THE PATRIOT CONVICTS

A little-known group of political prisoners, transported from Canada to the Australian colonies, had far-reaching effects.

- DEKE RICHARDS

IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL book, Notes of a Convict of 1838, François Xavier Prieur recalled his harsh experiences on the sailing ship HMS Buffalo en route to Australia in 1839–40. “A wounded man preserves as a memento the bullet or piece of shrapnel that has been extracted from his lacerated flesh,” he wrote in his memoirs, published in 1869. “Well, I, too, would

like to possess a little cross made from the wood from which this vessel was constructed, and within whose sides my heart and my body have been lacerated by my unworthy treatment.” It would take more than 183 years for his wish to be fulfilled.

As a 24-year-old merchant, Prieur and 57 shipmates were destined for Port Jackson in Sydney, New South Wales. By the time they reached the far-flung penal colony, they’d endured a voyage of almost six months from Quebec City. Although they were prisoners, Prieur and his companions were no common criminals. They were Patriots – Lower Canadian revolutionaries who, in 1837–38, took up arms to fight for democracy against autocratic British colonial rule in Lower Canada (now Quebec) and Upper Canada (now Southern Ontario).

Ultimately, 29 Patriots – 12 Lower Canadians and 17 Upper Canadians – were hanged for their participation in the failed 1838 insurrections. To avoid backlash, there were no further executions. Conditional pardons were granted to some prisoners, but 58 captives remained in Lower Canada, while 92 – the majority of whom were Americans who fought for the patriot cause – were incarcerated in Upper Canada.