Chapter 1 – The Prisoner – My great grandfather, Joseph Dangerfield 1

Joseph Dangerfield 1, my great, great grandfather, and his friend Edward Cooper arrived at Port Adelaide as a members of the crew of the ship “Santipore.” They were contracted also for the return voyage to England but chose rather to “skip ship” at Port Adelaide and to become “runaway seamen,” hoping to make a new life for themselves in Australia.

They laid low in the pubs in Adelaide for a while, but after an altercation with the police in the Clarendon Hotel in Hindley street, the two friends were imprisoned for 14 days in the Adelaide Jail, being charged with disorderly behaviour.

I am going to go back in time to the year 1849 and visit my great great grandfather in prison and ask him the questions I have always wanted to have answered in my time in the year 2012!

In writing the story of my family, my start point was with Joseph Dangerifeld 1, my great, great grandfather. He was the runaway seaman who stepped onto Australian shores in 1848 only to spend his first weeks in the colony imprisoned in the old Adelaide Goal, not really an auspicious start to our family’s history. There were other names that appeared in my family’s genealogy that soon became important to me. There was Henry Thoday and his wife Maria Thoday (Cooke),  my great-great grandparents, on my mother’s side of our family. They came from Cambridge, England, leaving Plymouth on the ship ‘Reliance’ on 16th June1851 and arriving at Port Adelaide on 14th Sept 1851. Their daughter Margaret Thoday married Joseph Dangerfield Jnr and thus became my great-grandmother. She was born 11th Feb 1856 (baptized in 1903 at Broken Hill). Margaret’s sister Sarah Thoday married Shadrach Cooper, born at Modbury SA in 1857 and their daughter Esther Maude (Lottie) Cooper, born 1877 (baptized 1907 at Kadina) married my great-uncle William Charles Dangerfield, born 5th Nov 1877. William Charles Dangerfield was brother to my grandmother Alice Maud (Maud) Williams (Dangerfield).

A few years ago I went on a conducted tour of the old Adelaide Jail so when I needed to imagine a visit to meet my great-great-grandfather, Joseph Dangerfied 1 in prison, I already knew what the prison looked like so it wasn’t too hard to imagine it for the purposes of my story. What I wanted to clarify was how and why Joseph and his friend Edward Cooper had ended up in prison so shortly after they had skipped ship at Port Adelaide.

The Prisoner

“May I help you ma’am?”

“Yes, you may,” I replied. “I am waiting for Mr Joseph Dangerfield, I believe he is in this section of the prison.”

“Yes, he is ma’am, he’s coming now ma’am, if you would like to wait in here.”

I sat at the table the guard had indicated and waited. The room I was in was a small gray, tired-looking room which was set aside for prisoners to meet with their visitors. The only visitor a prisoner is permitted to have whilst in prison is a close family member and although I was a family member, I knew Joseph Dangerfield would not know that. He could have refused to see me, but curiosity must have made him accept his visitor as a relative.

Today is the 6th April 1848 and Joseph Dangerfield and his friend Edward Cooper will have been in prison for 12 days now, with only two more days to go of their sentence. I straightened the full skirts of my dress and adjusted the heavy underskirt. My outfit, though fashionable, felt uncomfortable to me, used as I was to a much different kind of clothing; clothing from a very different era and a much less formal one. The large key I had seen in the door when I entered the room turned in its lock and a tall, solidly built man walked through, looking at me with curiosity and no recognition whatsoever. He sat down at the opposite side of the table and clasped his broad strong hands on the table in front of him and waited in silence for me to speak. So this was Joseph Dangerfield! His reddish, sandy hair and pale slightly freckled English skin reminded me of other Dangerfield’s I have known in my own time.

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“Good morning, Sir,” I said, and bobbed in an abbreviated curtsy. “Thank you for seeing me. May I ask if you are Joseph Dangerfield, or might your name rather be James Stewart?” I asked,

“And you are…Madam…?”Joseph asked

“My name is Fay O’Connor,” I said, and curtsied again. Joseph continued to look at me questioningly, but then with a sigh waved to me to sit in the chair on the opposite side of the table.  I sat down gratefully.

“Sir, I am wondering, Sir…Your name is Joseph Dangerfield?” I repeated my question.

“Madam, if  I am or am not, said Joseph Dangerfield or James Stewart, what is that to you?”

