Alexander Pearce (1790 - 1824)

Biography

Convict

Crime - ^[1]Theft of boots

Convicted at - Armagh

Sentence term - 7 years

Ship - Castle Forbes

Departure date - 3rd October, 1819

Arrival date - 4th March, 1820

Place of arrival - Van Diemen's Land

Passenger manifest - Travelled with 23 other convicts

Alexander Pearce was born in County Monaghan, Ireland a Roman Catholic farm labourer, he was sentenced at Armagh in 1819 to penal transportation to ^[1]Van Diemen's Land for stealing six pairs of shoes, he was sent to Australia on the ship Castle Forbes which only carried male convicts it arrived Van Diemen's Land 4th March 1820.

Alexander Pearce committed various offences in Van Diemen's Land between 18th May and 29th November, in 1821 he received over 150 lashes for different offences, and on 18 May 1822 it was advertised in the Hobart Town Gazette as an absconder, with a £10 reward for his capture,Pearce was caught and he was charged with absconding and forging an order, he received a second sentence of transportation, this time to the new secondary penal colony at ^[3]Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour which had a notorious reputation of being one of the worst penal establishments in the colonies

Cannibalism

On 20th September 1822 eight prisoners escaped from the penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour they were

• Alexander Pierce
• Thomas Bodenham
• James Brown
• Bill Cornelius
• Alexander Dalton
• Bob Greenhill
• John Mathers
• Matthew Travers.

Hobart Town Gazette, 1824

Account of Alexander Pearce

'THE SUPREME COURT Of Van Diemen's Land

MONDAY: Alexander Pearce , a convict, was arraigned for the murder of a fellow-prisoner named Thomas Cox, at or near King's River, in the month of November last, and he pleaded - Not Guilty.

The circumstances which were understood to have accompanied the above crime had long been considered with extreme horror. Report had associated the prisoner with canibals; and recollecting as we did, the vampire legends of modern Greece, we confess, that on this occasion, our eyes glanced in fearfulness at the being who stood before a retributive Judge, laden with the weight of human blood, and believed to have banquetted on human flesh! It was, therefore, with much satisfaction we heard His Majesty's Attorney General, whilst candidly opening his case for the prosecution, entreat the Jury to dismiss from their minds all previous impressions against the prisoner; as, however justly their hearts must execrate the fell enormities imputed to him, they should dutiously judge him, not by rumours - but by indubitable evidence. The Learned Gentleman then proceeded to detail, certain confessions made by the prisoner, before the late much-lamented Lieutenant Cuthbertson, (Commandant at Macquarie Harbour), and at his examination by the Rev Robert Knopwood - confessions which, although in some respects inconsistent, would yet, when coupled with all the facts, merit the most serious attention.

From them it appeared, that as other evidence would prove the prisoner and the deceased, on the 13th November, absconded from their duty into the woods, each of them taking his axe, and the prisoner being heavily ironed; that they for several days wandered on without provisions and reduced by weakness, until, on the following Sunday evening, the deceased and prisoner arrived at King's River; a quarrel then arose because the deceased could not swim, and after prisoner had struck him on the head three times with his axe, the deceased seeing him about to go away (his irons having been knocked off), said, in a faint voice, "for mercy's sake come back, and put me out of my misery!" Prisoner struck him a fourth blow which immediately caused death; he then cut a piece off one thigh, ^[4]which he roasted and ate; and, after putting another piece in his pocket, he swam across the river, with an intent to reach Port Dalrymple. Soon afterwards, however, he became so overwhelmed with the agonies of remorse, that he was constrained to re-cross the river, and, on seeing a schooner under weigh from the Settlement, he made a signal-fire, which on being seen, induced the pilot boat to put off and take him on board. He was then conveyed t the harbour, where he publicly owned the murder, and said "he was willing to die for it." The Attorney-General concluded a thrilling tale of almost incredible barbarity, by calling Thomas Smith, who swore, that in November last he was coxswain to the Commandant at Macquarie Harbour; he know the prisoner and the deceased; they absconded from Logan's gang on the 13th; on the 22d, Pearce made his signal-fire on the beach, near King's River, and was taken back to the Settlement; he said "Cox had died, and he had cut off a bit of his flash to show what had become of him." Witness on the following day was ordered by the Commandant to go with prisoner, and get Cox's body; he went, and it was found.

The head was away, the hands cuts off, the bowels were torn out, and the greater part of the breech (?) and thighs gone, as were the calf of the legs, and the fleshy parts of the arms. Witness said to the prisoner "how could you do such a deed as this?" he answered "no person can tell what he will do when driven by hunger." Witness then said "where is the head?" the answer was, "I left it with the body." Witness searched for and found it a few yards off, under the shade of a fallen tree; witness then picked up what appeared to be the liver of the deceased, and an axe stained with blood, on which prisoner was asked "if that was the axe with which he had killed Cox,: and he answered, "it was." The fragments of the body were quite naked, near them were some pieces of shirt and the cover of a hat. There had been a fire near the body and not far from it lay a knife, which witness picked up. The body was then placed in two rugs, and witness, with the prisoner, returned to the Settlement. Prisoner on being asked "where Cox's hands were," said "he had left them on a tree where the boat landed;" a search was then made for them but they could not be found. Prisoner said, "he had cut of Cox's flesh to support him on his intended journey to Port Dalrymple, but when he had crossed the river, something came over him, and forced him to return; he threw the flesh into the river, made a sign, and gave himself up."

---

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Convict records - Alexander Pearce
2. ↑ Wellington Times and Agricultural and Mining Gazette - Early Tasmainan Bushranger-28th January, 1891
3. ↑ Sydney Sportsman - COLONIAL HISTORY BUSHRANGING IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND .MACQUARIE HARBOR: PEARCE THE CANNIBAL. - 2nd July, 1902
4. ↑ Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal - Alexander Pearce the Tasmanian Cannibal - Wednesday 28th January, 1857

• "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:3V6H-CDH : accessed 24 April 2019), entry for Alexander Pearce; "Whitehead - Ellis Family Tree" file (2:2:2:MM6X-KB4), submitted 2 September 2018 by MatthewWhitehead1
• Alexander Pearce Wikipedia
• State Library of N.S.W
• Castle Forbes Convict Ship
• Members.org - Irish Convicts to New South Wales 1788-1849
• Sketch of Alexander Pearce after death Trove National Library of Australia out of copyright
• Trove Digitised Newspapers Wellington Times and Agricultural and Mining Gazette Wednesday 28 January 1891
• A Pictorial History of Bushrangers, 1966 Landsdowne Press, Melbourne. Paul Hamlyn revised edition 1970. H. Nunn, Bill Wannan and Tom Prior.
• Irish Central - A Real Life Horror Story of the Irish Cannibal who Terrorized Australia