Convict Queen

by Marina Oliver

  'The town is growing, there would be plenty of customers,' Molly said. 'You could apply for more land grants. And we could build an extra room here for a dairy. And we'd fence the land, even build on a byre for them at night. They'd be safe.'

  Thomas obtained more land, and convicts to work it. Molly soon had them organised, erecting fences and building a dairy. Some of the wives of the Corps men were happy to learn how to milk the cows, for it gave them some independence, and something to do when the men were off on duty.

  'I was fortunate to find you,' Thomas murmured into her ear one night as they lay together. He was a considerate lover, and perhaps because she had been dissatisfied with Thomas Mare, both as a husband and lover, Molly was content. Until this Thomas returned to England, which he'd once mentioned as a possibility, she was happy to remain with him.

  He pulled her onto the bed and hugged her.

  *

  Molly persuaded Thomas to make her a churn by using a barrel and attaching a handle so that the paddles inside the barrel stirred the cream.

  'It was the sort they used on the farm where I worked for a time,' she explained, and suppressed her longing for Corvedale and her family. 'It makes the cream turn into butter, though I don't know why.'

  Thomas found a cask and mounted it on its side on a wooden frame he also made. Not being a country boy he was rather dubious, but after a few false starts Molly was making butter and soon began to sell the surplus. She also began to make cheese. She was out in the field with the cattle one day when she glanced up to see a man riding past. It was John Macarthur. She had never forgotten him from that time on the Neptune fifteen years ago. She watched as he rode towards Elizabeth farm. No doubt his wife would be glad to see him after his years away.

  When Thomas came home he was chuckling. 'The man is a complete farmer now,' he said. 'The most precious cargo he brought with him are, I hear, some sheep. As if his wife did not already have hundreds!'

  'Where are they?'

  'Awaiting the building of another pen, I hear. They are to be kept separate from the rest of the flock.'

  'Then they must be special,' Molly said slowly. 'Did you hear aught else about them?'

  'They have some odd name. I can't recall it, but no doubt everyone will know within days. You know how fast gossip spreads.'

  'And no doubt he will be full of it!'

  'He's resigned from the Corps. Intends to be a farmer now.'

  News did indeed spread fast. Macarthur had been granted a huge plot of land, which he named Camden, and it was rumoured he was to be given as much again.

  'Why Camden?' Molly asked. 'Isn't that somewhere in London?'

  'It is also the name of the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies,' Thomas said. 'I imagine it was Lord Camden's influence that saved Macarthur from his court martial in England. Governor King is powerless to control him, but he will be returning to England soon. The Corps has defeated him.'

  *

  Within a year Molly's herd of cows contained a dozen animals. There were more and more cattle in Parramatta, and many of them roamed freely, identified by a brand mark. Despite this many were lost when they either strayed or were killed by the natives. Molly insisted her cows were kept in the fields, though, and she had the convict labourers construct others in which to keep her growing herd. While Thomas knew nothing of farming, he could see that their cows were fatter and healthier than those roaming freely.

  Thomas had been in Sydney one day, and Molly was churning the butter when he came into the kitchen.

  'There's a bull in with the cows,' he said. 'Can we get him out?'

  'They need him,' she said, laughing. 'How do you think they're going to give us more calves?'

  'But – ' Thomas dragged a hand through his hair. 'He has the government brand on him.'

  'We don't have a bull of our own,' she said patiently. 'He won't be there for long, so don't fret. It won't hurt him to serve a few more cows. He's one of the best, just what we need to improve the stock. I made sure of that.'

  'You mean you deliberately got him? How? I mean, aren't bulls supposed to be dangerous?'

  Molly laughed. 'Not if they are handled right. That one has a ring in his nose. With a stick through it, he can be led anywhere. And he was quite happy when he saw the cows in the fields.'

  Thomas stared, then laughed.

  'I hope they don't catch you. They could send you to that new penal settlement further up the coast.'

  'Why? Isn't it where they mine coal?'

  'Yes, Coal Harbour is also a deep port, on the Hunter River. There are too many rogues for the Sydney gaol, or the chain gangs, and it's thought too far way for anyone hoping to escape.'

