Alexander Pearce

Who was Alexander Pearce?

Alexander Pearce was an Irish convict who was transported to Van Diemen's Land for seven years for theft. He escaped from prison several times, but was eventually captured and was hanged and dissected in Hobart for murder.

Pearce was born in County Monaghan, Ireland. A Roman Catholic farm labourer, he was sentenced at Armagh in 1819 to penal transportation to Van Diemen's Land for "the theft of six pairs of shoes". He committed various offences in Van Diemen's Land, and on 18 May 1822 was advertised in the Hobart Town Gazette as an absconder, with a £10 reward for his capture. When caught, he was charged with absconding and forging an order, a serious crime. For this he received a second sentence of transportation, this time to the new secondary penal establishment at Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour.