A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Monday 21 September 2015

Australian Convict Blankets.

I recieved an email from one of our new members in Tasmania requesting help with information regarding blankets issued to convicts. This to date is what I have found. 

Blankets seen here in a convict hospital aboard a convict hulk.
http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/convict-hulks

This PDF mentions blankets being made by convict women.
https://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/c7cc80e5-1eb8-4cd0-9e50-dd13799b9c65/files/convict-sites-part3.pdf

 "Female convicts worked on various tasks at the factory such as laundry, spinning, needlework and manufacturing blankets". 
https://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/convict-sites/information

Once tried and sentenced convicts were sent to a receiving hulk for four to six days, where they were washed, inspected and issued with clothing, blankets, mess mugs and plates. 
http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/convict-hulks




The year 1801 saw the introduction of female convicts to the manufacture of rough woollen blankets at the Parramatta gaol. This establishment, which became known as 'The Factory', was founded to defray the cost of clothing the convicts in New South Wales and in Van Diemen's Land. Although able-bodied convicts were in great demand as labourers by the free settlers, the Government felt that some contribution had to be made by the convicts towards their own upkeep.
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/272.html

For your Excellency's information I have taken the liberty to insert the articles in the margin which come under the head of necessaries, to which I beg leave to add blankets and sheets for the hospital, none of which are in the colony, altho' they are essential and absolutely necessary.
http://www.seslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/Public_Health/history.asp

Sometimes they [convicts] act plays with a screen of blankets for the drop-scene, getting together remnants of stolen toggery to deck out their persons with;
http://www.colonialdance.com.au/dance-from-the-forty-thieves-839.html

http://www.ashadocs.org/aha/11/11_04_Stenning.pdf


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