Thomas Lovick

A Convict Story
The main investigation for this essay is
to understand the alienation faced by
British convicts coming to Australia
and the process of assimilating into
their new society. I will do this by
looking at the wider context of the time
and what challenges British convicts
faced. I will also use a specific
example by conceptualizing the life of
British convict Thomas Lovick, a
distant relative of mine, and his
journey from Britain to Victoria.
Thomas Lovick never realized the full
repercussion when sentenced for
stealing a coat on the 20th August
1830. He never realized that following
110 day journey he would be
transported on a convict ship from the
country he was born in to the newly
colonized country of Australia.
For all migration stories push and pull
factors are crucial to understanding
why a person is willing or compelled
to move to another country. Lovick
being a convict the factors were clear.
England (1810-1830)
Lovick was born in England in 1810.
Little is known about his early life
although it seems he made a living as
groom/cart boy. 1 However, it appears
Lovick sought to gain extra money on
the side and strayed for the straight and
narrow as a thief. Unfortunately,

Lovick was not too clever at his second

job as on the 20th April, 1830 he was
convicted of Larceny (stealing). 2 This
conviction would change Lovicks life
forever as he was sentenced to be
transported to Australia for seven
years. 3 In fact, Lovick should have
counted himself lucky as at one point
in the early 1800s the penalty for theft
of an object over five shillings was
death. 4
In the early 1800s England saw a
massive internal population movement
from rural to urban areas as a result of
advances in the industry sector. 5 As
urban populations rapidly grew so did
political unrest and crime. This led to
overcrowding in prisons and the need
for a new alternative to deal with
criminals.
Transportation of convicts from
England to Australia began in the late
18th century as Britain could no longer
transport to the American colonies due
to the American Revolution. 6 The
practice of transportation came from
the idea that convicts should be useful
servants for Britain rather than a
burden. Thus transportation could act
as both a punishment for the crimes
committed but also as an economic
policy. 7 Another reason for the
transportation of convicts was to ease
the immense pressure on Britains jails
and hulks. 8 A hulk was a

decommissioned ship that had been

transformed into a prison. Due to the
time Lovick was convicted there is a
strong possibility that for the time
between his conviction and being
transported he would have been placed
on a hulk. Unfortunately, hulks were
vastly overcrowded and not maintained
leading to an increase in disease and
general poor health for convicts. 9
When convicts were transported very
detailed descriptions of them were
recorded. With photography having not
been invented when Lovick was
transported this is the only way we can
discover what he looked like. From
records Lovick was of medium height
being 5 feet 5 inches (165cms). 10 He
had a dark complexion along with
black eyes and dark brown
hair/eyebrows. 11 His head was
described as round with a slightly
sloping backwards forehead. 12 His
nose, chin, and mouth were medium in
length and width. 13 Lovick at the time
did not have a beard highlighting a
defining feature of his which was a
dimple in the center of his chin. 14

Van Diemens Land (1830-1857)

Lovick, along with 215 other convicts
on the ship Clyde, set sail from
England on the 20th August, 1830. 15
Being transported was a very
dangerous journey with some ships
that departed from England never
reaching Australian shores. An
example is a shipwreck that occurred
five years after Lovick had been
transported. In 1835, the ship Neva
carrying 150 female prisoners, 59

children and 26 crew members sailed

into a reef in the Bass Strait. 16 Only 15
of those aboard survived. 17
However, Lovick did not encounter
any such disasters and after 110 days at
sea arrived in Van Diemens Land
(Tasmania) on the 18th December
1830. 18
Between 1803 and 1853, it is believed
that Van Diemens Land received
around 72,000 convicts from Britain. 19
It was men who made the large
proportion of these numbers as women
made up around 16% of the total
numbers of convicts transported. 20
There was such large numbers of
convicts being transported to Van
Diemens Land between 1820 and
1851 that convict arrivals
outnumbered free immigrants by three
to one. 21 This is reinforced by a
census conducted in 1847 that revealed
over 50% of the population of Van
Diemens Land were convicts. 22
For convicts there was a graded system
that was implemented and determined
the duration of their sentence. On
arrival, convicts were either placed
under the supervision of settlers or the
government. 23 If they were well
behaved in this time they would
receive a ticket of leave meaning they
had become independent. 24 However,
if they were unruly and disobedient in
this time they would be sentenced to
floggings, hard labor or sent to penal
stations that were reserved for convicts
who continued to commit further
offences. 25 This system worked well
within Van Diemems Land as settlers

and the government gained cheap labor

while for convicts it allowed an easier
assimilation into the community and
society.

as a hotelkeeper for on the 1st

September 1841, he was granted a
renewal license to continue to run the
hotel. 31

Lovick was granted his freedom on the

11th April, 1836.26 As previously
mentioned, if convicts were well
behaved and found themselves in the
right circumstances they would receive
benefits. Clearly, Lovick found himself
in such a circumstance as he only
served six years of a seven year
sentence.

