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JAMES McMANUS 1770 - 1798 - CHARLOTTE
this story is under review by Membership Team
Author: Dennis James Thomas McManus PSM
BA, Dip T and C P, M.B.Env. [dennis.mcmanus3@bigpond.com]
James McManus 1770-1798 Summary
Born:
Date and place unknown, about 1770. Likely to be in
England or Ireland. Author would appreciate any
information.
Occupations: Marine Private 59th(Portsmouth)
Company 1785-1791. Arrived on Charlotte. He was
on Norfolk Island as a settler 1791-1792. Returned to
Sydney and joined the NSW Corps on 10th
May 1792 for 5 years. In 1794 promised a grant and in
1797 granted 65 acres at Mulgrave Place (now Agnes
Banks) on the Hawkesbury River. This grant and other
land passed to his wife when he died.
Died: 15 April 1798.
Registered: St Phillip's Anglican Church, Sydney.
Buried: Old Sydney Burial Ground,
George Street, Sydney - now the Sydney Town Hall site.
Married to Jane Poole: Norfolk
Island in November 1791.
Children of James and Jane: Sarah
(1793-1793) James (1794-1839) and John (1797-1873).
UK background
In
1786 James was in the 59th
(Portsmouth) Company serving as a Marine
Private on the guard ship Hector. He may have
joined the Marines in 1785. Prior to that we know
nothing of him. I am hoping further information will
come forward. I have contacted the Royal Marines Museum
and the UK National Archives without success.
James travels to Botany Bay
There is a discrepancy in the records as
to which ship James travelled on. Some accounts say
James arrived on the Charlotte and others the
Sirius. Historian Mollie Gillen explains the
discrepancy. James was in fact on both ships. He was on
the Sirius but moved to the Charlotte on
19 March 1787 some eight weeks before the first fleet
sailed. (Molly Gillen, Founders of Australia, Sydney,
1989, p. 233.) HMS Sirius was one of the two
naval escorts for the First Fleet. The first Governor of
New South Wales, Arthur Phillip, travelled on the
Sirius.
When leaving, the Charlotte had 34
marine privates under the direction of Captain Watkin
Tench. On the Sirius there were 43 marine
privates. Prior to leaving England in early 1787 Tench
was commissioned by John Debrett to write an account of
the journey to the new colony. Four others were also
commissioned to write accounts - Governor Arthur
Phillip, Judge Advocate David Collins, (both on the
Sirius), Lieutenant Governor John Hunter and Surgeon
John White (on the Charlotte.)
All of these accounts and more are
available as free e-books at
http://gutenberg.net.au/first-fleet.htmlA
word search has been made of all five First Fleet
accounts. With the exception of Collins, none makes
specific mention of James McManus or Jane Poole. But
they provide a first-hand view of the very same small
world in which both James and Jane lived even if through
a different prism to Marine Private James and Convict
Jane.
First account of James McManus in the
colony
The first record of James in New South
Wales is a sad one and there are three accounts. “26
August 1790 confined for stealing a chest containing
several articles, the property of Private Charles
McCarty; 4 October 1790 charged with stealing 4 shirts
value twelve shillings, 5 pairs of trousers value
fifteen shillings, one white Dimoty waistcoat value one
shilling and six pence, one pair of shoes value three
shillings, one pair of stockings value one shilling, all
the property of Private Charles McCarty ….... Pleaded
not guilty. Evidence was given by Private McCarty,
Acting Sergeant John Curry and Private William Charlton
all of the New South Wales Corps. The verdict was Not
Guilty.” (http://www.gencircles.com/users/bshaw3/1/data/23)The
Australian History Research site says “The next day
McManus tried to cut his own throat in the guardhouse,
but was prevented by Corporal James Bagley after scaring
himself in several places. James Scott, a marine
sergeant who kept a journal from 1787 to 1792,
records that “Since his confinement he seems insane.
For eleven days he took no sort of victuals, except a
few spoons of flour and water”.
1791 - James decides to stay
On 21 September 1791 the Gorgon
arrived in Sydney. The Gorgon was also assigned
to transport officers, including Watkin Tench, and the
marines back to England after 4 years in the colony
(January 1788 to late 1791). Tench says of the event he
“hailed it with rapture and exaltation” (Source: Tim
Flannery, Watkin Tench's 1788 p.210.) But
apparently this is not how James McManus and another 62
marines viewed it for they decided to stay.
Government offer of land grants
Phillip's original instructions did not
provide wide allowance of land grants. However, with the
arrival of the second fleet in 1790, Governor Phillip
issued an invitation to non-commissioned officers and
privates to take up land. At that time every private
soldier was offered an allotment of 80 acres if single
and 100 acres if married plus 10 acres for every child.
In the same 1790 invitation a bounty of £3.0.0 was
offered to every soldier who enlisted in the NSW Corps.
They were given a further assurance that “ in the case
of a proper demeanour on their part, they shall, after a
further service of five years, be entitled to double the
former portion of land, provided they chose to become
settlers in the country.....to be subject to .. annual
quit-rent of one shilling for every 50- acres.”
