dee-jay
RootsChat Senior
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Posts: 292
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My last sighting of James WESTALL was in a 1993 Hampshire Chronicle news clipping under the heading '150 Years Ago' for Monday, April 24, 1843:
'Newbury - The borough sessions were held on Tuesday, when Mary Ann Snuff was convicted of stealing a quantity of bacon and sentenced to 10 years transportation. John Fisher, for stealing a quantity of cloth and other property of his employer, 15 months imprisonment. Sambo, a man of colour, from Bombay, for stealing a duck and a fowl, one month. James Smith, James WESTALL, Edmund Mills and Thos. Wilkins, each only 14 years of age, for stealing a pair of shoes, three weeks hard labour, the last three days solitary, and to be well whipped.'
In 1841 the four boys appear to have lived in close proximity to each other [Mills and Wilkins in Bartholomew Street, Smith in Chapel Yard and Westall in Cheap Street] but I don't know if James WESTALL survived the punishment, or whether he embarked on a life of crime. He is untraced in 1851, when his supposed mother, Sarah, and supposed elder brother William were resident in Drapers Yard, Chapelry of Greenham. Sarah WESTALL emigrated to USA in 1853, in the wake of her married daughter, Mary Ann CANNING, after she had seen sons Francis and William settled into marriage.
I'd be extremely grateful if SKS could please locate a Newbury newspaper report of the relevant Borough Sessions, in case there are further details of the case [parentage, complainant etc.]. At this stage in their history, gleaned from PR entries and GRO certs, these WESTALLs appear to have been evolving from bargework to the building trades [plumbing/bricklaying/painting & decorating], but the 1851 Census administrator or enumerator saw fit to return to their schedule and insert 'Ag' in front of the original 'Labourer' entries.
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