COLOUR SERGEANT JOHN AUGHEY 21st FUSILIERS 1795-1859
By Marianne Tripp Punshin
TFHS Inc. Member No. 4602
The barque Norval arrived in Launceston on 30 January 1833. On board were six passengers;
Dr. Wilson, Mrs Wilson, Rev. F Anderson, Mr. F. Lord and Mr. Hogue and I captain, 1 subaltern, 1 sergeant, 1 corporal and 27 privates, 21ST Fusiliers; with 3 women and 7 children ... being the first of the 21ST Regiment to arrive in the colony. 1
The Sergeant was Colour Sergeant John Aughey, accompanied by his wife Elizabeth and children:
- Isabella ( c. 3 September 1819)
- Samuel (c. 11 June 1821)
- Margaret (c. 30 July 1823)
- James (c. 3 September 1825) 2
- John (1826) 3 and
- William (11 months).4
John Aughey was born on 2 August 1795 in Belfast, Ireland. He was working as labourer when he enlisted as a boy soldier in the 21st Regiment (Scots) Fusiliers in Newry, Ireland on 3 August 1807. He was the regimental drummer for five years.
On Christmas Day 1812, Aughey was demoted from drummer to private and on 2 August 1813 he remained a private but was no longer 'under age', meaning he was eighteen years old and able to carry arms in battle. On 5 December 1813, Aughey was promoted to Corporal.
Five days later the 2nd Battalion, 21 Fusiliers embarked from Fort George, Scotland to fight in the Napoleonic Wars. On the voyage Corporal Aughey would have responsibility for training new recruits to load, fire and care for their weapons. Arriving in Holland the soldiers were issued with two days' pre-cooked provisions and one day's grog. They were addressed by officers who emphasised that all behaviour was to reflect credit on the regiment and they were probably warned to avoid drunkenness. The Articles of War and Army rules and orders would have been read to all men.5
Disembarking in Holland on 10 January 1814, the 2" Battalion would have been given marching orders similar to those given to the 1" Foot Guards: straggling was forbidden, soldiers were required to be ready for any formation that would be required and the surrounding terrain would allow, soldiers would halt every one and a half hours for a few minutes so the rear could close up, men were not permitted to fall out at other times and the march would be headed by a staff sergeant who would regulate the pace at two and a half miles per hour.6
The Battalion marched to Steenberg where they remained through the very cold and frosty month of February until the beginning of March when ordered to attack the strongly held Dutch garrison town of Bergen-op-Zoom on the night of 8 March 1814.
One portion of the Battalion . . . ( attacked) ... near the Steenberg Gate: . .. Some severe fighting took place . . . but the attack failed, and a number of officers and men who penetrated the walls were forced to surrender prisoners of war. The battalion had a number of men killed or wounded.7
One of the wounded was Corporal Aughey who suffered a knee injury.
In 1814 the 21st Fusiliers saw action in Holland and Belgium. Aughey was again wounded in the leg at Antwerp.
Aughey was promoted to Sergeant on 25 December 1815 prior to the 21st Regiment proceeding to Paris to join the Army of Occupation under the Duke of Wellington. During 1816 and 1817, Sergeant Aughey was based in France as part of the occupational force.8
The 21st Regiment returned to Britain on 17 March 1817. It appears that Aughey was on detachment in or near Limerick, Ireland, for the next eight years, as his marriage and the christening of his first four children are registered at St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick in the period to 1825.9
In 1818 Elizabeth Newton and John Aughey were married. As the wife of a soldier Elizabeth was subject to military discipline. Elizabeth would have lived in barracks in Ireland and England with John and her children. Although wives were regarded as part of the regiment little thought was given to them. Families had little privacy in the soldier's barracks, often only a sheet of cloth partitioning the family from the troops. A Report on Barracks and Hospital Improvement in 1861 stated,
We have seen married men's beds in the men's barrack room without any screen. At Chatham at the time of our enquiry there was a married NCO or soldier in every barrack room among the men and not infrequently girls from 14 to 16 years of age were thus accommodated.10
Wives were required to maintain cleanliness in the quarters, prepare meals in communal kitchens and attend church parades and weekly medical inspections. Regimental washing and needlework was done by the women with the sergeants' wives required to do the Officers' washing.