  'They have women there, and make them dig for coal?'

  'They do in England. You don't want to risk being sent there.'

  'If they do, I'll depend on you to rescue me. Now let me finish this, the butter is just about to come.'

  *

  Molly's butter and cheese sold well. She was paid in many ways, barter for other goods, labour, and a mixture of the few Spanish and Indian coins circulating. There was also rum and other alcohol, though she normally sold that on quickly, for a profit. Soon she was able to extend their house by two rooms.

  'Why do we need them?' Thomas demanded when she first suggested the idea.

  'To make you look more important,' she said. 'And I can use one for a proper dairy. The kitchen's sometimes too hot.'

  'Why not build a house like the Macarthurs have at Elizabeth Farm?' he asked, grinning.

  'We don't really have enough land surrounding it. I heard they planned another, much bigger, at Camden. But you ought to apply for a bigger land grant. Governor King is generous, they say. Then we could have more cattle.'

  'Don't you want sheep?'

  Molly recalled her days in the Factory, carding the wool, and shuddered. 'They are too much trouble. Even Macarthur's Merinos. He says they will make finer wool.'

  'Elizabeth Macarthur seems to like them.'

  'She's welcome. But you need more land. Can't you get another grant?'

  Thomas looked round at the houses nearby. 'It would have to be further out, the town's getting crowded.'

  'But we could expand it, get more grants.'

  'Don't you have enough to do?'

  'I can get others to do it. Thomas, I want to be rich, like the Macarthurs, and having cattle is the way to do it.'

  He laughed and hugged her. Molly responded, but she was always worried that he would tire of her, or be posted back to Sydney, or even go back to England one day. She either had to get one of the certificates given to deserving convicts, or keep Thomas enamoured of her until her seven years were up. Then everything changed, as Governor King was recalled, and the new Governor was Captain Bligh.

  *

  CHAPTER 14

  'They put 'im in charge because 'e's got a reputation for bein' tough,' Clara said when she and Molly were washing clothes. 'But the Corps don't like 'im.'

  'They say he's got a vicious temper.'

  Clara laughed. 'I 'eard there's bin some quarrel on the way out. Wi' the captain of the store ship, they say.'

  'Was he the man sent back to England for a court martial?'

  'I think so.'

  'Why don't the Corps like him?'

  'He wants ter stop them usin' rum ter pay for things. But they can get rum cheap, an' there's little else to use.'

  Molly nodded. She often had to accept rum in payment for her butter and cheese, but she made sure of getting rid of it as soon as possible, either for other goods or to pay the people who worked for her. Some of the convicts were putting up fences on the new land grant Thomas had acquired, and they preferred rum, though she was careful not to give it them until work for the day was finished.

  'Doe he have a wife?' she asked now. 'Thomas said his daughter and her husband came with him.'

  'I don't know.'

  'When is Governor King going home? Thomas doesn't know.' />
  'Soon, I think. The man's not been well.' She sighed. 'I wish 'e were still in charge. My man were 'opin' ter ger another land grant, but Bligh's stopped it. Apart from grants to 'imself and 'is daughter.'

  Not everyone detested Bligh, Molly discovered. When there had been flooding on the Hawkesbury River he'd helped the farmers there. But the Corps, and John Macarthur, who was no longer a soldier, having resigned his commission, hadn't a good word for him. Even Thomas, normally easy-going, shook his head over Bligh's attempts to control the rum trade.

  Molly was less concerned with this than with the Reverend Marsden's latest edict. All the women in the colony were to be included in what he called the Female Register.

  'Did you hear, we are to be labelled wives or concubines!' Molly said to Thomas. 'And anyone not married in the Anglican church will be called concubines! It's wicked, disrespectful, intolerant!'

  Thomas laughed at her fury. 'What does it matter?'

  'It matters to the women who'll be registered as not married, when they are!'

  'What are you to be registered as?'

