Urchin Convicts

<p>On 21 January 1841, two boys — 14-year-old James Boyle and 16-year-old Humphrey Sherriff — arrived in Hobart Town in Van Diemen's Land with 196 other boys aboard the juvenile convict ship, the Hindostan.² After a voyage of 104 days from the English port of Sheerness, they were sent to the Point Puer establishment on the Tasman Peninsula, purpose-built for the reception of male juvenile convicts. Three and a half years later, Boyle appeared in the Supreme Court in Hobart, charged with assaulting an overseer with intent to murder. On 10 August 1844, he 'suffered the extreme penalty of the law' when he was executed in Hobart.³ In the same month that Boyle appeared in court, Sherriff was released from Point Puer and assigned to a private employer at Hamilton, north of Hobart.⁴ Later, after gaining his freedom in 1849, he settled in the north of the island, marrying twice and founding a large family, and dying in August 1909.⁵The contrasting fates of these two boys highlight significant questions about the Point Puer boys. Who were they and why were they at Point Puer? How were they treated, and were they reformed and prepared for adult lives in the colony?</p>