“Well Sir, if your name is Joseph Dangerfield then I wish to advise you that I am your great-great granddaughter. If on the the other hand, your name is in fact James Stewart, then you are indeed no relation of mine at all.”

Joseph stared at me in amazement. He shook his head and his facial expressions showed first a touch of scorn and then a smile of understanding came to his face.

“Would today, perchance, be April fool’s day?” he said, raising one eyebrow quizzically.

“No, Sir, it is not and my question is intended quite seriously and sincerely,” I answered.

Joseph stared at me for a long moment and then he sighed and settled back into his chair.

“I shall humor you then, since you are here and I have nothing better to do with my time.. Yes, I am Joseph Dangerfield; James Stewart is just an alias I took for certain personal reasons”

“However, Madam, what  is even more evident to me, if not to you, is that I am a little too young to be anyone’s great-great grandfather, being aged in this year of our Lord, 1848, only 25 years old.”

“Yes, Sir. Since you were born in 1823, then indeed you are but 25 years of age; yet you are my great-great grandfather – or will be when I am born in 1939.”

Joseph leaned forward with his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands and  looked at me as though I were insane. I sat there and said nothing. He hesitated for a moment or two, and signed again, clearly deciding at least to hear me out.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Perhaps you would like to explain, Madam, because your words so far I find completely unintelligible.”

“Thank you, Sir, this is the story that I have to tell you.

“I was born in the year 1939 in this very town, in Adelaide, in South Australia. I live in another time, another era to you, in the  year 2012, to be exact.”

I paused to see how he was receiving what I was saying. He said nothing so I continued.

“I became curious about my ancestral history. I used to listen to my mother’s stories about my Dangerfield forebears and the clans into which they married. My mother told me about the Dangerfields, Coopers, Thodays and Laubes and I wanted to learn more about them.”

“Dangerfield’s, Cooper’s, Thoday’s, Laube’s? Only two of those names are familiar to me, my own and Cooper, but I am not related to the Coopers ! I am at a loss to know where this conversation is going, Miss O’Connor? I am also beginning to question your sanity.”

“It will come clear, Sir, if you will but hear me out.” I pleaded. Joseph nodded for me to continue.

“As I was saying, Sir, I wanted to know more about my forebears and so I came up with an idea of how to achieve this.

“And that was…?”

“My idea was to mentally project myself back in time from 2012 to your time of 1848. If I could do this then I would be able to talk to you at first hand just as I am doing right now.”

“Apart from the impossibility of what you are saying, why is it that you want to talk to me? What is it you want to know?”

“Well you are the person at the apex of the Dangerfield family tree, at least as far back as I have been able to trace it. In our day in 2012 we call you Joseph 1.”

“And is there a Joseph 2?” Joseph asked

“Yes, there is or will be?”

Joseph shook his head in disbelief. “What you are telling me is quite impossible, you know.”

“It is. At least it is impossible in reality, but nothing is impossible in one’s imagination.”

“But young lady, your presence here can not be my imagination or yours. You are sitting here right in front of me.”

He reached out and touched my hand.

“And I have touched you and you feel real enough to me, so you can’t just be a figment of my imagination or I of yours?”

“I am not a figment of your imagination, Joseph, but you are of mine.”

It was too hard for Joseph. He continued to shake his head from side to side. He sighed and looked at me for what seemed a long time.

“Do you think you might be just a little… insane?” he questioned.

“Well, maybe I am, but… well… that’s how it is.”

“Well then I have a question for you,” Joseph said.

“Certainly, what is it?”

“If you were born in 1939 as you say, preposterous though it might sound to me, then in “your time” of 2012 you would be 72 years of age, wouldn’t you? Yet you are obviously no more than 18 years of age, here, now, sitting in front of me. So how do you explain that?”

I laughed. “That’s pretty simple, Sir,  I was too vain to be found wandering around in 1848 as an older woman, I wanted to meet you as a young woman. So I projected myself that way. I can do that, you see, because it’s my imagination and I can do what I like in it. The dress I am wearing, for instance, I got the design and the era off of the internet…oh, you wouldn’t even know what that is, so let’s leave that.”

“You are definitely a very strange and may I say, deluded, young lady! But be that as it may, I’ve got the time, so ask me what you will.”

“Sir, I have a newspaper article here from The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW) dated Friday 25th Aug 1848 which reads as follows:

“Police Court, Wednesday 21st March 1848.

