Customary Behaviour Transported: The Parramatta Riot

Abstract

Early on the morning of Saturday October 27,1827, a large number of the inmates of the Female Factory at Parramatta burst through the gate of the institution and poured into the town and the surrounding countryside. More than forty soldiers with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets were required to quell the disturbance, round up the escapees, and escort them back to their quarters. The women returned 'shouting as they went along, and carrying with them their aprons loaded with bread and meat'. This episode is generally well known and has assumed a special place in feminist historiography, where it is treasured for its demonstration of female indomitability. What has escaped notice, however, is that this event was a food riot and, as such, within a pattern of customary behaviour common in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain.