The 1820 Rising - Scottish Radicals transported following 1820 Rising

‘The Scottish Radicals were not a typical group of convicts for, unlike the great majority of those transported, they were political prisoners, condemned for becoming involved in an abortive rising. Nor were they a typical group because, unlike so many English and Irish convicts, all but one of these Scottish Convicts (Benjamin Moir) were skilled artisans, and literate ‘—- Dr Hazel King M.A., D.Phil., F.R.A.H.S., formerly Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Sydney in the Foreword to ‘The Scottish Radicals. Tried and Transported to Australia for Treason in 1820’ by Margaret and Alastair MacFarlane (1975).

The nineteen Radicals whose ages ranged from the youngest, Alexander Johnston (15) to the oldest, Thomas McFarlane (45), originally sentenced to death, subsequently commuted to transportation to New South Wales were:

James Clelland was to be executed along with Baird and Hardie on Friday 8th September, but three days before he was to die, his sentence was commuted to transportation for life in New South Wales.

William Crawford, Balfron, was sentenced with the above but was ‘subsequently released’ according to ‘The Scottish Radicals. Tried and Transported to Australia for Treason in 1820’. John Anderson Jnr., a printer in Glasgow, was ‘transported’ on 4 August 1820 to a Government job in the East Indies for the price of his silence. He had prepared the final draft of the 1820 Proclamation and was probably arrested on Friday 7 April 1820 in order that he could not divulge the ‘truth’ to the Radicals.