Index

• (1) Susan b. 1821
• (2) William b. 1822
• (3) Mary b. 1824
• (4) Catherine b. 1825
• (5) Eleanor b. 1826
• (6) Maria b. 1830

The relevant entry in the 1828 census records that Daniel Morris was aged 30, had been freed by servitude (completed his sentence as a convict), and had arrived in Sydney in 1819 on the Prince Regent. He was listed as a shopkeeper of Kent Street, Sydney. His wife Mary was recorded as 32, came free to the colony, arriving in 1819 on the Dromedary. Their four children were all born in the colony - Susanna (7), Mary Ann (4), Catherine (3) and Eleanor (1-1/2).

The Principal Superintendent of Convict's Bound Indents (i.e. the lists compiled at Sydney of each ship as it arrived with its load of convicts) gives further information on Daniel (2).In fact the Prince Regent (527 tons, Master William Anderson and Surgeon Superintendent James Hunter) arrived in Sydney on its first trip in 1820 (not 1819) on 27th January. The indent gives further detailed information on Daniel, though it does not show his offence.

Daniel Morris was convicted at Middlesex (i.e. London) on 28th October, 1818. He was sentenced to seven years transportation for his crime. His native place is shown as Colechester, which presumably is the modern Colchester in Essex, about 80km north-east of London. His age when convicted was 23, his calling was an inn waiter. On arrival in Sydney his height was recorded as five feet 5 inches, his complexion categorised as dark ruddy, his hair black and his eyes hazel. (The indent descriptions used hazel rather than brown to describe eye colour.)

Daniel's crime is recorded in the Returns of Convicted Prisoners at the Old Bailey (3):

• City of London and County of Middlesex. A Return of the several Prisoners committed for Trial at the Sefsions of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery held at the Old Bailey in the Month of October 1818 shewing the nature of their Crimes and the result of their Commitments. Middlesex. Name: Daniel Morris. Crime As charged in Indictment: Larceny. As by Convict of Jury: Guilty. Sentence: Transported 7 years.

His trial is reported thus: (4)

• 1530. DANIEL MORRIS was indicted for stealing, on the 1st of November, 1817, one snuff-box, value 25s., the property of James George Hodgson.

  Mr. James George Hodgson. I keep the Piazza Coffee-House, in Covent-Garden. The prisoner came into my service, as waiter, about April, 1817, and left me in November last; after he left me I missed my snuff-box, and found it at Hatton-Garden Office a short time ago.

  Cross-examined by Mr. Adolphus. Q. He was the chamberlain - A. Yes; my servants sometimes find things and return them to the gentlemen. My snuff-box was occasionally in my room, or in my parlour.

  Q. Your partner died while the prisoner was with you - A. Yes, and the prisoner had mourning.

  Charlotte Phillips. I keep the Golden Lion, in St. John-street. The prisoner was waiter at my house. I had occasion to search his box on the 21st of September last - Read found the snuff-box in his trunk. He came to live with me from the Grotto public-house.

  William Read. I am an officer of Hatton-Garden Office. I searched the prisoner's box, and found the snuff-box in it. (Property produced and sworn to.)

  Prisoner's Defence. I did not intend to appropriate it to my own use. I found the box, and put it into my pocket, thinking I should receive a present from the gentleman who owned it. I have had things for three or four months before they were owned. Having changed my clothes to go into mourning, I did not remember having it until after I left; it certainly would have been better if I had given it to the prosecutor, but I did not.

  GUILTY.
  Transported for Seven Years.
  Second Middlesex Jury,
  before Mr. Recorder

Mary Coppinger's origin has not yet been discovered. However, it is likely that her family name can be traced back eventually to Denmark.

According to Copinger (5):

• There have been two main divisions of the family of Copinger, one Irish, the other English; the one connected with the county of Cork, the other with the counties of Suffolk and Kent. That these are from the same stock is evidenced by their bearing the same arms. No connection can be traced between the two divisions, and it is impossible to say whether the Suffolk Copingers came from Ireland, or the Irish Copingers from Suffolk, or whether both came from Denmark direct, but it is clear that the family originally came from the last mentioned place.

