The Voyage of the ship Friendship from Cork to Botany Bay 1799-1800 edited by Col Graham, Perry McIntyre and Anne-Maree Whitaker, published by PR Ireland, Sydney, 2000, 46 pages. This booklet reprinted the journal of Mary Ann Reid, wife of Captain Hugh Reid of the Friendship which brought Irish political prisoners to New South Wales following the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland.

Mrs Reid’s ‘Cursory Remarks’ were serialised in the monthly Asiatic Journal between September 1819 and January 1820. While later Journal articles continued to describe the voyage back to England via the Spice Islands (Moluccas) and Bengal, this present publication concludes with the Friendship’s departure from Sydney. As well as the ‘Cursory Remarks’ this booklet includes a list of the prisoners who travelled out on the Friendship, based on Reg Wright’s ground-breaking scholarship, and a select bibliography. Readers will also note with interest Mrs Reid’s observation that 30 of the 115 prisoners could not speak any English.

Unfortunately it is now out of print.

This book outlined the story of an Irishman convicted in London in 1796 for theft and transported on the Hillsborough in 1799. In the colony of New South Wales he married a free woman, Rose Bean and became Chief Constable of police in Sydney. They had eight children in the colony. Each family line is charted showing birth, marriage and death dates known at the time of publication.

Many descendants contributed to this publication but we are certain there are many more out there. Other than Dunn and Bean the names of first generation include Pawley, Butler, Wright, Alexander, Evans, Cobcroft, Harper, Howe, Beer and Stennett. While essentially a genealogy of the family this book is the story of an early convict and his associated families. Each of the eight children of Thomas Dunn and Rose Bean have a short summary of their lives in the colony.

Unfortunately it is now out of print but is available in several public libraries.