Heroes and Rebels in the Family Tree—James John Dowsing, the unintentional emigrant.

The next time you take a trip to Tasmania, off the southernmost point of Australia, look to the city of Hobart.  There is a prominent land feature on the Derwent River called Dowsing Point.  The suburb takes its name from the geographical feature of the same name, which was originally recorded as Dowsing's Point. It was so named after one of our family ancestors,  James Dowsing, farmer of Prince of Wales Bay. James Dowsing was one of the Collins Settlement which landed at Sorrento on Port Phillip, Victoria, on the Calcutta. The first contingent relocated to Hobart Town on the Lady Nelson and Ocean. Dowsing and T Gavin took up a year lease on property here.

This is the story of hero and rebel, James John Dowsing and his unintentional, but consequential, emigration to Tasmania.

 James John Dowsing (1776-1839) was born on January 1, 1776 in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England to William Dowsing (1745-1796) and Sarah Sallowes (1742-1864). James was the youngest of five children. 

By the age of 25, James had not married.

On November 3, 1801, James was accused in Poultry, London, England of stealing a parcel of cloth out of a cart and was arrested. He was subsequently charged on December 2, 1801 with Grand Larceny theft because of the value of the items stolen. 

Here is a report of the trial as published:

JAMES DOWSING was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 3d of November, a wrapper, value 1s. and thirty-five yards of woollen cloth, value £11. 4s. the property of William Sutton.

WILLIAM SUTTON sworn. - I keep the Salisbury Arms, in Cow-lane, Smithfield: On Tuesday, the 3d of November, I sent a truss of goods to Chester's-quay, by William Woodlands, directed to Henry Braden, of Canterbury.

WILLIAM WOODLANDS sworn. - I am porter to Mr. Sutton: On the 3d of November, as I was coming into the Old Jewry, I missed a truss of goods out of the cart; I was in the cart, driving with a rein, when I missed the good; I turned my horse round to go towards Coleman-street, and saw a man on the other side of the way, with a truss of goods on his shoulder; I met him coming towards me with it; I cried out, stop thief, turned my cart round again, and soon overtook him; he was in custody of an officer when I came up.

Q. When you say you met a man with a truss of goods on his shoulder do you mean the prisoner? - A. No, it was an officer.

Prisoner. Q. Was it an open cart, or had it a tail-board? - A. It was open.

Q. Was there anything to prevent the truss falling out? - A. It was impossible, because I had put it so far in the cart; I had another large truss behind it.

JOHN FENNER sworn. - I am an officer belonging to Cheap Ward; Alderman and I were in company together on the 3d of November, crossing, about six o'clock in the evening, Cateaton-street, we observed a man running with a truss on his back.

Q. Was that the prisoner? - A. Yes, and two others with him, one of whom we knew to be a thief; we immediately pursued him to the corner, of King's Arms-yard, Coleman-street, and there stopped him; I had never lost sight of him; he had the goods on his shoulder when I collared him; I asked him where he got the property, and he said a man gave him a pot of porter to carry it for him.

(John Alderman corroborated the evidence of Fenrler).

Sutton. This is the parcel I delivered to Woodlands; here is the bill of parcels I sent with it. -(Produces it.)

Prisoner's defence. I had been to Chater's, the watchmaker, in Cornhill, and going down Coleman-street, I picked up this parcel; there was another man with me, and he said, he would take it home to his house and advertise it.

Jury. (To Fenner.) Q. Is the truss clean or dirty? - A. Clean.

Q. What sort of night was it? - A. A very dark and dirty night.

GUILTY , aged 25. Transported for seven years.

London Jury, before Mr. Recorder.

His trial was short and the testimony given was scant.  He was found guilty and sentenced to 7 years transportation to the British penal colony in Tasmania. 

He was held in jail in London, England until he was delivered on board the prison hulk at Portsmouth on October 16, 1802.  He was transferred to the prison ship Calcutta and departed port on January 31, 1803 arriving in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia on October 12, 1803.

His time on the prison ship is well-documented in the fascinating story about the prison ship Calcutta below.

James married Johanna Clarke/Sculley/Schullah nee Brady on November 5, 1827.  Johanna, herself a convict, had been married and widowed three times prior. 

