Marrying the Ropemaker's Daughter: Australian Executions (1788-1824)

One month after the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, Thomas Barrett was sentenced to death by the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction for stealing food from the Government Storehouse and executed at Gallows Hill. Over the next 37 years, another 267 men and women were sentenced to hang for a variety of crimes including murder, forgery, highway robbery and bushranging. Marrying the Ropemaker’s Daughter describes each of these cases from the crimes through to the trials and executions.

The book provides a brief glimpse into the lives (and deaths) of these individuals within the legal, social and political contexts surrounding their hangings. Based on a variety of sources including government documents, court records, newspapers and historical communications such as letters and personal diaries, these stories provide a richly textured tale of troubling events, sometimes incomplete or contradictory, but always fascinating.