Attst. paediat. J . (1975) 11:9-19

Childhood mortality and its social background in the first settlement at Sydney Cove, 1788-1792 BRYAN GANDEVlA’and SIMON GANDEVIA2 from the Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay N.S. W.

“Of the convicts and others, from the departure of the squadron from Portsmouth, to the time the ship which brings this advice left Jackson’s Bay [Port Jackson, Sydney] only forty appear to have died, and to compensate for this loss, Forty-two infants were born. Here let the young sinner pause, before he quits the plain honest path of righteousness, tho’ he may be regardless of his future destiny; we hope there is none so abandoned, to wish an intailment of misery and infamy on their helpless offspring.” Aufhentick narrative of the expedition to Botany by an Officer, just returned in the Bay Borrowdale - (1 789).

...

Death, or its oppressive influence, was never remote from the infant settlement at Sydney Cove between 1788 and 1792. Although vital to the colony’s development, and relevant to any historical appreciation, mortality over these critical years has not previously been studied in detail. The particular interest of the first settlement at Sydney to medical historians lies in the opportunity which it provides to study a European community in remarkable isolation, under conditions of unusual mental and physical stress. The colony was thrust largely upon its own resources in a wholly strange physical and social environment whose chief redeeming feature was the absence of exotic disease. Childhood mortality is examined in this study as if it were in part the resultant of these interacting forces. ~~

Received 14 August, 1974. 1. Associate Professor of Thoracic Medicine, University of New South Wales. 2. Medical S t u d e n t . University of New South Wales.

Procedure A chronological card index has been prepared (S.G.) for all deaths in the colony from January 1788 t o December 1792 inclusive, the information being derived from Dr. John Cobley’s books 1,2939 covering this period; childhood deaths are indicated in the original registers, which he has transcribed, by the words ‘child’ or ‘infant’. For each child, search was then made for records of birth and/or baptism; the latter usually also indicated the parents and their marital and social (convict, military, civil) status. Age was calculated from date of baptism when the birth date was not available. The likely error in this procedure has been examined by comparing birth and baptism dates in caws where both are recorded. Nearly one-third of children living in 1792 were christened within 3 weeks of birth. In only one-seventh was the delay greater than 2 months, and only errors of this order occurring with greater frequency would materially influence the analysis t o be presented. Of the 6 deceased children whose birth and baptism dates are both known, all but one were christened within a fortnight of birth. No significant error arises from regarding date of burial as equivalent to date of death. No indication of the upper age limit for a ‘child’ can be derived from the available records except that it was at least above 10 years. Probably the criterion was the ability t o do a day’s work; a few of the convicts in the First Fleet were aged 1 2 and 1 6 years. The significance of the term ‘infant’, first used in 1792, is considered below. Only one or two childhood deaths are known t o us in which there is no record of burial. Most of the recorded births occur subsequently in the register of baptism; some of the omissions were

10

AUSTRALIAN PAEDIATRIC JOURNAL

the illegitate children of military or civil officers or of unknown fathers. Errors due to the lack of any record of birth or death are therefore minimal; the Reverend Mr. Johnson, it appears, performed his duties at the extremes of life with customary zeal. One half-caste child is omitted for lack of data4. Estimation of the childhood population at any point of time proved difficult, and complete accuracy is impossible to achieve. The figures for childhood arrivals by various ships are taken from fie Foundation of Australia, by Eris O’Brien5. Governor Phillip’s two estimates of 59 and 8 7 births to February 17906 in fact straddle the Correct figure according to our analysis. Adding the excess of births over deaths to arrivals gives population estimates which exceed those given in contemporary accounts of the settlement at Port Jackson after 1790. About 40 children are recorded as transferred to Norfolk Island, and the unrecorded transfer of others to Norfolk Island or to England (some left with the marine detachment in 1791) is probably the main reason for the observed discrepancies. Other possible sources of error in the vital statistics do not materially influence our conclusions.

Vital Statistics Table 1 and Figure 1 show the births (or baptisms) and childhood deaths by months for the period 1788 to 1792 inclusive. Except for the notable increase in the birth rate immediately following the arrival of transports carrying females in the last quarter or so of 1791 and in mid-1790, the pattern of births is unremarkable. The number of births up to October 1792 is in close agreement with the number of baptisms recorded t o that date by the Reverend Johnson7. The ‘crude birth rate’, using a figure of twice the estimated female population at mid-year8 as the dominator*, ranged from 7 per 100 in 1788 t o 11 per 100 in 1789 1791 inclusive and back to 9 per 100 in 1792. The vexed question of enhanced female fertility is fully examined elsewhere43 ; in general, the birth rate was not as high as might have been expected. The deaths are concentrated in two major groups, the first between February and June 1788, as the settlement was becoming established, and *The great predominance of males, and the wider fluctuations in the male population, make the conventional denominator unrealistic.

