• Title
  Alexander Pearce - Confession of murder and cannibalism, 1824
• Creator
  Alexander Pearce
• Call number
  A 1326
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1824
• Type of material
  Textual Records
• Reference code
  448868
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  0.04 metres of textual material (1 volume) - manuscript
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Alexander Pearce arrived in Hobart on the Castle Forbes in February 1820, transported for seven years for stealing six pairs of shoes. In June 1822 he was convicted of forging a money order and being illegally at large and ordered to the penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour for the remainder of his original sentence. In September, with six other convicts, he escaped from Macquarie Harbour with the intention of crossing the island to Hobart. When, after 15 days, they had exhausted their provisions, they began eating each other one by one until only Pearce was left. He was captured on the outskirts of Hobart but the authorities refused to believe his tale of cannibalism and returned him to Macquarie Harbour. He was hanged in 1824 after committing a further act of cannibalism during another escape attempt.
• Scope and Content
  Pearce made this confession at Macquarie Harbour following his second escape, probably before the commandant, Lieutenant Cuthbertson, and it was taken down by a clerk.
• Finding Aids
  Transcription available online acms.sl.nsw.gov.au/_transcript/2014/D32666/a1650.html
• General note
  
  For further information, see catalogue record for 'Alexander Pearce - 'Narrative of the escape of eight convicts from Macquarie Harbour in Sep. 1822, and of their murders and cannibalism committed during their wanderings', ca. 1824 (DLMS 3: microfilm copy at CY 2691, frames 1-43).
  
  Microfilm copy of A 1326 available at CY 1132, was made in Oct. 1987.
  Digital order no:Album ID : 823741
• Subject
  Convicts--Tasmania--Personal narratives.
  Escapes--Tasmania.
  
• Place
  Macquarie Harbour (Tas.)
  Tasmania
  
• Exhibited in
  
  On the Run. Daring Convict Escapes - State Library of New South Wales (6 November, 2006 - 9 February, 2007)
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3233415

View Media Files

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Show more