{"id":2142,"date":"2017-06-19T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T01:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2017-06-19T12:23:19","modified_gmt":"2017-06-19T01:53:19","slug":"2142","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2017\/06\/2142\/","title":{"rendered":"An introduction to Ashton’s Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rhondda Harris came across something fascinating when researching in the State Records of South Australia at Gepps Cross for an\u00a0archaeological\u00a0dig at the old Adelaide Gaol: a long-lost journal written by\u00a0the gaol’s first governor, William Baker Ashton. But we’ll let Rhondda introduce the journal herself through this short\u00a0preamble from her book,\u00a0<\/em>Ashton’s Hotel<\/a>.\u00a0This\u00a0includes an excerpt from the journal itself which, yes, may contain some ‘mistakes’. As Rhondda says in the book, ‘<\/em>I have turned off\u00a0the autocorrect and transcribed it just as it is in the original. It is an\u00a0editor\u2019s nightmare but an authentic read.’<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

June 11 <\/b>Wednesday: A Poor Woman Named Wilkinson Supposed to\u00a0be Insane was found at 71\/2 this Morning with 2 Small Children\u00a0Nearly Dead from wet and Cold at the end of the ditch Near the\u00a0Gaol the Poor Children were in a Dreadful State their Arms and\u00a0legs being quite Stiff from the Wet & Cold I had the Woman &\u00a0Children brot into the TurnKeys lodge by a good fire and Mrs.\u00a0Ashton and Mr Perry took their Wet Clothes off and put warm\u00a0Blankets on them and they Soon got better . . .<\/h5>\n
\u2013 Sheriff Visited the Gaol Saw the Prisoners and Saw the poor\u00a0woman & children found in the Water this Morning, wished her\u00a0to Remain in the Gaol and he would Report the Circumstances\u00a0to the Government her Husband was for some years in the\u00a0Government Employ at the port but have left the Colony Since\u00a0and this Poor woman has no home for herself or Children.<\/h5>\n
June 12 <\/b>Thursday: Mrs Wilkinson Still in Gaol and her children\u00a0Supplied from the Gaol Rations by order of the Sheriff.<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

This story is from an old journal, written in Adelaide, South Australia.\u00a0The date was 1845, in the sixth year of this extraordinary journal and\u00a0in the ninth year of the South Australian colony. This incident, so\u00a0briefly recorded, is in itself an ordinary story, yet it hints at the far-from-ordinary character of the writer, William Baker Ashton, first\u00a0governor of the Adelaide Gaol.<\/p>\n

There are many such stories in his journal. They provide entry\u00a0into the little-known underclass of early Adelaide, a world where many of the poor, the inebriates, the prostitutes, the debtors, as well\u00a0as many Aboriginal people, mentally ill people, children who stole\u00a0or absconded from their masters, sailors, runaway convicts, petty\u00a0criminals and serious criminals, including bushrangers and murderers,\u00a0were collected in the confines of the first Adelaide gaols. Some of\u00a0these people escaped and were recaptured. Some were hanged. Many\u00a0were transported by sea to be punished in the penal colonies of Sydney\u00a0and Van Diemen\u2019s Land, out of Adelaide\u2019s sight. They were all looked\u00a0after for a time by the governor of the gaol, William Ashton; his wife\u00a0Charlotte; the guards and turnkeys and sometimes their wives; and\u00a0by visiting officials \u2013 doctors, nurses, the protector for the Aboriginal\u00a0people, the sheriff, religious ministers, and the colonial governor. It is\u00a0a fascinating journal, a real treasure, and now that it is known, it is a\u00a0fabulous addition to the story of early Adelaide.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Find out more about\u00a0<\/em>Ashton’s Hotel\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rhondda Harris came across something fascinating when researching in the State Records of South Australia at Gepps Cross for an\u00a0archaeological\u00a0dig at the old Adelaide Gaol: a long-lost journal written by\u00a0the gaol’s first governor, William Baker Ashton. But we’ll let Rhondda … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553,107],"tags":[377,723,725,375,728,16,724,727,726],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adelaide","category-extract","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-gaol","tag-ashtons-hotel","tag-book-extract","tag-first-governor-of-adelaide-gaol","tag-history","tag-journal","tag-rhondda-harris","tag-william-baker-ashton"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4v1Of-2142","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2148,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions\/2148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}