TABLE I Childhood Mortality by Month, 1788 - 1792 1788

1789

Births Deaths

1790

Births Deaths

1791

Births Deaths

Total

1792

Births Deaths

Births Deaths

Births Deaths

2 2 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 1

3 1 4 2 3 4 4 2 3 7 4 3

1 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 2 0

4 1 3 4 3 8 4 4 4 5 6 2

2 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1

2 0 2 1 3 4 8 4 8 10 10 9

0 2 1 0 0 : 0 0 2 1 4 5

8 5 5 1 6 5 5 6 5 7 8 7

2 1 8 3 3 4 1 0 1 2 3 5

18 10 16 9 16 23 23 18 23 31 32 26

9 12

Totals 28

12

40

8

48

8

61

16

68

33

245

77

Total Deaths (allages)

65

Jan. Feb. Mar.

Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.

1 3 2 1 1 2 2 2 3 2 4 5

0

3

22

144

175

47 1

5 8 11 8

4 8 2 1 5

4

877

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AUSTRALIAN PAEDIATRIC JOURNAL

No.

-

01788

1789

1790

1792

I791

Fig. 1. Monthly births and deaths, 1788 - 1792. Arrows indicate ship arrivals : FI, First Fleet; LJ, Lady Juliana; FII, Second Fleet; FIII, Third Fleet; P, Pitt; FIV, Fourth Fleet.

TABLE I1 Child Population ~~

the second between September 1791 and July 1792, following the arrival of the Third Fleet. The mortality was again rising as the summer of 1792 -179’3 approached, but otherwise evidence of a seasonal influence is unimpressive. Adult mortality followed the same epidemic pattern 8, with the striking addition that mortality rose and fell sharply over two months with the arrival of the Second Fleet in the middle of 1790. This experience was not shared by the childhood population. Population estimates for children are shown in Table II. childhood mortality rates may be calculated which vary from about 6-876 in 1790 to 27-35% in 1791 and 1792, depending on the denominator chosen. Using comparably derived figures, and sim ly t o indicate an order of magnitude, mortaity declined from 1788 when it was approximately 25% of the childhood population at risk, through 10-15% in 1789 to the low level of about 7% in 1790 and 1791, rising again to approximately 15% in 1792. In terms of the total population at all ages, this represents an annual child mortality of approximately 4 to 13 per thousand people living. The age distribution of childhood deaths is shown for each year in Table 111. The term ‘infant’ was first introduced in 1792, and probably applied

Calculated Population 1788 Arrivals Excess births over deaths

36

1789 Arrivals Excess births over deaths

0

1790 Arrivals Excess births over deaths 1791 Arrivals Excess births over deaths 1792 Arrivals Excess births over deaths

16

32

Contemporary Estimates*

52

84

c. 85

157

C. 108

21 3

C. 157

253

c. 177

33 40 11 45 5 35

-~

*

~

Contemnorarv estimates are derived from Historical RecordLof Ahstralia, Sec. 1,v. 1: pp. 116, 203, 209, 299,436 7.

-

12

BRYAN GANDEVIA AND SIMON GANDEVIA

chiefly to children less than 2 years of age; it was used in the case of one child 20 months old. These 7 infant deaths may be distributed proportionately amongst the other defined age groups under 2 years with reasonable confidence. In 1792, when Some distinction between ‘infant’ and ‘child’ seems to be implied, the term ‘child’ must include a higher proportion of older children than in earlier years. Thus, the age distribution of deaths in 1792 appears different from that of previous years, in which mortality, apart from 5 ‘children’ in 1788, is largely confined to children aged less than 6 months. The numbers are consistent with the view that the epidemic mortality of 1792, and also of 1788, derived from a cause more widespread in the childhood population, and indeed in the community, than the causes operative at other times.

aged under one year. Because of movements in and out of the colony, similar calculations of age distribution are impractical for subsequent years. A useful view of infant mortality is given by the deaths by age group as a proportion of births for each year. This analysis (Table IV) indicates an improved outlook for the newborn child in the first 2 months of life after 1788, less evident in deaths up to the age of 1 2 months. The expression of deaths in all childhood age groups as a proportion of the births in one year highlights the proportion of deaths in age groups older than one year in 1788 and 1792, the epidemic years. Using a definition of infant as aged 1 2 months or less, the overall infant mortality rate is about 21 per 100 live births. Childhood deaths accounted for 18% of deaths at all ages in 1788 and 36% in 1789. Thereafter the proportion remains between 6% and 9%. These findings reflect chiefly the absence of epidemic disease in the colony in 1789, and the excessive

TABLE Ill Age Distribution of Childhood Deaths

TABLE IV 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 Total

Childhood Mortality in Relation to Births

~

1/52 1 - 4/52 1 - 2/12 2 - 3/12 3 - 6/12 6 - 12/12 1 - 2 yrs 2 - 3 yrs ‘Child’ + ‘Infant’ +

Totals

*

2 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 5 0

0 1 1 2 3 1 0 0 0 0

1

2

3

1 0

-1

1

1 21 1 1 0 1 7 0

3 0 1 3 6 1 8 7

2 2 0 0 1 1 0

8 6 6 7 7 5 7 3 21 77

~~

~

Year

~~

2 months or less

1788

8

8

16

33

17

1 child known to be less than 6/12 has arbitrarily been allotted to this age group.