  Suddenly Molly laughed. 'I was married in the church in Diddlebury,' she said. 'That was to William, but then I married Thomas Mare, again in an Anglican church, though I suppose that one wasn't lawful. Then William married a woman here, and that won't be lawful, wherever it took place. What a mess!'

  *

  Thomas was returning one evening from an abortive chase after a new convict who had escaped into the bush. Feeling depressed at his failure to find the man he stopped to look at Molly's herd of cattle in the latest large pen she had constructed. They looked healthy, most of them. Then he narrowed his eyes. A few of them were scrawny. And there were more than when he last came here. He began to count.

  Back at home he found Molly sitting in the doorway, mending one of his shirts.

  'Where did those extra cattle come from?' he demanded. 'There are five more than there should be.'

  'Extra cattle?'

  'Don't pretend you are innocent. Yes, Madam, we have five more than when I last counted them, and you couldn't have gained all of them in payment for butter and cheese!'

  'But you know I sell the bull calves, for meat,' she said.

  'Did you take a cow in exchange? Is that it? Five of them?'

  'Well, no, my dear. Most people won't let go of milkers.'

  'Where did they come from, if not by legitimate sales or exchange?'

  Molly sighed. 'They were strays,' she admitted.

  'Strays?'

  'Yes. You know there are a lot of strays around. Most people don't take as much care of them as we do.'

  'They let them loose, you mean?'

  'Of course. Thomas, come in, supper is ready. Mutton stew. Even though Macarthur tries to prevent us from buying mutton, so that he can increase the price, I managed to find some.'

  'Not yet.' He felt his anger growing. He was normally easy-going, but on occasion his temper arose like a summer storm.

  'You realise those cattle are in fact mine?'

  'Well, yes, I can't own them, can I, as your servant?'

  'So if it is proven that we have more cattle than we are supposed to have, I will be blamed.'

  'Oh, Thomas, no one will bother to count them and they had no brand marks. I knew enough to check that.'

  'It's as well you did, Madam, for I'll not take the blame if your thefts are discovered and you are punished! If they send you to Coal Harbour don't expect me to rescue you!'

  Molly knew he would not. He was fond of her, but more as a convenient bedfellow and someone to cater for his creature comforts, and any woman would serve for that.

  Thomas was speaking again, more sternly than she had ever before heard him. 'Tomorrow morning you'll go and put those five loose again, so that whoever owns them can find them.'

  'What if no one claims them?'

  'Then they can stray into the bush like many more before them.'

  Molly sighed. 'Very well, but we won't get rich this way.'

  'We'll not get rich through theft.'

  *

  Molly was so busy with her expanding farm she took little heed of what was happening elsewhere. Occasionally Thomas, who had recovered his normally placid temper, came home with news of arguments and fights between the Governor and some members of the Corps.

  'Remember I told you of those addresses of welcome when Bligh arrived?'

  'Yes. Didn't John Macarthur sign one?'

  'Yes, for the free settlers. Major Johnston and Richard Atkins for the officers. But now there's more, and poor Bligh doesn't know which way to turn.'

  'Who?'

  'The people on the Hawkesbury. They said Macarthur doesn't represent them, and he is withholding sheep to increase the price of the mutton he sells.'

  Molly laughed. 'Yes, he does. And he was furious when Bligh used the stores and herds to help the Hawkesbury people after the floods.'

  Had William and his new family been affected by the floods, she wondered.

  'The men in the Corps who rely on trading to boost their income are furious.'

  Molly shrugged. There was nothing she or Thomas could do about it. 'They grow rich on the rum trade.'

  'But he's stopping that too, or trying to. And he's dismissing people for no good reason, and keeping those Irish who were acquitted in gaol too.'

  'Who has he dismissed?'

  'D'Arcy Wentworth.'

  'The doctor? He came out with me, the first time.'

  'And one of the magistrates, Thomas Jamison.'

  'He's one of Macarthur's men.'

  'And rich.'

  'There's trouble brewing.'

  'But you'll keep out of it, won't you?'

  'Of course.'

