Anne Reid Who Do You Think You Are?

-Jean...

-Tony.

No.

Tony!

Jean...

-No?

-No.

Anne Reid is one of Britain's best-loved actors.

Her breakthrough role was in the '60s...

with Coronation Street.

She's starred on stage and screen,

most recently as Celia

in the popular TV drama Last Tango In Halifax.

I was an inconvenience for 50 years. 50 years!

Well, he's dead now, so...

God, I've made better coffee than this is in the microwave!

Anne is the youngest of four siblings in a close-knit family.

All I remember of the Reids being together was laughs

and music and dancing.

And I don't really remember

a very serious conversation taking place ever.

I mean, my family liked to drink, that's all I remember...

when I was young.

We loved getting together and we had so many laughs, you know.

They'd all got great senses of humour, and I just think I'm

so lucky to have had a family like that.

But beyond her immediate family,

Anne knows very little about her ancestry.

If you dig up a few murderers, I'm not going to be shocked.

You know, that's other people's lives.

I don't think I'm going to get terribly weepy.

I just think I'd like to be related to colourful ancestors, yes.

I was born on the 28th of May, 1935, in Newcastle on Tyne,

where my father worked on the Newcastle Chronicle.

My father and all my brothers became journalists.

And my grandfather worked on the Bolton Evening News.

He had a column on cycling.

Anne knows lots about her grandfather, Thomas David, and

her father, Colin, through the paper trail of writing they left behind.

Pretty amazing collection, isn't it, really?

SHE CHUCKLES

I need to go through it all.

But the Reid men weren't

so forthcoming about their own family history.

I mean, my father was full of tales.

He used to say they were ministers of the Kirk of Scotland

or they were lawyers.

That's all I know.

It's a bit of a dead end, that,

because my father didn't talk about it much.

And I never asked any questions.

Anne has recently done a bit of digging for herself,

helped by a researcher, and now has a lead she wants to follow up.

We got back to Scotland, to somewhere where my...

great-grandfather lived. They managed to trace that.

Anne's heading to Scotland to begin her search.

I was told that my great-grandfather, Thomas, lived in a house

called Easter Forret, somewhere in Fife, with his grandparents,

not with his mother and father. And, um...

I want to know why.

Thomas Reid was one of three children.

In 1842, when he was just five years old, he and his siblings lived

with their maternal grandparents - David Husband and his wife Isabella.

Anne's arrived in Fife to pay a visit to the home

of the Husband family, Easter Forret.

The house is now owned by James Lindsay.

DOG BARKS

Good morning.

Hello. We're intruding!

-No, not at all. I'm James Lindsay.

-Do you know the story?

-Well, I heard that...

-Is it your house?

-It is, yes. I...

-Yeah, my great-grandfather lived here.

-And when was that?

-18...

-1850, 1840?

-Something like that, yes.

-Yeah. And is this the first time you've been up here?

-Oh, yes. Yeah.

Oh, excellent. Well, welcome to Easter Forret anyway.

-It's quite remote, isn't it?

-Do you feel that?

-I think it's got a lovely feel because it is remote.

-Hello.

Who's that? Come and join us.

-Come and join us. Is this your son?

-Archie, come and say hello.

-Hello, Archie. Are you Archie?

-Archie, this is Mrs Reid.

-Hello. I'm Annie. Hello.

-Hello.

Did I see you at the station? No.

-Hector, come and say hello.

-No, I...

-And Hector.

-This is Hector.

-Oh, we had a Hector!

-My younger brother.

-Did you?

-There was a Hector, yes...

-In the family as well?

-Yes, yes.

-Hector, say, "How do you do?"

-How do you do?

-Hello, Hector.

-My great-grandfather lived in this house. Isn't that exciting?

-Yeah.

They must have had some money, mustn't they, I would think?

Doesn't look poverty-stricken, does it?

Thomas, little soul, his father and mother, John Reid

and Margaret Reid, I don't know where they were.

Daddy used to say they were ministers of the Kirk of Scotland, you know.

DOG BARKS

Had they died or...? I wonder why he was living with his grandparents.

Anne now wants to find out what happened to Thomas'

absent parents, John and Margaret.

She's heading to the tiny hamlet of Logie,

a mile from Easter Forret, to meet local genealogist Alison Murray.

-Alison?

-Hello. How nice to meet you.

-Hello. I'm Annie Reid.

Alison's been searching for John and Margaret in the church records.

You managed to get up here?

So here we are in the churchyard.

And this is a death record. Can you make this out here?

-What does that say?

-Husband.

-Husband, yes. Margaret, yes.