+ ‘Infant’ and ‘Child’ here refer to deaths in which age is otherwise unknown; see text.

Data on the age distribution of the childhood population are not available for the relevant period. As 15 of the 36 children on the First Flect were baptised on the voyage out, it may be assumed that about 20 children were over the age of one year at the beginning of 1788. At the end of this year, after allowing for deaths, the age distribution might roughly be estimated as 18 over the age of 2 years, 14 aged one to 2 years and 20

28

5

All children

12 43%

77 31%

1790

48

1791

61

4

1792

68

7% 7 10%

20 8%

51 21%

TOTAL

40

245

2 5% 2 4%

~~

12 months or less

6 21% 8 20% 6 13% 12 18% 19 28%

18% 1789

12

~~

Deaths

Births

8 2WO 8 17% 16 26% 33

49%

Deaths in any age group are also shown as percentages of total births for the year. ‘Infant’ and ‘child’ deaths at unknown ages have been allocated to one or other age group o n the basis of reasonable probability (see text.)

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AUSTRALIAN PAEDIATRIC JOURNAL

adult mortality in 1790 and 1792. Taken in conjunction with the data of the preceding two paragraphs, these figures are consistent with an improvement in child care or welfare which would have been more apparent if diseases primarily of adults had not begun to contribute to the deaths of older children in 2792.

Medical Factors in Mortality Of the first period of relatively high mortality early in 1788 it need only be said that both dysentry and scurvy became prevalent in the colony shortly after its foundation8. Governor Phillip, quoting the principal surgeon, John White, noted that the soldiers’ wives were “sickly” after landing9 ; none died, but 2 of their children did. The cause or causes of the year-long epidemic in 1791 - 1792 are not known with certainty, but dysentery and probably other disorders such as typhoid and typhus fevers, were prevalent among adults.8 The rise in adult mortality upon the arrival of the Third Fleet, and the deaths over the following year occurred almost exclusively among the male convicts arriving in that fleet. This localisation of mortality t o the later arrivals probably extends to the children, in that only about 25% of the total childhood deaths in the year-long epidemic had a First Fleet parent, although First Fleet children must have accounted for half the childhood population, and for a higher proportion of the older children. Although precise figures cannot be given, no striking mortality differences were observed between the children of married marines and married convicts, nor between children in Sydney and in the secondary settlement at Parramatta. No morbidity data are available for children over the whole period, as the few available sick returns unfortunately group the women and children together. Indeed, the only hint of medical treatment for a child is Catherine Prior’s statement that she was at the hospital with an infant in her arms on a Sunday afternoon when she was grossly abused by Samuel Barsby; the child died three weeks later1 0. As in the case of adults8, there was no excess of mortality amongst the children during the periods of most severe food shortage, namely from mid-1789 t o mid-1790 and, for the most part, through to the spring of 1791. No evidence from a medically qualified source exists as t o the cause of death of any one of the 77 children who died between 1788 and 1792. One child, age unknown, of a marine sergeant, Thomas

Armsworth, and his wife is stated to have “died of Fever” in March 1788, and the father died 5 weeks later of “fever and flux”l1. A child of marine parents was “unfortunately Drowned” in a saw pit in 1792 at the age of 20 monthsl2, and a convict child aged 2 years drowned in a clay pit which filled with water after heavy rainsl3; these are the only deaths recorded as due to accident or trauma. The Reverend Richard Johnson and his wife had a child which was stillborn, and this death is not included in the tablesl4. One child died among 3 sets of twins born between 1788 and 1792 t o 3 different couples; 2 more died on the voyage back to England in 1792. The children of all 3 mothers dying in childbirth also died; their deaths occurred at the age of 3 days, 7 weeks and 3 months. The mothers, who were convicts, died on the day of birth in one case and within 2 or 3 days in the others; one had been insane for some time. The maternal death rate for the 5-year period may thus be estimated as about 1 2 per 1000 births. In addition, death of a child and its mother within 2 months of one another occurred on 3, perhaps 4, occasions, but there is nothing more than this temporal association to relate the two events. The death of 2, perhaps 3 fathers (including the marine noted above) bore approximately similar time relationships t o the deaths of their children. Except for these instances, for the Baughan family, who lost 4 children in succession (probably all aged less than 3 months), and Thomas Brown and his wife whose 2 infants died, there is no evidence of a familial bias in the childhood mortality; sibling deaths were uncommon. In the case of the Baughans’ 4 deceased siblings, no 2 of the children were alive simultaneously. We have found no evidence of infanticide, although suspicion might arise in relation t o one family. On the available information, a definite medical explanation for the childhood deaths cannot be offed in diagnostic terms, although the contributory role of dysentery may be inferred. This directs attention t o the possible role of social factors.