“Frederick Batten and James Stewart alias Edward Cooper, alias Joseph Dangerfield, seamen, belonging to the ‘Santipore,’ were charged with being drunk in Hindley street and Stewart with making use of obscene language, and inciting Batten to resist the police. Police Constable Nolan stated that he was called into the ‘Clarendon Hotel’ on the previous day and found Batten drunk on the floor and on their carrying him away Stewart threatened to ‘paint’ the police, and called them by approbious names. Batten was sued 5s and Stewart 10s. The prisoners were afterwards charged with being runaway seamen from the ‘Santipore.’ Batten pleaded guilty, but Stewart denied the charges. On the production of the warrant he withdrew his plea and they were each sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment with hard labor.”

“Can you tell me about this Joseph?”

“There’s not much to tell. My friend Edward Cooper signed on as crew on the ‘Santipore’ and I decided to join him, just for the adventure of it. The ‘Santipore’ was taking emigrants to Australia.”

“Were you already sailors. Had you been trained?”

“We had both sailed with the Royal Navy.”

“Were you in the Navy for long?”

“Long enough! About two years. Our time in the Navy was hard but when we left, we found the onshore working conditions even worse. There was little work available for unskilled laborers except factory work and the conditions in the factories were awful. The factory owners were criminally negligent. If you had an accident in a factory there was no help for you. There was a lot of industrial unrest at the time and in 1848 a lot of talk of establishing unions to fight for the worker.”

“Was that why you decided to come to Australia?”

“Partly. There were rumors circulating around the docks and the factories of the wealth that could be made in the colonies. People were desperate and so poor and disadvantaged that they were prepared to take all sorts of chances in places like America, Canada and Australia. The deciding factor for Edward was that his Uncle and family had decided to emigrate under the Wakefield Scheme. They were to sail on the ‘Santipore.’ Edward and I decided to sign up as ship’s crew.”

“Aren’t William and Judith Cooper coming to Australia now in 1849 on the ‘Marmion’ and not on the ‘Santipore.’

Joseph looked at me in surprise. “How did you know that?”

“Because while 1849 is in your future, it is in my past.”

“How can that possibly be?” Joseph said, bewildered.

“As I said before, it simply is. Continue on, Sir, if you please.”

“Well, our plans went a little awry. We had already signed on the ‘Santipore’ when the Coopers found out that they didn’t qualify for assisted passage. The fare now would cost them 28 pounds which is equivalent to a year’s wages. By the time they can save the fare only the “Marmion” will be available to them.

In the end, Edward and I continued with our original plans and came out on the ‘Santipore.’ Unfortunately we had to sign up for both the voyage to Australia and also the return voyage back to England. When we arrived at Port Adelaide we decided to skip ship because we did not want to return on the ‘Santipore’ to England.”

“What were your plans for living in Australia?

“We intended to establish ourselves in Australia so we could act as a buffer for the Coopers when they arrive in 1849. Does that answer all your questions?”

“Most of them, but what was the voyage like?”

“Our voyage from England on the ‘Santipore’ was terrible. Three adults and two babies died on the way out and there was so much sickness. Most of the passengers left the ship in Sydney; a few left in Melbourne. Then the ‘Santipore’ was chartered by the Australian Government to sail on to Port Adelaide. When we arrived at the docks in Port Adelaide we waited until nightfall and then lowered ourselves down the side of the ship and swam to the dock.”

“Why didn’t you walk down the gangplank?”

“They keep it guarded to stop such as us from doing what we did?” Joseph laughed.

“If we had walked down the gangplank we would have been caught and spent our time in the ship’s hold until the return voyage to England. After we swam to shore we laid low until after the ‘Santipore’ embarked on its return voyage to England.”

“That is quite a story. Joseph, I have a question.’

“Yes, what would you like to know?”

“Where does your family live in England?”

“My family lives in Devonshire.”

“Have they always lived in England?”

“No, our family name was originally ‘Dungerveldt’ and we came from Denmark. At some stage they left Denmark and moved to Germany, then to France. In France they became quite wealthy and were considered to be members of the French aristocracy/ When their lives became endangered because of the Revolution of 1789 our family escaped to England. My great-grandfather, Thomas Dangerfield and his wife Martha had lived in France in the early 1700s, but it was their son, and my grandfather, Samuel Dangerfield (born 1752) and married to Catherine Cotton (born 1754-1819) who were the ones who fled to England. My father, John Samuel H Dangerfield (1781-1846) was the first Dangerfield to be born in England. He married Eleanor (Ellena) Dangerfield (Robertson) (born 1787-1843).

