“I made the keys and can escape from the prison with them whenever I like.”
Drunken and incompetent warders were easy prey for the enterprising Henry Singleton. When they gave him access to keys, he saw his chance.
Private Robert Young's headstone reads: “His melancholy fate doth plainly prove/the frail uncertainty of human life”.
Two convicts risked their lives to save Robert from drowning. Were they his friends, or were they hoping for a reward?
“Something of this kind was much needed for the ladies of the settlement.”
Plants and gardens were Commandant William Champ’s lifelong passion. He even preferred them to beer!
“I treated the men as human beings, not as caged beasts.”
David Hoy gave his life to building fine ships, and to saving the men and boys in his care from lives of crime.
"Surgeon’s report; bad. Behaviour; idle and disorderly.”
The fiery young Scottish highway-woman tested the system to its limits but, given trust and respect, she turned her life around.