Thank you for this thread.
Knowing that Ann Basterfield married Thomas Warren has been really valuable to me matching up some information on George Basterfield.
While attempting to research George I found this in the Bedfordshire:
http://bedsarchivescat.bedford.gov.uk/Details/archive/110352991This thread is about Ann Basterfield, and this document is for ‘Ann Bastfield’, who seem to be one and the same person. She states she is the daughter of George and Martha Cooper and currently (1833) lives with her grandmother Sarah Cooper in Bedford. Her father was a convict who was transported for 14 years for ‘felony’ at Bedford Assizes March 1819, and she cannot remember, him but about three years before (aprox 1830) George’s sister Ann Bosworth told her she had a letter from George stating he was planning to return but Ann Basterfield has heard no more since. He mother remarried (Joseph Chettles in about 1826/7 and moved to London, Ann went with her and returned after her mothers death.
I have the marriage certificate of George Basterfield, labourer, & Sarah Stevens – both widows. They married on the 11th of May 1838. George's father is named as Thomas Basterfield, Labourer. George is residing in Bedford, Sarah is residing in Shefford. The witnesses are Charlotte Bland and THOMAS WARREN.
George is listed as a widower on his marriage certificate, and I thought the marriage between Martha Cooper and George Basterfield in 1812 was the only likely match for his first marriage, but I couldn’t be sure. I also was not sure if he was the George Baskerfield who was transported in 1819.
In the 1841 Bedford census George and Sarah live in Bedford, with James Basterfield, their infant son, with Sarahs three seemingly base-born children (Sarah claims to be a widow, and her son George Stevens later marries and states his father is Thomas Stevens, but there is no evidence of a marriage between Sarah Stevens and Thomas Stevens). The census ages on the Bedford/St Paul's 1841 census are rounded down giving George's a birth year between 1791-1796.
Going back to George's parentage; There is a baptismal record for a George Basterfield to a Thomas Basterfield and Sarah in Campton on the 8 Apr 1792 (findmypast baptism transcripts). Thomas and Sarah also baptise two other children at the church, Ann(e, 27/5/1789) and Judith (18/4/1796). Ann is probably the sister who becomes Ann Bosworth through a marriage which links back to Ann Basterfields comments in 1833.
I can’t see any other George Bas(t/k)erfield’s baptised 20 years either side of that date in Bedfordshire (or at all)
This matches the age of George Baskerfield (age 25 in 1818) in the Bedfordshire goal records as being deported to Australia for Accessory to felony:
https://apps.bedford.gov.uk/grd/detail.aspx?id=2158 Other records put the charge as handing stolen goods, and all Australian records put the boat of travel as the Atlas, not the HMS Justitia.
George is still in touch with his sister in Engliand while he is in Australia and at some point in the very late 1820’s/early 1830’s writes to her of his intent to return to England.
I can see that George Bas(t/k)erfield receives his ‘Ticket of Leave’ on the 31st of August 1830 granting him permission to start to work for himself in Australia, but as he has not yet finished his sentence he cannot yet leave Australia but this means he can earn a wage to fund his return crossing, which prisoners had to pay themselves. I know from research it was the equivalent of about a years wage and the government tried to incentivise people to stay, so it’s really rare for people to return.
George Baskerfield marries 20 year old Sarah Oxley in Newcastle, NSW on the 14 December 1832, which maybe delayed his return, though he can’t return without his freedom which he does not yet have.
George Bas(t/k)erfield receives his Certificate of Freedom in May 1833. I can’t see any record of him in Australia after this; there is no death/burial record but also no index of him returning to England.