Of the ten ringleaders that were charged in court, four of them were English. Cunningham was hung without trial immediately at Green Hills (Windsor). English convicts made up a significant number of the rebels as well, simply through sheer numbers. Irish convicts were a minority. The "flogging parson" Samuel Marsden tried to explain this English involvement away by claiming that the Irish led the English astray but this overlooks the reality that many English convicts shared many things with the Irish political prisoners; They didn't want to be in Australia, they did not accept their fate and in many cases they did not see British authority as legitimate.

Johnothon Place

Place was an English convict who came out on the Glatton in 1803. He didn't see his situation as legitimate and became a serial escapist. Like many others he believed that China was just over the Blue Mountains, and this would be his means of escaping back to England where he could be reunited with his family. In May of 1803 he set off with three others, escaping from Castle Hill and heading for the Blue Mountains. After two weeks of travelling, they were out of rations and trying to exist in the harsh Australian landscape that was alien to European knowledge and mind.

His three fellow escapees died from starvation and exposure. Place was fortunate to be found by a settler and an Aboriginal hunting group. He was fed and sent off in the direction of a settler's hut. He was re-captured and sent to Parramatta where he wasted in a hospital on the brink of death. Once he was back to health, he was back to old tricks. He escaped again, this time when he was re-captured, his back received five hundred lashes from the colony's whip man Robert Duggan.

Like the Irish political prisoners Place was not prepared to accept his situation. But Place's reaction to it was to escape. The Irish brought a level of organisation to the same sentiment which the English convicts were unable to do. The Irish had experience at organising like-minded people, keeping their plans secret, the discipline to follow through on their plans no matter the consequence. From experience they also understand the need to arm themselves to protect against the inevitable military backlash for any insurrection.

The Irish response to their situation in the NSW colony was much more dangerous to the Governor, Rum Corps, Civil Administration and even the civil population of the colony than the haphazard escape and absconding antics of the English prisoners. It was a question of response by the Irish and English convicts - as there was sympathy between them both in neither were prepared to accept their situation and did not see the British authority over them as legitimate.

Place figured heavily in the 1804 rebellion. He was at the Government Farm during the planning of the uprising and appears to have sounded out the collaborators in the Hawkesbury along with Phillip Cunningham. Cunningham and Place both spent a great deal of time in the house of Martin Short when travelling to the Hawkesbury District. Short was a friend of Joseph Holt's and had been involved in the 1798 Irish rebellion as well as suspected in the failed 1800 NSW rebellion.

When John Cavenagh set his hut on fire on the 4th of March at Castle Hill, Place was amongst those that uprose with Cunningham, Johnston and about two hundred others in quickly taking over the Farm's armoury and gathering up all the weapons they could. Place found Robert Duggan, the whip-man who had scarred his back, hiding under a bed. John Brannon removed Duggan from the hut, where George Harrington, an English convict, beat Duggan mercilessly.

While Harrington was beating Duggan and Cunningham was rallying the convicts to bring them to order, Place took over the government store where Constable Robert Jones was. Place fired his musket at Jones but it "flashed in the pan" and misfired - saving Jones from a musket ball at close range. Another incident similar to this occurred with John Brannon who had a misfire when shooting at Constable John Beard. By this time Cunningham had control over the convicts, giving them a tongue lashing for their ill-discipline. The convicts set off in a path to Constitution Hill going from farm to farm, looting for arms, food and liquor.

When the Battle of Vinegar Hill was over, Place, along with nine others were charged with insurrection amongst other charges infront of a Rum Corps court. Place denied the charges. Other than John Neale and William Johnston, the remaining defendants claimed that they had been pressed into the rebellion against their will. Place was hung that same day at five in the evening of the trial along with John Neale and George Harrington.

So was it an Irish Rebellion?

The answer is yes. Despite the considerable English involvement at both the leadership and "croppie" levels of the rebellion, it was the United Irish prisoners that brought the level of organisation, discipline and planning necessary to make the rebellion have any chance of success. Further, it was the innovations in organisation by Phillip Cunningham and William Johnston that made the 1804 a rebellion where others prior to it failed before even getting off the ground.

Cunningham and Johnston instituted and maintained a level of secrecy such that the insurrection was only discovered a few hours before John Cavenagh set his hut on fire. They also recognized the military necessity for arming themselves. The Rum Corps might have been despotic monopolists, but they were also trained soldiers which ultimately gave them an over-riding advantage on the battlefield. Cunningham and Johnston also sought to overwhelm the relatively small Rum Corps and militia forces by the rebellion occurring simultaneously in Castle Hill, Parramatta and Windsor.

Without the Irish leadership, the rebellion of 1804 would have been another insurrection attempt foiled before it even got off the ground. It is hard to see how the English convicts would have achieved the same without the "hands-on" experience of the United Irish prisoners who had done this numerous times in Ireland before being transported to Australia.