“Goodness, good Sir, I did not know that you could go that far back in your family history. In my day we call you Joseph Dangerfield 1 because you were the first Dangerfield that we had any record of.and you were born in 1823.”

“Well my past and my family stories are naturally a little closer to me than they are to you. In fact I can go even farther back than my father John Samuel H Dangerfield. Before him was his father, Samuel (1752) and Catherine Dangerfield (Cotton) (1754 – 1819), and even further back to his parents, Thomas and Martha Dangerfield, but I don’t know when they were born or died.

There is another matter that logically arises from this, Madam. If you actually do live in the year 2012, then you would also know the day of my death. Perhaps you might tell me when that might be?”

I paused and thought for a moment.

“Sir, that would be most unwise of me to convey to you such a matter, would you not agree? To know the day of one’s death must surely blight one’s present. You will best wait until that day comes of itself, kind Sir.”

To prevent any further questions on that morbid event, I asked,

“Sir, now that you are in Australia, does it concern you that you may never see your family again?”

“It does, Madam, it does. I envy Edward because at least he has his relatives, William and Judith Cooper and their family coming out to join him here in Australia, but for me? It would be a long time before I could save the fare back to England and it is certain that none of my family will visit me here.”

“Would you ever want to go back to England?”

“Ahh, well, I doubt that…there is nothing for me in the old country. I am the youngest son in our family and the family property and inheritance went to my elder brother, so what’s to go back to?”

I nodded, “I thought that might be so. And also, good Sir, how did you contrive to be in this prison?”

Joseph laughed.

“It was our own stupidity that got us here!”

“Indeed?”

“As I said before, we hid until the Santipore sailed for England. To leave one’s ship during a voyage is severely frowned upon in this country and in England and so it seemed our wisdom to use other names unknown to the authorities in either place. We chose aliases that took our fancy. We were searched for quite diligently but we hid in the shadows of the local ale houses until they gave up and the ship Santipore voyaged without us. Edward took the name Frederick Batten and I became James Stewart. We took work around the docks using these aliases. Some time passed and all would have been well, had we not gone to town to celebrate one night. We had earned quite a goodly sum of money and wanted to let of a bit of steam and have some fun.. We went to the Clarendon Hotel in Hindley Street, and, well, you know the rest, the newspaper article says it all.  We were drunk, we were abusive, and the staid Adelaide Police didn’t like it.”

“I’m sure they didn’t!” I laughed, “the police lack a sense of fun, even in my day.!”.

“We spent our first night in jail as Frederick Batten and James Stewart, but then they discovered our felony, that we were runaway seamen and then we were really in trouble! We’ve spent 12 days in jail already and with hard labor I might add, but we only have a couple of days to go in here. We’re hoping they will let us stay in Adelaide and not ship us back to England.”

“Is it likely that you will be forced to go back to England?” I asked.

“Well, the ‘Santipore’ is long gone, and the fine residents of Britain are not fond of having  the refuse of Australia returned to England, so we think we are safe enough. ”

Just then the door to the visitor’s room opened and the same guard who had brought Joseph to meet me had returned to usher him back to his cell.

“Time to go ma’am.”

“Thank you Sir.”

I bobbed a curtsy, and took Joseph’s hand in mine.

“It has been most pleasant to talk to you, Sir. I am sure we will meet again.”

“Call me Joseph, Ma’am, if what you say is true and we are indeed kin.”

“And you may call me Fay, and you are my kin indeed! My great-great grandfather – it rolls from the tongue does it not?”

“Whether you are my great-great-granddaughter or just a little bit crazy, it’s been a pleasure to meet you, sweet girl.”

Joseph walked through the door followed close behind by his guard.

I retraced my steps through the maze of passages and exited at last via the gate through which I had entered. As the door clanged behind me I stood for a moment to gain my bearings. I was back in the year 2012 yet the Old Jail looked the same as it did in Joseph’s time. I felt glad that in 1849 Joseph and Edward only had two more days to spend in this dreadful place before they could get on with their lives as farmers at McLaren Vale. What an adventure it had been, meeting my Great Great Grandfather and learning about his life. I wished I could have brought the dress I had been wearing for the occasion back with me to 2012.

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