Copinger's great-grandson, Paul Copinger, states (pers. com.) that before it was Anglicised the name in its original form was Copener, and that it comes from the same root as Copenhagen (merchants' haven).

"They appear to have arrived in Ireland in the 10th century. The Copingers were very successful merchants in County Cork in particular and my earliest (documentarily provable, if that is English) forebear, my 12 x great grandfather Stephen Copinger was the Member of Parliament for Cork City in 1559 and Mayor of Cork in 1564 and 1572. So I suppose you could say that Copinger was an occupational name. Incidentally, the second P was added when the name was Anglicised. In Irish it only has one P."

Mary Coppinger sailed to Australia in the store ship Dromedary. The Dromedary had formerly been a prison hulk that, like others, was refurbished as a sailing ship. Being a store ship it was a Royal Navy vessel, rather than a chartered convict ship, and was commanded by Captain Richard Skinner RN as Master. The Surgeon Superintendent was George Fairfowl.

The Dromedary carried convicts as well as stores, embarking 370 male prisoners and no female convicts, and relanding 1 convict before leaving England on 11th September 1819. The Dromedary took 121 days to reach Hobart where it landed 347 convicts, and it then sailed on to Sydney to arrive on 28th January, 1820 (the day after Daniel arrived on the Prince Regent) after a total voyage of 139 days. At Sydney it landed the remaining 22 convicts, none having died on the voyage (6).

Daniel's ship was the Prince Regent I (there was also a Prince Regent II transporting convicts at the same time) on its first voyage to Sydney. This "ship" (in the rigging sense, as opposed to clipper etc.) was built at Shields in 1810. We do not know its exact sailing date or voyage time. However, the Surgeon-Superintendent's report, quoted below, is headed: Medical and Surgical Journal of the ship Prince Regent between 1st September 1919 and the 28th February 1820 during which time the said ship has been employed in conveying convicts to New South Wales. (7)

It appears that the Prince Regent was a slower ship than the Dromedary, having perhaps left England 10 days earlier and not having called at Hobart. But both Daniel and Mary seem to have had fair voyages, as Bateson comments: Several of the convict ships which arrived in 1820 made fast voyages. It was a favourable year so far as the weather and winds were concerned, as it had been also the previous year. He notes that the Eliza, which arrived 21st January 1820, set a record of 97 or 98 days for the voyage, which was a fortnight less than the previous record. (8)

The Journal kept by Surgeon-Superintendent James Hunter details the medical conditions on board the Prince Regent, and although not extraordinary for the time, the voyage was far from a pleasure cruise for the 160 male convicts (all landed at Sydney) on board.

Among the descriptions of broken bones, skin cancers, the birth by a soldier's wife and the prescription for a female passenger (who had given birth shortly before embarking) of half a pint of wine a day, the following journal entries indicate the conditions endured by Daniel Morris and his fellow unfortunates.

October 4th: William Brandford of the 48th Regiment had an ulcer on his left leg to which Surgeon Hunter, after treatment, applied a Bandage made out of my own Shirts, no Bandages or Cotton to make them being supplied.

October 9th: Constipation and uneasinefs in the Bowels amongst the greater part of the Convicts, in consequence probably of the want of their usual exercises and change of Diet. Exhibited immediately a solution of Magnesia Sulphatis, and Pills of Subminias Hydrargiri gv. ij & Pulv: Jalap: gv. x. which had the desired effect.

(Note that a combination of Surgeon Hunter's handwriting, the faded record and lack of familiarity with medical terms probably introduce inaccuracies into these copied entries.)

October 17th: Found that many of the Convicts had ulcers on the Legs, caused by their Irons. By removing the Irons and applying plain drefsings they soon healed.

The next Journal entry again indicates that Surgeon Hunter must have arrived in Sydney with a much depleted wardrobe. James Waters had a very bad ulcer on his leg and no linen or cotton on board so made dresfing of Cotton and Linen of my own.

