Absolute Pardon

John Onion, 1830

It must have been a proud moment for John Onion, when he received this Absolute Pardon document in 1835. An iron smelter by trade, Onion was one of a group of convicts transported for the Pentrich rebellion in Derbyshire in 1817, in which a group of industrial workers in England’s midlands staged a mass protest against unemployment and pay cuts due in part to the introduction of machine technology. Some were hanged, but 49 year old Onion was sentenced to transportation for life, and arrived in Sydney in 1818, just as Hyde Park Barracks was being built.

An Absolute Pardon could be granted at any time to a convict on a life sentence. It declared a convict’s sentence finished and restored their legal rights to those of a free citizen. Unlike the Conditional Pardon, which restricted the convict to stay in the colony, the Absolute Pardon allowed the convict to return to their homeland.

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Convicts index 1791-1873

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Convict Sydney, Level 1, Hyde Park Barracks Museum
Convict Sydney

Objects

These convict-era objects and archaeological artefacts found at Hyde Park Barracks and The Mint (Rum Hospital) are among the rarest and most personal artefacts to have survived from Australia’s early convict period

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Convict Sydney

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Paper handwritten document with signature and stamp.
Convict Sydney

Free Pardon

Drawn up at Government House, Sydney, on 30 December 1846, and signed and sealed by Governor Charles Fitzroy, this document granted a free pardon to convict Joseph Taylor

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Convict Sydney

Clock-winding crank

This sturdy crank was used for many years to wind the Hyde Park Barracks clock

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Convict Sydney

Hack barrow

Convict brickmakers working at the Brickfields (now Haymarket) used hack barrows like this one, stacking 20 or 30 wet bricks on the timber palings along the top, for transporting them from the moulding table to the ‘hack’ yard for drying

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Convict Sydney

Cupping glasses & scarificator

These cupping glasses are of the type that was used in the treatment of convict patients at the General ‘Rum’ Hospital

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Convict Sydney

Certificate of Freedom

Certificates of Freedom had to be carried at all times and shown to the appropriate authorities on demand

Taylor panorama (left detail)
Convict Sydney

What was convict assignment?

‘Assignment’ meant that a convict worked for a private landowner

Composite image of a cauldron. One view from the front the other above.
Convict Sydney

Cooking cauldron

The watery stew eaten by convicts at Hyde Park Barracks was boiled in giant communal cast iron pots

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Convict Sydney

Absolute Pardon

Convict constable Michael Gorman earned this Absolute Pardon in 1830/1832, for his service in the capture of the notorious bushranger John Donohoe

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Convict Sydney

Jacks of all trades

Convicts did every type of task, from skilled trades to labouring.