Michael Long
| First name | Michael |
|---|---|
| Last name | Long |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Date of Birth | 1817 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1838 |
| Submitted by | Frank Long |
Story
Michael Long, was born on January 24, 1817 in Mells, Somerset, England, the eldest of the eight children of Isaac Michael Long who was transported for theft. His descendants are connected by marriage to those of Garrett Mallon and Peter Bermingham, brother-in-law of Rev. Michael Harrington Ryan. The latter, Mallon and Isaac Long are also commemorated in the Immigration Bridge project.
Michael appeared at the Wells Adjourned Quarter Sessions on two occasions, October 13 and 23, 1837. He was convicted of felony on the latter date and sentenced to be transported beyond the seas for 14 years. His convict numbers were 31/25 and 18/5.
There were two separate charges; the first that he had assisted John Ruddock to sell stolen goods (two large bearing brasses and a single lead pipe, which had subsequently been cut into seven pieces) belonging to the factory of Mr Thomas Fussell of Mells. The other was that he stole lead from the roof of the coach house of Thomas Strangeways Horner of Mells Park. (It was one of the Horner family who gave rise to the nursery rhyme about Little Jack Horner). He had had two convictions in the previous 18 months; one for stealing a goose for which he received a six-month sentence in 1836 and another six months for poaching. He was aged 19 in 1837 and could read but not write.
He was removed from Ilchester goal to the Gannymede hulk at Woolwich on November 23, 1837. The Gannymede had previously been the French ship Hebe that was captured in January 1809. She was changed to a convict ship in 1822, capsized in 1838 and was broken up. He came directly from Sheerness in the ship Coromandel, arriving in Hobart, Tasmania on October 26, 1838; the voyage took 121 days.
His description in the convict records is: farm labourer, five feet 5 1/2 inches (166cm) tall, fresh complexion, black hair, oval face, low forehead, hazel eyes, and small nose, mouth and chin.
His convict record is: May 25, 1838 – insolence, reprimanded; Oct 1, 1839 – disobedience of orders, 36 lashes and reported to the Governor; April 27, 1840 – absent without leave, three months hard labour in chains and reported to the Governor; May, 1840 Ð Campbell Town chain gang, conduct to be reported; February 20, 1841 – drunk, solitary confinement for nine days and then returned to his masters service. At this stage he must have been working away from the goal. Campbell Town is a major crossroads on the north-south and east-west routes in Tasmania.
A conditional pardon was recommended on August 24, 1846. He moved to Victoria and married Elizabeth Lynch, born c.1833 in Hilltown, Co. Down, Ireland, in St. Mary\’s Catholic Church, Geelong on May 5, 1852. There were seven children of the marriage of whom five survived to adult life. Elizabeth Lynch was widowed after 14 years and raised the children by herself.
He worked as a miner at Creswick, near Ballarat. He died of dysentery, from which he had been suffering for six weeks, on April 21, 1866 and is buried in the Catholic Section, Creswick Cemetery, Victoria, Row 12, number 1467. Creswick is a notable town because Sir Alexander Peacock, Norman Lindsay and his brothers and John Curtin were all born there.