-Margaret, wife...

Wife of John Reid.

Oh, that, that was his father.

My great-grandfather's father was John Reid.

-And that's his mother.

-And Margaret. Yes.

-And she died...

-August 4th, 18...

-'39.

So, Thomas, he was living with his grandparents.

-So he was an orphan?

-Well, he may not have been an orphan.

Well...where was his father, then, if his mother died?

Well, this is the thing.

We haven't found any records of John Reid having died here

or round about the local area.

But you can see from the record that John Reid was a schoolmaster

at Logie, which is here.

Yeah, right. That's my grand... great-great-grandfather.

You get a bit dizzy with the greats.

Great-great-grandfather was a schoolmaster.

-You can do. It can be very confusing.

-In Logie?

Yes. Just round the corner was where the school was.

He would have taught just here.

-Would you like to have a look?

-Of course I would!

So this area here, the school would have been at the bottom here.

Right. So there isn't a school building left now?

It's gone a long time ago. It was demolished.

But this area at the bottom here would've... The building

would've been there and there would've been some garden ground

for the children to play in.

The church and the school worked hand-in-hand as far as looking

after the welfare of people who lived around here,

-and the church had quite an important part to play.

-Yeah.

The Kirk here kept recordings of events and things that went on

and we've actually found quite a lot about John Reid.

-You've got a very mysterious look on your face...

-Well, we've...

..as if you know something that you're not telling me.

We do know something.

Would you like to come into the church here?

The school in Logie, where Anne's great-great-grandfather John taught

in the 1830s, was run by the Church of Scotland, also known as the Kirk.

The Kirk dominated every aspect of religious

and social life in the village.

Oh, my goodness, what's this place?

Well, this used to be the church,

but it's now a bit of a building site.

Someone's taken this on as a project.

-I have some information regarding John Reid.

-Right...

John was expected to uphold high standards,

and the Kirk elders recorded his every move over a 12-year period.

-These are quite difficult...

-Have to put my glasses on.

-..to read.

-Wait a minute.

-They've been transcribed, so that'll help you.

Oh, right. Oh, thank you.

So, there's a bit about John Reid.

"John Reid, presently Parochial Teacher of Logie,

"was in the year 1829 appointed assistant to the late

"John Rintoul, then Parish Teacher, and after Mr Rintoul's death, which

"happened in January, Mr Reid was elected to the vacant office."

The parochial teacher.

He became the teacher here at Logie.

Now we move on to this minute.

"Your petitioners are sorry to state Mr Reid has not,

"at least for several years past, discharged the duties

"incumbent on him as Parochial Teacher satisfactorily."

Oh, dear!

"And that the educational interests of the parish have suffered

"much in consequence."

Ooh, heavens, I don't like the bad news.

"For three or four years last past, you have recently

"and at various times, without proper cause, absented

"yourself from your school, leaving your school to be taught by the

"scholars themselves or by your late wife, on which occasion the greatest

"disorder prevailed in the school and the boys attending it were known

"to contend amongst themselves which should be teacher for the day."

Oh, my goodness, he didn't behave terribly well.

I wonder if he was down the pub!

Gets curiouser and curiouser.

"During the year 1838, you, the said John Reid, wrought as a labourer in

"the village of Logie and elsewhere, when houses were in the course

"of being built or erected for you..."

-Mm-hm.

-He was building houses for himself. What a naughty man.

"..assisting the tradesmen employed thereat to the

"neglect of your school and scholar and further..."

He'd decided to turn himself into a businessman, had he, presumably?

It looks very like it, doesn't it?

Yes. He wasn't a fool, though, was he, really?

The children were probably fine. This...

Sorry, I know it's not funny.

"You, the said John Reid,

"were grossly intoxicated on several occasions..."

"particularly upon the 11th February, 1837,

"or upon the 11th day of November, 1838,

"when you continued drinking..."

I'm sorry, I know this is not funny.

"..until about four o'clock next morning."

He certainly made a good job of it.

Oh, dear! Yes, well, it's in the family, dear.

I mean, it's fine.

"And also in or about the month of December, when you continued

"drinking till the morning of the following day, which was Sunday."

I'm sorry, this is so funny.

Poor... Well, he was unhappy, wasn't he,

cos he'd lost his wife, hadn't he?

-Um, at that point...

-At that point.

-..er, she was still alive at that point.

-Oh, really?

-This is in 1838...

-And she died...

-..and she died in 1839.

-Oh, this is awful.

-Mm.

-Well...

And she was often looking after the schoolhouse while he was...

We do... The Reids do like a drink or two, I have to say.

