hello mistertee,
i would love to know your full details.
it's really great to finally make another barrett contact in the uk. linda and i have had a lot of dialogue with bob brock who lives in the south of england, but as things go, his research has moved along another branch away from the barrett family in australia from his connection with anna mercy knight, a cousin, who married john barrett jnr (see below).
i am a direct descendant of "honest" john barrett the convict who was sentenced to death at the age of 14 years for the alleged theft of an umbrella in london. he had his sentence commuted to transportation (asia 2) for life to van diemen's land (now the state of tasmania). amos (george v) and rebecca plus son (harmony) were also convicts with similar petty crimes. the old bailey court reports for all three can now be be found on the internet and make interesting reading. i'm happy to send you the references.
researching our family history has been difficult since up until about 20 years ago, tasmanians rarely spoke about their convict origins. they just wanted to bury the past and went to great lengths to cover it up. it was called "the stain" and books are now written about it. today, it is a big "industry" in tasmania. some convict descendant call themselves "australian royalty". hahaha
we know that john worked as an indentured labourer on what is now a large merino sheep stud property near ross in central tasmania until receiving a pardon, then became a very successful timber merchant in launceston, was very active in the weslyan methodist church, had many children, then moved to turners marsh about 20 kms ne of launceston. he owned a slate mine nearby which was exported to victoria for roofing. barretts are still spread all over n and ne tasmania, and a few like my line moved to the mainland for work in the 1920s. his siblings were less successful than john, upon who they relied for support at times. i still have the family bible presented by amos to john.
amos was a french polisher and cabinet maker in hobart, and rebecca, from what we can deduce, had a pretty awful life after marrying a free settler through convenience so he could buy land and she receive a pardon. how she died is somewhat inconclusive. her son who came on the harmony with her died at around 30 years, which is when her husband left the scene.
please email me at (*) with your full mailing address so i can send you a research paper on john barrett prepared by gwenda webb, a barrett cousin in launceston. she is over 80 now with failing sight so has relied on the rest of us to carry on with the research. i still owe bob a copy.
on my part, i am now 62 and retired from a senior lecturer position in the business faculty at a university in melbourne and have been studying ceramics for several years as part of a career change. i am the son of geoffrey barrett, the son of reginald henry barrett, the son of robert henry barrett, the son of john barrett jnr and anna mercy knight, who was the son of john the convict. bob's connection is through anna mercy knight.
my research objective is to trace the barrett line from john the convict back to suffolk where we believe from our research, they were all born. since it was a time of considerable turmoil in england brought about through the corn laws, and the agricultural and industrial revolution, somehow the barretts ended up in london. apparently john had a metal works making cutlery - a cutler. so the socio-economic context has been part of my investigations.
from my library research so far in australia i thought they lived at 16 st martins lane london since amos was arrested around the corner, but bob believes they probably lived in spitalfields. his logic is pretty sound. it still remains a bit of a mystery to me why three of james and rebecca's children were delinquent and the others seemed to get by ok.
my wife liz and i hope to visit the uk soon, but not for the games, so i can walk the streets of london, visit suffolk, and understand a little more about my roots.
please contact us soon since we would really love to find out more about the uk family tree.
cheers
michael geoffrey barrett
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