Werstern Australia: Alfred GORMAN, born 1832, Staffordshire

[BAC3]

Alfred GORMAN disembarked from the Mary in October 1849 as an "Apprentice" ex-Parkhurst Prison to complete 5 years of a 7 year transportation sentence.   His last known whereabouts were as a hand aboard the Government Pilot boat at the end of June 1851.

I have searched all the available Indexes, including TROVE, but no further information of his life.

Can anyone help please

BAC3

[Voltaire1694]

Hello. Maybe you could outline the sources for the information you know, such as how you link the 1832 birth to the 1849 transportation? That might help in the search.

[cando]

Posted twice

[cando]

Voltaire....Tony is well known to the regular chatters on the Australian and NZ board and I suggest his information would be correct. 

From one of his first posts on rootschat....

Ph D at Southampton University here in the UK and my major initial project is try and create Biographies for each of the 4,088 juvenile convicts who passed through Parkhurst Prison over the period 1838-64.

Will have a look for you Tony.   

Cando

[cando]

From Criminal registers....for Voltaire

GORMAN Alfred   14 years  Larceny  Date of Trial 19 Oct 1846 
Location of Trial    Staffordshire, England
Sentence    Transportation - seven years.

Cando

[John Bell]

Tony would have sourced part of his information from the following work by Andrew Gill.

Forced labour in the West, Parkhurst convicts apprenticed in W.A. by Andrew Gill.

"Wittenoom seems to have been generally untroubled by the physique of the 154 apprentices on the Orient, the Ameer and the Mary.... He also complained that a few of the Mary convicts were wanting in physical strength. At the same time, he had no difficulty in sending four of the stoutest – Alfred Gorman – .....to load timber on the Mary at Bunbury". (Page 46).

916. Alfred Gorman. Parkhurst register.
Received from Milbank, 31 May 1847 age 16. Offence: stealing 9 silk handkerchiefs, convicted at Stafford Sessions, 19 October 1846. Sentence 9 years transportation. Was a shoemaker by trade and could not read or write.
Discharge: 4 July 1849, apprenticed, Western Australia.

Guardians Reports in Western Australia.
Date of Indenture: 29 October 1849 for 2 years. Trade: sailor.
Character on the ship:an artful, double fraud, unprincipled lad.
Masters name: D Scott. Employed on the Government Pilot choose to. Character on ship: Indifferent character.
Masters name: J Harding: employed on the Government Pilot Boat – no complaints.
(Page 288).

[BAC3]

Thank you all,

Mr Gorman is of particular interest in that his co-defendant, Thomas JONES, and again ex-Parkhurst Prison, found himself aboard the Randolph that was refused entry to Port Phillip and sent on to Port Jackson.

That "particular interest" lies in comparing the treatment, and outcomes, both received at opposite sides of Australia, taking into account that Port Jackson had a considerably longer experience dealing with convicts than Fremantle and that JONES was regarded as an adult convict and GORMAN an apprentice.

For now,

Tony