We don't drink that much

but he seems to have excelled at it, actually.

Oh... That's hilarious.

-I mean, he was obviously drunk for days, wasn't he?

-Mm.

Oh, I'm getting to love this man.

"During barley seed time in the year 1840, you, the said John Reid,

"went to the house of John Angus at about ten o'clock at night

"and by your riotous and disorderly conduct..."

SHE GIGGLES

"..disorderly conduct,

"insisting to get into your house,

"you occasioned great disturbance and annoyance to the persons

"in the house, to the neighbourhood and made use of very abusive...

"..and unbecoming language.

"And on another occasion more recently,

"you went to the house of John Angus when he and his..."

THEY LAUGH

-"..when he and his family were in bed..."

-Oh, dear!

"..and threatened to break open the door,

"also on this occasion making the use of more improper language."

Oh, dear. He was really wild, wasn't he?

Well, it sounds a bit like it, doesn't it?

Yes, I can see where it all came from now.

I wish my father and my brothers were alive...

I think they'd quite enjoy the story.

They would have found that hilarious.

They would've laughed and laughed and laughed.

Oh, I hope it hasn't got a sad ending.

"In consequence of speculation engaged in by you,

"the said John Reid, you contracted debts..." Oh!

"..and was imprisoned for the same within the jail of Cupar.

"You were again imprisoned in the said jail on the 29th day

"of the month of May last at the insistence of the Procurator Fiscal

"of Fife on a charge of forgery and still remain in said jail to the

"previous neglect of your school and duties as a schoolmaster."

What did he forge?

That you'll have to find out.

Well, this was clearly why his son

and children were living up at Easter Forret, I would think.

I would think so too. Yeah.

Because they couldn't...

they couldn't trust him to look after them.

By 1841, John was in serious trouble.

He'd contracted debts and was in jail, awaiting trial, for forgery.

Anne's come to Edinburgh to find out more about the case against him.

She's formed some firm opinions about his accusers.

I don't want to offend the people of Logie,

but I have this picture of the villagers of that time

all dressed in their black bombazine

with their buns and their bonnets and all being terribly disapproving

of this rebel who is sort of going, "Oh," you know, "Get lost!"

I just have this vision of my grandfather, you know,

standing there with a bottle of whisky, telling them all to go and...

you know, do whatever.

And lines of people frowning at him and looking terribly disapproving,

and I think he would get more and more rebellious.

Well, I would.

Anne's meeting legal expert Professor David Nash.

He's found John Reid's case amongst the trial documents

in the National Records of Scotland.

-I'm getting a bit nervous now.

-Right.

-I don't like the look of this.

-All will be revealed soon.

So if we start just down here.

-If you'd like to...

-Shall I read that?

-..see what it says.

"John Reid, Schoolmaster of Logie, lately prisoner..." Mmm!

"..accused of the crime of forgery and also..." "Wickedly", is that?

-Wickedly.

-Oh, please! "..and wickedly and..."

Feloniously.

-"..feloniously using..." What's that?

-"As genuine."

-"..any forged bill of exchange."

-Right, that's interesting.

A forged... A bill of exchange is basically a sort of very

sophisticated IOU, which has got a number of people's signatures.

-Right.

-And, of course, the more signatures you get,

-the more trust someone has in that bill of exchange.

-Yes.

-And would he have a few, then?

-There's quite a few signatures.

-Yes.

-"Having thereon..."

-"..thereon any forged..."

-Forged... Subscription is signatures.

-Right.

"Knowing the same to be forged."

SHE GASPS

He meant he forged the signatures?

Well, this is certainly the indictment charge.

Oh, my goodness.

So this is basically the first stage of legal proceedings against him.

The next stage from that is to actually look at this, which is...

This is actually the bill of exchange.

Oh, good heavens!

That he actually...?

-This is ostensibly what he "wickedly and feloniously"...

-Poor man.

-And this is his writing?

-Yes.

It's like my father's writing.

And it's like my brother's writing.

-49...

-49 pounds, 19 shillings.

19 shillings.

John was accused of forging a signature on a bill of exchange.

He could then use the bill to raise money to clear his debts.

So, ostensibly, what your ancestor has done is,

once he's got the signatures on here,

he's gone somewhere to sell this.

What he would have done is, he would have sold it for less than £49.

So, you know, a bank or a business would have bought this for, say,

perhaps £40 or even £30, and...

They would have given him the money then.

They would have given him £30 and they... For them, it's

a useful business transaction because they can of course turn up

-later and get the £49 for having only paid out 40 or 30.

