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    Prison Hulk to Redemption: Part One of a Family History 1788-1900
    Unavailable
    Prison Hulk to Redemption: Part One of a Family History 1788-1900
    Unavailable
    Prison Hulk to Redemption: Part One of a Family History 1788-1900
    Ebook540 pages8 hours

    Prison Hulk to Redemption: Part One of a Family History 1788-1900

    By Gerard Charles Wilson

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A Journey through Colonial History with the Ancestors

    The author’s ancestors in Australia all came from the British Isles. Two came on the First Fleet in 1788 and none came later than the 1830s, or were less than great-great-grandparents. In the direct lines, the author has found nine convicts. He traces the life of each direct-line ancestor against the social and historical background of colonial Australia, giving a very different picture from that usually found in school history books.

    The story is not just for family members. The author embarks on a journey through Australian colonial history while his ancestors gradually emerge in flesh and blood from the bone-dry documents and newspaper reports. It is surprising how much he has found out about them – joys, successes and tragedies. Their lives were anything but dull.

    For example in the Wilson line, convict James Joseph Wilson arrived in Port Jackson on board Prince Regent in 1827. The author traces his redemption from the time he was sent out to Mudgee to shepherd the flocks of Robert Lowe, one of the Colony’s early landholders. He tells how James Joseph, who narrowly escaped the gallows and was surprisingly literate for a man thrice convicted of burglary, teamed up with fellow convict Michael Jones, how they married sisters Jane and Elizabeth Harris, daughters of free settlers from Wiltshire, and travelled out to the Coonamble area to set up their own farms. He explains how the two convicts and the Harris sisters all became his great-great-grandparents.

    In addition to telling an interesting, sometimes gripping family story, the author’s aim is twofold: first, to discover the cultural continuities in which his ancestors acted and how they responded to those continuities in a totally different physical environment; second, to discover to what extent the outlook, culture and character of the author’s ancestors worked to make him and his extended family what they are.

    Prison Hulk to Redemption is the first in a series of four family history books.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGerard Charles Wilson
    Release dateNov 25, 2015
    ISBN9781876262235
    Unavailable
    Prison Hulk to Redemption: Part One of a Family History 1788-1900
    Author

    Gerard Charles Wilson

    After a lifetime working in the book business (mostly educational publishing) I now concentrate on my writing. One of my formative experiences was living in Holland with my Dutch wife for two and a half years. On returning to Australia, I completed a major in Dutch Language and Literature before a master’s degree in philosophy. My studies and immersion in another culture and language, together with my Catholic faith, form the biggest influences on my writing. But shaping those influences are my mother and father. One could not have more principled parents. My master’s thesis was on Edmund Burke whose thought permeates my writing. My preoccupations are social and cultural from a Catholic and (Burkean) conservative perspective. This reflects my acceptance of the Catholic idea of the reciprocal relationship between faith and reason. My favourite fiction authors are Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Evelyn Waugh. Evelyn Waugh’s style and mastery of English have been my biggest influence – not in vain, I hope. My favourite modern non-fiction author is philosopher Roger Scruton. I spend my leisure time reading and occasionally walking along the nearby shores of Port Phillip Bay. I love opera, musicals, and the ballet (The Nutcracker is my favourite.) I enjoy fifties rock ‘n’ roll and forties big band. Mozart is my favourite classical composer, but I am acquiring a liking for Bach. My novels are in the genre of the ‘Catholic novel’. They are in the style of Catholic novelists Evelyn Waugh, Grahame Greene, and Morris West. I deal with similar political, philosophical, and moral issues. The difference from general fiction is the assumed philosophical framework. Most modern fiction assumes a materialist framework while the Catholic novel assumes a natural law framework (See the ‘Catholic Novel’ page on my website.) Finally, there is always a romantic content in my stories. Love relationships are an incisive way of exploring the human person.

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