Alice Bleathman is a 29 year-old Australian girl who lives just a few yards from the beach on the sun-kissed New South Wales Surf Coast. Despite being a ‘proper Aussie’, Alice has deep family roots and strong heritage links with Dorset. She is a direct descendant of the Dorset transported convict Richard Bleathman.
It was Judge Sir Stephen Gaselee who sentenced Alice’s English ancestor to be hanged in Dorchester Gaol on 31 March 1832. Richard Bleathman was found guilty, together his friend George Long, of a thinly constructed charge of ‘beginning to pull down the house and property of (Blandford’s) George Moore.’ Gaselee was well-known to Charles Dickens. The author mocked the judge in Pickwick Papers and regarded him as frankly incompetent. So effective was Dickens in describing the judge’s inadequacies that Gaselee felt he had to resign.
Both Richard Bleathman and his friend George Long had been angered by the political corruption that they had witnessed in the county during a controversial 1831 Dorset Parliamentary By-election. At the time, only men who owned property of a certain value were permitted to vote. Despite both being respected local tradespersons, neither Bleathman nor Long were allowed to vote. Both young men had been annoyed by Blandford solicitors and political agents, George Moore and Septimus Smith. They had used confidential client information to disqualify voters who refused to vote for their preferred candidate, Lord Ashley. Had these disqualified votes been allowed, it seems Lord Ashley would not have won the by-election.
It is still possible to visit the cells where Bleathman and Long were held together with the courtroom where they were sentenced to death. Both now are part of Dorchester’s Shire Hall Museum. Some two years later, the Tolpuddle Martyrs would be tried in the same courtroom and transported to Australia for trying to form a trade union.
The fate of the two young men took a sudden twist when the people of Dorset successfully petitioned for clemency. Instead of the gallows, Bleathman and Long were to be transported to the distant penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land – now Tasmania. This was a notorious convict island on the other side of the world – a place renowned for its savage punishments. Awaiting transportation, the two men were confined to the decaying and disease-ridden prison hulk, Captivity at Plymouth. In earlier and finer days, the vessel had been HMS Bellerophon on whose decks Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered. Both Bleathman and Long were put to hard and hazardous work in the Plymouth Dockyard. All that remains of Bellerophan/Captivity today is the vessel’s figurehead which is on display in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard.
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As a tribute to her ancestor, Alice Bleathman has penned a poem for the book, Richard, Our Richard in the style of an Australian bush ballad. Waltzing Matilda, the default Australian National Anthem is a bush ballad. The book’s last chapter has been written by Bill Bleathman, who recently retired as the Director of the Tasmanian Gallery & Art Gallery.
With a love of Dorset and its local history, the foreword to From Dorset Gallows to Van Diemen’s Land has been written by Mick Robertson. Mick lived for 25 years at Ibberton under the shadow of Bulbarrow Hill. He holds a BAFTA Lifetime Award for his television work and in the 70s and 80s was a presenter on the ITV children’s programme Magpie.
Alice Bleathman says:
‘I am delighted that through a new book, “From Dorset Gallows to Van Diemen’s Land” by Blandford-born Barry Barnett, the remarkable life of my ancestor, Richard Bleathman and his friend, George Long can be remembered.
While LL Robson mentioned my ancestor as a political prisoner in his highly regarded book, Convict Settlers of Australia (1965), this is the first time that Richard and George Long’s story is fully told.
Prior to the Australian Bicentenary, few Australians would admit to having a convict as an ancestor. It was known as the ‘stain’. Now when there is a better understanding of the injustices of the transportation system it is de rigueur to have a convict in the family tree.’
From Dorset Gallows to Van Diemen’s Land by Barry Barnett, with contributions from Mick Robertson and convict descendants Alice & Bill Bleathman, is now available in paperback both in the UK and Australia from Amazon.
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This was a guest blog written for Dorset History Centre by Barry Barnett.