Joseph Gerrald
Joseph Gerrald (born February 9, 1763 in St. Kitts , West Indies , † March 16, 1796 in Sydney , convict colony, Australia ) was a lawyer, political reformer and important member of the London Corresponding Society , an organization that campaigns for civil rights and the abolition of the monarchy in England began. He was one of the first political convicts to be deported to Australia . He was one of five so-called Scottish Martyrs .
Early life
Joseph Gerrald was the only child of Joseph Gerrald († 1775), a plantation owner and descendant of a wealthy Irish family, and his second wife Ann, née Rogers. His parents returned to London , England in 1765 . Shortly afterwards his mother died. Joseph Gerald then lived with a friend of his mother's and went to school in Hammersmith , which he left at the age of 11. His father died in the West Indies in 1775. Gerrald's uncles sent him to an academy run by Samuel Parr . Through Parr, Gerrald became acquainted with William Pitt the Younger , the two-time Prime Minister of England, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan . At this school he shone with his intelligence and quick perception, but he was under-challenged and therefore dissatisfied. He said this publicly and was then removed from the school.
In 1780 he returned to the West Indies to put his legacy in order, which his father had left him neglected. Shortly after his arrival, he married. With his wife he had a son and a daughter. Shortly after the last birth, his wife died. Gerrald was suffering from health problems at the time and had to look after his children on his own. He left the West Indies for the United States , where he worked in the Pennsylvania courts for several years . In the early 1788s he returned to England with poor health.
Political life
From 1788 Gerrald was involved in the London Corresponding Society, an organization that advocated parliamentary reform and wanted to push back the influence of the nobility in politics. On October 24, 1793 he represented the London Corresponding Society with Maurice Margarot at a meeting in Edinburgh , which drafted a petition for parliamentary reform. This did not suit the authorities and they were arrested with other delegates on December 5 and 6, 1793 for sedition . In order to organize his private affairs, he was released from custody. In a subsequent trial the political reformers Maurice Margarot and William Skirving were convicted and sentenced to 14 years of deportation to Australia for sedition. Gerrald's friends advised him not to come to the trial, but to flee to the United States. Gerrald returned to Edinburgh for his trial in March 1794, but defended himself without success. Despite his advanced illness, which was already recognizable at the time, he was convicted; this amounted to a death sentence.
On May 2, 1795, he came on board the convict transport Sovereign and was transported to New South Wales . The ship reached Sydney Harbor on November 5, 1795 with Gerrald, who was ill with advanced tuberculosis . Although he was able to buy a house with a garden and did not have to do convict labor, his illness forced him to seek help from Thomas Fyshe Palmer , who took him into his house. Despite the help of the English colony's chief doctor, surgeon George Bass , he died on March 16, 1796.
Aftermath
Joseph Gerrald is counted among the five Scottish Martyrs . The Political Martyrs Monument , a 27 meter high obelisk made of sandstone , which in the Old Calton Burial Ground on Calton Hill in Edinburgh was established in August 1844 will contribute, together with the four so-called. Scottish martyrs his name. This is also the case on a metal memorial in Huntershill Village and also on the Nunhead Cementary in Surrey .
Sandstone Obelisk in Edinburgh
Memorial in the shape of a gate in Huntershill Village
Name on the Nunhead Cementary Memorial
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Gerrald, Joseph , on oxforddnb.com. Retrieved November 12, 2016
- ^ Robert Hughes: The Fatal Shore, the Epic of Australia's founding . P. 177. Button. New York 1987. ISBN 0-394-50668-5
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gerrald, Joseph |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English prisoner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 9, 1763 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | West Indies |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 16, 1796 |
| Place of death | Sydney , Convict Colony Australia |