NSW: Gaol Description and Entrance Books 1818-1930

[bitzar]

Team

My gr gr gr grandfather was also ex ‘Maitland’ in 1846 and was too in Geelong.  Looks like he stayed ‘clean’ though! 

He married at Christchurch Cathedral Geelong in 1852 and I’m afraid the cert won’t tell you much.  The only added info you will get are the witnesses, no parents or birth places are mentioned or are there spaces for them.

Bitzar.

[rjlanc]

Sue,
Thanks
That definitely sounds like the right case (1 Jan 1844) and aged 16.
Wow, transported for 10 years for stealing a 4s handkerchief
Presumably he spent nearly 2 years at Parkhurst since he arrived in Australia in Nov 1846.
Somehow he ended up in Sydney in 1848 and then was in Geelong by May 1851.

So this suggests he was released/pardoned about 1850.

Robert

[rjlanc]

Sue,

2014 PhD thesis  Univ of Melbourne Colleen Ruth Wood
Great Britain's exiles sent to Port Phillip, Australia, 1844-1849: Lord Stanley's experiment
https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/51010


Appendix 19 (b): Exiles who committed one offence on board the Maitland, and the punishments inflicted.
Name  Prison Offence Date Punishment
George Simmonds Parkhurst Striking one of the boys  23.8.1846 Bread and water, and confined below one week.

Appendix 24:

Simmons was one of 86 Exiles known to have Re-offended in Australia
Name Prison & ship  Disposal  Details   Source
George Simmonds  Parkhurst   Maitland  Not specified
In the Melbourne Supreme Court on 21.2.1848, Simmonds was found guilty of uttering. He was sentenced to hard labour on the roads for three years.
Keith Clarke. Convicts of the Port Phillip District, 1999.
UHL Index No. 442

This is probably why he ended up at Cockatoo Island

Robert

[sparrett]

I am sure you are on the right track.

I have not been able to find his previous occupation before offending.
It is possible he was connected with the shoe-making business previously, but also possible he was not, as shoe -making was one of the trades which the men were encouraged to take on in Australia.

 Have not had luck locating a baptism for him
Sue

[rjlanc]

Bitzar,
Thanks I'll save my money and hope I can find another way to determine his father's name.


Robert

[rjlanc]

Sue,
George certainly worked in a shoe/boot shop in 1851 and married the bosses daughter.
A note from BAC3 listed his occupation when appearing at the Old Bailey or at Parkhurst when being admitted as Tailor.

His father-in-law was Thomas and his eldest son was named Thomas. I had seen a Baptism record for a George born in London in 1827 to a Thomas but no idea if that is him and not sure if he would name his son after him or after his in-law or maybe named for someone else entirely. Too many variables.

Robert

[majm]

Just to note that there was a George SIMMONS who served 1 month in Goulburn Gaol.   The Entrance Book for Goulburn notes the following:
1851
572
(Name) George Simmons
(ship of arrival, year) Runnymead, 1846
(Free or Bond): (on arrival) F;  (On entering Gaol) F
(native place) London
(religion) Protestant
(Trade or profession) Shoemaker
(Admitted): 10th September; (whence) Yass; (Purpose) 1 months imprisonment
(Disposed of): (How) Discharged; (When)  2nd October
(Behaviour in Gaol) :Orderly

So there's more than one English born chap by that name, and with that trade in the general area in the 'right' time frame to head off to Victoria with gold fever in 1851

ADD,  Ancestry have mis-transcribed the ship as Rungmird, and year of arrival as 1840.  The image shows 1846 and Runnymead.  The original scribe used a scratched, wornout pen. 

ADD 2 .... I can see several chaps recorded as Geo SIMMONS... in NSW in late 1840s

JM

[rjlanc]

Thanks MAJM,
given the court case against Suffolk after the mail coach robbery in 1851 it is pretty clear that the George Percy Simmons I am chasing was on the Maitland and had been at Cockatoo Island.

I had noted another George Simmons in the area but I seem to recall his age did not correspond to my relative.

Robert

[clancam37]

Hi Robert,  Do you know where George Percy SIMMONS died?
clancam37
 

Bitzar,
Thanks I'll save my money and hope I can find another way to determine his father's name.


Robert