William Bonson - Missing from 1861 census

[GenesA]

What does "released on license" actually mean please?

[ShaunJ]

It's a kind of parole. He would be released early but subject to good behaviour and keeping to certain conditions for the remaining period of his sentence, otherwise he would go back to prison.

[GenesA]

Thank you, ShaunJ. I'm pretty convinced that this is my William. However, I've just noticed that a son named William Bonson was born in 1859 - but surely William was absent at this time and couldn't have been the father?

[ShaunJ]

He was in prison at Boaz Island, Bermuda in 1861.

Not quite right. He was on the Medway hulk at Bermuda from May 1857 to December 1861, then at the Boaz Island prison.

[ShaunJ]

From the prison registers etc he was born circa 1826/7; a quarryman; his brother George's address in 1856 was the Shakespeare Inn in Barnsley.

[GenesA]

Thanks, ShaunJ. Checking the birth index for his son William, mother's maiden name is Hill so he was certainly Hannah's son if not William's. No children born after that until William returned in 1863.