Alexander Pearce was an Irish convict who twice escaped from the Macquarie Harbour penal station on the west coast of Van Diemen's Land, the island now called Tasmania. After the first escape, in September 1822, he told the authorities that he had killed his companions; they did not believe him and sent him back to the station. After the second, in November 1823, he was found guilty of the murder of a fellow convict, Thomas Cox. He was executed in Hobart Town on July 19, 1824.
The surviving record of his life is short, and accounts disagree on several points, among them the date of his arrival in the colony, the order in which his companions died and the length of his second escape. Pearce was convicted of one killing. The deaths in 1822 rest on his own confessions, which were made to a magistrate, to the keeper of the Hobart Town Gaol and to a priest, and no charge or trial for them is on record.
The Australian National Centre of Biography gives Pearce's birth as about 1790 in County Monaghan, Ireland, and describes him as a farm laborer before transportation. In 1819, at the Lent session in Armagh, he was convicted of stealing six pairs of shoes and sentenced to seven years' transportation. He reached Hobart on the convict ship Castle Forbes. Accounts differ on the date: People Australia gives January 1820, the State Library of New South Wales gives February 1820, and AustLit gives February 1821.
His first years in the colony brought a string of punishments. According to People Australia, he was flogged in 1821 for embezzling turkeys and ducks, for drunkenness and absence, for drunkenness and stealing wine, and for stealing a wheelbarrow, for which he also received six months in the gaol gang. In May 1822 he absconded into the bush and forged an order. AustLit says he stayed at large for about three months before he was recaptured.
The State Library of New South Wales dates his conviction for forging a money order and for being illegally at large to June 1822. The court ordered that he serve the remainder of his original sentence at the penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour.
Macquarie Harbour, with its station on Sarah Island, was the colony's place of secondary punishment. Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service describes it as one of the most severe penal establishments in the history of transportation to Australia, reserved for the worst felons, with flogging in frequent use. It was also for a time the largest shipbuilding yard in the colonies, and convicts worked there in the Huon pine trade. The Parks and Wildlife Service counts more than 180 escape attempts. An ABC News report from 2019 gives the station's years as 1822 to 1834 and counts 156 attempts between 1822 and 1828; another ABC report from 2024 says the establishment ran for 11 years. The totals differ, but escape was a constant aim among the men held there.
On September 20, 1822, Pearce left Macquarie Harbour with seven other convicts. People Australia, the State Library of New South Wales and the Tasmanian Times name the group as Robert Greenhill, Matthew Travers, Thomas Bodenham, John Mather, Alexander Dalton, Kennerly (also spelled Kennelly and Kennely) and Brown, with Pearce making eight. Accounts differ on Brown's first name. The State Library of New South Wales states that the men meant to cross the island to Hobart, take a schooner and sail to England.
Most of the eight did not reach the settled districts. People Australia records Bodenham as killed in October 1822 by a fellow escapee. Its entry for Alexander Dalton says the accounts conflict on whether Dalton or Bodenham was the first to die. The same entry says Kennely and Brown left the group and were believed to have returned to Macquarie Harbour, where Brown died, and that Dalton was believed to have died of exhaustion. The State Library's account names Bodenham, Mather and Travers among the dead and says Pearce was the only survivor of the party.
Pearce's own later statements said that the last man left alive besides himself was Robert Greenhill and that Pearce killed him. Both People Australia and the State Library of New South Wales give this as Pearce's account. No trial of any kind followed from it.
Pearce reached the settled country near Hobart. The State Library says he fell in with a group of bushrangers and was captured near the town. People Australia says that he confessed to the killings to the Reverend Robert Knopwood, a magistrate, who did not believe him and returned him to Macquarie Harbour. AustLit and the Tasmanian Times agree that the authorities took his story as a cover for companions who were still at large, and AustLit puts the encounter with Knopwood in the court at Hobart in late 1822 or early 1823.
No charge in connection with the 1822 deaths is on record. He was returned to the penal station.
