necessary. All others were reserved for examination by the Superintendent of Police or by the Bench of Magistrates.[1]
As a convict was not distinguishable from the rest of the inhabitants by any outward sign, escaped prisoners, run-away servants and ticket-of-leave men wandered about the country, passing themselves off as free, and cheating, trafficking and creating disorders. The Governor, to put an end to this vagrancy, issued an Order in August, 1810.[2] It provided that men free by servitude or emancipation must carry their certificates, ticket-of-leave men their tickets, and other convicts passes from magistrates or from their masters stating where they were going and what was their business. If these orders were neglected the convict might be sent to Sydney by any magistrate to work in the Government gangs. After 1814 the only magistrate in Sydney who could issue these passes was the Superintendent of Police.[3] It was an Order which was very difficult to carry out, and indeed was very imperfectly obeyed. Under it a very curious abuse grew up by which masters who did not wish to feed, clothe and pay their convict-servants gave them passes and allowed them to go about working for themselves. These passes were as valuable as tickets-of-leave, and from the frequency with which they were given by a certain magistrate, came to be known as "Captain Cox's Liberty".[4]
The establishment of the Sunday Muster rendered it easier to follow the movements of the convicts about the country. Until Bligh's time it had been the custom to muster the convicts in Sydney every Sunday morning and march them to church.[5] Macquarie revived it in Sydney at the beginning of 1810 and extended it by the advice of one of the chaplains[6] to the rest of the territory in 1814.[7] At headquarters the convicts and
- ↑ One case in which prompt punishment was thought necessary was that of a conspiracy to escape by cutting out a ship in the harbour; another was the case of two sawyers at Pennant Hills who tried to stir up their comrades to refuse to work. See Bigge's Report, I.
- ↑ G.G.O., 18th August, 1810.
- ↑ Ibid., 10th October, 1814.
- ↑ Evidence of Howe, Chief Constable at Windsor in Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS. Cox was Resident Magistrate of the district.
- ↑ See C. on T., 1812.
- ↑ Rev. Mr. Cartwright. See his Evidence, Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS.
- ↑ G.G.O., 10th September, 1814. The convicts called the Sunday Muster a "Full Bench". See Howe's Evidence above.
