Convict Cap
1820s–1840s
A hat was known as a castor or a kelp in the convict 'flash' slang language, and convicts didn't much like the castors the government gave them. This government issue leather convict cap has a brim on either side that could be turned down to protect the wearer from both sun and rain. For shading convict faces from the beating sun, however, they were useless. In winter, convicts preferred woollen caps and for summer they made their own wide brimmed straw hats from cabbage tree palm leaves. Hat theft came with harsh consequences: in 1833 Irishman Robert Reilly received a flogging of 25 lashes at Hyde Park Barracks for stealing a hat from another prisoner; Yorkshireman John Harty received six months in leg irons for the same crime. Despite being impractical and unpopular, the leather caps remained part of the Barracks convict uniform until 1848. It is thought that these caps, which had previously been worn by the military, were supplied to the colony as British army surplus after the Napoleonic Wars.
Are the Caps issued serviceable?
By no means, they are quite useless, & afford no protection to the head from the Sun.
Major George Druitt, 29 October 1819, in Ritchie, Evidence to the Bigge Report, vol 1, 16.
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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
Clock-winding crank
This sturdy crank was used for many years to wind the Hyde Park Barracks clock
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
Convict Sydney
Convict shirt scraps
Deliberately torn into squares and strips, these scraps of convict shirt suggest that some convicts were recycling old clothing for new purposes
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
Convict Sydney
Convict Braces & Belts
Convict ‘slop’ clothing was one-size-fits-all, so some convicts had to improvise ways to keep up their baggy trousers
Convict Sydney
Convict hat sennets & leaf shredder
This shredding tool and ‘sennets’ or fragments of plaited cabbage tree palm leaves (Livistona australis) were found beneath the floors of Hyde Park Barracks, and used by convicts for making hats
Convict Sydney
Convict shirt scrap, ‘B.A.’
This square scrap of striped convict shirt is curiously stamped with the letters ‘B’ and ‘A’
Convict Sydney
What was convict assignment?
‘Assignment’ meant that a convict worked for a private landowner
Convict Sydney
Convict shirt
Known as a smish, kemesa or flesh-bag in the convict 'flash' slang language, this convict uniform shirt has been worn, torn, stained and patched
Convict Sydney
Convict uniform buttons
Archaeologists found over 250 bone buttons, which were once attached to convict shirts, jackets and trousers, and then lost beneath the floors