Johanna Brady first married Owen Clarke (a convict) and had a son.  Upon the death of her husband she married James Sculley who was a free settler. She and James Sculley had a daughter.  James Sculley then died in 1818, and she then commenced a relationship with William Schullah and had 3 more children.

When Johanna married James Dowsing, all the children took on the Dowsing surname.  James Dowsing and Johanna had no children of their own.

Sometime, after he completed his sentence, James Dowsing was granted 50 acres next to Prince of Wales Bay in Glenorchy.  James Dowsing is now commemorated in the naming of Dowsing Point in Hobart, near where the Bowen Bridge joins land on the western shore of the Derwent River.

On January 12, 1839,  James died at Hobard, aged 64, of 'Decay of nature'.  He was listed as a farmer.  His adopted son James Dowsing, Jr. made claim to the land granted to James Dowsing, Sr.

From the Government Gazette, Cornwall Chronicle, 11 July 1840.

James Dowsing, Hobart, 50 acres. - (Originally James Dowsing, senior; the applicant claims as heir-at-law — Claim dated 29th May, 1840.) Bounded on the west by 24 chains and 15 links extending southerly across a point of land from the River Derwent along the east boundary of a location originally made to James Miles, and thence on all the other sides by that river to the point of commencement.

Genealogy:  James Dowsing (1776-1839) was the son of William Dowsing (1764-1844).  His daughter was Mary Dowsing (1767-1844) and her son was John S Saunders (1795-1868) and his daughter was Mary Ann Saunders (1818-1893) and her husband was George Dalley Burwood (1821-1845) and his father was George Salter Burwood (1789-1829) and his father was Henry Bell Burwood (1766-1851) and his father was George Burwood (1743-1823) and his mother was Judith Salter (1707-1773) and her mother was Judith Farrow (1680-1718) and her mother was Anne Mewse (1654-    ) and her father was Philip Mewse (1629-1673) and his father was John Mewse (1592-1667) and his son was Simon Mewse (1641-1719) and his son was Simon Mewse (1672-1741) and his son was Simon Mewse (1695-1736) and his daughter was Mary Mewse (1727-1797) and her daughter was Elizabeth Curtis (1756-1832) and her son was John Curtis Adams (1797-1873) and his son was William Frederick Adams (1848-1907) and his son was George “Pikey” William Welch-Adams (1867-1940).

The Voyage to Australia on the Calcutta during 1803.

After leaving the Cape on board HMS Calcutta Lieutenant James Hingston Tuckey wrote in his journal about the voyage.

Lieutenant Tuckey remarked:

In these southern seas, we were continually surrounded by whales, and were even sometimes obliged to alter our course to avoid striking on them.

The stormy seas which wash the southern promontory of Africa … are despised by the British seaman, whose vessel flies in security before the tempest, and while she rides on the billows and defies the storm, he carelessly sings as if unconscious of the warring elements around him.

 

Despite this boast, the effects of the wet and cold weather soon made themselves felt especially among the convicts who lacked sufficient clothing. Jackets and trousers were made up and distributed to those in need. Some cases of dysentery were reported but due to the surgeon’s care and the attention to cleanliness, only one man died. The animals taken on board at Simon’s Bay were less fortunate, three heifers dying at sea.

The tedium of the following weeks was occasionally enlivened by performances from the African American violinist William Thomas.

To say the remainder of the voyage was plain sailing would be to ignore the fact that it took Calcutta until 10 October to arrive at King Island in the entrance of the Bass Straits (she had departed Simon’s Bay on 25 August 1803). The lookouts aloft had been anxiously scanning the horizon for land for two days before the island was sighted and then because of an increasing breeze the ship had to stand three miles off shore.

A ‘perfect hurricane’ commenced to blow, but had spent itself by the following morning, the day dawning beautifully serene. It was a totally unknown coast and Calcutta approached cautiously till the break in the land forming the entrance of Port Phillip was observed.

