ABSTRACT
In 1829, Britain established a colony in Western Australia without treaty or negotiation with Indigenous people. After several years of conflict between settlers and Noongar people, colonial authorities turned Wadjemup into a prison in 1838 and appointed Henry Vincent as the superintendent in 1839. Governor Hutt hoped the prison would serve several functions – punishment, provision of education and training, and terrorising the Indigenous population into submission to British rule.
This chapter traces the lives of both Henry Vincent and his wife, Louisa, from their origins in Britain, he as a soldier and she as a servant, through their early years in the colony and then on the island. It shows how Henry Vincent had no interest in the “reforming” aspects of the carceral project and with little external constraint conducted a regime of harsh discipline and forced labour. When complaints of brutality reached the Governor, he ordered inquiries, but on each occasion magistrates and other officials acquitted Vincent of all charges. During these years, Louisa bore five children and acted as matron, supervising aspects of the prison’s regime such as food preparation.