Thomas Cox was a younger convict, aged about 21 when he died. People Australia records that he was sentenced at Shrewsbury, Shropshire, in March 1819 to seven years' transportation and reached Hobart in January 1820. In the colony he was punished for breaches of regulations that included failing to return a pass, assaulting a constable, escaping custody and helping another runaway. In September 1823, after absconding and escaping from Launceston Gaol, he was given 50 lashes and sent to Macquarie Harbour to serve the rest of his original sentence.
In November 1823, about a year after the first escape, Pearce left Macquarie Harbour again, this time with Cox. Cox died during this escape. The State Library of New South Wales says that Pearce was caught after about a week; People Australia says within ten days; the Tasmanian Times and AustLit say eleven days. The State Library says that this time his account was believed.
The State Library of New South Wales lists three records of what he said in 1824: a confession to the keeper of the Hobart Town Gaol, dated June 20, 1824; a statement taken by Lieutenant Cuthbertson, held in the Mitchell Library as item A 1326; and a confession to the Catholic priest Philip Conolly, which the Hobart Town Gazette printed on August 6, 1824. A shorter version is held by the National Library of Australia. The History News Network says that Conolly visited him in the gaol and that he made a detailed confession to the priest.
The trial was held in the Supreme Court at Hobart Town. People Australia says that he was found guilty of murder on June 21, 1824. AustLit says the trial concerned the killing of Thomas Cox and that Pearce was the first criminal executed under the colony's new Supreme Court. The State Library of New South Wales says he was tried promptly. The wording of the verdict and of the sentence, and the names of the judge and witnesses, are not on record.
Pearce was executed at Hobart Town Gaol on July 19, 1824. AustLit gives the hour as nine in the morning. People Australia says he received the last rites from Father Philip Conolly before he was executed. The State Library of New South Wales holds a portrait by the colonial artist Thomas Bock, titled Alexander Pearce Executed for Murder July 19th 1824, published in 1824.
The legal record covers one death. The finding of guilt on June 21, 1824 related to Thomas Cox. The deaths of the companions in 1822 are known from Pearce's own statements, which he made to Reverend Knopwood in late 1822 or early 1823 and again in 1824, and the details of those statements vary between the accounts. The ABC reported in 2024 that Dalton was allegedly killed on the trek, while People Australia records it as unsettled whether Dalton or Bodenham was the first to die. Because the statements were never tested in court, each death in 1822 is attributed to Pearce only on the strength of his confessions. The only killing for which he was found guilty is that of Thomas Cox.
Several matters of fact remain open: the year and month of his arrival in the colony, whether his first absconding in 1822 began in March or May, Brown's first name, the number of days he was at large in 1823, and the wording of the verdict and sentence.
The State Library of New South Wales holds a transcript of the confession, a narrative of the 1822 escape from the Dixson bequest of 1952, and the Bock portrait. Dan Sprod's Alexander Pearce of Macquarie Harbour (1977) reproduces the confession to the gaol keeper. The island prison he fled operated, by the ABC's count, for 11 years, and Sarah Island is now a heritage site managed by the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.
About 1790: born in County Monaghan, Ireland.
1819: convicted at Armagh of stealing six pairs of shoes; seven years' transportation.
January or February 1820 (accounts differ): reaches Hobart on the Castle Forbes. AustLit gives February 1821.
1821: a series of floggings and punishments in the colony.
May 1822: absconds and forges an order.
June 1822: convicted of forging a money order and being illegally at large; sent to Macquarie Harbour.
September 20, 1822: escapes with seven others.
October 1822: Thomas Bodenham dies during the escape.
Late 1822 or early 1823: confesses to Reverend Knopwood; not believed; returned to Macquarie Harbour.
September 1823: Thomas Cox sent to Macquarie Harbour.
November 1823: Pearce and Cox escape; Cox dies.
June 20, 1824: confession to the keeper of Hobart Town Gaol.
June 21, 1824: found guilty of murder, Supreme Court, Hobart Town.
July 19, 1824: executed at Hobart Town Gaol.
August 6, 1824: his confession to Philip Conolly printed in the Hobart Town Gazette.