RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: Keith Sherwood on Monday 03 June 19 14:11 BST (UK)
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Hi, Everyone,
It's been a long time since I posted on here, but I wonder whether one of you resourceful people on here can discover the fate or at least landing place of the following individual:
John BROOKS of Felmersham in Bedfordshire County, England, who was sentenced to 7 years transportation for "cutting and maiming a cow" at the Lent Assizes in 1823. He was removed to the Justitia Hulk at Woolwich on 24th April 1824, and presumably set sail some time after that across the world. Unless of course he perished in that hulk.
From previous experience reading the records of those transported, there's usually a wealth of detail of the individual's appearance and what happened to him/her. I have no idea at present how old he was then.
Any assistance whatsoever would be greatly appreciated!
Keith
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Hi Keith,
He was convicted at Bedford in March 1824; the prison and hulk records show that he was 29 years old; transported 10 November 1824 per the Justitia's register. I'm still working on where to.
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Transported on the Royal Charlotte to New South Wales
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Certificate of Freedom, 1831, with description
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=ANZ/AUSREC/987/00709&parentid=ANZ/AUSCERTOFFREEDOM/00026509
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At Cattai, near Windsor NSW, in 1839:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/226457560?searchTerm=%22brooks%20royal%20charlotte%22&searchLimits=
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Shaun, you never cease to amaze me...!
So much to look at here, many thanks,
Keith
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https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/searchhits_nocopy?id=68&applicant%20%28male%29=Brooks&ship%20%28male%29=Royal%20Charlotte&applicant%20%28female%29=&ship%20%28female%29=&date%20of%20permission=&place=Sydney
Convicts Applications to Marry, 1825 - 1851
BROOKS, John; Royal Charlotte; Age - 36; Sentence - 7 yrs; Condition - Free.
CONNELL, Ellen; Edward; Age - 29; Sentence - 7 yrs; Condition - Bond.
Date of Permission: 27 Sep 183; Clergyman: Revd J. McEncroe; Sydney;
Citation: NRS 12212 [4/4508; Fiche 780]
Item: 2521
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Did John BROOKS and Ellen CONNELL not end up getting married?
https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/searchhits_nocopy?id=68&applicant%20%28male%29=&ship%20%28male%29=&applicant%20%28female%29=Connell&ship%20%28female%29=Edward&date%20of%20permission=&place=
NSW marriage:
1153/1835 V18351153 19 John BROOKS and Lucy PAYNE; CA
https://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/Documents/early-church-codes.pdf
*CA = Church of England Sydney, St Phillip's
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Wow, Cupoflife, that's amazing, finding that for me!
Not only a free man after serving his 7 year sentence (which he received during an unforgiving time of famine, need and therefore unrest in rural Bedfordshire in the 1820's), but then (hopefully!) happily married to Ellen Connell. Quite an Irish sounding surname for his bride. I must investigate further...
Very many thanks,
Keith
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Trove has Australian newspapers online, well worth a look. It is free and dates back to the early 1800's.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/search?adv=y
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Hard to be quite certain but...
Marriage
29/1833 V183329 126
CONNOLLY, Ellen
CLARK Charles
LD
Sue
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John BROOKES ... with 'e' per that voyage was husband of another lass ... I will get my old note book out shortly.
JM
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Yes ... Ann(e) MURPHY per the Minerv a as per a listing in an online database, as wife of John BROOKES.. I have not got to my notebook.
But BDA index free to search, subscription $30 p.a.
JM ON E READER Please excuse typos
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Again a bit of guesswork.
Old Bailey proceedings. Seven years transportation Lucy PAYNE
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/forms/formMain.jsp
Enter the name.
Certificate of Freedom for Lucy PAYNE per Mary Anne 3. 1828
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2190792
Sue
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Certificate of Freedom for Ann MURPHY, 20 March 1846.
#46/406
Prisoner # 39/718, Ann MURPHY, (born abt 1799, County Meath) per the Minerva 6 arriving 1839, includes the note that she is the
'Wife of John BROOKES per Royal Charlotte free by servitude'.
