# Parkhurst apprentices

The Parkhurst apprentices, juveniles from a reformatory attached to Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight, were sentenced to "transportation beyond the seas" and transported to Australia and New Zealand between 1842 and 1852. Either before leaving England or on arrival at their destination, they were pardoned on the conditions that they be "apprenticed" to local employers, and that they not return to England during the term of their sentence. In the ten years between 1842 and 1852 nearly 1500 boys aged from twelve to eighteen were transported to Australia and New Zealand from Parkhurst Prison.

## Parkhurst apprentices in Western Australia

Early in 1839, Governor of Western Australia John Hutt received from the Colonial Office a circular asking if the colony would be prepared to accept juvenile prisoners who had first been reformed in "penitentiaries especially adapted for the purpose of their education and reformation". After seeking comment from the Western Australian Agricultural Society, Hutt responded that "The Majority of the Community would not object to boys not above 15 years of age...." but that the labour market could not support more than 30 boys per year.
Between 1842 and 1849, Western Australia accepted 234 Parkhurst apprentices, all males aged between 10 and 21 years. As Western Australia was not then a penal colony, contemporary documents scrupulously avoided referring to the youths as "convicts", and most historians have maintained the distinction. An opposing view, held for example by Gill (2004), is that the Parkhurst apprentices were convicts, and that their apprenticeship constituted convict assignment.
John Schoales jun. (c. 1810 – 10 April 1847), son of John Schoales QC of Dublin. was appointed Guardian of the apprentices. He determined the allowance they were paid, holding it in trust until their 5-year indenture period was over. The Parkhurst Visitors insisted that names of the boys not be published in the Government Gazette, in order that they were not discriminated against. Schoales was succeeded as Guardian by Frederick Dirck Wittenoom (c. 1821–1863).
Parkhurst apprentices were employed by a broad cross-section of Western Australia's businessmen and officials, including many of the colony's ruling class. Among the long list of Parkhurst apprentice employers were Governor Andrew Clarke, Frederick Irwin, George Fletcher Moore, Anthony O'Grady Lefroy, William Locke Brockman, Thomas Brown, George Walpole Leake, Walter Padbury, Stephen Stanley Parker, Rosendo Salvado Thomas Peel JR and George Shenton Sr.
The assimilation of Parkhurst apprentices played an important role in the later acceptance of convicts in Western Australia.

## New Zealand

One hundred and twenty three Parkhurst apprentices were sent to the Colony of New Zealand in 1842 and 1843. These had not been invited to the convict-free colony, and were a great surprise when the first ship arrived. After the second ship, the colony successfully petitioned that no more would be sent.

## South Australia

The Colony of South Australia was also asked to accept Parkhurst Boys, but resisted and none was sent there.

## List of ships

List of ships that brought Parkhurst apprentices to Australia and New Zealand
| Ship | Arrival | Parkhurst apprentices | Colony |
| Simon Taylor | August 1842 | 18 | Western Australia |
| St George | November 1842 | 92 | New Zealand |
| Shepherd | October 1843 | 28 | Western Australia |
| Mandarin | October 1843 | 51 | Tasmania |
| Mandarin | November 1843 | 31 | New Zealand |
| Halifax | December 1844 | 18 | Western Australia |
| Strathedin | December 1845 | 74 | Tasmania |
| Cumberland | January 1846 | 16 | Western Australia |
| Maitland | October 1846 | 70 | Victoria |
| Thomas Arbuthnot | May 1847 | 89 | Victoria |
| Joseph Somes | September 1847 | 84 | Victoria |
| Marion | January 1848 | 125 | Victoria |
| Orient | March 1848 | 51 | Western Australia |
| Eden | February 1849 | 62 | Victoria |
| Ameer | February 1849 | 50 | Western Australia |
| Hashemy | abt July 1849 | 29 | Tasmania |
| Randolph | August 1849 | 85 | Victoria |
| Mary | October 1849 | 53 | Western Australia |
| Adelaide | November 1849 | 30 | Tasmania |
| Blenheim | July 1850 | 85 | Tasmania |
| Maria Somes | August 1850 | 30 | Tasmania |
| Nile | October 1850 | 30 | Tasmania |
| Rodney | November 1850 | 40 | Tasmania |
| Mermaid | May 1851 | 43 | Western Australia |
| Lady Kennaway | May 1851 | | Tasmania and Norfolk Island |
| Pyrenees | June 1851 | 29 | Western Australia |
| Minden | October 1851 | 30 | Western Australia |
| Aboukir | December 1851 | | Tasmania |
| Fairlie | March 1852 | 30 | Tasmania |
| Equestrian | August 1852 | | Tasmania |
| Oriental Queen | October 1852 | | Tasmania |
| Dudbrook | February 1853 | 1 | Western Australia |
| Lincelles | January 1862 | 1 | Western Australia |