DEARMAN & MOLLETT

James Dearman the convict is how I refer to him in my mind, although, of course, only part of his life was as a convict.  The drawing I have chosen to represent him is by Georges Seurat and is of a ploughman - one of his trades.    I chose this particular representation of a ploughman because it somehow conveys an impression of captivity and also deliberately does not show his face - which of course, we do not know.

So a hard life and a short one.  He was only 33 or so when he died.  I do not think of him as being very intelligent and I think that if he had been otherwise it might not have been such a bad life - for many convicts of this period ultimately made good.  Although a convict’s life was undoubtedly hard - brutal even, many convicts (including his brother John) came out of it at the end with opportunities that just did not exist back in England.  Yet our James threw it away by transgressing again.

And did he marry at the very young age of 14?  The evidence would seem to suggest this.  But she must have died, like his second wife - the ancestral maternal Dearman.  He married again - maybe he needed someone to look after the children, continued his criminal career and eventually was transported to the other side of the world.  A dramatic life - and one of which modern day Australians are proud, although it was not always so.  It’s ironic isn’t it, that if you committed a crime then we know more about you.