People Australia

James Burgess (1809–1865) was born sometime between July and December 1809 near Reading, Berkshire, England. At the time of his arrest he was a farm labourer working for a local flour mill near Reading.[1] He was involved in the Swing Riots, in which agricultural workers protested the mechanisation of farming, low wages, and the tithes tax.[2] After indulging in revelry at the Hinds Head in Aldermaston, Burgess was charged for participating in two riots that destroyed two threshing machines: the first on 18 November at William Perrin Brokenbow’s home at Beenham, and the second on 19 November five miles south at William Mount Esquire’s home.[3] Within a few weeks the rioters were all captured and held for a special commission hearing to be tried. 

The trial took place at the town hall in Reading, Berkshire, on 29 December 1830. It was overseen by the high judge justice Sir James Allan Park, Sir William Bollard, and Sir John Patterson. Also in attendance were several commissioners, members for the county and a great number of the magistracy. In all over three hundred people were tried. Many received seven years transportation, but some, including Burgess, received fourteen years for their unlawful, malicious, and felonious crime.[4] They were sentenced and awaited transportation on the prison hulk Hardy on the Thames River.[5] Burgess was held for only a few weeks before being transported on the Eleanor on 15 February 1831 with 133 convicts.[6] After a journey of 134 days, the Eleanor arrived in Port Jackson; its passengers disembarked a day later.[7]

Along with several other convicts from the Eleanor, Burgess was assigned to Major Henry Colden Antill, the patriarch of the area of Stonequarry (later Picton) and aide-de-campe to Lachlan Macquarie, who had extensive lands which he cultivated into farmland and a small township.[8] Burgess stayed with Antill for many years, first as a convict servant, possibly tending either the fields or their extensive vegetable garden.[9] He was promoted to be Stonequarry’s gaoler, a position he held for approximately three years before being sworn in as a police constable.[10] His policing career lasted until the late 1850s. He was mentioned many times in the Picton bench books throughout this period, giving evidence as a gaoler or as police constable and being called to answer charges against him.[11] In 1843 he was accused of the attempted rape of a convict, Honorah Murphy.[12] The charge went to trial but he was acquitted, with the reason given being that only Murphy’s initial statement was given as evidence.[13] 

It was at Antill’s property that Burgess met his wife, Jane Dillon. She was a convict who had arrived on the Southworth in 1832. [14] Her first assignment was to George Black in Sydney, a cashier at the Bank of New South Wales.[15] She was employed as a cook for six months, after which she was sent to the Parramatta Women’s Factory as a first-class detainee.[16] Early in 1836 Dillon was assigned to Antill.[17] The couple made their marriage application and had it granted in December 1836.[18] They married at the Cobbitty Church on 13 February 1837.[19] Burgess received a conditional pardon in October 1837, and Dillon received a ticket of leave.[20] They both stayed in the employment of Antill for many years and lived in a hut on his property ‘Jarvisfield’, later moving to Redbank and Picton townships.[21]

The couple had seven children: five boys and two girls, all but one (James junior, who died age seventeen) surviving to adulthood, marrying, and having children.[22] James Burgess senior died from natural causes on 15 December 1865, survived by his wife who died many years later at age ninety in February 1901.[23] Both were buried in Picton along with many of their descendants.

[1] Convict Indent for James Burgess, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, Convict Indents 1788-1842, Series: NRS 12188, Item: 4/4016, Microfiche 679.

[2] Mirek Gosney, ‘The Swing Riots that Rocked West Berkshire’ (podcast), Newbury Today, 24 September 2022, https://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/the-riots-that-rocked-west-berkshire-9275557/, accessed 21 May 2024; Alexander Jamieson, A Dictionary of Mechanical Science (London: H. Fisher, 1827), 1000.

[3] ‘Assize Intelligence, Reading’, 29 December 1830, Baldwin’s London Weekly Journal, 1 January 1831, 1; ‘Berkshire Special Commission, Machine Breaking, 29 December 1830’, English Chronicle and Whitehall (London), 30 December 1830, 3; ‘Berkshire Special Commission’, Reading Mercury, 10 January 1831, 4; ‘Westminster Sessions, Special commission, Reading 29 December 1830’, Weekly Times (London), 2 January 1831, no. 235, 8.

[4] ‘Berkshire Special Commission’; ‘Westminster Sessions’.

[5] Prison Hulk Register for James Burgess, National Archives of United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England, Convict Prison Hulks, Registers and Letter Books 1802-1849, Class H09, Piece 9, p.157.

[6] Australian Convict Transportation Register entry for James Burgess, on the Eleanor, departing London 15 February 1831, National Archives of United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England, Australian Convict Transportation Register – Other fleet and ships 1791-1868, Convicts Transport Class: HO11, Piece 8, p.10.

[7] Medical Journal Eleanor, John Stephenson, Surgeon and Superintendent, National Archives of United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England, United Kingdom Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1817-1856, Index: E, Ship: Eleanor.

[8] Liz Vincent, The Forgotten Village of Picton, Introducing Upper Picton (Redback) (Picton: Alfred Printing, 1995); Convict Indent for James Burgess, Museums of History New South Wales.

[9] Bench Book entry for James Burgess, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, Index to Colonial Secretary Letters Received, Bench Books Picton 1829-1833, 4/7572-73, SR Reel 671, 13 June 1832.

[10] Bench Book entry for James Burgess, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, Index to Colonial Secretary Letters Received, Bench Books Picton 1837-1843, 4/7572-73, SR Reel 672, 4 December 1841.

[11] Bench Book entry for James Burgess, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, Index to Colonial Secretary Letters Received, Bench Books Picton 1837-1843, 4/7572-73, SR Reels 672-676, 1832-1853.

[12] Bench Book entry for James Burgess, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, Index to Colonial Secretary Letters Received, Bench Books Picton 1837-1843, 4/7572-73, SR Reel 672, 20 May 1843.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Australian Convict Musters list for Jane Dillon, National Archives of United Kingdom, Kew, Surrey, England, Australia and Tasmania Convict Musters 1806-1849, Convicts Transport Class: HO10, Piece 33, p.7.

[15] ‘List of Female Convicts assigned from 1 to 30 June 1832’, New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney) 7 November 1832.

[16] Entry for Jane Dillon, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, Goal Description and Entrance Books 1818-1930, Series 2514, item 4/6434, Roll 852, p.31.

[17] ‘List of Female Convicts Assigned’, New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney), 28 February 1834.

[18] Marriage application of James Burgess and Jane Dillon, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, Convict Application to Marry 1825-1851, NRS 12212 (4/4509 p267) COD 12, Reel 713, Fiche 782-785.

[19] Marriage registration of James Burgess and Jane Dillon married 14 February 1837, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, Vol21, no 1698/1837.

[20] Conditional Pardon for James Burgess, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia, Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons, 1788-1870, Card Index to Letters Received, Colonial Secretary, Reel 772, roll no 1250; Ticket of Leave for Jane Dillon, Museums of History New South Wales, State Archives collection, New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia, Convict Pardons and Tickets of Leave 1834-1859, Class: HO10, Piece:31, p184, entry 1177.

[21] Profile of James Burgess and Jane Dillon, White Family Tree, (Public member tree), Ancestry.com, accessed 13 April 2024.

[22] Death registry of James Burgess died 15 December 1865, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 1865/5618.

[23] Death registry of Jane Burgess (nee Dillon) died 5 February 1901, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 1901/2481E; Death registry of James Burgess, died 15 December 1865, Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 1865/5618.