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Transported Convicts (1826-1831)

Thomas Prosser

Nearly all the following information in this article was kindly provided to me by Caroline Prosser-Lodge who is a decedent of Thomas Prosser-Lodge (2 x great grandfather). Some of the information has already appeared in an article by Caroline called The Search for Thomas Prosser, Convict published by the Gloucestershire Family History Society. The rest of the information has been discovered as a result of more recent research by Caroline.

Thomas Prosser was born in 1797 in Alvington, the son of James and Elizabeth. He worked as an agricultural labourer. He married Ann Powell in 1817 and had four children, James, William, John and George. Ann died in 1834.

There are several references to Prosser appearing in court on various charges in the period after the death of Ann. On 30 January 1837, he faced a charge of stealing a hay knife in Woolaston the property of J Davis but was found not guilty. However, just months later Prosser faced two charges of assault, both times in Alvington.

In April 1837, he was found guilty of assaulting William Ellway on 26 March 1837. He was fined 5 shillings, with 10 shillings costs, or a 14-day stint in Littledean House of Correction. He was judged on this occasion by Charles Bathurst and Rev. C.H. Morgan.

In September 1837, Prosser was once again found guilty of assault, this time against Joseph Evans. The magistrates G. Ormerod and Rev C.H. Morgan set his fine at 20 shillings plus 7 shillings and 6 pence costs. The alternative was a full month in Littledean prison. On neither occasion do the available records clarify if Prosser paid the fine, or went to Littledean, although given his circumstances the latter is perhaps the more likely outcome.

On 17 October 1838, at the age of 41 and 27 months after the death of his wife, he was sentenced to be transported for ten years for stealing two sheep belonging to Mr Willetts of High Wollaston.

The court report reveals that two sheep had gone missing on 19 September 1838. Their owner, William Willetts, identified them, despite their bearing different/altered marks, amongst a number of sheep brought for sale at the tack room in Lydney. In his defence at his trial in November 1838, one of the sons of Prosser, a boy of twelve or thirteen years of age, stated that he had seen his father purchase the sheep some days earlier in Chepstow. The lad claimed to have seen his father pay 25s each for them and had assisted him in driving them home. Neither father nor son’s testimony was believed and so Prosser was found guilty and subsequently being sentenced to transportation.

After a spell on a Ganymede Hulk at Woolwich, Prosser was transferred to the Layton which set sail for Van Diemen’s Land on 13 July 1839 arriving 7 December 1839.

The records show that Prosser went absent without leave in 1840 and consequently served 3 months of hard labour in a road gang at Brown’s River. In 1840 he was found in possession of alcohol and in 1842 he was sentenced to hard labour in chains for disobedience of orders and insolence. Other offences include misconduct and obtaining goods under false pretences.  He received a ticket of leave on 1 January 1845 and a certificate of freedom on 4 November 1848.

After Prosser’s arrest and transportation his twelve-year-old son George went to live with his grandmother, Elizabeth (his grandfather James had died in 1834). George married Ann Williams in 1846 and went on to have five children.

Prosser’s sixteen-year-old son John went to live with the Peters family in Lydney and then the James family who ran a pub and a butcher’s business in Wollaston. John married Ellen Winston in 1856 and went on to have four children. It is unknown what happened to the other two children James and William.

It appears that after receiving his certificate of freedom Prosser moved from Tasmania to Victoria perhaps hoping to seek his fortune as part of the gold rush. 

On 5 June 1858, The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria), cited the death of Thomas Prosser, a hawker /general dealer of Wabdullah. He was 61 years old. A subsequent entry in the same publication, dated 10 Feb 1859, summarises the decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria, regarding the disposition of the ‘goods, chattels, credits and effects of the above-named gentleman’ to solicitors acting on behalf of his sons, in England. These are detailed as John Prosser, of Woollastone in the county of Gloucester and George Prosser gamekeeper, the sons and next of kin of the deceased. It would also appear from the second newspaper entry that there may have been some degree of contact between father and sons over the intervening years.

Thomas Prosser was buried in an unmarked grave in the Eastern Cemetery in Geelong.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Transported Convicts (1826-1831)

Henry Price

Henry Price was born in 1804 the son of James and Elizabeth Price. James Price worked as a grazier in Wollaston and Henry worked as an agricultural labourer. Henry Price was convicted, at the age of 10, of the theft of underwood from the Duke of Beaufort, Lord of Tidenham manor. Price married Maria Croom in November 1826 and had two children. On 13 July 1830, at the age of 27, he was sentenced to be transported for 7 years for the theft of bark the value of 20 shillings from the Reddings near Woolaston. After a spell on a hulk, he was transferred to the York which set sail for New South Wales on 4 September 1830 and arrived on 7 February 1831. He was assigned to work for John Earl at Patrick Plains.

Price obtained a ticket of leave on 18 March 1835 and was given his certificate of freedom on 27 Sep 1839. He married Eliza Johnson in Singleton in 1843 and had nine children. Eliza Johnson, also a convict, was born in 1809 in Louth, Ireland and died on 24 October 1891. Maria Croom remained in Woolaston working as an agricultural labourer, bringing up her children on her own. She had three more children but kept the name Price and remained single until she died in 1869.  Henry Price died in Singleton on 25 December 1877.

Categories
Transported Convicts (1789-1826)

Peter Payne

Peter Payne was born in 1760 in Westbury-on-Severn where he worked as a labourer. He was married to Jane and had two children one of whom died in childbirth. On 13 January 1789, at the age of 28, he was sentenced to be transported for seven years for the theft of 17 pounds of new copper, the property of John Hopkins of the Verdy Grease Works. After a year on a hulk, he was transferred to the Scarborough which was part of the Second Fleet which set sail for New South Wales on 19 Jan 1790 and arrived on 28 June 1790.

