The Castle Hill convict rebellion was an 1804 convict rebellion in the Castle Hill area of Sydney, against the colonial authorities of the British colony of New South Wales. The rebellion culminated in a battle fought between convicts and the colonial forces of Australia, on 5 March 1804 at Rouse Hill. It was dubbed Australia's Vinegar Hill after the previous Battle of Vinegar Hill, which had taken place during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. The incident was the first major convict uprising in Australian history to be suppressed under martial law. On 4 March 1804, according to the official accounts, 233 convicts, led by Philip Cunningham (a veteran of the rebellion of 1798, as well as a mutineer on the convict transport ship Anne), escaped from a prison farm, intent on "capturing ships to sail to Ireland". In response, martial law was quickly declared in the colony. The mostly Irish rebels, having gathered reinforcements, were hunted by the colonial forces until they were caught on a hillock nicknamed Vinegar Hill on 5 March 1804. While negotiating under a flag of truce, Cunningham was arrested. The troops then charged, and the rebellion was suppressed. Nine of the rebel leaders were executed, and hundreds were punished, before martial law was finally revoked a week after the battle. Background Rising Many convicts in the Castle Hill area had been involved in the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and, from late 1799, were transported as exiles-without-trial to the Colony of New South Wales. In September 1800 an Irish conspiracy had been uncovered. The rebels were to meet at, and take, Parramatta and then before day light take the Barracks at Sydney. Afterwards they were to live on the farms of the settlers until they heard from France where they had intended to dispatch a ship. Early in 1804, news having been received of Robert Emmet's attempted rising in Dublin the previous July, a similar conspiracy formed. Phillip Cunningham, a veteran of the rebellion of 1798, and William Johnston, another Irish convict at Castle Hill, planned an uprising in which over 685 Castle Hill convicts intended to join with nearly 1,100 convicts from the Hawkesbury River area, rally at Constitution Hill, and march on Parramatta and then Sydney (Port Jackson) itself. According to Helen Mackay, their goal was to establish Irish rule in the colony and obtain ships for those that wanted to return to Ireland