Early in 1827 the 2st Regiment were sent to Windsor Castle to guard the residence of King George IV. In May 1827 Aughey became a Colour Sergeant. The rank of Colour Sergeant was introduced in 1813 because so many Ensigns, who were required to carry the colours, had been killed in battle.
For the next five years the 21st Regiment was on detachment in various parts of Britain. During this time two sons, John and William were born.
Ordered to the Colony of New South Wales on 10 July 1832, the 21st Regiment mustered at Chatham, southeast London, embarking as detachments of guards on convict ships during 1832 and 1833.
Aughey and his family embarked on the Mary in August 1832. Mary was a barque of 370 tons under Master Alex Jamieson and Surgeon Superintendent William C. Watt. During the journey, William, aged 10 months, was treated for diarrhoea.
Arriving in Sydney on 6 January 1833, after a journey of 123 days, the Augheys had nine days on shore before departing on the Norval for Launceston on 16 January 1833.11
In Tasmania the military maintained law and order providing civil administration, guards and overseers for convict working parties and protecting communities from attacks by aborigines and bushrangers.
Soldiers considered the task of escorting convicts dreary, and the police duties were difficult, continuous, and brought little honour or glory to the Regiments.
Charles Leake, teenage son of a property holder near Campbell Town, wrote in his diary that road gangs
were completing the Ross Bridge and laying the foundations for the Campbell Town bridge and macadamizing the Midlands Highway in the vicinity, under a detachment of Royal Fusiliers commanded by Captain Forth.12
As a Colour Sergeant Aughey would receive ls 10d per day. However pay was subject to internal regimental taxes called stoppages. Money was withheld for uniforms, lodging, medical supplies and pensioner hospital contribution. Aughey would receive very little of his salary for spending money.
For the next five years Aughey was on detachment in Launceston with occasional detachments to Avoca, Waterloo Point, George Town and Oatlands.13
The Launceston Barracks was over crowded and in a state of disrepair. In 1833 it was described as being
in a very bad state of repair, foundations and floors are decayed and it has been reported ... that any repairs could only be temporary and at an expense which the state of the buildings would not Warrant.14
Repairs to the floor, chimneys and ceilings were made each of the next four years until 1837 when the barracks designed to house sixty-seven Officers and rank and file, was accommodating I 00 men. The Officers lived out of the barracks. Of the buildings which included Officer's Quarters, Hospital, Guard House, Canteen, Kitchens and Outhouses
the only building in tolerable repair is the Soldier's Barracks and it is hoped that a new set of Barracks will shortly be sanctioned 15
Five more children, Louisa Ann (born 3 November 1833), Elizabeth (1834) Richard (born 2 July 1837), Mary Ann (born 28 September 1839) and Maria (born 3 October 1841) were born in Tasmania.16
Aughey was reduced to Sergeant on 20 March 1836. From 1 April 1837 he was on furlough pending discharge from the Regiment at his own request on 31 August 1838.
Aughey had been with the Regiment for 31 years and 30 days. He was described as
43 years of age, 5 feet 3 and a half inches, dark brown hair, maple eyes, dark complexion.
The Regimental Board found him 'to be free from any disease likely to affect his life'. Testimony was given
. . . that his conduct has been exceeding good and during the long period of Thirty One years that he has been in the Regiment he has borne a most meritorious character.17
On the day that the Launceston Advertiser announced the arrival of the Norval with the first detachment of 21st Fusiliers, a tender was advertised for the construction of a Female House of Correction in Launceston.18 While stationed in Launceston Aughey may have supervised soldiers who guarded the convicts building the prison.
