Australian Convicts Lookups

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Horgan on March 6, 2010 at 11:38pm

Hi Rosie

John Clear (b1812 Kings County Ireland) received 7 yeras for assault in c1834 and arrived sydney on the Royal Admiral 1835. TOL 1839 and pardon in 1841. Can you confirm through your records. Trying to find out where he was from 1835 - 1841 and then from 1841-1849. He married at Gouldurn 1850. Sometime I believe he was in the Hunter Region around Singleton.

Thanks

Chris Horgan

Permalink Reply by Rosie on March 7, 2010 at 12:43am

Clear, John 1835 arrived Royal Admiral from Kings Co sentenced 1834 to 7 years, aged 22, Ticket of Leave number 39/788.
He was sentenced for Assault grievous, was single and a farm Servant .

He received a TOL Passport (a copy of which you can order www.records.nsw.gov.au)
CLEAR John - Royal Admiral 1835 40/074 3 Mar 1840 39/0788 [4/4239] 967 On the application of Mr Grose

He received his Ticket of freedom in December 1841 and it was in the Sydney Newspaper (see link http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2555312 )

Can't find a link to Singleton, but it might be worth getting a copy of the Ticket of Leave which will give location

Rosie

Permalink Reply by Rosie on March 8, 2010 at 4:28pm

Hi again Chris.
I found a newspaper reference to your John CLEAR ( http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2549015?searchTerm=%22... ) refering to a Ticket of Leave issued in 1839 for County Durham - Invermein, i.e. Scone in the Hunter Valley
Rosie

Permalink Reply by Linda Ottery on March 6, 2010 at 11:40pm

Hi Rosie,

For me that is great news. I have 4 NSW convict ancestors, and as I live in Melbourne, a lot of research has been difficult for me. I have some other books that I will list that may be of use to other's when I can gather them together. I will probably get back to you when the need arises.
My convicts names were:
James Lefroy
Olive King
John Roberts
Sophia Lawrence (nee Chapman)

Many thanks for this group and your offer

Linda

Permalink Reply by Rosie on March 10, 2010 at 1:29am

how can I help you?
Rosie

Permalink Reply by Linda Ottery on March 10, 2010 at 10:43am

Hi Rosie,

Two of my GGG Grandparents were convicts, both sent to NSW. The first was:

John ROBERTS, (b. 1817) from Birmingham, convicted at the Warrick Assizes for stealing goods in April 1836. He came to Australia aboard the "Prince George" on 23 March 1837, and was assigned to John S. Ferriter at Patrick Plains. I am unsure what his occupation would have been. He was given a ticket of leave in 1844 (MM), but this was reversed when he was declared insane in 1848, (MM) and he died at the "Parramatta Lunatic Assylum" (Formerly the Parramatta Female Factory) in 1849 (NSW BDM V1849739 34B/1849)

In 1842 he was refused permission to marry Sophia LAWRENCE (nee Chapman) on the grounds that she was already married to William Lawrence of Cambridgeshire.

Sophia LAWRENCE was sentenced in Cambridge in January 1837, and arrived in Australia in December 1837 on the ship "Henry Wellesley". I cannot find what her crime was; nor to whom she was assigned once in the Colony. Neither can I find her Ticket of Leave or Pardon.

Regardless of the refusal for them to marry, they had two [illigitimate] children; Mary Ann ROBERTS [n.d.] and John William ROBERTS (1845-1921) [my GG Grandfather] born in West Maitland on 24 August 1845.

In the same year John ROBERTS died, 1849, Sophia married a Charles DICKS [whom I know nothing about] at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in West Maitland.

So my questions are:
1. What happened to John Roberts to have him declared insane, and is it possible to find records of his treatment and death at the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum?

2. How did John and Sophia meet? and what were their duties?

3. How is it that Sophia could not marry John Roberts, but could marry Charles Dicks?

Difficult? but questions that play on my mind constantly!

