TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD – THOMAS BARRETT
Wednesday, February 21st, 2018THOMAS BARRETT: ‘He may have been the maker of the Botany Bay Medallion…a skilfully engraved metal medallion inscribed with a relief description of the voyage dated 20 January 1788 and a representation of the Charlotte at anchor in Botany Bay. Mollie Gillen, Founders of Australia, Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1990
1788 – February 27, Sydney Cove: Thomas Barret was the first person executed in Australia. Dr John White, Chief Medical Officer of the ‘First Fleet’, almost certainly witnessed and probably certified Barrett’s death. See: From Here to Eternity
It is believed Thomas Barrrett engraved the ‘Botany Bay Medallion’ fashioned from a ‘ silver coloured metal kidney dish’ belonging to Dr. White.
Barrett, possibly the son of Irish immigrants, was born in London in 1758. His profile is not that of the usual ‘First Fleet’ illiterate, dead-beat common criminal. Unusual for those times he could read and, judging by the ‘Botany Bay Medallion’, wrote a fine hand.