Social Conditions The first settlement was a complex of social contrasts. There were instances of licentiousness, vulgarity, brutality, theft, immorality, indolence, drunkeness and many other sins, but there is evidence to show the contrary virtue in each instance. The difficulty lies in effecting an

14

BRYAN GANDEVIA A N D SIMON GANDEVIA

objective and uuemotional assessment which gives due proportion to good and evil, and a synthesis which allows an understanding of the settlement society and provides an explanation for its actions and behaviour. A fair generalisation from the whole range of information available would be that while most of the convicts behaved reasonably well, there was a significant section, augmented after the arrival of the Third Fleet, who were constantly in or causing troublel5. There are almost unsuperable obstacles t o any quantitative approach, and the assessment of individual families inevitably becomes less objective as their characters and problems emerge. Nonetheless, on the hypothesis that family instability might contribute disporportionately t o infant mortality, we have attempted both approaches. Table V examines the parentage, in terms of marital and social status, of the 77 children who died, and compares the results with a similar analysis of the parentage of children who survived into 1792 The ‘control’ series was taken from each of the years 1788-1792 in proportion t o the annual number of deaths; within each year the sampling w a s random. Certain intercorrelated phenomena illustrate the difficulties. Overall, less than 5% of all children born were not baptised; it

TABLE V Parental Status of Children Who Died and Who Survived Parental Status

Parentage of Dead Children

Parentage of children Baptised and Surviving*

No record

17

Convict mother; father?

11

2

13

10

2 7 19

11

Convict mother; sailorlmarine Convict mother; officer, civilian Unmarried convicts Married convicts Married other personnel

8

15 23 16

77

77

~~

*

A random sample taken from each year in proportion to annual number of childhood deaths.

has previously been indicated that these contained a disproportionate number of children born to unmarried convicts or to liaisons between convict women and military or civil personnel. By contrast, 42% of the deceased children were not baptised, although this figure includes a few children who had been baptised prior to their arrival in the colony. This finding does not invalidate a comparison between the two series because the fact of death presumably prevented baptism in most cases. A more important consideration is the absence of a baptismal record, for this increases the proportion of children whose parentage is not recorded in detail. In spite of these problems, the comparisons shown in the tables are informative. The two groups of uncertain parentage (no record of either parent, or convict female and unrecorded father) are obviously over-represented in the deceased child series. The finding is in accord with the promiscuity described in the early days of the settlement and it is improbable that many of these children were born of married parents. If the truth were known, the figures in these groups would therefore be re-allocated chiefly amongst the unmarried groups, especially convicts, which are under-represented. If any of the deaths are to be re-allocated to marine or sailor fathers and convict mother, as they probably must be, this group would also appear over-represented in the deceased child series. Acknowledged children by officers and civil staff are rare before 1790; their under-representation in the deceased child series may be because they kept their distance from the female convicts in the earlier period, because paternity was not acknowledged until such events became socially acceptable, or because they provided a stable and healthy environment for the child. Whatever the detailed interpretation may be, the data is in accord with the hypothesis that the children of ‘unstable’ families contributed dis roportionately t o mortality, and that the ch’ dren of married parents, and perhaps also the children of the officer class, contributed less. This conclusion is not be be construed as condemning ille itimacy out of hand as the major cause of ch’ dhood mortality. Many of the liaisons lacking the blessing of the Reverend Mr. Johnson were of a permanent and stable character, affording a home in which children were satisfactorily reared.

