Work life in the penal colony

*The life and work of convicts in the early days of the penal colony in Sydney.

- Convicts in early Sydney, including tradesmen like Francis Greenaway, worked

primarily as unpaid laborers.

(St James' Church in about 1890)

- Macquarie, who took over as governor in 1810, used this labor to expand the
colony.

- Some convicts could earn between six and eight shillings a day, after three o'clock
in the afternoon, often higher than in Britain.
- However, those working for pastoralists were less fortunate.

 Convicts, including tradesmen and clerical workers, were primarily employed as

servants and laborers.
 Francis Greenaway, a convict architect convicted of forgery, designed several
notable buildings in Sydney that still exist today.
 Initially, convicts rarely received wages, and rum was used as the colony’s
currency.
 Governor Macquarie, who assumed office in 1810, utilized the large convict labor
force to expand the colony, constructing up to fifty townships around Sydney.
 Some convicts, particularly tradesmen or “mechanics,” were allowed to earn
wages in their spare time, after three in the afternoon. They could earn between
six and eight shillings a day, which was more than the wages of free workers in
Britain.
 However, convicts who worked for the pastoralists were not as fortunate.
*The role of pastoralists and emancipists in the early Sydney colony.

- Pastoralists, the major landowners, built their wealth using unpaid convict labor.

- Their only obligations were to provide basic necessities for their workers. As many
were also magistrates, they could enforce hard labor.

- About 40% of convicts were punished with the lash during their penal labor.

- Once convicts earned their “ticket of leave” and became “emancipists,” they established
successful businesses and professions, contributing to the colony’s growth.

However, once the convicts gained their "ticket of leave" and became "free" workers or
"emancipists", these early generations of colonists created the family businesses, in
shops or inns, building works, small factories and farms that spread with the rapid
growth of the colony. Some of the businesses of these emancipist families became
immensely successful. Emancipists also became lawyers, architects, editors, successful
business people, and even government administrators.

- By the 1820s, a third of the colony’s richest men were emancipists.

*The rise and subsequent decline of economic independence among women in early
19th-century New South Wales.
- By 1821, the population of New South Wales (NSW) had grown to 40,000, with the
majority of women being “free” colonists, and only 17% were convicts.

By 1820 only 17% of women were convicts.

- Women, including widows, were actively involved in running businesses alongside

their husbands or independently.

As publicans, dealers, traders, and shopkeepers. Women ran the new businesses of the
colony with their husbands. Those who had been widowed were operating as
independent publicans, dealers, traders, and shopkeepers able to request in their own
names assigned extra servants and grants of extra land. Mary Reiby has become the most
famous of these successful, and wealthy, ex-convict businesswomen.

- They could request additional servants and land grants in their own names.

- Mary Reiby, a successful ex-convict businesswoman, became particularly well-known.

(Portrait of Reiby, miniature watercolour on ivory, dated around 1835)

- However, this period of female independence in the colonial family economy eventually
declined.

For images that illustrate this content, I can provide descriptions of notable buildings by
Francis Greenaway and the successful businesswoman Mary Reiby, both of whom are
mentioned in the text. Greenaway’s architecture includes St. James’ Church and Hyde
Park Barracks, while Reiby expanded her business interests after her husband’s death,
becoming a prominent figure in the colony. Unfortunately, I cannot display images
directly here, but these descriptions can guide you in finding visual representations of the
text content.