Convict records for those transported to Australia

[Westy11]

Hoping for some assistance as I have reached a brick wall.

My 2 x great grandfather was charged on 5 February 1839 at the County General Sessions Salford  Manchester and subsequently convicted on 25 Feb 1839 at the Salford Intermediate Sessions Salford, Lancaster resulting in transportation to Australia for 10 years.

I have the records of his conviction and transportation and those records relevant to his life in Australia.  However at the time of his transportation he was a married man with 2 children, a boy and a girl. 

As far as I can see his family did not get passage with him.  He married for the 2nd time after he had served his 10 years, and I imagine bigamously.

He had a very common name, James Taylor.  I have no idea where he was from at the time of his arrest and so I am hoping there are records that sit behind the records I hold that just maybe give more information about him. 

I have an Ancestry subscription and have accessed the records I hold from there but wonder if there may have been other records and if so where I might find them?

I suppose as this is a brick wall I simply don't know where else to go now to locate his life in England before he was transported to Australia.

Any suggestions welcomed.

Westy

[Treetotal]

You could try the newspapers here:

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

Carol

[Westy11]

Thanks Carol.  Will try it - one never knows what you find on Trove and what reporters thought newsworthy. 

[Redroger]

You can also try British newspapers for the area concerned. My Great grandfather's younger brother was convicted in Lincolnshire for Highway robbery in 1832; and left a wife, the sister of an accomplice who he married immediately after the robbery, but obviously before his capture. He was sentenced to death, commuted to life transportation, leaving her in England (Newark) where she raised a family with a partner, they never married though the children acknowledged him as their father. The baptismal records are illuminating i.e. "her husband was transported some time back"; this, 4 years after the event. He did not remarry in Australia; he was given a ticket of leave, as he was terminally ill and died a few weeks later. His possessions such as they were sold to pay for his funeral, not enough was raised so I suppose that I am still in debt to the Government of NSW from 1841. I am keeping quiet about that in case they charge compound interest on outstanding sums!

[iluleah]

Hoping for some assistance as I have reached a brick wall.

My 2 x great grandfather was charged on 5 February 1839 at the County General Sessions Salford  Manchester and subsequently convicted on 25 Feb 1839 at the Salford Intermediate Sessions Salford, Lancaster resulting in transportation to Australia for 10 years.

I have the records of his conviction and transportation and those records relevant to his life in Australia.  However at the time of his transportation he was a married man with 2 children, a boy and a girl. 

As far as I can see his family did not get passage with him.  He married for the 2nd time after he had served his 10 years, and I imagine bigamously.

He had a very common name, James Taylor.  I have no idea where he was from at the time of his arrest and so I am hoping there are records that sit behind the records I hold that just maybe give more information about him. 

I have an Ancestry subscription and have accessed the records I hold from there but wonder if there may have been other records and if so where I might find them?

I suppose as this is a brick wall I simply don't know where else to go now to locate his life in England before he was transported to Australia.

Any suggestions welcomed.

Westy

I think it was after 7 years it was treated as they were "divorced" many people who were transported, both the partner left at home and those who were convicted married again

[davidft]

It is always worth contacting the relevant archives when looking at convicts to see if they have any papers. It seems you may be in luck as Lancaster archives appear to have a convict database

http://www.lancastercastle.com/archives

which could well have details additional to what ancestry have. It may also be worth searching findmypast as their convict records have some differences to those of Ancestry.

Re the county archives when I contacted North Yorks Archives they produced information that was not on ancestry including the testimony of the wife of the person i was looking at

[ScobieDrom]

James Taylor, baker died 4 Nov 1880

James Taylor convicted Lancaster 25th Feb 1839, sailed aboard Parkfield 13 May 1839 for New South Wales. 
Parkfield arrived 1 September 1839 at New South Wales.

James Taylor aged 28 convicted 25 Feb 1839, sentence 10 years for Housebreaking

From Leeds Times, 9 June 1838

BURGLARY NEAR ROCHDALE, A man named James Taylor, who lives in a cellar in Frith Street, Chorlton-upon-Medlock, was brought up at the New Bailey, Manchester, on Tuesday, charged with burglary

The report goes on to describe how assistant constable Booth found a quantity of plate which was the property of Mr John Lords of Calliards near Rochdale, whose house had been broken into two weeks earlier.  James Taylor was committed for trial at the ensuing sessions.

[majm]

Hi there,

.....
As far as I can see his family did not get passage with him.  He married for the 2nd time after he had served his 10 years, and I imagine bigamously.   .....

and

I think it was after 7 years it was treated as they were "divorced" many people who were transported, both the partner left at home and those who were convicted married again

   
1839 ...... Yes, that second marriage would not have been considered a bigamous marriage in the colony of Van Diemens Land.   The first marriage had effectively been terminated by the conviction to transport one party 'beyond the seas' for a period of seven years. 

The administration of the colony of New South Wales included the administration of Van Diemens Land until VDL became Tasmania (Queen Victoria in the 1850s), however from the 1820s until the 1850s its government was oversighted by its own Supreme Court.  Laws made in England had no effect unless those laws expressly stated they had effect in the colonies that they named.   So from at least July 1823 English laws were without affect.

Back in 1810 the then Governor of NSW (which included VDL at that time) had issued a general order regarding marriage for the convicts.   Civil registration of marriages commenced in VDL in 1839.   

May I offer a snippet from another thread which may have some further info that may be helpful.

As a slight aside :

Here's the 1810 newspaper cutting for the General Order of the NSW Governor referring to co-habitation and "disgraceful connexions" ....  (the scandalous and pernicious Custom so generally and shamelessly  adopted throughout this Territory, of Persons of different Sexes COHABITING and living together, unsanctioned by the legal Ties of MATRIMONY;)
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/627934 24 Feb 1810 Sydney Gaz. 

Here's a Professor of Law's paper on Colonial Divorces .... explaining English laws too
http://www.aifs.gov.au/institute/seminars/finlay.html


And quoting from another RChatter (thread linked below)

There is no requirement to have the spouse presumed legally dead to re-marry.
An ancient law - An Act to restrain all Persons from Marriage until their former Wives and former Husbands be dead [1604.]
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~framland/acts/1604.htm
allows a person to remarry without any presumption of death after a period of seven years separation.  In fact it goes as far as stating a remarriage is allowed if the spouse has been overseas for seven years. In which case it makes no difference whether he/she is known to be alive or not the remarriage is allowed.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=687489.0

      (So the space on the English parish marriage register was sufficient for just one word ... widow or spinster)

Cheers,  JM

I am aware that the Professor's paper is no longer available at that link, and I am sorry that I do not have a current link that goes back to that paper. 

Cheers,  JM

[Westy11]

You can also try British newspapers for the area concerned. My Great grandfather's younger brother was convicted in Lincolnshire for Highway robbery in 1832; and left a wife, the sister of an accomplice who he married immediately after the robbery, but obviously before his capture. He was sentenced to death, commuted to life transportation, leaving her in England (Newark) where she raised a family with a partner, they never married though the children acknowledged him as their father. The baptismal records are illuminating i.e. "her husband was transported some time back"; this, 4 years after the event. He did not remarry in Australia; he was given a ticket of leave, as he was terminally ill and died a few weeks later. His possessions such as they were sold to pay for his funeral, not enough was raised so I suppose that I am still in debt to the Government of NSW from 1841. I am keeping quiet about that in case they charge compound interest on outstanding sums!

Now that I have a town/city I will be able to look for an article and a family.  Thanks for the story - it is fascinating and now after my post I think there is perhaps a chance of breaking  the brick wall....