Canadian Rebels
Convict Offenses - Rebellion - tradesmen and farmers - Lower Canada (Quebec) militants - Upper Canada (Ontario) - Transportation - Convicts - 1837 - I838 -
In Canada in 1837 and I838, there were two rebellions against the English Colonial rule and the Anglican Church and their seeming unbreakable power over law and land: one by "Lower Canada" (Quebec) militants, the other in "Upper Canada" (Ontario) by English-speaking Canadians backed by some Americans from south of the border.
Both these rebellions of tradesmen and farmers were put down by the British Army, and about 153 Canadian patziotes were transported to Australia. The exact number seems to be ambiguous.
One record reports that on the 26 February 1840 HMS Buffalo arrived in Port Jackson with 58 French Canadian political exiles for internment near the present day suburb of Concord in Sydney; while another source states that 141 French Canadian rebels, who reached New South Wales in 1840, lived a miserable existence in a camp near Parramatta.
Nonetheless, they also came to know the bounty that the new land might offer:
Three herds of cattle passed by today, about 6 or 7 hundred and several hundred sheep, all castrated males. We had an order this evening to wear only government clothing, or rather our stamped clothes, all week and on Sundays as well. This means that if we go to church we shall be forced to go in stamped clothing to humiliate us all the more.