A shout from the man at the mast-head alerted all to a ship at anchor within this entrance, soon identified as the Ocean, the companion vessel from which Calcutta had parted at Tristan da Cunha many weeks before. This was a welcome and cheering sight after so long at sea. Lieutenant Tuckey was unable to refrain from another fanciful passage of prose:

... an expanse of water ... unruffled as the bosom of unpolluted innocence, presented itself to the charmed eye, which roamed over it in silent admiration. The nearer shores … afforded the most exquisite scenery, and recalled the idea of ‘Nature in the world's first spring.’ In short, every circumstance combined to impress our minds with the highest satisfaction for our safe arrival.

After a week spent searching for a suitable spot for the settlement, it was decided to land the marines and convicts on the shores of a small bay eight miles from the harbour mouth. Camp was pitched and the crews of the two ships began unloading cargo.

On the first days of our landing, previous to the general debarkation, Capt. Woodriff, Colonel Collins and the First Lieutenant of the Calcutta had some interviews with the natives who came to the boats entirely unarmed, and without the smallest symptom of apprehension.

The Convict Ship Calcutta.

HMS Calcutta was the built originally as the East Indiaman Warley in 1788 for the East India Company but was purchased by the Royal Navy and in 1795 she was converted to a 56-gun Royal Navy ship. This ship of the line served for a time as an armed transport.

Between May 1802 and January 1803, the Navy had Calcutta fitted out as a transport for convicts being sent to Britain's penal colonies in Australia. She received new armament in the form of sixteen 24-pounder carronades (a type of cannon) on her upper deck and two six-pounder guns on the forecastle. Captain Daniel Woodriff recommissioned her in November 1802 and sailed her from Spithead, England on 28 April 1803, accompanied by Ocean, to establish a settlement at Port Phillip. Calcutta carried a crew of 150 and 307 male convicts, along with civil officers, marines, free settlers and some 30 wives and children of the convicts. The Reverend Robert Knopwood kept a journal on the voyage.

Calcutta arrived at Teneriffe on 13 May; five convicts had died on that leg, suggesting that many had probably been embarked already in bad health. She reached Rio de Janeiro on 19 July, and the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope on 16 August 1803.

While Calcutta was at the Cape, a vessel arrived with news that Britain was now at war with the Batavian Republic. The colony's Dutch commodore sent a representative aboard Calcutta to demand her surrender and that of her contents. While the representative waited, Woodriff spent two hours preparing her for battle. He then showed the representative her sailors and marines at their guns, and told the Dutchman to inform the commodore that "if he wants this ship he must come and take her if he can". To speed up the preparations, William Gammon, the master's mate, had asked the convicts if any would volunteer to fight and work the ship. All volunteered. The commodore gave Woodriff 24 hours to leave, saying that he "did not wish to capture such a large number of thieves".

On 12 October 1803, she reached her destination; by this time another three convicts had died. Of the eight convicts that died, one had drowned in an escape attempt at the Cape and one was shot on attempting to escape.

At Port Phillip, David Collins, the commander of the expedition, found that the poor soil and shortage of fresh water made the area unsuitable for a colony. Collins wanted to move the colony to the Derwent River on the south coast of Tasmania (then Van Diemens Land) to the site of current-day Hobart. At least 13 convicts were transferred on to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Australia. Woodriff refused the use of Calcutta, arguing that Ocean was large enough to transport the colony, and that he was under orders to pick up naval supplies for transport to England.

In December 1803, Woodriff sailed to Sydney where he took on a cargo of lumber. At midnight, on 4 March 1804, Woodriff landed 150 of his crew and marines to assist the New South Wales Corps and the Loyal Association, a local militia, in suppressing a convict uprising in support of the Castle Hill convict rebellion, a revolt by some 260 Irish convicts against Governor King. Afterward, the commander of the marine detachment on Calcutta, Charles Menzies, offered his services to the governor as superintendent of a new settlement at Coal Harbour, an offer Governor King accepted. Another Calcutta officer, Lieut. John Houston, accepted an appointment as acting Lieutenant Governor of Norfolk Island while Major Joseph Foveaux was on leave.

Calcutta left on 17 March 1804, doubled Cape Horn and reached Rio on 22 May. In reaching Rio, she had thus circumnavigated the world in ten months and  three days. She arrived at Spithead on 23 July 1804.

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Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 87, Class and Piece Number HO11/1, Page Number 338

Source Description

This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project.