John Pendergast and the Minerva
Sketch & description of the settlement at Sydney Cove Port Jackson in the County of Cumberland, 1788. Francis Fowkes, R. Cribb & S. J. Neele, Samuel John. (1789) Courtesy National Library of Australia In the summer of 1800, the Minerva transport ship anchored in Port Jackson, with one hundred and sixty-five male and twenty-six female convicts on board.(1) The Minerva , a 558 ton transport, left Cork on 24 August 1799, after spending at least six months embarking the convicts.(2) Onboard was our ancestor, John Pendergast, who was born in Ireland but sentenced in Dublin in April 1798 to serve a seven-year term for his crime. Convict Indent for the Minerva 1800 Courtesy State Archives The year 1798 is a memorable date in Ireland’s history, when the Irish Rebellion transpired. It was one of the biggest uprisings in Ireland, when the United Irishmen group created unrest against British rule in Ireland, motivated by the revolutions in France and the colo