Thomas Barrett (convict)

Barrett was born around 1758 in London.{{cite news|url=https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/thomas-barrett-the-man-who-carved-the-charlotte-medal-was-the-first-convict-executed-in-sydney/news-story/f425a72b34736f268f596966bee882c2|title=Thomas Barrett, the man who carved the Charlotte Medal, was the first convict executed in Sydney|publisher=The DailyTelegraph|date=2018-02-26|author=Troy Lennon|access-date=2019-03-10}}{{cite journal|url=http://www.numismatics.org.au/pdfjournal/Vol9/Vol%209%20Article%205.pdf|title=The Solution of the Charlotte Enigma|author=Dr John M. Chapman|journal=Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia Inc|volume=9|pages=29–30|year=1998|access-date=2019-03-10}}

He was accused and tried on 3 July 1782 in the Old Bailey court for the theft in May of silverware from a house, but acquitted.{{Old Bailey|accessdate=2019-03-10|id=t17820703-6|defendant=Thomas Barrett|trialdate=1782-07-03}}

On 11 September 1782 Barrett faced trial again, for the theft in July of several items from a house.{{Old Bailey|accessdate=2019-03-10|id=t17820911-28|defendant=Thomas Barrett|trialdate=1782-09-11}} He was found guilty, and sentenced to death, but that sentence was commuted to transportation. He spent the next 18 months in a prison ship moored on the River Thames,{{efn|Before 1775, Britain had transported convicts to its colonies in North America, but with the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, transportation to the American colonies was suspended.{{cite journal|title=Bound for America: A Profile of British Convicts Transported to the Colonies, 1718-1775|author=A. Roger Ekirch|journal=The William and Mary Quarterly|volume=42|issue=20|year=1985|pages=184–200|publisher=Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture|doi=10.2307/1920427|jstor=1920427}} Instead transportees were held in prison ships, pending the end of the war.}} before being transferred to the convict ship Mercury, which sailed for Georgia in March 1784.{{cite web|url=http://www.artinsociety.com/colonial-artist-thief-forger-and-mutineer-thomas-barretts-amazing-career.html|title=Colonial Artist, Thief, Forger and Mutineer: Thomas Barrett's Amazing Career|publisher=Journal of Art in Society|author=Philip McCouat|year=2015|access-date=2019-03-10}}

A few days into the voyage a group of convicts, including Barrett, mutinied and took control of the ship. Bad weather forced them to return to England, where they abandoned the ship and fled, before being recaptured. Barrett was again sentenced to death, and again he was reprieved; during the mutiny he had intervened to save the life of Mercury{{'}}s steward, and to prevent the captain's ear being cut off, and so his death sentence was commuted to transportation. Once again he was sent to a prison ship, this time in Plymouth, until 1787{{efn|After the revolution, the newly independent America refused to accept convicts from Britain.}} when he was included in the first group of convicts to be sent to Britain's new penal colony in New South Wales.

The First Fleet left England in May 1787, with Barrett aboard the convict transport ship Charlotte. En route, the fleet stopped at Rio de Janeiro, where Barrett was caught buying food from local boatmen{{cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/irish_in_australia/exhibition_overview/arriving|title=Arriving|publisher=The National Museum of Australia|access-date=2019-03-10}} with forged coins, which he had made from belt buckles, buttons and spoons. According to the ship's surgeon John White, the workmanship was of high quality and the forgery was only detected because of the poor quality of the metal.{{cite web|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301531h.html|title=Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales|author=John White|publisher=Project Gutenberg Australia|year=1790|access-date=2019-03-10}}

Charlotte arrived at Botany Bay on 20 January 1788, but the convicts remained onboard until the fleet sailed to Port Jackson six days later. It was during this time that Barrett created the Charlotte Medal as a memento of their arrival, at the request of White, from a silver kidney dish and using tools provided by White. The medal is considered to be the first work of Australian colonial art.{{cite news|url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/expert-in-fakes-sells-the-final-work-of-the-first-fleets-great-larrikin-forger-20080705-32ah.html|title=Expert in fakes sells the final work of the First Fleet's great larrikin forger|publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald|author=Seamus Bradley|date=2008-07-06|access-date=2019-03-10}} He also created a smaller and less elaborate copper version of the medal for White's servant, William Broughton.{{cite web|url=http://blog.perthmint.com.au/2013/12/05/what-is-the-charlotte-medal-and-why-is-it-of-such-immense-significance-to-australia/|title=What is the Charlotte medal and why is it of such immense significance to Australia?|publisher=The Perth Mint|date=2013-12-05|access-date=2019-03-10}}{{efn|The roles of Barrett, White and Broughton in the creation of the medals are generally accepted as mostly likely to be the case, but some of the sources allow for a degree of uncertainty.}}

Within a month of disembarking at Port Jackson, Barrett was in trouble with the law again. He and three other convicts were tried and found guilty of the organised theft of rations from the stores. Conditions in the new colony were harsh, food was scarce, and Governor Arthur Phillip had previously warned the convicts that stealing would be punished by death. Barrett and two of his co-conspirators were sentenced to execution; the other two were subsequently reprieved, but Barrett was hanged on 27 February 1788, becoming the first person executed in the new colony. The body was left to hang for an hour, then buried nearby.{{cite web|url=http://research.forbessociety.org.au/record/1|title=Thomas Barrett [Baret] - 1788|work=New South Wales Capital Convictions Database, 1788-1954|publisher=Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History|access-date=2019-03-10}} The area became known as Hangman's Hill; it is in the locality of what is now known as The Rocks. A Royal Australian Historical Society plaque on the corner of Essex and Harrington Streets marks the approximate location.

Barrett was portrayed by Julian Rhind-Tutt in the 2015 TV series Banished.{{cite web|title=BBC: Banished|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/4N5S7T2rtkgHfDsSzDgcm0t/cast-characters|access-date=19 May 2022}}

• List of convicts transported to Australia
• Banished (TV series) - a 7-part 2015 dramatisation

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Category:British mutineers

Category:British people convicted of theft

Category:Convicts transported to Australia on the First Fleet

Category:English counterfeiters

Category:People executed by Australian colonies by hanging

Category:1750s births

Category:1788 deaths