Origin doubts

Convict records twice record that William Ward was a chimney sweep before his arrest in London.

I did some looking for records of chimney sweeps. I found a quite a lot of stories about sweeps - many current chimney cleaning companies have a story on their website. If you are interested, and have some time, there is a very detailed story about the exploitation of young boys as chimney sweeps, see:

• The Poor Life of An Apprentice Chimney Sweep - The History of Children at Work

This led me to question whether it is even worth looking for William's parents! Given that Master Sweeps would often source boys from poor families, including boys from outside London, several questions posed themselves:

• What are the chances that William was never baptised? (Remembering that the only records kept in those times were baptisms - no birth registers were kept.)
• Was he even born in London, or could he have come from a rural family?
• If he was very young when apprenticed (some were only 4) would he have had any clear memory of his family?

I will finish my work on the 19 Williams baptised in London, but I have prepared myself to find nothing helpful!

William Ward's origins

I started this William Ward Story with his marriage, then worked back to his conviction in London before following him to the end of his sentence in Tasmania. Before I follow the story to Brisbane Water, I thought I should check his life in London before he was arrested and charged with theft.

Joan Taylor adopted (with caution) the theory that William was the son of William Ward and Ann Catherine. Her information was based on some research done in London by my parents. They consulted the Morman records in London and this was the only baptism that they could find around 1799. Other researched have subsequently found the marriage of Willian Ward and Ann Catherine Hennell.

I have seen another theory that William was the son of James Ward and Mary Preston. The places that quote this theory variously have the birth in 1793, 1799 and 1809. The 1793 date is based on the age shown on William's death certificate, the 1799 date is based on the age given at his trial and the 1809 date comes from a birth at Windsor NSW. I think it is from the William Ward born at Windsor in 1809 that the names of James and Mary Ward were found. I think we can easily debunk this James and Mary theory. Unfortunately is it now embedded in some of the online family history sites.

The details behind idea that William's parents were William and Ann Catherine can be reproduced and the baptism records are very clear and even give the date of birth. There is a thorough family history available for Ann Catherine Hennell, who descended from a famous family of London goldsmiths. But the evidence connecting our William to this baptism seems to me to be slim - just the timing and being named after his father.

Since I am double-checking everything, I decided to redo the search for births/baptisms in London around 1799. Based on some simple assumptions, and allowing for a bit of error in how old William thought he was, I searched for births in 1797, 1798, 1799 and 1800. So far I have identified 19 baptisms in London alone. A lot more old records are now available than in 1984 when my parents did the initial research in London!

I am going to do some more research on those 18 William Wards and see what I can find. I have already found that at least 8 were still in London in 1841 and are listed in the first census.

I will report back on my progress.

Joan's questions

In her landmark family history from the 1980s, Joan Taylor posed some questions about William Ward's time in Tasmania:

Whether or not he married during his time in Tasmania?

Probably not. He seems never to have been granted a Ticket of Leave and would probably not have been allowed to marry while a serving Convict. There is no record of him seeking permission to marry either.

How he how he learned about small boats?

This remains a mystery. He was assigned to 'Public Works' which would probably have been building public buildings, roads, bridges etc. Gilbert Cimitiere, the Commandant of the Port Dalrymple settlement undertook a lot of building work at Georgetown in an unsuccessful attempt to satisfy the Governor's orders that Georgetown be made the regional headquarters. But Georgetown and Launceston would have been a hive of small boat activity. My brother Steve did some asking around in Georgetown and there was a local historian who had some records of lifeboat crews I think. The bloke was not available when Steve was there, but this may be a possible line of enquiry.

Whether he appears in the list of convicts assigned to anyone from the PILOT?

Not as far as I can find, but then he would not be if he was assigned to Public Works for his whole sentence.

When he was freed?

The clipping from the Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen’s Land Advertiser that I mentioned in my last post  says that William was freed in the week before 20 Feb 1824. I assume that he would have been due for release 7 years after his conviction on 4 Dec 1816, which would have been early Dec 1823. The 3 months gaol gang for disobeying Gilbert Cimitiere (the Commandant) in 1821 might explain the extra time he had to serve.

How he came back to Sydney?

I have not discovered any information on this and doubt the records to solve this would exist. It is likely I think that he sailed directly from Northern Tasmania to Port Jackson (Sydney). I do not know if Convicts got paid, or whether William would have had the means to pay a passenger fare, but I note that he had the means to get drunk at least twice, so it is reasonable to assume he had some way of getting money. It is also possible, if not likely, that he could have worked for his passage. I did scan the Shipping Notices in the Hobart paper for the weeks after William's release, and there were regular Ships departing Georgetown and Launceston for Sydney. The brig Ann, captained by Capt. Moon departed Port Dalrympe and the Nerens, Capt Emmit departed from Geogetown. I think both advertised for cargo and passengers. There were also ships departing from Hobart at least once a week.

I have not yet tracked down the Affidavit that Joan quotes where a William Ward had lost his Certificate of Emancipation, but if that is our William, it may put a timeframe around his arrival back in Sydney. Joan says it was in 1824.