s

,B

15

AUSTRALIAN PAEDIATRIC JOURNAL

John Ruglass, the convict with whom she was living. She was charged with stealing a shirt which she said she received in return for sleeping with a marine on Christmas eve, and she also received 25 lashes for abusing a sentinel. Later in the year she was convicted of stealing clothing and provisions, and was fortunate only “to be publicly flogged with fifty lashes, for three successive Thursdays; t o have her Head shaved and to wear a Canvass Cap with the word THIEF on it”. By this time, her child, together with an orphan of convict parentage, had been sent t o Norfolk Island, there to be taught reading, writing and husbandry1 8 . Both children were to be put in the care of a trustworthy person who was t o receive additional ground to cultivate for the children’s benefit. Collins, the Judge-Advocate, hoped that these measures, “in which every friend of humanity seemed to feel an interest”l9, would prove a success. Social considerations probably led to thc transfer of other children, such as those of Elizabeth Bason, whose ‘husband’ had returned t o England, and the 6-year old William Snaleham, whose convict parents had 2 younger children to care for20. Women with children but without male support suffered, as in other societies, under some disadvantages in the colony, although it is apparent from the number who later married that they were still in demand. Interestingly, few convict women married marines, or soldiers, although this might, in some circumstances, have offered them a means of returning eventually to England. With males outnumbering females by almost 4 t o one, a female convict took a pessimistic view when she wrote in November 1788 that “AS for the distresses of the women they are past description,” for they were now deprived of the indulgences offered them b y the seamen on the voyage. As they were “all totally unprovided with clothes, those who have young children are quite wretched. Besides this, though a number of marriages have taken place, several women, who became pregnant on the voyage, and are since left by their partners . . . are not likely even here to form any fresh connections”21. On at least one occasion, the convict women manifestly displayed affection for their children. In June 1790 Captain Tench, sitting in his hut, “musing on our fate, saw several women running tThe term ‘family’ covers the range of liaisons indicated to and fro with distracted looks, congratulating in Table 5. each other, and kissing their infants with the most Copies of these family histories may b e had from the passionate and extravagant marks of fondness”2 2. authors on request.

To examine the question in more detail, we proceeded t o reconstruct histories of ‘ families’t , in which we compared the parental life stories, insofar as they could be established, for 34 deceased children with those for 24 children of similar social status who survived until 1792. It is impractical here to describe in detail the procedure adopted, t o review all 58 family historiest, or to examine the problems of interpretation. In summary, based on arbitrary judgements necessarily unrelated to moral concepts, the hypothesis that adverse social conditions contributed to childhood mortality gains some support. Especially amongst the liaisons between convict women and marines or sailors, or in which the father is unnamed, family instability is more apparent and parental background less favourable t o the successful rearing of children. Nonetheless, many unmarried family units were relatively stable and successful, whilst ‘unsatisfactory’ family histories, doubtless including pregnancies the result of romiscuity and prostitution, are to be found in 0th groups. Collins observes that some of the sailors of the Sirius “were prepared to embrace a mode of life for which the natural restlessness of a sailor’s life was but ill-calculated”, as they sought to become settlers on condition that their women were permitted t o continue to live with theml6. After the escape by sea of a party of convicts led by William Bryant, Collins offers a less romantic view of these liaisons, based on the lack of any betrayal of the plan: “Had the women been bound to them by any ties of affection, fear for their safety or the dislike t o part might have induced some of them to defeat the enterprise; but not having any interest in their flight, or in their remaining here, they were silent on the subject”l7. Whether Bryant took his convict wife with him for reasons of affection or self-interest is thus an open question. Some significance may be attached to the fact that ‘problem families’ were recognised by the settlement administration at an early stage. In February 1789, a girl 4 years old was removed from her mother’s care t o save her from “the inevitable ruin” which would have been her lot. The mother, Ann Fowles, “a woman of abandoned character”, had shortly before been stabbed by

E

16

BRYAN CANDEVIA A N D SIMON G A N D E V l A

A long-awaited ship had at last arrived from England.

Other Environmental Considerations The very nature of the isolated penal settlement and of the population which composed it was scarcely conducive to the establishment and maintenance of stable family units, even though marriage amongst the convicts was offically encouraged from the outset23. In the main, the colony was made up of uneducated and often illiterate men and women from the poor, underprivileged lower class, torn from English cities and towns, chiefly London2 4 , and deposited at the opposite end of the earth in virgin bush. One letter home in April 1790 noted that the many disappointments concerning the arrival of further ships (there had been none from England in over 2 years) had “increased our apprehensions; and some of the most ignorant have no other idea than that they are to be left by the troops and the shipping to perish by themselves25”. The three-tiered society - convicts, marines and officers - with its special social codes, the overwhelming predominance of males, the high death rates at certain periods, the recurring threat of starvation, the ever-present risk of severe and even incapacitating punishment, and the necessary movements of marines and sailors, all contributed to community and personal stresses and strains: an element of universal anxiety was inevitable. To this insecurity of self may be added insecurity of property, for thefts of provisions, clothing and other possessions were frequent, especially after 1790. Antisocial behaviour was particularly noted amongst the Third Fleet arrivals1 5 who suffered the greater share of the mortality of 1791-1792, to which their children also contributed disproportionately. The arguments and feuds, a t times petty, amongst the officers and civil staff, including a duel between two of the surgeons, also bear witness to these internal stresses. By April 1790, even the once enthusiastic surgeon-general, John White, was writing in despair and desperation of this “country and place so forbidding and so hateful as only to merit execration and curses, for it has been a source of expense to the mother country and of evil and misfortune to us . . . In the name of heaven, what has the Ministry been about? Surely they have quite forgotten or neglected us, otherwise they would have sent to see what had become of u s . . .”. He added nobly “whatever may be my fate and that of my

