This couple from the convict days of the Moreton Bay penal settlement left a small yet remarkable mark on history. I told a version of this story live on West Bremer Radio.

The story starts when the convict ship the Waverley departed Dublin, Ireland, 186 years in February 1839 and arrived in Port Jackson, which today is Sydney Harbour, four months alter.

One of the 176 convicts on board was John Carrick who was a Catholic monk who tortured a child to death in Ireland. Another was Mat Hourigan who was convicted of murder in Tipperary and went to Ipswich and killed again.

Then there was John Doway. He was convicted at Carrickfergus, Antrim, and given a life sentence for stealing a bullock. He fairly quickly found himself in the Moreton Bay penal settlement and then at the outpost Ipswich where he worked as a bootmaker

But left behind in Ballymena in Antrim were Doway’s wife Jane and daughter Eliza. And so ten years later with the Irish Famine at its worst, and with the opportunity to get away thanks to that great social reformer Caroline Chisholm, in 1849 Jane and Eliza set sail aboard the ship Success headed for the Australian colonies.

They sailed into Sydney just the week before Christmas 1849 with other families who had escaped the famine. Having then made their way north, against all odds Jane and Eliza Doway were reunited with their husband and father John Doway who had been given his ticket-of-leave. And so the Ipswich power couple were at last together again.

But they didn’t exactly look like the modern day power couple David and Victoria Beckham.

You see John Doway was described as being dark with a ruddy and freckled complexion, very hairy chest, eyebrows joined in the middle, and he was missing his front upper tooth all of which means that John had a very distinctive face and smile.

Jane Doway was described as similarly distinctive with a “ferret-like” appearance. Shortly after she arrived in the colony she was taken to Brisbane and incarcerated in the gaol there due to her obscene language and hitting a policeman.

In the meantime, John failed to turn up for muster and so lost his ticket-of leave.

In any case, life continued for the reunited Doways.

Their daughter Eliza got married but died in Ipswich after a long and painful illness.

In 1875, John actually advertised in the Ipswich newspaper asking for charitable donations. But it did no good, because John himself died in Brisbane hospital after suffering with an abscess for six months.

And in 1881, Jane the loyal wife who swore and hit policemen, she died at home in Cribb Street, Ipswich.

The descendants of this Ipswich power couple continued to make their mark in history.

One of their great-grandsons was killed in a freak accident involving a rope fracturing his skull. Another was convicted of illegal gambling, and one of their cousins was sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude for bestiality.

The ship Waverley that brought John Doway who founded this noteworthy Ipswich dynasty, it was included on Australia’s first $5 note.

So next time you’re holding one of the old paper $5 notes, just remember Ipswich’s convict power couple – John Doway with his mono brow, Jane Doway and her ferret-like appearance, and their small place in history.

Their place is in complete contrast to a genuine power couple, but no one deserves to be forgotten.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Ipswich’s convict power couple – Microsoft Designer AI.
Waverley ship – 1870-1873 watercolour by Frederic Garling, State Library of New South Wales FL3174374.
The prison ship Success at anchor, 1880 – State Library of South Australia.
Australia’s first $5 note – Noteworthy Collectibles.