A ship which John Marshall chartered for passenger and emigrant traffic. John Marshall, of 26 Birchin Lane, Cornhill, was the most active colonial emigration agent before the formation of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission in 1840. The Boadicea was chartered for the London Emigration Committee.
Voyage of Boadicea, Arrived 2 Feb 1836
The voyage of the immigrant ship Boadicea
Newspaper Coverage of the BOADICEA Immigrant Ship to Van Diemen's Land Left England on the 2nd of October 1835 Arriving about 2nd of February 1836.
NOTICE.
A HOUSE, at the upper end of Camp-bell-street, belonging to Mr. Solomon, having been rented by the Government for the reception of the free Female Emigrants, daily expected per Boadicea, the Ladies' Committee are respectfully invited to assemble there on Wednesday, the 27th instant, at Two o'clock P.M., for the purpose of making the necessary arrangements for their accommodation and disposal.
GEORGE EVERETT
Jan. 25, 1835. (From Advertising in the Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857) of Tuesday 26 January 1836, Page 3. at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8648866? )
The Courier....
The Boadicea with free female emigrants was in the river when our paper went to press last night. The Colonial Secretary, the Chief Police Magistrate and the Port Officer had gone down to meet the vessel. (From The Courier. in The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 - 1839) of Friday 5 February 1836, Page 2. at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4177652? )
COLONIAL TIMES
HOBART TOWN
FEBRUARY 9, 1836 .........
Female Emigration.
The more we consider the above subject, the more horrible does it appear! Since our last observations, which we offered to the readers this day week, the Boadicea has arrived with 260 free females, of which number there are one hundred and sixty said to be under the age of sixteen.
The Emigration Committee, when it had commenced its labours, blundered on in spite of common sense—in spite of the wishes and advice of the Colonists. It is in vain that this Journal and others endeavoured to convince the blundering souls, composing the Committee, that the colony, would soon have poor enough of its own, without importing misery from a rich country, like that of Great Britain— all argument was futile, and report after report was made. The Colony, said these self-elected philosophers, was prosperous and only required population. Population was strength, cried these learned grovellers, and emigrants of all description were re-commended to be forwarded. The convicts arrived in numbers, and were well provided for by the Government. The pensioners arrived next, men who had bled for their country were cajoled—were entrapped here, and the Government left them to want and wretchedness, because they were not con-victs !
Emigrants with large families arrived also, and they were without friends and almost destitute of bread; for their food was taken from their children's mouths and given to the convicts. Felons, on all occasions, had the preference; if a free emigrant asked for a paltry situation, he was refused—no ! the felons were to be appointed to be the preservers of the peace, clerks, messengers, and Government servants ; and those whom the Emigration Committee entrapped by their wicked reports to leave comfortable homes, were called mere materials for prison discipline !
The evil efforts of the Emigration Committee did not rest here ; finding male paupers were useless—finding free emigrants with families of children could not add to the Colonial balance sheet, another description of emigrants were recommended —free females ! It is scarcely necessary to repeat in what manner the cargoes of the Princess Royal and Strathfieldsay were made up—suffice to say, the cargo of the Boadicea is similar to the two former in every respect, save the age of the victims ! Faithful accounts from hence of the distress of the females who were deluded here, had no doubt reached home, or at least suffi-ciently so to make women of riper years and good character hesitate before they undertook so perilous a voyage; no doubt, thence it was that the purveyors of these cargoes had recourse to children to fill up their white slave ships, the infant mind being more easily led than that of the adult. So young—so unexperienced, are some of the imported infants, that we understand that about fifty have been sent to the Orphan School !
Thus do we find, that through the im-becility of our Emigration Committee, not only veterans have been deceived, but the very children of the Poor-houses and Orphan Schools in Great Britain have been poured upon the resources of this—" Colonel Arthur's prosperous" Colony. The children from the Alms-houses in the Mother Country have been transfered to the Poor-houses of this distressed and starving Colony—what next may be ex-pected ?—what may not be expected from men who could blindly leadon the Co-lonists to ruin, and bring the unoffend-ing infant of the Mother Country to polu-tion and famine, in a Colony sixteen thou-sand miles from Home—from whence they never can return to tell the tale of misery, which those who have already gone before them point out as certain to be the result ?
