Australian Deaf History No.1 - The first Deaf European in Australia
I found that when I was looking for information on Deaf history in Australia, the DeafTVAussie YouTube page hosted a wealth of information. However, since there were no transcripts, it could take a while to find the relevant information to your research. This is the first of my transcriptions of their Australian Deaf History series.
Transcription of Video - Elizabeth Steel (1764-1795)
Stan Batson: Welcome to our Deaf history stories. The book I just read was interesting. [Batson holds up a copy of The Story of Betty Steel by Jan Branson].
Betty [Elizabeth] Steel. She was one of the first deaf convicts who was brought from England. Interesting.
Betty was born in 1764. The poor areas in London were the slums. Her mother died when she was only 9 years old. Her father died when she was 22. It’s interesting. In the bad times, food was scarce and thieves were common.
In an incident, Betty snatched a watch chain from a deaf person - his name was George Childs. Betty was arrested and sent to court. But there was a communication problem in court with the victim and the thief - they were both deaf. She was taken through dark tunnels in gaol and was later moved to a dark cell underground. Again, she was taken to the courts. After the evidence was presented, she was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. She was sent to Newgate Prison, infamous for its poor living conditions. She remained there for 17 months.
The convict ship, the Lady Juliana, came and moored in the Thames River. Betty was one of 200 prisoners who were put aboard the ship. They eventually sailed for Australia. It’s a long way from London to Australia, and it took 11 months.
On arrival, Betty stayed in the ship for another month then the ship took sail again, another 1500km to Norfolk Island. Betty was sent to work in farming labour. There she met a former prisoner named James Mackay. Both continued working at the farm.
Betty was freed after 7 years’ imprisonment, and she and James made their way by ship to Sydney. Within a year and at the age of 31, she died. It was 1795. She was buried in the area where the Town Hall was later built.
196 years later - in 1991 - as the men were digging, they found her headstone. They wiped it off and brought it out in excitement. It was then photographed in the basement of Sydney Town Hall. It’s fantastic. It’s great to know that she was the first deaf person to come here.
[A series of images - sketches, paintings and photos - of different places from Betty Steel’s life are shown in montage].
See you later, I’ll tell you more about Deaf people next week. Goodbye.