Ann was of the last females transported to NSW.
JM
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Majm,
I was getting quite confused with all the helpful contributions I was getting on here, but thanks so much for clearing things up for me. I read somewhere that a partner in crime to John BROOKS back in Felmersham in 1823, a 29 year old Robert COSTIN, who was committed to jail with John B but then discharged after further examination, was 2 years later sentenced to hang for sheep stealing, commuted to 7 years transportation too. A 17 year old George COSTIN, presumably a relative or even younger brother was also sentenced to transportation to life for a series of similar crimes in 1825. But 28 years later he apparently returned to Felmersham a well-off man.
The differing fortunes of a tiny place such as Felmersham in the desperate agricultural times of the 1820's in rural England...
Keith
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For a detailed account of the evidence against John Brooks see this correspondence on FindMyPast:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=tna%2fccc%2fho47%2f65%2f303
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Hi there,
Not everyone who reads these threads has current subs to FindMyPast or Ancestry, any chance of an alternative, please?
I will see if I have any mentions of COSTIN ;D
:D
JM
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https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10116585
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A quick precis of the Brooks case:
- Someone had chopped off the leg of a cow belonging to John Hannah
- Separately, John Hannah had noticed that liquor was missing from his house and obtained a warrant to search Brooks' house
- A bloody axe was found in John Brooks' barn, with tissue and hair matching the colour of the cow.
- There was also a suggestion that there must have been blood on his shirt, and why otherwise would he be wearing his Sunday shirt on a weekday
- His defence was weak, he was convicted and sentenced to 7 years transportation (which was better then the 14 years he was expecting).
- There was hearsay evidence that the crime had in fact been committed by Robert Costin's brother-in-law Francis Hewlatt and a petition for pardon was made on that basis, but to no effect.
He was imprisoned in September 1823 pending trial but was not convicted until March 1824.
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Shaun,
Thanks so much for precis-ing (?) that for us all. There's nothing like a bit of detail to flesh out a good gory story! I too have an Ancestry account, but not one with Find My Past...
Keith
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This record also looks like him in Felmersham - it states he is married
http://apps.bedford.gov.uk/grd/detail.aspx?id=13344
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We'll done with that, Rosie!
The plot thickens, as they say...
Keith
I have a 26-03-1793 baptism for him in Felmersham but as yet no marriage between then and 1823. Perhaps in a nearby parish.
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This record also looks like him in Felmersham - it states he is married
http://apps.bedford.gov.uk/grd/detail.aspx?id=13344
A different physical description from the one in Reply #4 ( from Shaun) placed by himself when he lost his documents.
There was only one John BROOKS on that voyage of Royal Charlotte.
Sue
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Just in case it is later relevant
John Brookes
Sarah Earl
Marriage 14 Oct 1817
Felmersham,Bedfordshire
In 1841 Sarah is in Felmersham with her children. Baptisms give their fathers name as John. 1851 Sarah is a 'widow'
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Rosie,
Now that is very interesting...fitting the evidence so far very nicely. Very strange though the difference in those 2 descriptions, one with blue eyes, one with brown. I notice that the Bedford description is dated 1821, and presumably he was in the gaol/jail for a previous offence to maiming the cow in 1823...
keith
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BLARS also has for the 'cow episode' but sadly no eye colour mentioned
http://apps.bedford.gov.uk/grd/detail.aspx?id=3111
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The 1821 "brown eyes" reference is of course a transcription - and what do we always say about transcriptions?
The 1831 certificate of freedom states "blue".
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Shaun,
I wonder whether the term "blue-eyed boy" was in use exactly 200 years ago (well, almost) in the 1820's. I imagine that the "black sheep of the family" was widespread as an expression of scorn and shame.
What I've noticed is that the 1820's was a particularly bad time for people being severely punished for quite minor crimes of theft to supplement their meagre lives. The opening up of these far flung colonies was the perfect excuse for the judiciary to empty the overcrowded jails here and send these poor souls away to the other side of the earth and dump them there. So many cases of young wives left behind to cope with many small children on their own, too.
Desperate times indeed...
Keith