It is but justice to observe, that the landing of these poor deluded creatures from the Boadicea was better attended to than was the disembarkation of those by the Strathfieldsay ; the hour at which the landing took place precluded the probability of such disgusting scenes as took place on the landing of the women per the Strathfield say — nay, rather more decorous behaviour has been manifested towards these poor creatures since their arrival, than was the case formerly on similar oc-cassions ; perhaps, the very dregs of so-ciety—the most wicked of the prisoners, compassionate the situation of the women who have arrived at such a place, and at such a time !
(From the COLONIAL TIMES in the Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857) of Tuesday 9 February 1836, Page 4. at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8648882 )
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THE Female Emigration Committee have set to work a portion of the British Press, to laud up their exertions. Scarcely a single October paper has reached us, but what contains some allusion to the proceedings of these worse than slave dealers. In the Hampshire Telegraph of the 6th Oct., we read that
" Yesterday, the Boadicea, chartered by the Emigration Committee for the conveyance of single females and their families (oh !) to Australia, sailed from Gravesend with 270 souls on board, for Hobart Town. They consisted of 100 Irish girls, 40 from Scotland, and 27 from London and Middlesex, the remainder from other countries in England. The females were 200 in number, and the other passengers consisted of young men and fathers of families, agriculturists, who are much wanted in the Colony. Among the emigrants were twelve very fine young girls, remarkably well behaved, and only 15 years of age, from the foundling hospital at Cork ; 50 from the Dublin school, and thirty or forty selected from the other institutions in Ireland. Their demeanour was excellent, and they are accompanied by several experienced matrons, who, from motives of pure benevolence, have left their native isle to administer to their comfort and convenience. The majority of them are well educated, and of superior moral and religious habits. Among the families are a Mr. Storey, a farmer, from Somersetshire, with his wife, five rosy-cheeked, round faced daughters, between the ages of five and seventeen years, and two boys ; a widow from Bristol, with three daughters ; Mrs. Stronger, a widow from Brighton, with her mother, aged 58 years, and three daughters ; and Mr. Thompson, superintendent, and his wife, who fills the situation of matron."
In a late number we stated that certain Orphan Schools had been cleared of the children, and that infants had been put on board the Boadicea ; since the arrival of these kidnapped children, the Local Government has been compelled to forward them to the Orphan School at Newtown ; thus is the Colony burthened with the offsprings of the paupers of the Mother Country ! The "twelve fine young girls from the Foundling Hospital at Cork," are not nearly fifteen years of age, and the fifty from " the other institutions," are equally as infantine ; the fact is, that out of the 260 females that arrived by the Boadicea, sixty or eighty are now under twelve years of age! Cant and hyprocrisy are resorted to by these destroyers of virtue and innocence; they talk of matrons accompanying these deluded creatures "from motives of pure benevolence," and that the girls are " well educated and of superior moral and religious habits"--what deception ! The same motives which induced the managers of this kidnapping scheme to transport unoffending young women, no doubt influenced the matrons to undertake the management of the children ; and as to " pure benevolence," it is a mockery ; the stimulus to all concerned, was the price paid per head for all the females shipped on board the vessel. If the girls by the Boadicea are well-behaved, well educated and of superior moral and religious habits, they are indeed to be pitied ; and the offence of sending virtuous young women to such a sink of iniquity, becomes a crime. Far better would it have been for the whole of the passengers by the Boadicea, had they come to this Colony as prisoners of the Crown, they would not have been contaminated during the voyage--they would not, on landing, be cast on the wide world without protection. The Government would always be compelled to find shelter and food for the offending female convict, but the free and virtuous female emigrant must, if she cannot procure a situation, become a pest to herself and a nuisance to society.
We envy not the feelings of the men who formed the Emigration Committee, and who were ignorant or wicked enough to recommend the destruction of so many fellow creatures ; as far as the Colony is concerned, these men have been a curse to it ! and as far as the deluded emigrants are concerned, no doubt the wretched distress now witnessed among their victims must give them heart-rending emotions, if they are not void of all shame and feeling.
(From Prison Discipline. in the Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857) of Tuesday 23 February 1836, Page 5. at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8648910/668460 )