John Aughey was appointed gatekeeper of the Launceston Female Factory on 1 September 1837; at the same time his wife was appointed Matron of the hospital.19
In 1838 Aughey wrote to his former Commanding Officer, Major George Deare, seeking support for an application for a land grant. Deare requested that the application be given favourable consideration and on October 1838, Aughey chose a site of land but in 1844 in another letter he asks for another piece of land. A note attached to the request states:
after straining the indulgence of the Department in the matter of changing location he has failed after six years to satisfy himself, and his order was cancelled.20
The Hobart Town Gazette, Friday, 11 October 1839, announced the granting of the licence of the Wattle Tree Hotel, on the corner of Bathurst Street and Elizabeth Street, Launceston, to John Aughey.21
Aughey advertised in the Cornwall Chronicle:
THE WATTLE TREE
Comer of Elizabeth and Bathurst streets
LAUNCESTON
JOHN AUGHIE, (late colour sergeant H. M. 21" Scots Fusiliers) begs to most respectfully to acquaint his Friends and the Public generally, that he has taken and fitted up at considerable expense, that old-established and respectable licensed house,
THE WATTLE TREE
where he trusts, by strict attention to his business, to merit a share of public patronage.
He begs further to add, that he has at present on hand a capital stock of the best Wines, Spirits, &c., and shall make it always his study to keep a regular good supply of the same in his house; and at the same time informs his Country Customers, that they will find excellent beds provided for them, and good stabling for their cattle and horses.
Sept. 21st, 1839.22
Seven days later his daughter Mary Ann was born.
The same year, on 25 November Isabella Aughey married John Clark in Launceston.23
Aughey left Launceston in 1842 to become licensee of the Gray's Arms Inn at Avoca. He held the licence until 1843.24
On Saturday, 12 November 1842 Elizabeth (Eliza) Aughey with her children James, a brother, (probably Richard), Mary Ann and Maria left Launceston with a dray loaded with household goods and supplies for their new home in Avoca.
The family stayed the night at The Bald Faced Stag, Cleveland. Next morning, at 6.00 am, they left to continue their journey. Three miles from the inn, Eliza and her daughters were riding on the dray. James walking beside the dray was talking to his mother who was nursing Maria, when the offside wheel hit a hole throwing Eliza and Maria from the cart. Eliza landed face down with the baby underneath her. As Eliza reached the ground the off wheel went over her body.
James halted the dray and lifted the unharmed baby from under his mother. He turned Eliza onto her back. Eliza knew that she was dying. She could not feel her legs and even with the assistance of both sons could not stand. She asked for water. There being none, James rubbed her lips with brandy and offered to run for a doctor. Eliza replied that 'all the doctors in the world could not cure her'. She asked James to tell his father 'to look after the children but especially the little ones'. Eliza asked James to again wet her lips with the brandy, which he did as she died.25
Eliza's body was returned to The Bald Faced Stag where an inquest was conducted. James, aged sixteen years, was the only witness to give evidence. Eliza was buried in the Avoca Cemetery.
In 184 7 John Aughey became the licensee of The Traveller's Rest at Great Swanport (Swansea). In November of that year his daughter Margaret married John Joseph Fleetwood, Chief Constable of the District.26
In the same inn, The Bald Faced Stag, where he had given evidence on his mother's death, an inquest was conducted on 12 October 1848 into the death of James Aughey.
The inquest found that James and work mate, Joshua (or Joshia) Pond, a horse breaker, were attempting to take a cart across the South Esk River at Atkin's Ford. The water at the ford was high and flowing rapidly. Both Aughey and Pond were experienced horsemen and strong swimmers. The horse and cart, with the cart partly submerged, were found below the ford late in the afternoon. The next day a search commenced, but it was not until the following day that the body of Pond was found and a day later before Aughey's body was located. The inquest found both men had 'drowned and suffocated.27
John Aughey seems to have relinquished the license of The Traveller's Rest in 1850. In November 1850 Aughey was leasing land at Long Point, Great Swanport, when the cutter Resolution was wrecked in a storm. Mr Thomas Large, his wife and family were travelling on the Resolution. Aware of the danger of landing his passengers in a rising sea the captain decided to drop anchor. Leaving the passengers on board with a crewmember, the captain and some of his crew rowed ashore. The wind rose to gale force and the ship dragged her anchors. Despite the efforts of Large and the crew member the Resolution foundered.