-Right. Gosh.

So there was quite a trade in these, which also indicates why

people were prepared to forge them.

-See, my family were never any good at money.

-Ah, well...

-Never.

Anyone whose signature appeared on the bill would be expected to

pay up when it was finally cashed in.

Among the signatures is a familiar name.

David Husband. This is the forgery.

Oh, John. Oh, dear.

So he forged the signature of his wife's father, who was quite

a money man cos he had this nice house.

Er, well, that's the signature on there.

But in his sworn testimony, John maintained his innocence.

And here we can see...

"Mr John Reid, teacher, Logie, declared that the whole..."

-Names.

-"..names on the said bill are genuine."

Is that what he's saying?

Yes, he's saying people signed it in good faith.

That, basically, they signed it in exchange for...

-They weren't forgeries, is what he's saying.

-Yes.

-He's standing in court saying...

-Right.

..you know, this is a bona fide transaction,

those signatures are genuine.

Right.

The next stage from that is to actually look at this.

And here we go. This is David Husband, his testimony.

-This is his father-in-law?

-Yes.

"David Husband, farmer at Easter Forret, age 68.

"I have just now seen a bill bearing to be for 49 pounds, 19 shillings

"dated Logie, 8th January, 1840."

-There's no doubt it's this.

-Yes.

"And, being interrogated, declares that he never subscribed said bill."

That's what David Husband is saying, yes.

-Yes, so he's saying, "That's not my signature."

-Yes.

This is actually a sort of court receipt that people sign to

say that this is the item in question.

A document signed by David Husband, witnessed in court,

provides evidence of what really happened.

If we look at this...

David Husband, yes.

..and see what it looks like in relation to this signature here.

-If you'd like to compare those two signatures...

-Yeah, well, it's...

No, it is not the same, is it? No.

I mean, really, I could forge that easily. No problem whatsoever.

Why didn't he do a better job of it?

It's beginning to look a bit... not very nice.

I hope this is not going to end really sadly.

Anne's next stop is the Supreme Court, where John's case was tried.

In 1842, the law was coming down heavily on financial crime.

Forgery was considered so serious that it was dealt with here,

in the highest court in the land.

While his trial was in progress,

John was incarcerated in a tiny basement cell below the courtroom.

So this is the cell where he was held.

And it's all changed, it's all been done up since then,

but this is actually what he would have looked out at...

while waiting to hear his fate.

Must have been all dark in here then. And cold.

He would have been so scared.

I hate in life to feel trapped

and to be forced into doing something I don't want to do.

And this is where he would've gone up...to the court.

Ohh!

Those are the steps that he would've gone up.

Well, I'd just want to kill everybody if I'd been him.

This is courtroom number three,

which is the actual court in which John was tried.

And was it like this then?

Well, obviously, there's a significant number of improvements

but, er, the essence of it is still here.

As you can see, this is where the judge would've sat and presided.

And over there is the defendant, who would have been stood...

He would've been standing here?

Yes. And/or seated.

-This is where he would have sat?

-Yes, this is the dock.

And here we have the verdict.

If you'd like to have a look...

"Mr Patton addressed the jury on behalf of the panel."

"The panel" - what does "the panel" mean?

The panel is the defendant, it's the Scottish phrase for the defendant.

Oh, I see.

"The jury unanimously finds the panel guilty as libelled.

"In respect of the verdict above recorded, the Lord Commissioners

"of Justiciary discern and adjudge the said John Reid to..."

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

"..to-to be transported beyond the seas for the period of seven years,

"and ordained him to be detained in the prison

"of Edinburgh till removed for transportation. James Moncrieff."

That's appalling!

Taking him away from his children.

I didn't think they still sent people.

He was a convict.

Well, for 50 or so years earlier, the death penalty would've been

available for this offence or publicly to be whipped.

But both of those sentences more or less completely died out

by this period and transportation is still hanging on.

What horrible people.

Oh! I hope they all died horrible deaths!

Well, what this society believes it's doing is it believes it's

removing, um, a disreputable source...

He only forged a signature, for God's sake! Oh, please!

I wonder what he'd ever done in his life.

Oh, people are so awful.

So he went.

Where did he go to?

This is the prison record.

I don't believe this, I just feel... This is incredible.

Can you see him down here? John Reid.

"John Reid, forgery," yes.

-How sad.

-And this last section is crucial.

That's VD... VDL.

Which is...Van Diemen's Land.

Tasmania.

Australia?

Oh, good Lord!

So he went on one of those horrible convict ships.

Good Lord! I really...