  Molly knew Thomas, easy-going and not ambitious for promotion or power. He would not get involved in quarrels, like John Macarthur. Having experienced his bad temper on the Neptune Molly had always watched to see how he and his wife were managing. John's temper was notorious, and men were wary of him, knowing his readiness to fight, and his liking for duels. Elizabeth behaved like the lady of the manor, but was far more aloof than any of the wealthy women she had known in Corvedale. Perhaps she was more like Mrs Lewis, but she had not been born and bred in the manor houses.

  A wave of nostalgia hit Molly. She'd never see the Shropshire hills again, never see her family. She turned away to hide her distress. Her son wrote occasionally, but he had little news of her brothers and her father, and none of her lost daughter the child she had borne to William Gough. She could be wed by now, ashamed of her mother. She probably didn't know she had been transported for a second time, though. She might even have grandchildren, and she would never know them.

  She rarely thought about the possibility of having another child. It had not happened, and she had been grateful, for a child would have complicated her life. Her cattle were her children, and she must be careful about adding to her herd, or she could lose all of them.

  *

  Molly was walking back home with some eggs she had exchanged for cheese when she was almost knocked down by two men who had just disembarked from the ferry. One was John Macarthur, and he was complaining loudly and bitterly.

  'He's out to ruin me, but he won't succeed! I'll make damned sure of that!'

  'What's the fight about this time?' Molly asked Thomas when he returned.

  'Fight?'

  'Yes.' She told him about Macarthur's fury.

  'Oh, that. The usual. Bligh is trying to stop Macarthur selling so much rum to the Corps. And there's a suspicion he's importing stills.'

  'If people can make their own rum, won't that reduce Macarthur's profits?'

  'He'll make enough by selling them, and with this new land grant and his sheep he's making money all round.'

  Molly heard rumours for the next few months, but was too busy to think much about them, until Clara told her Macarthur had been arrested.

  'Him? Arrested? Why?'

  'From what they say some
feller stowed away on one o' Macarthur's ships, an' 'e lost the bond.'

  'Bond?'

  'Agin lettin' stowaways travel. Macarthur were ordered ter go in front o' judges, but refused, so now 'e's arrested.'

  'Is he in prison?'

  'Not 'im! Bailed, they said, till January.'

  Thomas brought more news. 'Macarthur's saying Atkins can't sit in judgement as he owes him money.'

  'But isn't Atkins the senior judge?'

  'Yes, but the rest of the court were officers, and they supported Macarthur, so there was no trial. Now Major Johnston is involved, but he's pleading sickness. And I heard he's sent a letter home a few months back, complaining about Bligh.'

  Molly shrugged. While she didn't like Macarthur or his wife, remembering their haughty behaviour on the Neptune and since, it was no concern of hers. She couldn't help hearing rumours though, from Clara and other Corps wives as well as Thomas. Macarthur was in gaol, the Corps officers who had refused to sit were accused of treason, but instead of Major Johnston obeying Bligh he had Macarthur released.

  'And now Macarthur is getting up a petition accusing Bligh of treason, and demanding he be arrested.' Thomas laughed. 'It's a topsy turvy world.'

  The Corps, with the band and flying the regimental colours, marched to Government House to arrest Bligh.

  'They found 'im, they say, 'iding under a bed,' Clara said, giggling.

  Bligh and his daughter were confined in house arrest. Macarthur was finally tried by a new court, found not guilty, and appointed Colonial Secretary by Johnston.

  'That means he's in charge of almost everything,' Molly said when Thomas told her. 'And you say Thomas Jamison's been made Naval Officer, as well as a magistrate?'

  'So they're now in charge. I have to feel sorry for Bligh. He had no chance, with the Corps against him.'

  'You are part of the Corps,' Molly reminded him.

  'Yes, but I don't want to rule the roost like Macarthur and Johnston do. I'll serve my term, then perhaps go home.'

  'To England?'

  It had always been possible, but Molly had tried not to think about it. If he went before her own seven years were up, which was in three more years, would she still have her cattle and her house?

  *

  'We've got Foveaux taking over,' Thomas told Molly. 'He's to be acting Lieutenant-Governor, and that doesn't please Macarthur. He's too efficient.'