Johanna Condon, Bonnet made by Margaret Anne Birney, Ruth Murray's Hearts Creations Group.
Johanna Condon (Convict number 6983) was tried in Waterford on the 29th March 1851 and was found guilty of stealing a shawl and 2 handkerchiefs, receiving a sentence of 7 years transportation. Her gaol report described her as being “well behaved” and a “good widow”, with no children. She was reported as having 2 brothers, Michael and Richard, both of whom were soldiers.
Johanna was 60 years of age on arrival in Hobart in May 1852 and her records show she was 5’.2” in height, with a fair complexion and grey hair. Her convict trade was that of a country servant. Her colonial offence, for which she received 4 months hard labour, was being drunk. Johanna received her certificate of freedom on the 19th of April 1858, having completed her sentence. She died on the 3rd December 1862, aged 70.
Johanna had found herself in court previously, although on that occasion she was the complainant. As reported (Waterford Mail 1832), Johanna, basket woman, summoned her brother-in-law William Condon for an assault. The parties were rivals in the same trade, that of “meat porter” and some jealousy about the increase in business on one side led to a quarrel when the defendant chastised his relative by giving her a sound drubbing (thrashing). The defendant, William Condon, said he had plenty of witnesses to prove he was not the aggressor, but they were afraid to come into court as the complainant “had a terrible tongue, which cut keener than a butcher’s knife, particularly when sharpened with the steel of whiskey”. Johanna replied that “she was innocent as an unborn babe and never drank more than half a pint of the native”, whilst the defendant could drink five half pints, and she had the whole market to prove the truth of what she said. The defendant was fined 5s for the assault, or if in default, imprisoned for a fortnight. That fortnight in gaol, for an assault by a man on a woman, when compared with 7 years transportation for a 60-year-old woman, for petty larceny, seems extremely unjust. Questioning, not only in terms of the crimes committed, but also how the courts treated men differently than women.
There is no doubt Johanna Condon was a force to be reckoned with, fiercely independent with her own business, intelligent, humorous and witty - demonstrated by her abilities to speak up in court and right a wrong. Her transportation at 60yrs, to an unknown land unlikely to ever return, where many, according to (Kippen and McCalman, 2017 p.3) suffered injustice, extreme cruelty and arbitrary rule, seems particularly cruel.
Research by Eleanor Murphy Roses from the Heart, Waterford.
References:
Birney, Margaret Anne. Johanna Condon (1852). Text [Type]. Digital Repository of Ireland (2024) [Publisher]. South East Technological University [Depositor]. https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.4b29r158p (Accessed: 2024/07/16)
Kippen, R. and McCalman, J. (2017) THE MAD, THE BAD AND THE SAD: LIFE COURSES OF CONVICT WOMEN TRANSPORTED TO VAN DIEMEN’S LAND [online], Melbourne: School of Population and Global Health University of Melbourne, available: https://iussp.org/sites/default/files/event_call_for_papers/The%20Mad%2C%20the%20Bad%20and%20the%20Sad_03.pdf [accessed 24 November 2020].
Waterford Mail (1832) “Waterford City Petty Sessions: Family Squabbles”, Waterford Mail [online], 8 September, available: http://snap.waterfordcoco.ie/collections/enewspapers/waterford_mail/1832/waterford_mail_09_sep_08.pdf [accessed 17 November 2020].