Well, I've made jokes, actually,

to my niece in Australia about convicts, but I never

imagined for a minute that one of my relatives would have been a convict.

How very weird.

David Husband would've been in this court, wouldn't he,

-watching this procedure.

-It's distinctly possible.

I can just see the man.

Pompous idiot.

I've got pictures of all these people now.

And Isabella, doing what she was told, being a dutiful wife.

I feel very weird cos I want revenge, you see,

and these people are all dead now, so I can't get revenge.

But that's what I'm... I'm a revengeful person,

I don't think I would forgive them.

Maybe his life continuing at the other side of the world

-is the best revenge of all.

-Yes.

I hope he survived.

I do hope he survived and did well.

Cos some of them did well, didn't they, the convicts.

From Edinburgh, John Reid was sent south to London to be held

in a prison hulk, a floating jail ship docked in the River Thames.

These hulks were notoriously over-crowded and disease-ridden.

Nine months later, in the autumn of 1842,

he sailed for Tasmania on the transport ship the Earl Grey.

He was one of over 5,000 convicts sent to the island that year,

part of a ruthless system to rid Britain of its criminal population -

some as young as ten.

Following in John's footsteps, Anne's come to the other side of the

world, to Tasmania, an island 150 miles south of mainland Australia.

In John's day, the island was a wild and lawless place.

White settlers, greedy for farmland,

had all but wiped out the indigenous Aboriginal population.

What few roads and buildings did exist had largely been built

by the convicts under a brutal regime of hard labour.

John was arriving into what was -

even by the standards of the day - a notoriously wicked colony.

I feel so connected to him, that's the weirdest thing.

This man who I didn't know anything about, I feel totally connected to.

How was he treated?

Um, there's so much I want to find out about the journey

and about actually arriving.

And whether he ever got back home to see his children.

Anne's in Hobart meeting historian Trudy Cowley.

And is this where he arrived?

He did, if you...

This actual place?

-This is Sullivans Cove...

-Yes.

-..and he arrived here.

The ship would have been anchored just out here.

How long did it take to get to it from England?

101 days.

And how many people would the Earl Grey have held?

-283 convicts.

-Right.

I've got...a record of when they arrived here.

-Right.

-The officials took down details about them.

We have all these wonderful convict records that give us information

about what the convicts were like, including what they look like.

-So here is the one for John.

-Oh, my goodness.

Oh! Oh, gosh! Ahh!

-My great-great-grandfather.

-So they come on board

and they take down all these details for each one of the convicts.

-So this is a description...

-Oh, look at that! Ohh!

"John Reid, schoolmaster, five feet..." What? "..seven and a..."

Eight and a quarter.

"..eight and a quarter, age 49.

"Complexion: Fresh.

"Head: Large."

Oh, I said I wasn't going to cry on this programme!

THEY LAUGH

It's amazing. "Hair: Brown. Visage..."

-Long.

-"..long."

He had a long face.

That's right, that's a Reid face.

-"Forehead: High."

-Yes.

"Eyebrows: Light.

"Eyes: Grey." And he's short-sighted.

Yes. So I wonder whether he had glasses?

How amazing. Oh, gosh, I wish my dad was here.

-So you can get a picture of what he was like.

-Yeah.

Suddenly, I'm meeting him.

Now, when he came out on the ship,

-every convict ship had a Surgeon Superintendent...

-Right.

..that was responsible for the welfare of the convicts,

both discipline and health.

What a task.

And Colin Arrott Browning was

-the Surgeon Superintendent on the Earl Grey.

-Browning?

Browning, yes.

And so Browning basically had all of the power over the convicts.

Not the captain of the ship or not the armed guard,

it was the Surgeon Superintendent.

So if you made a good impression on the Surgeon Superintendent,

life could be a little bit better.

And he made your great-great-grandfather

the Inspector of Schools.

-Oh, I see!

-And that is...

So he did well on the boat, then?

That's the most important position a convict could hold on the ship.

John's role as Inspector of Schools on the Earl Grey was

an important one.

The authorities were keen to reform as well as punish the convicts,

and they were given lessons in writing, reading and Bible study.

Over two thirds of the convicts could neither read nor write

at the start of the voyage.

By the end of it, only one remained illiterate, according to the

Superintendent Surgeon's records, later published as a diary.

Browning's diary also has several accounts

written by the prisoners themselves.

What's really remarkable is that here

we have a letter written by your great-great-grandfather, John.

So these are his words.

Oh, gosh! How amazing.

"My prayer to God will now be to make me useful in some degree,

"according to the limited..." Oh!

"..according to the limited power bestowed on me.

