Collection search - Notebook of Aaron Dresser [textual record]

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1
Notebook of Aaron Dresser [textual record]

Hierarchical level:

Item

Date:

1839-1841.

Reference:

R2773-0-3-E, MG24-B162, Volume number: 1--2

Type of material:

Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

100706

Context of this record:

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Notebook of Aaron Dresser
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Record information – Details
Date(s):

1839-1841.

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

0.9 cm of textual records.

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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Item is Aaron Dresser's record of his voyage to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), a forty-page pocket-sized notebook. It begins with a list of his fellow prisoners and an account of the trip (in irons) from Fort Henry by canal boat to Montreal, and onward to Québec by steamboat, 23-27 September, 1839. The bulk of the account reports on diet, clothing, weather and ship-board routine. The final pages record their landing at Hobart on 15 February, 1840, the deaths of several fellow prisoners, and the routines of convict life until 10 May, 1840. The last page contains notes of luxuries purchased in February, 1841.

Provenance:

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Dresser, Aaron, b. 1812

Biography/Administrative history:

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Dresser, Aaron, b. 1812 : Aaron Dresser, a native of Alexandria, Jefferson County, New York, was 24 when he was caught up with the American sympathizers of the Rebellions in Upper Canada, who planned an assault on Prescott, and lost the ill-fated Battle of the Windmill. Tried by Court Martial at Fort Henry (Kingston) in December, 1838, for his participation in the invasion, Dresser was initially condemned to death. That sentence was commuted to transportation for life to the penal colony of Van Dieman's Land [now Tasmania]. With 82 other prisoners convicted in Upper Canada, and 58 convicted in Lower Canada, he departed in September, 1839, aboard HMS Buffalo, and reached Australia. Dresser and his fellow prisoners debarked at Hobart, VDL in February, 1840, while the Lower Canadians went on to Sydney, NSW.

As a reward for successful service as a constable in recapturing two escaped prisoners, Aaron Dresser and his compatriot Stephen Wright, received a sixth of the £200 reward, a pardon, and a passage home. On 22 July, 1843, they boarded the brig Areta, bound for London, and from there took passage to New York. Pardons were approved the next year for their fellow convicts, provided their conduct had been satisfactory, but the men had to find their own passage money and straggled home over the succeeding years.

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(No finding aid)

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General note:

Received in 1976 from Ms. Dawn Stanley of San Diego, California.

Related material:

For the proceedings of Dresser's trial, see RG 5, B 41, volume 1, file 22.
Subject heading:

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Canada - History - Rebellion, 1837-1838 Prescott (Ont.), 1838

Prisoners - Australia, 1839-1841 Windmill Point (Ont.), 1838

Hobart (Australia) - Description and travel, 1838-1841 Hobart (Australia), 1838

Buffalo (ship), 1839-1840
Source:

Private

Former archival reference no.:

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MG24-B162
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Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [MG24 B 162] 1--2

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Date modified:: 2024-07-24