October 18th: Phlegmons and constipations very common at this time among the Convicts. Gave solut. Mag: Sulph: and the Collomela Jallap Pills.

October 22nd: Jms. Smith, Danl. Morris and many others. Psora. Discovered this day that many of the convicts were contaminated. Re/Ung: Psoric: soape. Well 25th Octbr.

(Early Nov.) A number of slight Bowel complaints occurred at this time which readily gave way to the Purgatives I am in the habit of using most commonly viz. Mag: Sulph: and Pills of Calom: gv. ij. & Pulv: Jalap: gv. x.

The next reference we have to Daniel and Mary, after their arrivals in January 1820, is their marriage in 1821. The Mutch Index records that they were married at St. Philip's Church in Sydney on 12 June, 1821. (The numbers in the original church entry must have been transposed during the copying since the index actually shows "1812".) Assuming that Susan's death certificate is wrong by one year, she was born a few months later in October that year.

The NSW indexes indicate that a son, William, might have been born to Daniel and Mary in 1822 and died in 1823. He does not appear in the 1828 census. A daughter Mary, with a stated birth date of 24th June 1824, was baptised in the Roman Catholic faith on 26th June 1824 (9). It also appears from the indexes that Catherine was born in 1825, Eleanor in 1826, and possibly Maria in 1830.

There is some documentary contradiction about Daniel's status early in his married life. The 1822 Muster records: Daniel Morris FS 'Prince Regent' 7 employed by Captain Piper Sydney. The same Muster lists: Mary Copenger CF 'Dromedary' servant to Captain Piper Sydney.

Daniel, however, was either passing himself off as having been freed by servitude, or the records are in error. It appears that he served his full seven year-term, as the records (10) show that on 3 November 1825 he was issued with a certificate of freedom.

By 1828 Daniel was a shopkeeper, and about three years after the census, on 7th July 1831, he was issued with a publican's licence for The Green Gate in Kent Street, Sydney (11). On 11th July 1832 the licence was renewed (12), and again on 15th July 1833 (13). But the following year, on 30th June 1834, the licence for The Green Gate was issued to Mary Morris (14). The reason is not apparent from the NSW Registrar General's indexes, but in fact Daniel died at the age of 34 or 35 on 31st December, 1833. His cause of death is not noted, since the record of his death is in the NSW Probate index: BE IT KNOWN that upon search being made in the registry of the Court it appears that on 5 July 1834 ADMINISTRATION of the estate of DANIEL MORRIS late of Sydney in the State of New South Wales VICTUALLER who died intestate on 31 December 1833 was granted to MARY MORRIS the widow of the deceased. (15)

Mary Morris was thus left at the age of 32 with four daughters aged between 13 and six. The licence for The Green Gate was not renewed in her name the following year, and from the middle of 1834 there is no discovered record of her activities. She might have been a witness at her daughter Susan's wedding in 1841, or the Mary Morris recorded on the certificate might have been Susan's sister.

Daniel and Mary's memorial inscription has, however, been found in Gravestone Inscriptions NSW (16), and it provides a wealth of information. It states:

• Mr Daniel MORRIS died 31st December 1833 aged 34 years. also Katherine NAPTHALI, wife of Joseph NAPTHALI, and 3rd daughter of the above, died 25 September 1850 at San Francisco, California, aged 24 years. also Mrs Mary MORRIS, wife of the above, died 27th January 1853 aged (52) years. also Maria Margaret FORSTER died 20th November 1853 aged (5) years & 8 months. also Mary Matilda JOHNSON died 16th December 1854 aged 14 months.

(NB: Numbers in brackets indicate that the inscription is not clear.)

Susan Morris, otherwise known as Susanna and Susannah, married William Johnson (c.f.), whom she might in fact have known in her youth. Susan's and William's parents were hotel licensees at the same time in a relatively small town. The details of Susan's married life are described in William's biographical note, and he outlived her by almost 23 years.

Susan died at their home in Barkly Street, St. Kilda, on 30th August, 1877. The cause of death was shown as an epileptic fit, and she is buried in the Melbourne General Cemetery.