"Good health and perseverance, I believe...

"..being all that I possess,

"more than any other of my equals."

This is what we all have, this - touch wood -

good health and doggedness.

I'm like that.

Not brilliant, just dogged, and my dad was the same. And...

"Until Providence is pleased to restore me again..." Oh!

"..again to my infant orphaned family,

"now scattered and dependent."

Oh, that's SO sad.

"JR."

Oh, God.

It's just heart-breaking.

See, that's what I think, to be separated from his children...

Mm. So difficult.

So, he's here, he's well thought of, they can't just turn him

into an ordinary convict and building things, surely?

If he had arrived up to three years earlier, it would've been

under the Assignment System, and because he had such a good,

glowing recommendation by the Surgeon Superintendent,

he would've been given a comfortable billet for the rest of his sentence.

But he hasn't arrived in the Assignment System.

He's arrived in the Probation System, three years after it begun.

And the Probation System was introduced

so that all convicts would be treated equally when they arrived.

What absolute nonsense!

The Convict Probation System was a new innovation

when John arrived in 1843.

It broke the convict's sentence into two stages -

first, punishment, then rehabilitation.

The eventual aim was to move convicts into employment,

but first they had to endure at least two years of imprisonment

and hard labour in a camp known as a Probation Station.

So they were removed from the ship

and they were marched up the streets here to the penitentiary to stay

overnight in an outbuilding - all 283 men crammed into an outbuilding.

He was allocated to a probation gang and, the next morning,

he would've been sent off to one of the Probation Stations,

which were mostly in remote locations out in the bush,

-walking through the bush to get to them.

-It's insanity.

And the ship's surgeon...wouldn't have had any say in that whatsoever?

Apart from what he's written on the report...

John Reid, now 49, was marched 50 miles through the bush

to the southeast of the island.

He was to become part of a labour gang,

forced to build what's now known as the Convict Road.

Anne's meeting historian Geoff Ritchie at the eastern end of it.

-You're Geoff?

-Geoff.

-Yes, I'm Annie. Hello.

-Lovely to meet you.

-How are you?

-And you.

-Why is it called the Convict Road?

-Well, quite simply,

it was actually constructed by the convicts themselves.

-Oh, this, they made this road?

-They made this road.

-Are there snakes here?

-No, you'll be fine.

The convicts were basically set up in Probation Stations

and put on to building roads, building bridges.

Right. Wasn't much of a road.

They didn't do a very good job, did they, if I may so?

Well, I think it would probably have settled and eroded over time.

It's fairly...very, very old now.

Right. Can I take your hand a minute? Thank you very much.

Sorry, Anne, we might just sit down here perhaps, shall we?

-This log?

-A nice little seat.

-Oh, OK.

I hope there's, I hope there's nothing living in it.

-You'll be very right there.

-I hope it doesn't get up and walk away!

It's not going to walk over you.

In temperatures reaching as high as 40 degrees,

the convicts hacked out stone

to build the road running from Buckland to Prosser's Bay.

This was to be part of a road network linking penal colonies

throughout the island.

In the thickly wooded, rocky terrain,

the convicts also built the probation station

where they'd live for the next two years.

This is basically a schematic plan of one of the two stations

that were on this road.

-Because...

-Yes.

-..coming out to the new station,

cos they're going to have to build these places that are on this road.

So when they came here they had to build their own accommodation

-because there was just this.

-There's nothing here.

-Scrubland.

-Nothing here.

-Right, OK.

And each of these stations probably housed 250 to 300 people in cells.

The Lockup Hole, the Watchman's Hut.

-Yes.

-Assistant Superintendent,

the oven, the bake house, right.

Doctor's quarters, cookhouse.

A chapel.

I love the way they have a chapel.

Treating these people in the most un-Christian way...

..but they still went and prayed on Sunday, right.

And how would they have spent a day, do you think?

Is there any record of that?

They'd be out at the crack of dawn.

They'd be out there breaking rocks, as we've seen along here,

it's very rocky around this area,

so they'd be breaking up those rocks

to use them in the construction of the road.

I mean, in this case, where they're coming through the bush,

they'd have to clear the area, clear the logs, clear the trees,

they were constantly on the go.

They'd march back to the station in the evening.

-Like the chain gang sort of thing.

-Yes. Yeah.

There'd be soldiers around them,

armed soldiers around them all the time

to make sure they didn't...

didn't try to abscond.

The backbreaking work was brutal.

But the discipline imposed on convicts like John

was equally severe.

A contemporary account describes what could happen.

This is a little interesting something here

that you might like to see.

