Convict Irons - Revision history

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@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 '''Thumbscrews'''
-Surgeon Smyth reported that the women on the Lady Penrhyn were sometimes punished with the thumb-screw, which would surely have been used as a form of restraint and not as an instrument of torture as they were on slave ships. (Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History, New York: Viking Penguin, 2007, pp.72, 178, 202, 219) There is no other record of thumb-screws being used on convicts, although they were used on some of the soldiers on the Marquis Cornwallis (1795), but clearly for incapacitation and not for torture.
+[[File:Thumbscrews.jpg|thumb|left]]
-[[File:Thumbscrews.jpg|thumb|right]]
+Surgeon Smyth reported that the women on the Lady Penrhyn were sometimes punished with the thumb-screw, which would surely have been used as a form of restraint and not as an instrument of torture as they were on slave ships. (Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History, New York: Viking Penguin, 2007, pp.72, 178, 202, 219) There is no other record of thumb-screws being used on convicts, although they were used on some of the soldiers on the Marquis Cornwallis (1795), but clearly for incapacitation and not for torture.
 '''Iron collars'''

@@ Line 32: / Line 32: @@
 '''Double Irons'''
 Double irons were precisely that – two sets of irons shaped slightly differently so that the person fitting or removing them could get at the rivets on both. They were presumably fitted with both to make it harder for prisoners to cut their way free, as well as disabling them in the way that heavy irons did. In some cases, the terms ‘double irons’ and ‘heavy irons’ are used interchangeably on the convict ships, confirming that they served both purposes.
@@ Line 59: / Line 61: @@
 Surgeon Smyth reported that the women on the Lady Penrhyn were sometimes punished with the thumb-screw, which would surely have been used as a form of restraint and not as an instrument of torture as they were on slave ships. (Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History, New York: Viking Penguin, 2007, pp.72, 178, 202, 219) There is no other record of thumb-screws being used on convicts, although they were used on some of the soldiers on the Marquis Cornwallis (1795), but clearly for incapacitation and not for torture.
-[[File:thumbscrews.jpg|thumb|right]]
+[[File:Thumbscrews.jpg|thumb|right]]
 '''Iron collars'''

@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 Bar irons were used on convict ships to disable refractory convicts. These seem to have been routinely used on some slave ships, but there is also evidence that on some ships, chains were used rather than bars.
-[[File:cuffs.jpg|thumb|left]]
+[[File:cuffs.png|thumb|left]]
 Bar fetters were used on the wrists refractory female convicts on the Lady Penrhyn, as drawn by the surgeon, Arthur Bowes Smyth.
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 Surgeon Smyth reported that the women on the Lady Penrhyn were sometimes punished with the thumb-screw, which would surely have been used as a form of restraint and not as an instrument of torture as they were on slave ships. (Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History, New York: Viking Penguin, 2007, pp.72, 178, 202, 219) There is no other record of thumb-screws being used on convicts, although they were used on some of the soldiers on the Marquis Cornwallis (1795), but clearly for incapacitation and not for torture.
 '''Iron collars'''

@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 Bar irons were used on convict ships to disable refractory convicts. These seem to have been routinely used on some slave ships, but there is also evidence that on some ships, chains were used rather than bars.
-[[File:slave ankle shackles.jpg|thumb|right]]
+[[File:cuffs.jpg|thumb|left]]
 Bar fetters were used on the wrists refractory female convicts on the Lady Penrhyn, as drawn by the surgeon, Arthur Bowes Smyth.
 Captain Hill on the Surprize (1790) claimed that the irons used on that ship were slave shackles: "made with a short bolt, instead of chains. . . these bolts were not more than three-quarters of a foot in length, so that they could not extend either leg from the other more than an inch or two at most; thus fettered, it was impossible for them to move but at the risk of both their legs being broken." (Hill to Wathen, quoting Hill to Wilberforce, 26 July 1790, TNA CO201/5/281-283) Hill was almost certainly misrepresenting the situation – these irons would have been used only on troublemakers.
 Bar irons were also brought on board the Queen, but apparently in small numbers and thus for the unruly. (Alexander Hood, ‘Papers relating to Captain Alexander Hood's command of the Hebe, Channel and Irish Sea: relating to the Convict Transport Queen’, 18 November 1790 to 21 April 1791, NMM MKH/9, MS68/099, regarding certificate signed by the mayor on 11 April 1791)