The Second Fleet was a convoy of six ships carrying settlers, convicts and supplies to Sydney Cove, Australia in 1789. It followed the First Fleet which established a European settlement in Australia in the previous year.

The Second Fleet has achieved notoriety for the poor conditions aboard the vessels, and for cruelty and mistreatment of its convicts. Of the 1006 convicts transported aboard the Fleet, one quarter died during the voyage and around 40 percent were dead within six months of arrival in Australia. The captain and some crew members of one vessel were charged with offences against the convicts, but acquitted after a short trial.

Peter Payne’s wife, Jane, died in 1802.

 

Categories
Transported Convicts (1826-1831)

John Parry

John Parry was born in 1801 and lived in St Briavels where he worked as a pit sawyer and ploughman. He was married with 3 children. He was convicted once for poaching rabbits and sentenced to three months in prison. On 10 August 1831, at the age of 30, he was sentenced to death commuted to life for breaking into a house belonging to John Hartland in St Briavels and stealing drapery. After a spell on the hulk, Justitia, he was transferred to the Katherine Stewart Forbes which set sail for Van Diemen’s Land on 27 February 1832 and arrived on 16 July 1832. On his arrival, he was assigned to work for G. Cawthorn and then to public works

 

Categories
Transported Convicts (1789-1826)

Samuel Niblett

 

Samuel Niblett was born in Stroud in 1791 and lived in Westbury-on-Severn where he worked as a labourer. On 3 April 1816, at the age of 25, he was sentenced to be transported for 7 years for the theft of a pig from Joseph Mountjoy. After a spell on the hulk, the Justitia, he was transferred to the Shipley which set sail for New South Wales on 18 December 1816 and arrived on 24 April 1817. He was detailed to work at Grose Farm which had been granted to Lieutenant-Governor Francis Grose in 1792.

Niblett gained his certificate of freedom on 1 December 1825. He applied to marry Marth Potts in August 1826 but this was refused because her husband was a potter in Staffordshire and her 7 years separation had not elapsed. He married Mary Ann Murphy,  aged 22, in October 1828 and had eight children. Murphy was born in Cork in 1806 and was also a convict. She was transported from Cork and arrived in Sydney Cove on 17 May 1826.

Categories
Transported Convicts (1826-1831)

Richard Marston

 

Richard Marston was born in 1816 and lived Westbury-on-Severn where he worked as a lime burner. On 2 December 1833, at the age of 17, he was sentenced to transportation for life for the killing of a sheep with intent to steal a carcass. After a spell on a hulk, he was transferred to the Henry Tanner which set sail for New South Wales on 1 July 1834 and arrived on 26 October 1834. He was granted a ticket of leave on 10 November 1842 and a conditional pardon on 31 Dec 1847.

 

Categories
Transported Convicts (1826-1831)

James Mapps

James Mapps was born in 1777 in Woolaston where he worked as a labourer. He married Elizabeth Parry in February 1802 and had six children. On 14 Oct 1828, he was sentenced to three months in prison for stealing oak timber. On July 1834, at the age of 57, he was sentenced to be transported for seven years for Theft of hay from a rick. After a spell on a hulk, he was transferred to the Lyton which set sail for Van Diemen’s Land on 29 Aug 1835. He became very ill on the voyage and died while still at sea on 24 October 1835

 

 

Categories
Transported Convicts (1826-1831)

John Lowe

 

John Lowe was born Awre in 1784 and worked as a ‘rough carpenter and navy squarer’  in the Blakeney area. On 26 Aug 1829, at the age of 44, he was sentenced to be transported for seven years for the theft of part of an oak tree from the Crown. He had a previous conviction resulting in three months in prison. After a spell on a hulk, Justitia at Woolwich he was transferred to the York 1 which set sail for New South Wales on 4 Sept 1830. On 28 January, during the journey, he became very ill on the journey with severe pain in the abdomen. The York arrived on 7 Feb 1831 and he was transferred to a hospital where he recovered.

He received his ticket of leave on 6 April 1835 and a certificate of freedom on 19 November 1839.

Categories
Transported Convicts (1826-1831)

Thomas Lewis

 

Thomas Lewis (alias Jones) was born in 1798 in Ledbury and lived in Longhope where he worked as a farmer. He was convicted once for sheep stealing and sentenced to 18 months in prison. On 30 March 1831, at the age of 33, he was sentenced to be transported for life for the theft of an ass. After a spell on a hulk, he was transferred to the Strathfieldsay which set sail for Van Diemen’s Land on 2 Aug 1831 and arrived on 15th November 1831.

On 12 March 1833, he was convicted of being drunk and insolent and given 25 lashes. On 3 February  1834, he was convicted of being drunk with gross misconduct and using threatening language to his master. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour with the Constitution Hill gang. However, he absconded seven times in 1834.

He was given a ticket of leave on 1 June 1841 and recommended for a conditional pardon on 24 July 1844 which was granted on 7 July 1845. Thomas Lewis died on 6 December 1874 at the Brickfields Pauper Establishment, Hobart.

 

Categories
Transported Convicts (1826-1831)

James Lewis

 

James Lewis was born in 1799 in Llangarron, Herefordshire and worked as an agricultural labourer in Lydney. On 4 April 1835, at the age of 36, he was sentenced to be transported for life for the manslaughter of his wife Hannah. After a spell on the hulk, the Justitia at Woolwich, he was transferred to the Aurora on 27 June 1835 which set sail for Van Diemen’s Land on 8 October 1835 and arrived on 27 October 1835. He was detailed to work as an assistant to R. Willis. He was granted a ticket of leave on 4 April 1844 but this was revoked on 18 March 1850.