It just gives you a little taste of what it would have been like

in the station itself.

"Then commenced the course of government

"and discipline, to which I have been subjected.

"The triangle was erected, the horrid cat."

What was the triangle?

The triangle was basically, as it states, a triangle of timbers.

And the person was strapped to the...

-Tied to it.

-Tied to it.

"The horrid cat."

Short for cat-of-nine-tails.

"I saw with grief and pain, flourished about the station

"by a fellow prisoner, appointed flagellator."

I mean, that must have been hard for them, mustn't it?

"Transportation is a terrible evil

"to be dreaded above all temporal evil.

"Under such circumstances the strongest mind becomes dejected

"and the spirit broken.

"Oh, that men and women would take warning

"and shun the commission of crime

"which entails upon the offender such indescribable misery."

The stones are still here that they cut.

Found a little regular shaped stone.

Who knows?

Maybe my great-great-grandfather cut that.

Anyway, he would have stood somewhere here

and seen the same hills

and I feel a great sense of...

being with him, his presence here.

I would think he hated not to be free.

But once the hard labour was over, there was hope for John.

Two years into his seven-year sentence

he became eligible for a pass.

This was a document of parole,

allowing him to work for a local settler under certain conditions.

If he broke those conditions his pass would be revoked.

Anne's meeting historian Hamish Maxwell-Stewart

to discover what happened to John after he left the Convict Road.

There is a notice in the Hobart Town Gazette dated August 16, 1844,

and it's a huge list of convicts who are coming out of probation,

and it tells you where they went.

And there we have John Reid down there.

-It says, "John Reid..."

-"Earl Grey..."

-Yes.

-"..to Joseph Hayton, Iron Creek."

-Yes.

That would mean he would be sent to that house?

It means that he signed a contract to work with that settler.

-So he's moved from working in a road gang to a settler.

-Right.

And as a pass holder working for a settler

he'll be on a small wage as well.

Then something very interesting happens,

and so we have little advertisements that start appearing

in the newspaper for the Carlton District.

Can you see who that is?

John Reid.

"The Carlton Agricultural Society.

"The members, but especially the directors,

"are requested to meet at Carlton Inn on Thursday evening,

"the seventh instant, at six o'clock to audit the accounts

"and to consider what means shall be adopted to carry out

"the object of the society in a ploughing match..."

ANNE LAUGHS

"..to come off early this season.

"By order of the committee, John Reid, Clerk and Secretary."

And that was September 1st, 1840...?

Yes, that one is 1848.

'48.

So they organise this annual ploughing competition...

-Yeah.

-..where people assembled their plough teams

-and their best ploughmen.

-Right.

And we have here other notices that are very much like this.

And what I particularly like about this one is that, um,

John Reid's promoted himself.

He's now Secretary. He's... The Clerk has dropped.

-That's the 1st September, this is only the 18th September.

-Yes!

But you would have no indication that he was a convict

serving a sentence.

No. Great.

In 1849, when John was 55,

his name appeared on a muster roll - a census of all Tasmania's convicts.

So this is the page that John Reid is on

and he's right down, down the bottom.

So he's down here, and then it says at the end,

I don't know if you can read that there.

-Free.

-Free.

So by 1849,

he's been provided with a certificate of freedom.

So...

He was sentenced in '43, came over in '43

-and what date, what year is this?

-This is 1849.

-So it's six...

-So he served six years. Yes.

So he's out before his official time would have expired.

So time off for good behaviour.

So free to go anywhere that he wants to go, within the British Empire.

-He can travel anywhere.

-Well, would he go back home?

-Well, some convicts do. Only a small number.

-He's got children.

Now, the problem with this is the cost of the passage back.

You had to pay that passage yourself.

And it was very, very expensive.

-So...

-How much would they need?

Oh, between £30 and £40, which, you know,

it doesn't sound like a lot in current money,

-but then that was a labourer's entire annual salary.

-Right.

So it was actually much, much more expensive than a current air fare.

So it was, you know, a considerable barrier.

Maybe he didn't want to go back and see them any more

cos they'd been taken over by his father-in-law,

David Husband, whose signature he'd forged and...

-Well, let's have a look and see what happens next.

-Yes, please.

Now, where we next find him...

..is in court,

which is not a promising start, is it?

In court?

But, unlike before, he's not in the dock.

It's because he's prosecuting somebody else.

And it turns out that he is a licensed trader.

And somebody steals goods off him worth £15.

One of them, I kind of like the detail, it's a little silver comb.

You know, quite clearly he's able to acquire...

-Possessions.

-Possessions. So, luxury items.

