In reference to “Carver Ramblings” on rootschat, and Ben Carver, transported to Australia 1792; I was researching the Stormont family and John Leifchild when I came across the following mention of Benjamin Carver:
...John Leifchild, His Public Ministry, Private Usefulness, and Personal Characteristics by John R. Leifchild. Copyright © 2017 by HardPress
....Another Edition is published by Jackson, Walford, and Hodder. Kindle Edition. And titled - John Leifchild D.D.. Kindle Edition.
- John Roby Leifchild tells us his grandfather had known and spoken of Ben Carver and refers to him in the following quotation from these works.
“When I recently visited Barnet by the Great Northern Railway, and saw every acre of ground cultivated, and every plot of building sites occupied, to the exclusion of all waste and solitary places, it seemed strange to me, that highwaymen were the terror of travellers, even within my father's recollection.
He narrated the capture of one whom he had known as a fine young man, and as once respectable, to the following effect:— Carver, for that was his name, had unhappily been induced to gamble; and in order to find money for his young wife and children he, in an evil hour, dared to take to the road. His first attempt was also his last.
A mile or two out of Barnet he suddenly stopped and accosted two ladies in a travelling equipage. "Ladies," said he, "I need, and must have, your money. Do not be alarmed, 1 shall not injure a hair of your heads. Only give me your purses, and your watches, and your jewels." These the ladies immediately surrendered; but so unhardened was the robber, that he returned the watches, and respectfully inclining to the ladies, bade the coachman drive on.
Confused as Carver was in this his first attack, he foolishly rode on towards Barnet,—the very direction in which the carriage he had stopped was proceeding,—and in so doing passed another carriage, containing some relatives of the plundered ladies. Intelligence was soon conveyed from carriage to carriage, and the driver of the foremost arranged to take out one of the carriage horses and ride at full speed after Carver, whom he soon approached, and then never lost sight of him until he reached the town; upon entering which he raised the cry, "Stop thief!" Instantly a crowd scrambled after Carver, who to escape rode up a side street, which, however, proved to be no thoroughfare.
He was soon taken, and it so happened that my grandfather was then chief constable, so that my father had an opportunity of seeing Carver brought in. The dejected look of the captive, his exclamations of grief for his family, the trial before the local justice, the committal, and his subsequent transportation, were all en graven on my father's memory, and reproduced in the winter evenings of the winter of his life.”
This report suggests Benjamin already had a wife and child, possibly Sarah Dibbs, who accompanied him on The Royal Admiral and maybe the child was the mysterious Peace or Pierce, who is with him in Australia in later years.
I have read Carver Ramblings over the past decade and wonder if others have further information of the Carver linage.
Regards Paul