@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 Bar fetters were used on the wrists refractory female convicts on the Lady Penrhyn, as drawn by the surgeon, Arthur Bowes Smyth.
-[[File:cuffs.jpg|thumb|right]]
+[[File:cuffs.jpg|thumb|left]]
 Captain Hill on the Surprize (1790) claimed that the irons used on that ship were slave shackles: "made with a short bolt, instead of chains. . . these bolts were not more than three-quarters of a foot in length, so that they could not extend either leg from the other more than an inch or two at most; thus fettered, it was impossible for them to move but at the risk of both their legs being broken." (Hill to Wathen, quoting Hill to Wilberforce, 26 July 1790, TNA CO201/5/281-283) Hill was almost certainly misrepresenting the situation – these irons would have been used only on troublemakers.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 '''Tapes'''
 [[File:Convict.jpg|thumb|right]]
 John Ward wrote that their irons were removed on arrival on board the York hulk in 1838, they were washed and given new clothes, and then taken to a block where 14lb irons were fitted (that is, single irons). The new men spent the first day doing a variety of jobs under the direction of old hands, who were amused by them scampering about in the wet, with the irons knocking about their heels in an awkward manner, ‘not knowing how to tie them up properly’. (John Ward, ‘The Diary of John Ward, 1841-1844’, MS, 1841-44, NLA MS 3275, pp.78, 79, 81)

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 '''Shackles or Leg Fetters'''
 [[File:top irons.jpg|thumb|right]]
 Sheehan described the irons used in Newgate, which would have been identical to those used on the transports:

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 Convicts would slip a cloth tape through one of the links in the chain and tie this round their waist so that they could walk without dragging the chain. Captain Hill describes the irons usually used for the convicts on the Surprize: ‘chains that drop between the legs and fasten with a bandage about the waist’. (Hill to Wathen, quoting Hill to Wilberforce, 26 July 1790, TNA CO201/5/281-283)
 John Ward wrote that their irons were removed on arrival on board the York hulk in 1838, they were washed and given new clothes, and then taken to a block where 14lb irons were fitted (that is, single irons). The new men spent the first day doing a variety of jobs under the direction of old hands, who were amused by them scampering about in the wet, with the irons knocking about their heels in an awkward manner, ‘not knowing how to tie them up properly’. (John Ward, ‘The Diary of John Ward, 1841-1844’, MS, 1841-44, NLA MS 3275, pp.78, 79, 81)
 The manner of tying the irons up is shown in the photograph of a convict at right, from a later date.
 '''Heavy Irons'''

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 The primary form of iron was the shackle, or leg fetter, which were fixed to the leg by a pin and rivet, and joined by a short chain. In addition to the irons, chains were supplied, presumably used to connect numbers of convicts together.
 Sheehan described the irons used in Newgate, which would have been identical to those used on the transports:
 "The most common leg irons weighed about fifteen pounds and consisted of two ankle bracelets attached to several iron links, each about eighteen inches long. The bracelets were locked around one or both ankles so that when a prisoner had to walk he picked up the links and then shuffled along." (Wayne Joseph Sheehan, ‘The London Prison System, 1666-1795’, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Maryland, 1975, p.355)
 Women were brought on board in irons, but these were removed upon arrival, and they were not ironed thereafter unless they misbehaved. It seems that on almost all convict ships in this early period, the male convicts were single ironed. On several ships (such as those of the Second Fleet), male convicts were ironed in pairs, or with both hand and leg irons joined together.
@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 John Ward wrote that their irons were removed on arrival on board the York hulk in 1838, they were washed and given new clothes, and then taken to a block where 14lb irons were fitted (that is, single irons). The new men spent the first day doing a variety of jobs under the direction of old hands, who were amused by them scampering about in the wet, with the irons knocking about their heels in an awkward manner, ‘not knowing how to tie them up properly’. (John Ward, ‘The Diary of John Ward, 1841-1844’, MS, 1841-44, NLA MS 3275, pp.78, 79, 81)
-The manner of tying the irons up is shown in the photograph of a convict below, from a later date.
+The manner of tying the irons up is shown in the photograph of a convict at right, from a later date.
 '''Heavy Irons'''