Tattooes on soldier convicted of desertion 1833

[sharonkai]

I have an ancestor who was a soldier in Ireland. He was convicted of desertion in 1833, and transported to Australia for 7 years.

He has two tattoos, as follows:

1.  "OBVID 1829" (on the inside of his lower right arm)

2. "D" (on the inside of his upper left arm).  With regard to this tattoo, could this mean deserter?

I would appreciate any help than anyone can offer.

Regards
Sharon

[whiteout7]

"Until 1829, any soldier could be branded but after this year it was a punishment reserved for deserters. A man who deserted his regiment could, upon conviction by a court-martial, be branded with a ‘D’."

http://irishgarrisontowns.com/d-for-deserter/

"Supporters of the practice claimed that this was not actually a punishment, but a means for the army to prevent fraud. A portion of men were serial enlisters who joined up, then quickly deserted time after time."

Wonder if there are court martial papers for your man?

[sharonkai]

Hi whiteout7,

Thanks for taking the time to reply, and the information you've given me - it is much appreciated. I thought it most likely that the D tattoo most likely signified that he was a deserter but had not heard anything about such tattooing of prisoners before. I haven't looked for any records relating to his conviction as I had no idea if such records existed, or where to look for them.

By way of background, his name was Owen Brennan, born c.1803 at Enniskillen, Fermanagh. For reasons unknown he used the alias John McCaffrey when he enlisted. He enlisted in the 6th Enniskillen Dragoons in 1823 and later joined the 47th Regiment. On 14 February 1833 he was convicted at the Dublin Court Martial held at the Royal Barracks in Dublin, of desertion and sentenced to 7 years transportation. After spending 8 months on the hulk Essex in Kingstown harbour, Dublin, John was transferred, as a military convict, to the convict ship Royal Sovereign, which sailed from Dublin on 6 September 1833 and arrived in Sydney, NSW on 19 January 1834. 

I live in Australia - would you happen to know if there is a website I can access court martial documents from here?

Once again, thanks for your reply and help.

Regards
Sharon

[Yonks Ago]

Many convicts that came to Australia also had tattoos

Yonks

[whiteout7]

Hi whiteout7,

Thanks for taking the time to reply, and the information you've given me - it is much appreciated. I thought it most likely that the D tattoo most likely signified that he was a deserter but had not heard anything about such tattooing of prisoners before. I haven't looked for any records relating to his conviction as I had no idea if such records existed, or where to look for them.

By way of background, his name was Owen Brennan, born c.1803 at Enniskillen, Fermanagh. For reasons unknown he used the alias John McCaffrey when he enlisted. He enlisted in the 6th Enniskillen Dragoons in 1823 and later joined the 47th Regiment. On 14 February 1833 he was convicted at the Dublin Court Martial held at the Royal Barracks in Dublin, of desertion and sentenced to 7 years transportation. After spending 8 months on the hulk Essex in Kingstown harbour, Dublin, John was transferred, as a military convict, to the convict ship Royal Sovereign, which sailed from Dublin on 6 September 1833 and arrived in Sydney, NSW on 19 January 1834. 

I live in Australia - would you happen to know if there is a website I can access court martial documents from here?

Once again, thanks for your reply and help.

Regards
Sharon

That explains
"OBVID 1829" a bit VI means 6, I'm think the only place you could search online is http://wwwfold3.com. I have no idea how to narrow down search results to make them cost effective?

[Maiden Stone]

By way of background, his name was Owen Brennan, born c.1803 at Enniskillen, Fermanagh. For reasons unknown he used the alias John McCaffrey when he enlisted.

Owen and John are interchangeable. So only surnames were different. Surnames may have been those of mother, stepfather or natural father?

Edit.
"The use of entirely different names interchangeably by the same person prevails in Ireland to a much greater extent than is commonly supposed."
"A Registrar recently reported that some families are invariably called by other than their real names and that it is often a matter of some difficulty to ascertain the correct name."
From Chapter 3 "Use of Different Surnames Interchangeably"  in  "Varieties and Synonyms of Surnames and Christian Names in Ireland" by Robert Matheson, Registrar General, 1901.
https://archive.org/stream/varietiessynonym00math#mode2up

John/Owen Brennan/McCaffrey may or may not have been trying to disguise his identity. His family may have been known locally as Brennan McCaffrey, or McCaffrey Brennan in an attempt to distinguish them from other McCaffrey or Brennan families in the area.