Francis MacNamara Timeline

Robert Russell c 1837: Phoenix Hulk moored at entrance Billy Blue's Bay [Lavender Bay]
Courtesy National Library of Australia
  • 1811 Francis MacNamara born in Cashel Tipperary ( or Wicklow, or Cork) in the first half of the year.
  • 14 January 1832 sentenced to 7 years transportation
  • 18 January 1832 MacNamara's use of poetry in court reported in the Kilkenny Journal
  • 10 May 1832, age 21, sailed from Cork on the prison ship Eliza II, trade described as Miner. Among his fellow prisoners for the journey were 43 Whiteboys
  • 18 June 12 Lashes - 'Poet on the Eliza' Bob Reece
  • 8 September 1832 arrived in Sydney, assigned as servant to John Jones of Sydney
  • 3 January 1833 sentenced to 6 months gaol served in an ironed-gang on Goat Island in Sydney Harbour
  • 17 June 1833 Macnamara Francis, Eliza, from Ditto 'Runaways Apprehended' (Sydney Gazette p. 1.)
  • 27 May 1833 returned to Hyde Park Barracks
  • June 1833 absconded and recaptured and sentenced to flogging, on 24 June received 50 lashes
  • 1 July 1833 sentenced to a month on the treadmill for disobedience
  • Absconded again recaptured and on 24 August 1833 was sentenced to 12 month in irons
  • 3 September 1833 sent to Phoenix Hulk on Sydney Harbour to serve his sentence
  • 1 February 1834 flogged with 25 lashes for having a stolen shirt
  • 3 March 1834 75 lashes for insubordinate conduct
  • 25 August returned to Hyde Park Barracks
  • 26 January 1835 3 days in the cells (solitary confinement) for being absent from duty
  • 18 February 1835 25 lashes for disobeying orders
  • 9 March 1835 100 lashes for obscene language
  • 16 April 1835 12 months in irons
  • 16 May 1835 36 lashes for insolence
  • 8 June 1835 50 lashes for threatening language
  • 8 August 1835 75 lashes for destroying a government cart
  • 14 December 1835 50 lashes for refusing to work
  • 16 March 1836 sent to Phoenix Hulk
  • 25 March 1836 25 lashes for neglect of work
  • 15 August 1836 10 days in the cells for being found drunk
  • March 1837 2 months on treadmill for absconding
  • 25 March 1837 refused to mount treadmill 50 lashes
  • May 1837 returns to Phoenix Hulk
  • 31 December 1837 presence on Phoenix recorded in muster for the census
  • 1838 assigned to Australian Agricultural Company as shepherd on the Peel River and then Stroud till October 1839
  • 23 October 1839 Trimingham manuscript written containing 4 poems: A Convict's Tour To Hell, A Petition from the Chain Gang at Newcastle, A Petition in Behalf of the Flocks and For the Company Underground
  • 1 November 1839 Newcastle Gaol - sentenced 12 months in an Ironed Gang
  • 9 November 1839 Forwarded to Sydney
  • 5 December 1839 Discharged from Wooloomooloo Stockade sent to Parramatta Gaol
  • 7 December 1839 Disposed of to Stockade Parramatta
  • 4 January 1840 50 lashes for mutinous conduct
  • 8 February 1840 A Dialogue Between Two Hibernians in Botany Bay published in the Sydney Gazette under the name Francis MacNamara
  • 30 May 1842 captured by sergeant Michael Doyle at the foot of Razorback: Francis McNamara, per Elisa; John Jones, per Lady Macnaughton; Edward Allen, per Asia; William Thomson, per do; William Eastwood, per Patriot. Capture of Bushrangers reported in Sydney Gazette 2 June
  • 6 June 1842 Admitted to Sydney Gaol
  • 8 July 1842 tried at Assizes of Sydney for being at large with fire arms on his person and sentenced to be transported to Van Diemen's Land for Life
  • 11 July 1842 three month stay on Cockatoo Island awaiting transportation to Van Diemen's Land
  • 14 October 1842 departs Sydney with 24 other prisoners for Van Diemen's Land
  • 29 Oct 1842 arrival in Hobart per Waterlily
  • 25 December 1842 meets bushranger Martin Cash in Port Arthur, entertains prisoners with his verse beginning with his introductory "crow"
  • 25 Sept 1843 seven days solitary confinement for disobeying orders
  • January 1847 receives ticket-of-leave
  • September 1847 receives conditional pardon
  • 1 January 1848 name appears in Launceston Census?
  • 21 July 1849 gains Certificate of Freedom
  • 8 September 1853 reported in the Sydney Morning Herald as working with a party of gold miners at Tambaroora, Hill End NSW
  • 1 March 1861 calligraphic work on Calf Family Record near Mudgee NSW
  • 29 August 1861 death in Mudgee NSW
  • 18 June 1862 Article with local stories about Frank the Poet at Meroo in the Bathurst Free Press
  • 7 October 1865 Article about Frank the Poet extemporising verse in 1835 in Sydney Police Court in the Bunyip
  • 24 December 1881 attribution of "Travellers Welcome"song to Frank the Poet in the South Australian Weekly Chronicle
  • Frank the Poet mentioned by Owen Suffolk in his autobiography Days of Crime and Years of Suffering serialised in the Australasian newspaper (1867) reprinted by the Gippsland Times (1898)
  • 1885 First publication of 'A Convict's Tour to Hell', in a booklet titled 'The Song of Ninian Melville' a poem by Henry Kendall
  • 27 December 1900 A Convict's Tour to Hell: published in the Cumberland Times 
  • 1 January 1892 Victoria Museum - Frank the Poet exhibit, an example of his penmanship
  • 28 January 1893 Convict's Tour to Hell: cited by Telemachus in the Oakleigh Leader 
  • 7 September 1900 in the Western Champion (Parkes, NSW) 
  • 12 December 1900 "Martin Cash" play includes Frank the poet as a character. 
  • 22 August 1903 attribution of 'The Poor Exile from the Shamrock Shore' in the Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal