Edward Baldwin

71

Robin Sharkey on 11th December 2024

Edward Baldwin was aged 21 years, a labourer born at Waterford city, 5ft 7 &1/4 inch tall, flaxen haired, grey eyed and with fair ruddy complexion. He arrived in Sydney on the ‘Minerva’ departing 26 August 1819 to serve a seven years sentence after being convicted with another man of stealing serge from a yard (probably a commercial drying yard) ‘Kilkenny Moderator’, 27 March 1819, p 4 “Assizes Intelligence – Waterford Spring Assizes –CITY COURT Thursday, March 18 (taken from the Waterford Chronicle) Edwin Baldwin and John McKew, for stealing 50 yards of serge from the yard of Kyran Kavanagh, the property of Richard, John & Wm Creane of Clonmel who had brought it to Waterford for sale. [Both] to be transported for seven years. However, McKew was not recorded on any convict ship. Baldwin, however, was on Minerva with several other convicts sentenced at the same Assizes session at Waterford. In NSW he was sent to Parramatta for distribution and in 1822 Muster was at Rooty Hill. In Dec 1823 he was the convict servant of a settler at Westmoreland [county] when he appeared before the Bench of Magistrates for that district. This was an area from the Wollondilly River across the Blue Mountains to Cox’s River and Campbell’s River as a border close to Bathurst. This man was Mr Thomas Hawkins, and on 29 April 1824 he was given colonial secretary permission to take charge of Hawkins’ grazing run 25 miles from Bathurst. But in June 1825 he was sent to Port Macquarie for disorderly conduct. However, he received his Certificate of Freedom on 30 march 1826 (seven years from his first sentencing in Waterford). The first certificate was mutilated and he was issued a new one dated 20 Feb 1828, Number: 28/0124. In the 1828 Census he was Free by Servitude; and employed as a labourer in the household of John Smith, Residence: George St, Sydney. (John Smith had come free in Caroline. Baldwin was the only other person in his household). He may have been the Baldwin in Sydney Gaol during 1827, when he was caught up in an intrigue of Michael Power’s, Power also being in Gaol at the same time. The men involved in giving evidence in a trial of John Redmond were all working on farms from around the Bathurst area, which was where Edward Baldwin had once been. (See ‘The Australian’, 28 Nov 1827, p 3). He would appear to be the person who lost an order on Samuel Terry to £8 currency since it was to be returned to no 70 George St, Sydney. (Syd Gazette, 11, 15 & 18 Feb 1828, p.4). He does appear in court a few times: Edward Baldwin was tried for stealing a watch, seal, and key, from Edward Taggart, a mariner. Taggart had been in a state of intoxication, when he went with woman to a house of illfame in Cambridge Street, where he fell asleep. One of the women living there saw Baldwin come out of the room where they were, with the articles in his possession. She stopped him and a disturbance ensued, when the constables came up and took him into custody. (Syd Gazette 19 Oct 1830 p.3). But Taggart gave Baldwin “an excellent character for honesty and universally good conduct during the time in which he has been under him”. He was found not guilty by the Jury Friday, June 24 1831.— He had a relationship with a woman named Rose, called Baldwin (no marriage registration in indexes). Edward Baldwin, and Rose ditto, were fighting and intoxicated in the street and fined 10 shillings. (Syd Herald, Mon 27 June 1831 p.3) He stayed with Rose who erected a monument on his death in 1851. Meantime, there was a native born Edward Baldwin getting himself into more serious trouble, not to be mixed up with Waterford Edward. “Edward Baldwin, whose depredations have created so much sensation in the neighbourhood of Hunter's River, still continues at large, he is supposed to have crossed the country, and secreted himself at some of the distant stock stations beyond Bathurst.” (Syd Gazette 23 Sept 1830 p.2). In July 1831, this native born Edward “a native of the Colony and first offence,” was convicted and given the death sentence but was respited to be worked in chains at Norfolk Island for life. A second Edward Baldwin arrived as a convict on ‘Mary’ in 1833, a 48 yr old from Gloucestershire, who worked as a miner on the North Shore before he died in Sydney Hospital aged 52 in 1836. Edward Baldwin from Waterford died in Sydney on 11 August 1851 by “visitation from God” as determined by the Coroner. [NSW Coroner List number: 16993] He was buried in Sydney Burial Ground but his body was re-interred in La Perouse Cemetery with Central Railway station taking over the old burial ground His new memorial read: “Erected by Rosanna BALDWIN in memory of her husband Edward BALDWIN, native of Waterford City, Ireland, died 11th August 1851 aged 53 years. “

341

Maureen Withey on 4th July 2021

Irish Convict Database, by Peter Mayberry. Edward Baldwin, age 21, per Minerva I (2) 1819, Tried Waterford City, 1819, 7 years. DOB, 1798, native of Waterford. Labourer. ----------------------------------------------------- Colonial Secretary Index. BALDWIN, Edward. Per "Minerva", 1819. 1819 Dec 30 On list of convicts disembarked from the "Minerva" and forwarded to Parramatta for distribution (Reel 6007; 4/3501 p.144) 1823 Dec; 1824 Feb On returns of settlers' men punished in the County of Westmoreland (Reel 6023; 4/6671 pp.107, 111) 1824 Apr 29 To take charge of Mr Hawkins' grazing run 25 miles from Bathurst (Reel 6013; 4/3511 p.286) 1825 On list of convicts mustered in the employ of Thomas Hawkins of Bathurst in 1823 and 1824 (Fiche 3135; 4/1842A No.367 p.379) 1825 Jul 13 On list of convicts transported to Port Macquarie per "Elizabeth Henrietta" (Reel 6019; 4/3864 pp.528-9) 1825 Aug 25 Convict in the service of Thomas Hawkins of Bathurst at the last two musters (Reel 6015; 4/3515 p.212) -------------------------------------------------- 1828 NSW Census Index. Edward Baldwin, F.S. Minerva, 1819, catholic, Labourer at Jno. Smiths, George St. Sydney. ----------------------------------------------------- Convict Index. Edward Baldwin, Minerva 1819, Certificate of Freedom, 30 Mar 1826. 149/5122. Renewed CF 28/124.

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 23rd May 2020

New South Wales, Australia, Certificates of Freedom, 1810-1814, 1827-1867 . Ticket of Leave Date: 28/124. 20 February 1828 General Remarks; was sent to Port Macquarie in June 1825 for disorderly conduct