fellow-sufferers, God bless you all in England . .’:26. Under Governor Phillip, to whose courage, optimism, self-denial and humanity the colony owes its survival, morale and discipline were tolerably well maintained in the face of all adversities, else mortality may well have been higherl5. Above all, it was scarcely an environment calculated to produce or encourage an efficient mother. Throughout most of the period under review, starvation cast its awesome shadow over the whole settlement. The official ration, when available, was 7 lb salt beef (or 4 Ib pork), 7 Ib flour, 3 pints pease, and 6 0 2 . butter for adult males; children under 2 years received a quarter, between 2 and 1 0 years a half, and over 10 years two-thirds of this issue27 *. In November 1789, the women’s ration, then two-thirds of the men’s, did not suffer in the general reduction imposed: “many of them either had children who could very well have eaten their own and part of their mother’s ration, or they had children at the breast; and although they did not labour, yet their appetites were never so delicate as to have found the full ration too much, had it been issued to them”2 8. The children’s proportionate rations were also continued unchanged, but Phillip had earlier recognised that some children required a more generous allowance29. At their worst in mid-1790, weekly rations were down t o 2% Ibs of aged salt pork, 2% lbs flour and 1-2 lbs rice, supplemented by what could be derived from disappointin ly unproductive gardens, an irregular catch of ish and restricted holdings of livestock, mostly pigs and poultry. This scale applied to all in the colony exce t children under 18 months who received 1 Ib salt meat30. An anonymous letter writer2 5 observed that “although you may be told of the quantity of salt meat that is allowed us, its quality in boiling does not make it above half as much, besides other inconveniences I cannot now mention, and which I think makes so many of the children very unhealthy”. As with the adults, the unhealthy appearance must have been related to nutritional deficiency. Contrary t o the impression created by most accounts, starvation p e r se caused few deaths because, as has been pointed out, the worst periods of famine were associated with periods of low mortality amongst both adults and

P

OF

*The daily caloric intake of the full ration was about - 3300, reaching a minimum of about 1500 calories daily at the periods of worst shortage. 2900

17

AUSTRALIAN PAEDIATRIC J O U R N A L

childreng. This, of course, does not exclude a nutritional contribution t o mortality from other causes.

No reference has been found to the weaning of infants, although this must have been a significant problem in a hot and unfamiliar climate, with limited dietary resources and a continual shortage of eating and cooking utensils. The accidental loss of livestock “deprived them (the inhabitants) of the present benefit of milk, butter and cheese”31. A very small quantity of oat’s milk, but no cow’s milk, may have been avai able occasionally to the few. The only cereals, other than flour, were rice, usually of inferior quality, maize or Indian corn, whilst fresh meat and fish were luxuries which. were infrequently available. Vegetables were scarce at times and indigenous antiscorbutic plants were neither abundant nor very rich in Vitamin C. To add t o the infant’s risks, the only community sources of water in Sydney, the small Tank Stream, was inevitably polluted by man and animals, and its supply was threatened during droughts such as those of 1790 and 1791. That 60% of deaths in children under the age of 2 years on Norfolk Island at this time were attributed to “teething”32 provides contemporary evidence to indicate the significance of the weaning period.

B

There were at least some mitigating factors. The opinion was generally held, by the surgeons as well as the Governor and his officers, that the climate was most salubrious, alt.hough subject to capricious change and destructive thunderstorms and heavy rains. Captain Tench attributed t o the climate “the great number of births which happened, considering the age and other circumstances, of many of the mothers. Women, who certainly would never have bred in any other climate, here produced as fine children as ever were born”33, 43; The low mortality in an inter-epidemic period in the year or so before June ‘1790, associated with a low morbidity, was justifiably held to support this view. Housing consisted of rude huts or tents, and it must have been advantageous that the climate was propitious and the children could spend most of their time out of doors: there was no risk of rickets. In these circumstances, it is perhaps surprising that, except for 2 drownings, accidental death in childhood is not the subject of comment. There is no record of

