Off convicts' backs
Worn, torn, stained and patched, two government-issue shirts found at Hyde Park Barracks have evidently come off the convicts’ backs.
Made from plain weave cotton, with woven blue stripes, they were left behind by convict residents at Hyde Park Barracks, and found in 1979-80 beneath the floorboards of the top floor of the dormitory building.
One is more complete than the other, and has a red stamp at front left, with the letters ‘BO’ and a broad arrow, indicating issue by the colonial government Board of Ordnance.
Both shirts are very rare survivors of the mass-produced convict ‘slop’ clothing from Australia’s early colonial era. Recovered by restoration workers and archaeologists during Australia’s first publicly-funded archaeological excavation, they were among 120,000 everyday items from the 19th and early 20th centuries unearthed at the site. These artefacts form one of Australia’s most important historical archaeological collections, with rare convict artefacts including these shirts, a broad arrow stamped shoe, a leather leg-iron ankle protector, convict-made tobacco pipes, and hand-carved bone gaming pieces.
Between 1819 and 1848, an estimated 50,000 convicts passed through the barracks gates, and those kept in government service would have all been issued with shirts just like these. Striped Indian cotton, imported to the colony from the early nineteenth century, was durable and convenient for making convict clothing. Furthermore, the striped fabric easily distinguished the wearer as a convict.
Into the 1820s and 1840s, cotton grown in the American south and then spun and woven in English mills probably provided the raw material for the manufacture of such shirts by female convicts at the Female Factory at Parramatta.
Convicts in the barracks were issued with two such shirts per year, however it seems that convict slop clothing was anything but uniform. For example, the two shirts recovered from the barracks are made from different striped fabrics. Several variations of this type of shirt and other government-issue clothing are also evident from images and accounts from the period.
Hyde Park Barracks' convict Charles Cozens, gave a revealing account of what happened to shirts at the barracks in the early 1840s, in his Adventures of a Guardsman (1848: 118-9):
Saturday afternoon was set apart for the men to wash their shirts, which did not occupy long, as their wardrobe was chiefly confined to what they carried on their backs. The shirt, however, must be clean on Sunday’s parade under pain of punishment. When washed, it was usually dried on the shoulders of the owners, over the jackets, to avoid any experiments in the sleight-of-hand conveyancing, as, so sure as any novice… happened to suspend his shirt… from a peg or paling, and only for one moment turn his back on it, his face would never more look on it.
Published on
Related
Browse allConservation
Conservation in action: Hyde Park Barracks northern range refurbishment works
In collaboration with experienced heritage consultants and traditional tradespeople, MHNSW is undertaking conservation works to the northern range buildings
Cutter and Coota: a children’s play by Bruce Pascoe
Meet author and historian Bruce Pascoe and the main characters from his play Cutter and Coota as they reflect on the play’s themes and the experience of performing at the Hyde Park Barracks
Hyde Park Barracks: a keeper of lost things
Uncover and explore some of the items found inside the barracks
Convict Sydney
Objects
These convict-era objects and archaeological artefacts found at Hyde Park Barracks and The Mint (Rum Hospital) are among the rarest and most personal artefacts to have survived from Australia’s early convict period