These caps are a powerful reminder of the harsh life experienced by convicts in colonial times. It is not known who wore them or whether they were used in New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, or one of the other colonies.
From the early days of the penal settlement in New South Wales, headwear was included among the clothing issued to convicts. When the First Fleet arrived each male convict was issued with a tall crowned hat and a woollen cap. In Governor Macquarie's time leather caps with flaps and ties, a vestige of the eighteenth century cocked hat, were standard convict issue. Woollen caps were also supplied. Commissioner Bigge's 1822 report into the affairs of the colony of New South Wales notes that each convict was provided with a woollen cap or hat.
There seem to have been variations of the leather cap in the other colonial settlements. In Tasmania in the middle of the nineteenth century, convicts were distributed with a skull cap made of stiff leather, projecting in four points from the four sides so that the points could have been turned down if necessary. The collection of Hobart's Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts includes a photograph of Old Bill Thompson dressed in the clothing of his convict days, complete with what appears to be one of these cocked leather caps.
A number of convict leather caps survive in museums around Australia, including these three acquired by the Powerhouse Museum in 1981 from the collection of the Royal Australian Historical Society. They are folding caps which can be stored flat when the semi-circular flaps are tied together with ribbons. Untying the ribbons allows the flaps to be let down to form a brim, giving protection from the sun and rain.
Two of these are stamped with the letters 'BO' in ink. 'BO' stands for Board of Ordnance, which organised the supply of convict clothing from Britain between the 1820s and 1855, when the War Department took over these duties. (This is a useful key in dating convict dress.) Above the 'BO' stamp is a broad arrow mark, signifying British government property. The third cap is similar but in poorer condition -- the 'BO' stamp and broad arrow mark cannot be distinguished.
Peter Cox, 2000
Maker unknown
The stamping of the letters "BO" stands for Board of Ordnance which organised the supply of convict clothing from Britain between the 1820s and 1855.
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