On the 7th April 1837, Lovick married

Helen Mitchell fathering four sons. 32
This would be the heritage line that I
would come from. However, this
marriage did not last as on 10th July
1848, Lovick was remarried to Jane
Orchard. 33

When convicts were pardoned from

their sentence they were required to
apply for permission to settle in
Australia if that is what they chose to
do. In Lovicks permission to reside
papers he was granted by the Governor
of Van Diemens Land the freedom to
reside in any district he desired. 27
However, once settled he was not able
to move from the district without a
pass. 28 This pass had to be obtained
and signed from the Magistrate.
Although Lovick had concluded his
sentence and been awarded his
freedom there were still procedures
applied to record and contain former
convict movement.

It seems that Lovick prospered with his

freedom as an advert in the local paper
of the time in 1840 revealed he had
become a hotelkeeper of the Angel
Inn. 29 In the advert Lovick announces
that the public can be furnished with
gigs and horses, of the best
description. 30 A gig at the time was
another word for a carriage. Lovick
appeared as though he was doing well

Modern day Tasmania owes a great

deal to the transportation of convicts
from Britain as the distinctive
experience of this period had and
continues to shape views about society
and politics. 34
Victoria (1857-1870)
In 1857, Lovick and his family moved
to Victoria where he found work as a
cabdriver. 35 In moving to Victoria,
Lovick found himself in one of the
most significant periods in not only
Victorian but Australian history.
In 1851, gold was discovered in
Victoria marking the start of the gold
rush. Although there is no evidence of
Lovick participating in the goldfields,
business would have been booming for
Lovick as a cabdriver due to the surge
in population of Victoria.
Between 1851 and 1861, over 300,000
people migrated to Victoria from the
United Kingdom. 36 To give a proper
understanding of how many people
arrived in Melbourne in a short period
of time by 1854, around 140,000
people from the United Kingdom had

arrived. 37 However, it was not only

people migrating from the United
Kingdom as at the same time over
20,000 Chinese and other foreigners
had landed on Melbournes doorstep. 38
Due to the immense surge in numbers
gold rush communities were often
referred to as communities of
strangers. 39 They were made of people
only passing through intent on making
their fortune and returning to Europe
instead of making a home in
Australia. 40 Interestingly, out of the
300,000 only 45,000 people returned to
the United Kingdom. 41 It seems the
Australian way of life and the
opportunities the expanding colony
presented were too good to pass up for
Lovick and many British migrants.
The gold rush not only had a huge
impact on the population of Victoria
but also business and trade. Before the
rush there were around fifty merchants
operating in Melbourne. 42 In the peak
of the rush that number expanded to
over 300 operating merchants. 43 This
created a flow on effect for
employment in the commercial sector
with people working in the sector
rising from 3,445 people in 1851 to
around 7,687 people by 1854. 44 It
seems that not only gold diggers were
trying to make their fortune at this time
as it is reported that merchants were
rising the price of all provision at least
30%. 45
th

On the 19 October, Lovick passed

away. The cause of death in a local
paper was described as a disease of the
heart. 46

Migration has played a major role

either in forming or shaping many
societies and communities throughout
the world. If not for migration there
would be no cultural diversity as
movement of people across national
boundaries brings new attitudes, views
and cultural specific dynamics into the
wider world. Consequently, this would
lead to a limited and shielded cultural
system. Since people began to migrate
there have been varying motivations
which can be from either external
pressures or internal decisions.
Commonly known as push and pull
factors, these can vary greatly
depending different environments an
individual or group may be in. 47 These
can include escaping from a war
stricken country, seeking better work
or living opportunities and having
relatives or family that have already
migrated. Australia has been a focus
for migration since European
settlement and for this reason can be
seen as having a very high level of
cultural diversity. This was not always
apparent as Australia experienced
periods of extreme racial prejudice
with the creation of the White
Australia Policy which sought to keep
Australia white by blocking people
with different ethnicities from entering
the country. However, some stories did
not encounter this backlash and in
some cases quite the opposite was
experienced.
For Lovick, being transported from
Britain to Australia would have been a
daunting experience. However, it is
without question that Lovick found
himself in one of the most important
and transformative periods of

Australian history. From the story of

Thomas Lovick we see a British
convict who against the odds made a

respectable life from humble

beginnings.

