Emigration lookup (to Australia)

[GeoffTurner]

And the 1887 hospital admission gives his age as 50, which tallies with him being 20 in 1857. But your point is well made. It's the best information we have, but may not be 100% accurate I guess. Geoff

[majm]

I'm not sure he would have needed permission in 1857 in NSW:

"Until 1823, the legal age in England for marriage was 21 years--for men and women. After 1823, a male could marry as young as fourteen without parental consent, and a girl at 12. Most girls, however, married between the ages of 18 and 23, especially in the upper classes."

The English marriage laws had NO effect in NSW as from 19 July 1823, unless they specifically stated that they were to apply in NSW.   This was a ruling by the NSW Chief Justice, Sir Francis Forbes.  The date is a significant one, being one day after 18 July 1823, which refers to an English Act for amending laws respecting the solemnization of marriages, 4 Geo IV, c76 

I can assure you that if he was not yet 21 years of age, he needed definitely needed permission to marry, but whether the clergy recorded it on the parish register or not is a different matter 

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=648372.0 

Re the tickets of leave - two are definitely for Colonial convictions...

The images of the butts for those Tickets of Leave uploaded to Ancestry are actually held by the NSW Archives and you can see their online indexes without charge or needing to access Ancestry.     https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research

Ticket of Leave 54/36  (54 being the year, 1854)
Stewart MCDONALD, per the Ganges,  and under ‘Remarks’ it reads: District: Goulburn; Tried: Col Bathurst 52.   Those remarks indicate that the Ticket of Leave meant that he was allowed to remain in the Goulburn District of NSW and that he was serving a Colonial Sentence after being convicted at Bathurst in 1852,   
NOTE this index has his ship of arrival as the GANGES…

Ticket of Leave 55/64   - same name, same ship, same reel at NSW Archives… Remarks … District Brisbane; Tried Bathurst QS 1852,    So, allowed to remain in the Brisbane district of (then) NSW, and he had been tried at the Bathurst Quarter Sessions in 1852.

Here is the Keyword Search index.   Check for a Stewart McDONALD with an alias in the Deposition Registers too….
https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/keyname-search


JM

[GeoffTurner]

Well done, that has answered two queries in one: the age of consent and the tickets of leave for colonial offences. I can only assume that, since it was only 10 years since emigration, one or both of his parents was still around to give permission (I have no death details for them).

[majm]

NSW Civil registrations for BDM commence 1 March 1856.   The NSW BDM does hold some Early Church Records for Baptisms, Burials, Weddings which commence with the First Fleet arrivals. 

You can search the Sands Directories for Sydney from 1858 without using the commercial websites ... the City of Sydney Archives include not just Sands, but their own Assessment Books, photos, maps etc...  they are included on the Resources Board :

 https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=369703.0

JM

[GeoffTurner]

Thanks for the BDM tip.

I think we have two Stuart/Stewart McDonalds. One was a convict who arrived on the Ganges and continued to misbehave. Perhaps his convict ticket of leave was extended when he committed colonial offences.

The other was a boy born Inverness about 1837 who arrived as a free settler on the Gazelle about 1847 with his parents and married in 1857.

Geoff

[majm]

Those two Tickets of Leave refer to Colonial Convictions, he was tried at Bathurst New South Wales in 1852. 

JM

[majm]

The Ganges arrived in 1797.  I have had a quick look at Trove for any other convict ships named Ganges, coming to NSW at other times but have not found any.    Remembering of course that convictism had effectively ceased transporting to NSW in 1840. 



JM

[GeoffTurner]

And he was sent to trial at Orange for stealing from a house as well, I see. My only query was whether only convicts/ex-convicts were given tickets of leave after colonial offences, or whether a person born in the colony, for instance, would also be subject to a ticket of leave if convicted of a crime. Anyway, I'm 99% sure this is not our man. Thanks anyway, I always learn a lot in here.
Geoff

[GeoffTurner]

No that seems to be the only Ganges voyage. Interestingly, there were no McDonalds among the convicts on the Ganges. He seemed to have a penchant for aliases (he had one in the Orange stealing case) so maybe he started out as someone else. I have found the Claim a Convict site the most reliable for searching for ships or convicts. You have to join, but it is free. https://www.hawkesbury.net.au/claimaconvict/index.php