John Boswood

[avm228]

13 Oct 1800 John Boswood son of John & Elizabeth - SS Peter & Paul & St Elizabeth, Coughton, Worcestershire

This one found by rosie99 was a Catholic baptism.  Is John's religious denomination known?

13 October 1800 is actually noted as the birthdate; he was baptised on 19 October 1800.

[yumchadaily]

No, I don't know his religious denomination, unfortunately, though that find of Rosie's looks well worth investigating further. I'll see if I can get a clue from later family records in Tasmania as to which (if any) church they attended.

[astrablue4646]

Hi

I have been doing a lot of research here in UK on the Boswoods.

I seem to recall (although I cant verify it at present as I am away from my main records) that prior to the theft for which John was convicted he lodged in Winchester UK with another man. In addition he had two stars tattooed (?) on his hand. This could mean anything but there is a seafaring tradition within certain parts of the family and some sailors in the past would tattoo stars on the hand and arms as a superstition as of course they would use the stars to navigate by. However having said that I recall that somewhere his occupation was shown as a plough hand.

Interestingly I have found mention of a John Boswood who may have been imprisoned in 1816 some 7 yrs before this and this shows his birth date as 1795. The problem is that John was a very common christian name within the family and has caused me no end of problems.

He is shown on the convict records as born in Kennsom. Now is this Kenn in Somerset or a corruption of a town or village elsewhere? If we go with Kenn in Somerset apparently there are no birth records which support this. If he did live for part of his life in Kenn which is very near the coast how would he have arrived there assuming he wasn't born there? One possibility is by river as the River Severn which runs into the Bristol Channel would have been navigable possibly as far up as Worcester. So he could have traveled down from Herefordshire or even the Birmingham area.

The closest I can get at the moment to the possible birth date of 1791 is John Boswood who married Susannah Briwall in 1789. I know this part of the family tree quite well. Despite having two boys neither were named John after their father. James was born in 1792 and Thomas in 1795. Is it possible that they had another son (John) early in 1791 and the birth is not in the records?

Bob

[yumchadaily]

Hello, Bob. I'm currently in the same situation as you, unable to access my research records (house is being renovated and we've had to pack up everything), but I seem to remember that one of them said that John had been "held before", which would fit with your 1816 possible imprisonment - where did you find that? I also found that he'd lodged with (name forgotten) in Winchester and that there were two stars on his hand, though I wasn't sure if that word was stars or scars. The Boswood-Briwall marriage I haven't found yet, but will get back to family research after the builders leave - where did that marriage take place?

[astrablue4646]

Hi

Sorry for delay in replying - the Boswood/Briwall marraige is here https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bsurname%3Aboswood~%20%2Bspouse_surname%3Abriwall~

That was in 1789 and they then appear to have gone on to have 3 children James 1792, Thomas 1795 and Mary 1798. John and Susannah were married in Nov 1789 and James was born March 1792. Its not outwith the bounds of possibility that they could have had a further child (birth not registered) who was possibly concieved out of wedlock and born early 1791. James was then born in March 1792.

I am still working on other avenues and will post again asap,

Bob

[astrablue4646]

Hi again

I have been looking through the Tasmanian Local History Magazine and found an entry for John Boswood which indicates that he may have had an alias of Boswell. In addition to this I have found a birth of John Boswell in Kent in 1791, details follow.

Bob

[yumchadaily]

Hi, Bob, thanks for that info. That's interesting, that John may have used a Boswell alias. Were those the journals that are now online at http://www.tasfhs.org/Index%20of%20Volumes.html? If so, I'll work through them. Thanks for the tip, I didn't know about them before. Regards,
Nanette

[astrablue4646]

Hi Nanette

John is mentioned in issue 24 http://www.tasfhs.org/Volume%2024.pdf however on investigating further it appears to be a later John.

Are you aware that some of John's records are online. Also there are there are a lot of records concerning John Grosvenor Boswood and his family as I think some or all of his children may have been taken into care. I have copy of John's pardon somewhere but that is one that appears online I think.

I am afraid I shall be very busy for the next 2 or 3 weeks but in the New Year I am going to get all my records sorted,

Bob

[astrablue4646]

Hi Nanette

Just found the following so its not the original John.

BOSWOOD; John aka BOSWELL
John was found guilty at HSC 30 June 1882 of Robbery Under Arms with Violence and sentenced to 15 Years.  His warrant number 13973.  He arrived at CSG the same day when shown as 34 years-old, a labourer, Protestant and with no prior convictions.  There is no entry regarding literacy or a release date as the book ceased at the end of 1890.

A search of BDM records show a John Grosvenor Boswood born Oatlands; 31 May 1846.  There is no further information.

Bob