Any help or guidance would be very much appreciated

Regards from Linda

Permalink Reply by Rosie on March 11, 2010 at 4:40am

1.I found a reference to John getting in trouble for stealing from his empoyer in 1846 http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/684612?searchTerm=%22J....
There are a few mentions of John Roberts in the Maitland Mercury around the decade, but as it is a fairly common name I'm not 100% sure that it is your man. The offences range from perjury to theft.
Paramatta Lunatic Asylum records are kept at the NSW State Archives -western Sydney http://investigator.records.nsw.gov.au/Entity.aspx?Path=\Agency\62\Series\Creating

2. I can find Sophia on the list of convicts to Port Jackson, but nothing more than you already know.

3. Women who were married were not permitted to remarry in Australia for 7 years. it seems to have been common practice that if a couple had been parted for 7 years with no possibility of reuniting, then remarriage was permitted. Although male convicts could have their families shipped out to join them at the goverment expense- after they had earned a ticket of leave, female convicts were never allowed that option. As the woman could not return home, and the husband could not come to Australia, re-union was impossible.
Your Sophia left England in 1837, and in 1842 she was only here 5 years when she applied to marry.

I can't find Charles Dick on any of my data bases and reference lists, sorry.

Not much help, I'm afraid.
Rosie

Permalink Reply by Linda Ottery on March 11, 2010 at 4:55pm

Hi Rosie,

They were tricky questions that I had not been able to answer myself, but having access to the Lunatic Asylum Records will be great!

And I had not thought about the "7 year rule" that applies to marriages, so that does answer two of my questions - I don't thnk Charles Dcks was a convict, just a third husband! - Maybe she met John early on and went by the name of Roberts from 1937 onwards; they did arrive close together? and maybe the spelling was "Laurence" ? - something I just thought of and will look into later.

So actually you were a great help and many thanks for your time and effort.

I have many common names in my family; Roberts, Morgan, Smith, Johnson, Jones, so It does become difficult differentiating one from the other - something exotic along the way would have been nice!

Cheers from Linda

Permalink Reply by Geniaus on March 7, 2010 at 6:52pm

Rosie,
Thanks for your generous offer - it will certainly be of great assistance to those of us with lots of convicts in our trees.

Permalink Reply by Co Ordinator on March 7, 2010 at 10:40pm

Hi Rosie
This should get the ball rolling with all that info

thank you for your generous offer to the people here on GW

Wayne

Permalink Reply by Beverly Sedge on October 16, 2010 at 9:47am

Hi Rosie,
It is very generous of you to do this for people, I wonder if you can help me?

My relative is Jesse Higgins. He served life for stealing sheep in 1834. He traveled on the Lloyds ship in 1837 dep Mar 1837 and arriving in New South Wales in July 1837. I am interested in finding anything I can out about him. Do you think he will be in Lesley Uebel's Convict Anthology ? Let me know if you need anything more.

Bev

Permalink Reply by Rosie on October 23, 2010 at 6:08pm

Jesse Higgins was sentenced to life at the Kent Assizes on 28th June 1836, and sailed for NSW 25th March 1837 on the Lloyd.

He was granted a Ticket of leave and allowed to remain in the district of Patrick's Plains (now Singleton).

He was given a conditional pardon 15 March 1852 and a notice appeared in The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser on Saturday 12 June 1852 announcing it. A conditional pardon did NOT allow him to return to England.

You can buy copies of theses documents online - www.records.nsw.gov.au/state-archives/indexes-online/indexes-to-con...

In 1854 he was charge with stealing and appeared before the magistrates in Maitland- but the charge was dismissed for lack of evidence, which you can read about online http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/home
In May 1855 he is listed as acontributor to the Patriotic Fund (he gave 10 shillings)

I can not find a marriage or a death record for him in NSW, nor can I find any children born in NSW with Jesse Higgins as father.

Hope this helps.
Rosie

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page