Intro (my story)
The 'Barwell' sailed from England in Sept 1797 & arrived in Sydney Town, Colony of New South Wales on or about 1st May 1798
- Read my story or Click the Page Links above to see the Barwell's NSW Corps Guard Recruits list, Settler passengers list, Captain's Diary (Log) extracts, Ship's Company and Crew & much more ...
WELCOME
Hi. I'm glad you stopped by. I hope you get some valuable information from my site and if you have time please post a message on the Blog page.
To get here you probably searched for information on the 'Barwell' that came to the Colony of New South Wales (NSW) in 1798 bringing a shipload of convicts, quite a few NSW Corps recruits and a only just a few people who you would describe as Free Settlers.
I decided to put this page together after I had done quite a bit of research to confirm some of the passengers, but more about that interesting story a bit later.
There's only two or three at most that have some dedicated space for information on the 'Barwell'. You can gain some useful information from these sites, but none of this information solved my mystery. I congratulate those sites on putting something up and the intention for my site here is really to enhance those other sites, which I'll list later and provide the links.
I needed to find a list of the new NSW Corps recruits on board. The passenger I was seeking was not amongst those ones mentioned on any other site. I have documentary evidence from the early NSW & Norfolk Island Muster Lists that my target person arrived per the 'Barwell' in 1798. "So", I said, "where to from here?"
I thought I'd look for the Surgeon Superintendent's Journal, which may list my person, so I scoured the web further going in to sites and delving deeper and deeper only to realise that the Surgeon Superintendent's Journal seemed to not have survived or at least there was no information as to where it might be located.
Then I find out that the fate of the ship ‘Barwell’ is unknown. Ok, that may be why the location of the Surgeon's Journal is also unknown. So it's back to the drawing board. After paying a bit more attention to the information I'd uncovered, I then realised that the 'Barwell' had been on the East India Company routes and was indeed an East India Company ship that was procured for one voyage to take convicts, recruits and settlers to the Colony of NSW in 1798.
Right, here's a lead. I searched on. After delivering her consignment of people to NSW, the 'Barwell' then went back in to East India Company work. I then searched for East India Company records. I found some held in the UK, but then I also discovered and interesting reference to some held at SAG (Society of Australian Genealogists) in Sydney. So I joined SAG (I wanted to do this anyway) and on my next family visit to Sydney I arranged to go and inspect these records.
I was directed to SAG's Richmond Villa and received fantastic assistance from everyone there, especially the head archivist. Thanks Ralph.
I sat down at the long leather top table in the impressive viewing room waiting for the file. It wasn't long before it arrived and I got stuck in to it. It was a decent amount of papers I can tell you.
These documents were a mix. Some were original letters, others were original documents and more were copies of some of the East India Company records for the 'Barwell', which had been requested by a member of the public and later donated to SAG quite some years ago.
There was no Surgeon's Journal, but then to my great delight I found the Captain's Diary, which was like a day to day blog of the voyage. Because this was the Captain's diary, it mentioned all those people who boarded, died or left the ship before, during and after the voyage. I reckon this was one of those Eureka moments.
Ok, here's a list of the NSW Corps Recruits garnered from the East India Company Captain's Diary and other sources. I hope you find your ancestor here too.
Oh yeah, I was looking for Samuel BEACHY (BEECHEY) and his (alleged) wife Margaret and three known children.
Enjoy the site and please feel free to leave a message or further info on the BLOG page.
Cheers for now, 'Bonza' (Neil Gill)
- More to come in due course