Leut. R Sherberras 1840

 28th Regiment of Foot (North Gloucestershire Regiment), Ensign W Gwynne 1841.

80th Regiment of Foot, Captain W H Tyssen, Assistant Engineer and Superintendent of Iron Gangs 1841

80th Regiment of Foot, Leut W Cookson, Assistant Engineer and Superintendent of Iron Gangs 1841-42 and Goulburn Mounted Police. Appointed a magistrate 1841. 3.

80th Regiment of Foot, Leut O Gorman, Assistant Engineer and Superintendent of Iron Gangs 1843 and Goulburn Mounted Police.

The 17th Regiment arrived in Australia during 1830-31. It is thought that the regiment was the last garrison at the Wingello Stockade and moved to Towrang in 1833. The regiment provided 48 detachments as convict guards.  They embarked for Afghanistan in 1836.

The 28th Regiment of Foot served in Australia from 1835-1842 providing twenty three detachments guarding convicts. They saw service in places such as Parramatta, Hassan’s Wells, Illawarra, Towrang, Newcastle, Moreton Bay and Port Phillip Bay. They departed in 1842 for India.

The 50th Regiment of Foot, known as the West Kent Queens Own Buffs, initially saw service in Australia from 1834-1841. They had thirteen detachments guarding convicts at places including Sydney, Norfolk Island, Tasmania, Adelaide, Berrima and Towrang. In 1841 they departed for India where they took part in the Sikh wars before returning to England.  In 1854 they were in Malta and took part in the Crimean war and returned to Australia in 1864 until 1869 and were involved in the Maori wars.

In 1839 the 80th Regiment (Staffordshire Volunteers) took over the garrison at Towrang. The regiment provided detachments to Norfolk Island, Illawarra, Berrima, Newcastle, Liverpool, New Zealand and Towrang. The regiment sailed for service in India in the Sikh Wars on 12 August 1844.

Biographical Notes on some of the Officers

LEUT R Waddy.  He was born in 1815 at Wexford in Ireland.  In Australia he was initially an Ensign and was commanding the Berrima stockade with a sergeant and 25 men.  He was there for a year before taking the appointment at Towrang from 1837-39. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1837. In 1841 the Regiment left for India to take part in the 1st Sikh War where the regiment took part in the Sutlej Campaign of 1843. He married his wife Anne (who was born in Sydney) in the early 1840’s, probably before he left Australia.  His first child, John was born in Bengal in 1843, so the regiment was still in India at that time.  In 1850 the regiment was in England at Dover where his daughter, Frances was born.  The regiment was posted to Malta where it was involved in the Crimean War and Waddy was a Lieutenant Colonel. For his services at the Crimea he was made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB). He was also made a Knight of the Legion of Honour and awarded the campaign medals for Crimea and Sardinia.  In 1864 the regiment was returned to Australia and took part in the Maori Wars in New Zealand.  He was a Colonel at the time and commanded the 50th Regiment.  He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1865 and was in charge of the Wanganui District.   He died in 1881. There is a monument to him in Canterbury Cathedral. 1.

Leut R Sherberras. Rinaldo Sherberras was born in Malta in 1808 and was commissioned as an Ensign into the 80th Regiment of Foot in 1826 when the regiment was stationed in Malta.  While the regiment was at Chatham (UK) in 1836 Sherberras was promoted to Lieutenant.  In 1837 the regiment was ordered to Australia guarding convicts.  His first assignment on arrival was to the Wingello Stockade in 1839 until he was moved to Towrang later in 1839 when that stockade was closed.  After Towrang Sherberras was transferred to Morpeth and in 1842 married Jane Platt.  He was promoted to the rank of Captain in 1843. At Morpeth his duties included those of a Justice of the Peace. The regiment sailed for Calcutta 1844 to participate in the first Sikh War.  It was at Ferozeshah that Sherberras was killed in 1845. There are monuments to him at Maitland, the Cathedral Church in Lichfield England and at Upper Barracca at Valetta Malta.

Leut Owen Gorman was born in Ireland in 1799 and enlisted in the 58th Regiment as a private soldier.  When he received his commission he transferred to the 80th Regiment.  He arrived in Australia in 1839 bringing with him his wife and three sons.  However during his tenure in Australia he had a relationship with another woman and produced three further children. His first appointment was as the Commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Colony and was its last Commandant.    He was there from 1839 to 1842 and in that time he found a route across the Great Dividing Range now known as Gorman’s Gap.  He was then posted to Towrang in 1843 and was the last commander there.  The regiment was posted to India in 1844, but Gorman returned to Australia where he settled.  He died in 1862 and is buried at Armidale NSW. 2.

Sources:

  1. British Garrisons in Australia 1788-1841: the Great Roads (Military Supervision of Convict Gangs Part IV). Sabretache Dec 2003. Clem Sargent
  2. HTTP://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/¬garter1/gormanowen.htm
  3. The Sydney Gazette 28 Sept 1841 p 2,3
  4. The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser 16 March 1840 p3

Below is Col Waddy, British Soldiers Uniform.

Ken Kenchington Painting. 80th Staffordshire.