a child “lost in the bush”* or suffering from

“sunstroke”, hazards so common amongst settlers of later years. Nonetheless, parental adaptation to bringing up children in the strange environment may well have been responsible for the decline in infant mortality after 1788. The acute specific infectious fevers of childhood were absent from the colony. In March 1791, Collins wrote that “we have no epidemical Diseases amongst us”34. In general, these disorders did not survive the long sea voyage in a closed community with few children, nor, on arrival, could they support themselves in the colony until there was an adequate child population and the requisite proportion of susceptible subjects35. Nonetheless, it is remarkable that no children caught the smallpox which decimated the aboriginal population in 1789, although they visited aboriginals ill of the disease36. These comments do not, of course, apply t o such diseases as dysentery, gastroenteritis, typhus and typhoid fever, all of which may have contributed t o childhood mortality at Sydney. The baby’s earliest infectious hazards were probably the organisms of syphilis and gonorrhoea, diseases which became prevalent at an early stage37, If they were so minded, the women appear to have had time to devote to their children, in that they were not fully occupied in public labour and were not called upon to do heavy work. At first they collected shells as a source of lime and made the wooden pegs used in the roof of the hospital and other shingled buildings. In July 1790 Phillip did not consider the women as part of the productive section of his limited labour force, observing “I do not reckon on the little labour which may be got from the women, tho’ some are employed in the fields, and their numbers will be increased, as the greatest part will always find employment in making their own and the men’s clothing, and in the necessary attention to their children”38. Two years later, he requested that the clothin be sent out ready made, “as we can now have ull employment for all the women as hut keepers, or at labour in the fields”, but he still implies a priority for their domestic role: “The women in general marry, and if their husbands are employed in the fields, their attendance in their

f:

*Collins (op.cit. : 194) mentions that one woman and two children were amongst those who had absconded from the settlement during 1791; doubtless all perished b c t these children d o not appear in the statistical data of this paper.

18

BRYAN GANDEVIA AND SIMON GANDEVIA huts is necessary, a n d most of t h e m have children”3 9. Collateral evidence for t h e favoured treatment of w o m e n is available f r o m Collin’s interesting observation at a b o u t the same t im e t h a t insanity had affected several females “who o n account of their sex w e r e n o t harassed with hard labour, an d who i n general shared largely of s u c h little co m f o r t s as w e r e to b e procured i n t h e settlement”40. T h e master of t h e Royal Admiral mentioned t h at t h e w o m e n had a m o r e comfortable life t h a n t h e men, those w h o “were not f o r t u n at e enough t o b e selected f o r wives (which every officer, settler a n d soldier is e n t it le d to, a n d few are w i t h o u t ) are m a d e hut-keepers”, looking after s o m e 1 6 convict f a r m workers. Occasionally t h ey were e m p l o y e d “to pick grass i n the fields, an d for a very slight offence a r e kept constantly a t work the same as t h e men”41. Although i n a r e m o te a n d r u d i m e n ta r y settlement t h e p r o b l e m of child mortality appears no less complex t h an amidst t h e sophistication of a mo d er n city, t h e environment of Port Jackson, for all i t s harshness a n d unfamiliarity, offered a greater chance of survival t o t h e n e w b o r n than did L o n d o n a t t h e same period42. This survival r a te me a n t t h at t h e p r o p o r t io n of y o u n g children in the settlement rose f r o m 4% to 17% in o n e decade, creating a mistaken impression of Australian fertility43 .

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are greatly i n d e b te d to Dr. J o h n Cobley and Ford f o r invaluable advice a n d criticism, t o Mrs. Alison Holster, B.Sc., Dip. Lib., A.L.A.A., librarian of th e Royal Australasian College of Physicians, a n d Mrs. Sheila Simpson B.Sc., Dip. Lib., A.L.A.A., f o r m u c h patient research, to Dr. Joan Woodhill for guidance o n nutritional aspects, and to Mrs. J. Kearney a n d Mrs. E. Khoo for secretarial assistance. We are also greatful to Dr. F.M. Forster, Associate Professor H.J.H. Colebatch a n d Dr. R.R. Winton f o r th e i r c omm en t s o n t h e typescript. T h e Trustees of t h e Mitchell Library, S y d n e y , have kindly permitted US to m ak e use of material in their care. This w o r k was completed d u r i n g t h e tenure of a grant f r o m t he Australian Research G r a n t s Committee, (B.G.).

Sir Edward

NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. COBLEY, J.

