Friday, November 6, 2015

Fiddling & Dancing, November 1825




James Martin, a colonial born carpenter who worked with James Gough in Sydney, was the son of the notorious Irish ex-convict Arthur Martin, and his equally infamous wife, Caroline Cochrane. In June 1808 Arthur Martin had been found guilty for receiving some bags of gunpowder that John McNeale had stolen from Robert Campbell. McNeale was sentenced to death and Martin received 500 lashes, and was sentenced to work in a gaol gang. Despite this he was later made a constable at the Rocks, but was later dismissed. 

In November 1825, Caroline Cochrane was sentenced to twelve months at the Female factory and fined 20 pounds for keeping a disorderly house ''open for the reception of loose characters at unseasonable hours, and with encouraging fiddling and dancing therein.'
(Sydney Gazette 14 Nov 1825)