could he come back after those 7 years ??? as I have a family where there is a gap between one child born in 1831 and the next in 1839 and have found a man with his name in the right area being deported in 1831 for 7 years ? am wondering if thats him ?
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If a man was deported for 7 years ?
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Yes, in theory they could come back, but they would have to pay their own fare and not many were able to do this.
Are you sure he actually went?
If a spouse was "sent beyond the seas" then the remaining spouse in this country could marry again without a divorce. (Oh, and so could the one who was transported!)
OC
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thanks OC I'm not sure no but I just found the record on The Old Bailey site and he was 29 my man was born abt 1805
I cannot find the family in 1841 ? Elaine has found a family for me but the wife has a completely different name and I know they married in 1824 and were together in 1851 till he died in 1855 so was hoping its him ? and maybe the wife and kids are in a workhouse or something ?
I am probably romancing ?
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Val - yes the convicts were prisoners although they were most often assigned as servants or
work gangs, not just kept in prisons.
However - it depends when they came as to what they were able to do. The earliest convicts in NSW were
encouraged to 'have a go' and look on their transportation as a second chance in life. They were actively encouraged
to get their own property and marry. Many got early release or even pardons for being useful members of the
fledgeling society.
Roughly about the 1818's onwards however, the whole political scene changed and convicts were looked upon as a valuable
commodity that needed to be used, not set free! Some of this was because there were a lot more free settlers, and they
wanted servants (like they were used to) and class distinction. THEY were much better than convicts and were quite put
out that former convicts had such good positions in society.
So convicts from the 1820's onward were much more likely to work out their sentences and then build up their own fortunes.
It did depend though, on what sort of education (if any) and work skills a convict had in the first place.
My OH had a convict sent out in 1828 for 14 years. He conveniently disapeared from the records, but surfaced again in
1843 to marry. He was a sawyer and worked in forestry. It took that family a long time to get off subsistance living.
However, I have a daughter of a convict who was born c1818, in an orphanage by 1825, (where she was taught to read)
sent out working by 1828 and married by late 1830's to another convict who was a carpenter.
That family produced butchers and bakers in the next generation.
Did your man have a skill?Last edited by Yvonne from Oz; 20-08-10, 02:26.
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A large number of the convicts sent to WA (1851-1868) seemed to get their Ticket of Leave almost as soon as they landed..and were able to work for private settlers. I had always thought, however, that they were forbidden to return to England after the expiry of their sentences......*remembers the sad end of Magwitch in Dickens' novel, 'Great Expectations'*
Beverley
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I have a man transported for 7 years in 1826. After a year in Oz he absconded and, four years after that was back in London as he married, had kids and died here about 50 years on! He doesn't ever seem to have got picked up for it. I did read while researching him of quite a few cases of other convicts actually escaping and making their way home, that were caught once back on London, so he wasn't unique. Point being if a runaway could get home, I'm sure someone whose 7 year sentence had expired, and in theory had no legal barrier against it, could too, if their mind was set that way.
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I have a man who was yet again in trouble with the law, the 1861 newspaper report said he was a returned transportee, i found out he had been in Portland jail, which was on an island down the south of England.Last edited by Ozzie Gert; 20-08-10, 10:30.Sylvia
Derbyshire :- Gough, Tomlinson, Fletcher, Shipley, Spencer, Calladine, Rogers, Kerry, Robotham
Leicestershire:- Gough, Cooper, Underwood, Hearn, Inglehearn
Staffordshire:- Robotham, Hickinbotham, Hill, Holmes
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