Sydney Cove 1788. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1962. 2. COBLEY. 1. Svdnev Cove 1789. - 1790. Anms and Robertson..Svdnev. 1963. 3. COBLEY, J . Sydney ?me, 1791 - 1792. Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1965. 4. COLLINS, D. A n Account of the English Colony in New South Wales. London. 2 vols.. 1798 1802 : 97 (references below are to v. 1 unless otherwise stated). 5. O’BRIEN, E. The Foundations of Australia 1786 1800. London, Sheed and Ward, 1937 (Appendices B and C). 6. Historical Records of Australia, Ser. 1, Govt. Printer, Sydney, 1914 (HRA), v. 1: 144 and 147. 7. JOHNSON, R. A n address to the inhabitants of the colonies established in New South Wales and Norfolk Island. Printed for The Author, London, 1794. p. vi. 8. GANDEVIA, B., and COBLEY, J. “Adult mortality at Sydney Cove, 1785 - 1792”, Aust. N.Z. J. Med., 1974. 4 : 111-125. 9. HRA,v. 1 : 44. 10. COBLEY, op. cit (1) : 86 and 104. 11. COBLEY, OD. cit. (1) : 8 4 and 132. 12. EASTY, J. Memorandum of the Transactions of a voyage from England to Botany Bay, 1787 1793. Public Library of New South Wales, with Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1965 : 140. 13. COLLINS, op. cit. : 97. 14. COBLEY, op. cit. (2) : 169. 15. A detailed examination of the medico-social aspects of the first settlement is given in GANDEVIA, B. “The influence of socio-medical problems on the development of the First Settlement at Sydney 1 .. Rov. Aust. Hist. SOC.. Cove. 1788 - 1803., _ 19755 in the press. 16. COLLINS, op. cit. : 154. 17. COLLINS, op. cit. : 156 - 7. Collins was sceptical regardingthe motivation of convicts in marrying as early as 1788; ibidt: 18. 18. GANDEVIA, B. “The care of destitute children in Australia” (correspondence), Med. J. Australia, 1973, 2 : 46. 19. COLLINS, op. cit. : 55 - 56. 20. Norfolk Island Victualling Book, Mitchell Library, Sydney, A 1958. 21. Quoted by COBLEY, op. cit. (1) : 249. 22. TENCH, W. A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson, in New South Wales. London, 1973 : 46. See also, COBLEY, op. cit. (2) : 166 (“tears that are often shed upon infants at the breast”). 23. Some repented in haste and applied to be single again, COLLINS, op. cit. : 18. 24. For descriptions of the convict population and a statistical appraisal, see COBLEY, J., The Convicts, 1788 - 1792 : A Random Sample, Wentworth Press, Sydney, 1965; ROBSON, L.L., The Convict Settlers of Australia, Melb. Univ. Press, Melbourne, 1965. See also, COBLEY, J., The Crimes of the First Fleet Convicts, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1970. 25. COBLEY, op. cit., (2) : 166. ~

19 26 Historical Records of New South Wales, Government Prmter, Sydney, 1895, v. 1, pt. 2 : 332. 27. HRA,v. 1 : 44. 28. COLLINS, op. cit. : 84. 29. HRA, v. 1 : 86; see also COLLINS, op. cit. : 207 aod 211. 30. COLLINS, op. cit. : 105. For the children’s ration in 1792, ibid. : 224. 31. Authentick Narrative of the Expedition t o Botany Bay, by an Officer just returned in the Borrowdale. 1789. Mitchell Library, 991 A. 32. Historical Records of New South Wales, Government Printer, Sydney, 1895, v. 3 : 161. Contemporary British paediatric texts suggest a period of change (one is tempted to say flux) in weaning habits; no hint survives of the method or timing in this country. 33. TENCH, op. cit. : 170. 34. COLLINS, D., in a letter to his father, 23 March 1791, quoted by COBLEY, op. cit. (3) : 38. 35. For a summary and references in support of this observation see GANDEVIA, B., “The medico-historical significance of young and developing countries, illustrated b y Australian experience”; in Modern Methods i n t h e History of Medicine, ed. E. Clarke, Athlone Press, London, 1971 : 89 e t seq.

AUSTRALIAN PAEDIATRIC JOURNAL COLLINS, op. a t . : 597. COLLINS, op. cit. : 26, 596 - 597. HRA, v. I : 194. HRA, v. 1 : 357 358. COLLINS, op. cit. : 204. THOMPSON, G. Slavery and Famine, London, Ridgway, 1794 : 8. 42. STILL, G.F., The History of PaFdiatrics, Dawsons, London, 1965, quotes figures indicating that deaths under two years were altnost half the annual number of births : pp. 455 and 379. Morwenna and John Rendle-Short, The Father of Child C h e : Lije of WiZliam Cudogan ( 1 711 1797) J o h n Wright, Bristol, 1966, accept a round figure of 50% for infant mortality in the eighteenth century : 39 and 28. A similarly high mortality wlii recorded in Glasgow even in the mid-nineteenth century (T. Ferguson, Scottish Social WeZfare, Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1958 : 530). 43. GANDEVIA, B., and FORSTER, F.M. “Fertility and fecundity in early New South Wales : An Evaluation of Australian and Californi,,,l Experience”, Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med., 1974, 50 : 1081-96.

36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41,

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Correspondence to: Dr. Bryan Gandevia, University of New South Wales Department of Medicine, Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay, N.S.W. 2036. Australia.

Childhood mortality and its social background in the first settlement at sydney cove, 1788-1792.

Attst. paediat. J . (1975) 11:9-19 Childhood mortality and its social background in the first settlement at Sydney Cove, 1788-1792 BRYAN GANDEVlA’and...
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