What exactly is his job? What exactly is he doing?

He's described as a hawker.

But I think that that's, you know, a little bit demeaning.

The picture that I get is that he's a general trader.

He does a lot of different things.

Much better to actually see him as an entrepreneurial figure

who is very much at the heart of a little agricultural community.

Entrepreneurial is not a word I would have thought of

in the Reid family, so this is very interesting.

The thing that I find really interesting about this

is that the records indicate that he's earning the kind of money

that would have allowed him to buy a passage

to go anywhere that he wanted to.

During Tasmania's 50 years as a penal colony,

75,000 people served time there,

the vast majority never returned home.

With over half the island's population made up of current

or former convicts, having a criminal record

carried none of the stigma it would have done back in Scotland.

But knowing how keen John was to see his children,

Anne wonders whether he ever made it back home.

I'm thrilled that he did so well,

but I'm sort of dreading finding out how he died.

I hope he went home.

I'd love him to have gone back to see my great-grandfather...

..and have it out sort of with the family.

But I don't think he did that.

BLEATING

Oh, boy! The things I've got to tell you, dear.

To help her find out how John's story ended,

Anne's invited her niece, Karen Disney, to join her.

You won't believe about your great-great...

Your great-great-great and my great-great-grandfather.

Karen's lived on mainland Australia for 40 years

but grew up with Anne in England.

They've been in touch with researchers

at the Tasmanian Archives in Hobart

who found some new information.

Thank you.

Thanks. Do you want to take that one?

And you... Take that one.

-What are these?

-There we go.

-Right.

Oh, here we are.

"Deaths in the district of..."

What's that? Clarence...

-Plains.

-Plains.

-Wherever that is.

-Right.

-You tell me if you see anything, tell me.

John Reid.

Right there.

On the 15th November, 18...

'61.

-"The said John Reid..."

-Yes...

"..on the 15th November, 1861, in a..."

"..a certain arm of the sea called Barilla Bay

"in the district of Clarence."

"In the said island, was found dead..."

-"..and that..."

-"And that..."

-"..the said John Reid..."

"..the said John Reid had no marks of violence on his body,

"but by..." What's that?

"Visitation of God."

Visitation of God, right.

Oh, Lord.

"Visitation of God in a..."

"..natural way..."

"..natural way by apoplexy." How would they know that?

So he was found dead in Barilla Bay and I think...

But what age though?

It was up there, I just caught a glimpse of...

Oh, yes, what's that say?

Aged about 60 years.

So '48, he had ten years...

-..living here.

-Yeah.

How sad.

Oh.

I wanted him to go back home.

Aw, no. He didn't make it, did he?

But what about John's children?

Anne's great-grandfather, Thomas, was only five

and already living with his grandfather, David Husband,

when John was transported.

Anne is curious to know how much he knew.

So the next thing is...

And I think you better open that.

Let's see what we find in here.

Oh, that's a death certificate.

Well, no, an entry of marriage.

December 26th, 1864.

Thomas Reid, that's his son.

Ah, look! Elizabeth Evans.

Elizabeth Evans, right.

-Bachelor...

-And spinster.

-And he was a clerk.

-He was a clerk.

-Yeah.

-At Everton...

-Yeah.

Father's name - John Reid. Aw.

What does it say John Reid was?

Rank or profession of father - clergyman, deceased.

A clergyman.

-How did that happen?!

-You see, that's why my father kept saying

-we were descended from the ministers of the Kirk of Scotland.

-Yes.

-But that Thomas Reid...

-Yes.

-..was the one who called his son,

my grandfather, Thomas David Husband Reid

-after the grandfather.

-Yes.

-The maternal grandfather who brought him up.

-Mm.

-Well...

-Maybe Thomas was never ever told cos he was only tiny

when his father became a convict.

Anne's come with Karen to Barilla Bay

where her great-great-grandfather John died in 1861.

Finally, she's uncovered the truth,

a story suppressed within her family for generations.

The shame of being a convict would have been unbearable

and I'm quite sure that that's why his son Thomas

described his father as a clergyman.

He didn't do anything very spectacular, Thomas, did he?

Except call his child after the man who ruined his father.

Maybe John Reid wanted to lead a different life

and maybe that's the life he got here

because he didn't go back to school-teaching here.

I mean, he seemed to make the choices he wanted to make.

And it's a beautiful island, it's a beautiful place,

so I can only hope he was happy.

And I feel that John Reid and I

would have actually got on very well together.

I'm enormously proud of being the ancestor of a convict.

That's mad, isn't it? I really am.

I'm terribly proud of it.