An
emancipist was any of the
convicts sentenced and transported under the
convict system to
Australia, who had been given conditional or absolute pardons. The term was also used to refer to those convicts whose sentences had expired, and could also be used of free settlers who supported full civil rights for emancipated convicts.
An emancipist was free to own land and was no longer subject to penal servitude. An emancipist could be released from his or her sentence for good behaviour, diligent work, or the expiration of his or her sentence. The only main limitation placed upon them was that they were not allowed to leave the Australian colonies.
The Exclusives (who included many free settlers, civil servants and military officers) often shunned the society of the Emancipists and considered them to be little more than criminals. When Governor Lachlan Macquarie invited emancipists to social functions at Government House, for example, many military officers refused to attend.
Macquarie (Governor from 1810 to 1821) insisted emancipated convicts be treated as social equals and, very conscious of the critical shortage of skills in the young colony, appointed emancipists with talent to official positions. Some of these appointments included Francis Greenway as colonial architect and Dr William Redfern as colonial surgeon. He scandalised settler opinion by appointing another emancipist, Andrew Thompson, as a magistrate.
John Hamilton Irving (or Irven, Irwin, or Ervin) was Australia's first emancipist. Irving was a surgeon convicted of larceny on March 6, 1784. He was sentenced to "seven years beyond the seas," and was sent on one of the First Fleet transport. After exhibiting a willing readiness to assist with his exceptional surgical skills, he was emancipated by Governor Arthur Phillip on 28th February 1790, and worked thereafter as an assistant surgeon. On July 14, 1792, Irving's Warrant of Emancipation was received in England and acknowledged by Henry Dundas, the Secretary of State.
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