(Source: Tim Flannery, Watkin Tench's 1788
p.129-130)
Tench says that 63 out of 160 marine
privates accepted the offer to enter the New South Wales
Corps and to take up grants at Norfolk Island or Rose
Hill. On 5 April 1791 39 persons, sailors or marines,
including James McManus, were granted 60 acres of land
each at Norfolk Island. (Source: Cathy Dunn, 'Some land
grants of 1791 Parramatta NSW and Norfolk Island')
1791 - James goes to Norfolk Island
Governor Phillip's Despatches for
1788-1791 show that James McManus was among 29 marines
who sailed from Sydney on the Atlantic on 26
October 1791 to settle on Norfolk Island.
1792 - James joins the NSW Corps and
returns to Sydney
We do not know why James chose to go to
Norfolk Island. Was it simply because his land grant
would be there? Was it related to the convict Jane Poole
being there? Jane was sent to Norfolk Island on 11
November 1789. He probably first met Jane on the
Charlotte on their journey out from England. They
almost certainly knew each other before James landed at
Norfolk Island because they were married within days of
his arrival. We also do not know what happened to the
grant offered on Norfolk Island, what he did while he
was there nor why he left after a stay of less than 10
months.
In August 1792 James left Norfolk Island
on board the same ship he arrived on – the Atlantic -
bound for Port Jackson. On board was his wife Jane
Poole and her daughter Margaret who is reported to have
been born on Norfolk Island in 1789. The father of
Margaret is unknown.
James joined the NSW Corps on 10May 1792
while he was still on Norfolk Island and was discharged
10 May 1797. “The NSW Corps was formed in England in
1789 as a permanent regiment to relieve the First Fleet
Marines. A fourth company was raised from those marines
wishing to remain in NSW under Captain
George Johnston,
who had been
Governor Phillip's
aide-de-camp.” (Wikipedia) Jane's seven year sentence
expired on 19 August 1793 and we have the birth of
Sarah who died in her first year in 1793 and James
(1794-1839). A third child, John was born in 1797
(1797-1873).
1797 - James receives his land grant on
the Hawkesbury River
On 10 May 1797 (his discharge date from
the NSW Corps; exactly 5 years’ service started on 10
May 1792) James was granted 65 acres in the district of
Mulgrave Place on the Hawkesbury River by Governor
Hunter at a rent of 5 shillings after 5 years (R J Ryan,
Land Grants 1788-1809 p.84).
There is an excellent detailed book on
the history of the Hawkesbury settlement by Jan
Barkley-Jack - Hawkesbury Settlement Revealed, A new
look at Australia's third mainland settlement 1793-1802,
Rosenberg 2009. From this book we know the details
of the grant to James and its later transfer to Jane.
James was one of 23 soldiers, 63
ex-convicts and 5 free settlers promised land at
Mulgrave Place in 1794 by Acting Governor Grose.Barkley-Jack
explains the 65 acres. James was entitled to 25 acres
plus 20 for Jane his wife plus 10 for each of the
children still living at that time – Sarah and James
Jnr. Barkley-Jack says that James was one of two marine
privates in 1794 to be promised acreage on the
Hawkesbury based on a family – the other marine was John
Atkins at York Reach.
1800 - Jane is given a grant of 160
acres.
Jan Barkley-Jack (pp. 400-401) goes into
some detail of the 160 acre grant to Jane and what
happened next:
The grant to ex-convict Jane Poole
(McManus) registered in March 1800 was unique in the
colony because of the caveat it carried. Governor Hunter
had been particularly careful to ensure that no male
could ever take over Jane Poole's grant. This was
because Jane and her family posed a special case within
the settlement. Like John Watts, a double acreage had
been promised to marine private James McManus, when he
enlisted as a member of the New South Corps in the
colony, as it was to all such men. The army had a way of
looking after its own in providing for their families
even after they had died. Patronage links in 1800 had
ensured Jane a 160 acre grant on behalf of her deceased
husband James, to replace his smaller acreage given by
Grose.
By 1800 Jane was farming in conjunction
with Ridge, a transportee who arrived on the Atlanticon
the Third Fleet. In 1798, two years after he had served
out his sentence, Ridge had begun living on his
purchased South Creek grant of William Butler. In the
1800 muster, the large McManus grant is listed as
belonging to Ridge, although the governor's involvement,
does result in the rare acknowledgement that part of
Richard's property was a grant to his ‘wife’.”
A daughter, Martha, was born in 1803,
before the couple split, but by 1806 Jane is shown with
four male and two female children. By 1809 Richard Ridge
was renting in the Cornwallis area from Sarah Cooley,
presumably part of Argyle Farm. He has married Margaret
Forrester, the daughter of Robert and Isabella, and it
seems Richard and Margaret later lived downriver on
Richard's 1804 Portland Head grant, Richard later being
a constable and provost marshal's bailiff.
James' Death in 1798
James McManus died in 1798 cause unknown.
Assuming he was born in about 1770 he died at about 28
years of age. He was buried on 15 April in the Old
Sydney Burial Site in George Street which is now the
site of the Sydney Town Hall. This cemetery operated
from 1792 to 1820. The Burial Site Register compiled by
the City of Sydney holds the names and some detail for
2,266 persons including 73 First Fleeters. James is
listed as No 1340: McManus James, No age, 1798,
April 15, Settler. The main source for the McManus
entry is the St Phillip's Church Parish Register.DJTM
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