On the shore, the captain, his crew and local citizens tried to launch a boat to reach the ship. Their efforts failed. A convict succeeded in swimming to the ship and rescuing one child. Large and his wife survived the wreck but six of the children drowned.28
The morning following the storm, John Aughey searched the beachfront of his property finding the bodies of three of the children. He was a member of the jury and gave evidence at the inquest.29
In 1851 Aughey was leasing land at Waters Meeting, Swansea, when an escaped convict George Mackie alias Frame attempted to rob a hut on the property. John and William Aughey and a servant, Thomas Gilbert, challenged Mackie. Gilbert was shot and killed. John and William Aughey apprehended the convict who was taken to Oatlands on trial for murder. Found guilty, he was hanged at Oatlands Gaol.30
John and William were given a gratuity of £25.0.0 for their courage in capturing Mackie.31
In 1852 John Aughey took his family to Adelaide. With his son William and John Junior he worked for a year as a guard at Yatala Labour Prison from 1854-1855 when John and John Jnr resigned and William was dismissed for drinking while on duty.32
John Aughey died of bronchitis, aged 62 years, on 17 May 1859, in the Adelaide Hospital. At the time of his death he was a labourer, living in Norwood. He was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in the West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide.33 Later that year his son Samuel also died.34
Louisa Ann married Thomas Honey in Adelaide in 1854.35 Her sister Elizabeth married Joseph Abbott in 1856.36 The same year Richard married Margaret Morgan.37
In 1858 John Jnr married Agnes Jardine with Richard marrying Julia Ann Cassidy in 1859.38,39
Maria Aughey married Moses Reid in Adelaide on February 1860.40
Mary Ann Aughey married Robert Lawson Tripp in Daylesford, Victoria on 23 September 1862. 41 Mary Ann and Robert Lawson are my great-great grandparents.
Endnotes:
1 Launceston Advertiser 31 January 1883
2 IGI, August 1984 British Isles. Ireland p.297
3 AOT Colonial Inquest SC 195 no. 1952
4 Surgeon's Report Mary AJCP
5 Chambers, Barbara John Collett and a Company of foot Guards Barbara Chambers 1997
6 ibid
7 Cannon, Richard, Historical Record of the Twenty-First Regiment of Foot or The Royal North British Fusiliers containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in 1678 and its Subsequent Services to 1849 Adjutant Generals Office, London
8 PRO File: W097/409 War Record of John Auchie, London 9 op cit IGI
10 Matrimony by regulation Fiche-ingaroundNo.14,Lakes Entrance Genealogical Group Newsletter, September 1993
11 op cit Launceston Advertiser
12 Hodgkinson, Dennis ,Teenage pioneers: Convicts under assignment mss Launceston Public Library
13 AJCP WO Reel 3759 piece 3802
14 AOT CSO 5018 1833
15 AOT CSO 50/12 1837
16 St Johns Launceston Baptismal Register Tas PRO NS 7481 1--5
17 op cit War Record
18 op cit Launceston Advertiser19 AOT CSO 50/12 1838
20 AOT CSO 5/130:3083
21 Hobart Town Gazette11 October 1839
22 Cornwall Chronicle31 September 1839
23 AOT Registrar Generals Dept 37/1--198
24 Hobart Town Gazette 30 September 1842
25 AOT Coronial Inquest SC 195 no 761
26 AOT BDM 373/1 Nos 1--1582
27 AOT Coronial Inquest SC 195 no 1952
28 Davenport, Bill and Amos, Ruth, Glamorgan Tasmania: The Oldest Rural Municipality in Australia Glamorgan Municipal Council, 1988
29 AOT Inquest conducted at Swansea Hotel on 9-11-1850
30 Cornwall Chronicle March, 1851
31 Hobart Town GazetteMay 1851
32 CSO Correspondence Out: GRG 24/4 PRO South Australia 33 SA BDM Death Certificate no 187, 1859
34 SABDMBook21/Page3 lOc 1860
35 VicGold: National Centenary Ancestral Project: Internet: http://www.ke.au/cgi-bin/texhtml?form=VicGold
36 Biographical Index of South Australia1836-1885
37 SA BDM Marriage certificate no 29, 1856
38 SA BDM Marriage certificate no 3037, 1858
39 The Advertiser,Adelaide, Wednesday, 5March 1890
40 SA BDM Book 41 Page 6
41 Vic BDM 1862 Marriage cert. no 2397
This story was originally published in 2001 by the Tasmanian Family History Society Inc in My Most Interesting Ancestor.
The original introduction to this publication may be found here.