A Desperate Set Of Villains: The Convicts Of The Marquis Cornwallis, Ireland To Botany Bay, 1796
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In 1796, a battered convict transport ship named the Marquis Cornwallis set sail from Ireland, its hold crammed with men and women branded by the British legal system as criminals — yet whose stories reveal a far more complex and human truth. A Desperate Set of Villains chronicles the harrowing voyage of these Irish convicts, transported across treacherous seas to Botany Bay in the fledgling penal colony of New South Wales, documenting their identities, crimes, and fates with meticulous archival precision. Barbara Hall reconstructs individual lives from court records, ship manifests, and colonial documents, transforming a historical footnote into a vivid tapestry of survival, injustice, and resilience at the edges of empire. This work stands as an invaluable contribution to the genealogical and social history of colonial Australia, presenting a granular portrait of the convict experience that humanises those whom official history sought to silence. Hall's prose is measured and authoritative, grounded in rigorous research yet never losing sight of the men and women at its heart — their crimes often rooted in poverty and political unrest in a colonial Ireland under immense pressure. For anyone tracing Irish-Australian ancestry or seeking to understand the brutal machinery of eighteenth-century transportation, this volume will leave them asking not who these villains truly were, but who truly deserved that name.
Author: Barbara Hall
Format: Paperback
Genre: Australian history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
In 1796, a battered convict transport ship named the Marquis Cornwallis set sail from Ireland, its hold crammed with men and women branded by the British legal system as criminals — yet whose stories reveal a far more complex and human truth. A Desperate Set of Villains chronicles the harrowing voyage of these Irish convicts, transported across treacherous seas to Botany Bay in the fledgling penal colony of New South Wales, documenting their identities, crimes, and fates with meticulous archival precision. Barbara Hall reconstructs individual lives from court records, ship manifests, and colonial documents, transforming a historical footnote into a vivid tapestry of survival, injustice, and resilience at the edges of empire. This work stands as an invaluable contribution to the genealogical and social history of colonial Australia, presenting a granular portrait of the convict experience that humanises those whom official history sought to silence. Hall's prose is measured and authoritative, grounded in rigorous research yet never losing sight of the men and women at its heart — their crimes often rooted in poverty and political unrest in a colonial Ireland under immense pressure. For anyone tracing Irish-Australian ancestry or seeking to understand the brutal machinery of eighteenth-century transportation, this volume will leave them asking not who these villains truly were, but who truly deserved that name.