*Upon investigation at the Public Records Of Victoria I was unable to locate the passenger list of
Thomas Lovick from Tasmania to Victoria either digitized or through the reading rooms.
1

Thomas Lovick, Convict Records [webpage],

<http://www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/lovick/thomas/115123>, accessed 25 Sept. 2016.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
Christopher Sweeney, Transported: In Place of Death (South Melbourne: Macmillan, 1981), 24.
5
Alan Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies: a study of penal transportation from Great Britain and
Ireland to Australia and other parts of the British Empire (London: Faber and Faber, 1966), 39.
6
Ibid., 38.
7
Geoffrey Blainey, The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia's History (Sydney:
Macmillan, 2001), 20.
8
Ibid., 29.
9
Ibid., 19.
10
Tasmanian Archives, Description Lists of Male Convcits 1828-1853, Tasmanian
Government/Learn Discover Access [website],
<http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON18-1-2,202,2,S,80>, assessed
11th Sep. 2016.
11
Ibid.
12
Ibid.
13
Ibid
14
Ibid.
15
Thomas Lovick, Convict Records [webpage],
<http://www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/lovick/thomas/115123>, accessed 25 Sept. 2016.
16
James Ross, More than two hundred perish as women convicts ship goes down in Harry Gordon
(ed.), An Eyewitness History of Australia (Ringwood: Penguin, 1988), 35.
17
Ibid.
18
Tasmanian Archives, Conduct Record, Tasmanian Government/Learn Discover Access [website],
<http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON31-1-28,206,39,F,60>,
assessed 12th Sep. 2016.
19
Henry Reynolds, A History of Tasmania (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 138.
20
Ibid.
21
Ibid.
22
Ibid., 139.
23
Alison Alexander, Tasmania's Convicts: How Felons Built a Free Society (Crows Nest: Allen and
Unwin, 2010), 36.
24
Ibid.
25
Ibid.
26
Tasmanian Archives, Conduct Record, Tasmanian Government/Learn Discover Access [website],
<http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON31-1-28,206,39,F,60>,
assessed 12th Sep. 2016.
27
Ibid.
28
Ibid.
29
Advertising, Colonial Times, 10 Nov. 1840, 1, in Trove [online database], accessed 28 Sep. 2016.
30
Ibid.
31
List of Applicants for Licenses granted for the district of Hobart Town, Colonial Times, 7 Sep.
1841, 3, in Trove [online database], accessed 28 Sep. 2016.
32
Tasmanian Archives, Marriages, Tasmanian Government/Learn Discover Access [website],
<https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD36-1-3p82j2k>, accessed 13 Sep. 2016.
33
Tasmanian Archives, Marriages, Tasmanian Government/Learn Discover Access [website],
<https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD37-1-7p157j2k>, accessed 13 Sep. 2016.
34
Henry Reynolds, A History of Tasmania (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 162.
35
Summary for Europe, Argus, 7 Nov. 1870, 1, in Trove [online database], accessed 29 Sep. 2016.
36
Geoffrey Serle, The Golden Age: a history of the colony of Victoria, 1851-1861 (Parkville:
Melbourne University Press, 1963), 373.
37
Geoffrey Blainey, A History of Victoria (Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 44.
38
Ibid.

39

Graeme Davison, Gold-Rush Melbourne in Iain McCalman et al (eds.), Gold: forgotten histories
and lost objects of Australia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 56.
40
Ibid.
41
Geoffrey Serle, The Golden Age: a history of the colony of Victoria, 1851-1861 (Parkville:
Melbourne University Press, 1963), 373.
42
Graeme Davison, Gold-Rush Melbourne in Iain McCalman et al (eds.), Gold: forgotten histories
and lost objects of Australia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 55.
43
Ibid.
44
Ibid
45
Various Correspondents, Gold mania sweeps the colony of New South Wales, in Harry Gordon
(ed.), An Eyewitness History of Australia (Ringwood: Penguin, 1988), 53.
46
Summary for Europe, Argus, 7 Nov. 1870, 1, in Trove [online database], accessed 29 Sep. 2016.
47
M. L. Kovacs and A. J. Cropley, Immigrants and Society: alienation and assimilation (Sydney:
McGraw-Hill, 1975), 29.

Bibliography

Primary

Advertising, Colonial Times, 10 Nov. 1840, 1, in Trove [online database], accessed

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List of Applicants for Licenses granted for the district of Hobart Town, Colonial
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Ross, James, More than two hundred perish as women convicts ship goes down in
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Summary for Europe, Argus, 7 Nov. 1870, 1, in Trove [online database], accessed
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Tasmanian Archives, Conduct Record, Tasmanian Government/Learn Discover

Access [website],
<http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON31-128,206,39,F,60>, assessed 12th Sep. 2016.

Tasmanian Archives, Description Lists of Male Convcits 1828-1853, Tasmanian

Government/Learn Discover Access [website],
<http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON18-12,202,2,S,80>, assessed 11th Sep. 2016.

Tasmanian Archives, Marriages, Tasmanian Government/Learn Discover Access

[website], <https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD36-1-3p82j2k>, accessed 13 Sep. 2016.

Tasmanian Archives, Marriages, Tasmanian Government/Learn Discover Access

[website], <https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD37-1-7p157j2k>, accessed 13 Sep. 2016.

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Press, 2013).

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Kovacs, M. L., and Cropley, A. J., Immigrants and Society: alienation and
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Shaw, Alan, Convicts and the Colonies: a study of penal transportation from Great
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Sweeney, Christopher, Transported: In Place of Death (South Melbourne:

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Thomas Lovick, Convict Records [webpage],

<http://www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/lovick/thomas/115123>, accessed 25
Sept. 2016.