Thanks for all that, I haven't seen the Ox Journal article referring to his family, so I will PM you for a copy. You will see below why his family is of particular importance.
I have traced convict Thomas Beesley(s) via FindMyPast , a <brief> summary is:
Escaped and recaptured, sentenced March 1830 at Oxford Lent Assizes to 14 years transportation.
Transported to Portsmouth Hulk and sent out to Bermuda on 29 April 1830.
Dec 1833 Petition sent by MP Mr Hughes on behalf of father, Samuel, for review of sentence. Appeal turned down Jan 1834. Other than naming father there is no other family mentioned in the Petition.
Records show Thomas is on-board the hulk Coromandel in Bermuda from 1830 until 1838 when he returns to the hulk Leviathan in Portsmouth Harbour, and is pardoned on 12 Feb 1839. I have not found any evidence of where he went next, whether he returned to Oxford (and family) or just went missing, perhaps with a new name.
This is where the mystery starts
1841 shows a Thomas Beesley on Fish Row, now Upper Fisher Row, near Hythe Bridge (also known as High Bridge in some docs) with wife Maria, and daughters Ann (15) and Elizabeth (5). Thomas's age is given as 30 but from other later records this should be 40. SO Elizabeth born 1836 (while convict Thomas was in Bermuda). Elizabeth is baptised on 8 Jan 1837 with parents named as Thomas and Maria. In 1841 another daughter is born, Mary, my ancestor. There had been another child, Samuel, who had died in 1828. SO in 1830 this Thomas would have had just one child.
1851 shows this Thomas and Maria at Hythe Bridge Wharf with Elizabeth (16) and Mary (9), and also in 1861, just with Mary and grand-dr Sarah, daughter of Ann.
However, also in 1841 there are -
Thomas Beesley (Beseley), Bargeman, 40 married to Anna (of Scotland, Ireland or foreign parts), no children, whom I have been unable to track any further.
and Thomas Beseley (45) married to Mary with 4 children in Oxford St Ebbe, children born during the 1830-39 period.
and Thomas Beesley on 'Boat at the Star' with wife Susan and three children b abt 1837-41.
So, this is why I am trying to find any scrap of evidence about the family of convict Thomas - to see if he is my ancestor - or not. (There is reference to this case in Mary Prior's excellent book about Fisher Row, but I believe she may have reached the wrong conclusion.)
Pam