Convict servitude

The Convict records give us a few snippets of William Ward's life as a serving Convict in Tasmania. Joan Taylor discovered a muster of Convicts which includes the details of any offences committed after arrival in Australia and between 1817 and 1821. Joan listed only one offence for William - the theft of an iron pot in 1817. I found this record and thought I had confirmed Joan's findings - I was wrong!

I discovered a second set of records listing offences for each convict, which begins in 1820. This record shows four offences for William in 1820 and 1821 as well as another 5 in 1823. So I went back to the record that Joan found and had a closer look.

The original records span a complete opening in the book, but the microfilm copies shown only one page at a time. In this case, the second page was at a bit of an angle, and it was very hard to line up the two pages correctly. I was finally able to do some magic with the computer and reassemble the two pages into one, with the lines correctly aligned. Then it made sense!

Once the pages were aligned correctly, the two records matched perfectly on the date and basic details of each offence, although the new one gave a few more details. The upshot is a correction to Joan's work (the only one I have found sop far):

• May 1819 Refusing to do duty and abuse - 25 lashes.
• May 1820 Neglect of duty - 4 days in irons.
• Nov 1820 Out after hours - 25 lashes.
• Dec 1820 Striking a constable - 50 lashes.
• Jun 1820 Disobey Commandant - 50 lashes, 3 months goal.
• Jan 1823 Neglect of duty - acquitted
• Apr 1823 Drunk and disorderly - reprimanded
• Jun 1823 Drunk again and assault - 25 lashes.
• Nov 1823 Disobedience - reprimanded

The conduct record and two Convict musters place William in Port Dalrymple or Georgetown for most of his sentence. Port Dalrymple was the name used for the moth of the Tamar River, but most of the population at that time were in Launceston.

I have loaded up the source documents with my transcripts on my the website. See 1817-ward-william-convict-register.pdf (the document Joan quoted) and 1817-ward-wm-conduct-record.pdf (the later conduct record).

To me, this new conduct record paints the picture of a young man possibly sullen about his unjust conviction in England. The more he is punished, the more sullen he becomes. I like this picture more than the petty thief in Hobart.

William gained his freedom in February 1824 and the website also includes the clipping from the Hobart paper which announces William's release.

Mrs Pexton's diary

As I said in my last post, the final leg of William Ward's voyage on the Convict Ships was from Sydney to Hobart aboard the Pilot. 

Why the Almorah did not go directly to Hobart is a mystery, but maybe the decision to send most of the Almorah Convicts to Tasmania was made here rather than in England.

We only have the scarcest of details about the Almorah leg voyage - the Surgeon's notes have not survived. But it may be possible to find out more about the final leg aboard the Pilot.

The Captain of the Pilot was William Pexton and I have discovered that he was accompanied on the voyage by his wife. Her diary of the voyage survives! I have not seen it, but believe it is held in the collection of the National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour. According to the description in the library catalog, the diary includes the part of the voyage of interest to us - when the ship carried convicts from Sydney to Hobart Town.

One to follow up when we are allowed.

Convict to Tasmania

Having determined that William Ward arrived in NSW aboard the Almorah, we can look up the records of the Almorah convicts. There are several lists of the convicts, including the original manifest and the records made after arrival the Colony. These provide very similar information, including the name of the convict, where and when tried and the sentence. They tell us that William was tried at Middlesex (Old Bailey) on 4 December 1816 and was sentenced to 7 years transportation.

From this I have been able to track William's progress through the prison system.

• Arrested near Duke Street London on 15 Nov 1816.
• Committed at Newgate Prison on 23 Nov - his age is given as 18.
• Tried at Old Bailey on 4 Dec - found guilty and sentenced to transportation for 7 years His age given as 17.
• Transferred from Newgate Prison to the prison hulk Bellerophin on 4 Jan 1817. He is still shown as 17.
• Transferred from Bellerophin to Almorah on 15 Apr.
• Almorah sailed from England on 26 April (source Convict Ships by Bateson)
• Almorah arrived in Sydney on 31 Aug. William and most of the other convicts were transferred to the Pilot for the final voyage to Hobart.
• William finally steps ashore in Hobart Town on 1 Oct 1817.

All the resources backing this up are on the resources section of my website, with the exception of Bateson's book on Convict Ships. This book provides more details on the Almorah and Pilot for those interested.

William Ward

I am starting this blog at a time when I am starting to research the Ward family, starting with my Great-Great-Grandfather, William Ward. The starting point for this research is William's marriage to Catherine Mitchel at St Phillip's Church of England in Sydney on 2 February 1837. 

A simple search of the official records reveals that William and Catherine had to apply to the Governor of New South Wales for permission to marry, because Catherine was a convict still serving her 7-year sentence.

They applied for permission on 25 January 1837. William Ward was 37 and arrived on the Almorah with a 7-year sentence. He was a free man. Catherine Mitchell was 20 and arrived on the George Hibberd also with a 7-year sentence. She was on 'Bond', meaning she was a bonded servant, still serving her time.

The name of the ship is a key piece of information which unlocks a lot more of the story!

I have loaded the marriage certificate and permission to marry documents onto my website. They are under the resources section on the Ward family page.