William Bead

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 9th December 2024

** Ship; SCARBOROUGH. Convict Indents. ** dd noted in column next to his name - could indicate he died on voyage Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985 Name William Bead Death Date 1790 Death Place Sydney, New South Wales Registration Date 1790 Registration Place Sydney, Australia Volume Number V1790151 2a © 1997-2025 Ancestry

341

Maureen Withey on 9th May 2020

Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 09 May 2020), December 1786, trial of WILLIAM BEAD CHARLES SHELTON ROBERT ALDRIDGE, otherwise JAMES WYLEY PATRICK FITZSIMMONS (t17861213-10). WILLIAM BEAD, CHARLES SHELTON, ROBERT ALDRIDGE, PATRICK FITZSIMMONS, Violent Theft > highway robbery, 13th December 1786. 11. WILLIAM BEAD , CHARLES SHELTON , ROBERT ALDRIDGE, otherwise JAMES WYLEY , and PATRICK FITZSIMMONS were indicted for feloniously assaulting Arthur French on the King's highway, on the 15th day of November last, and putting him in corporal fear and danger of his life, and feloniously taken from his person, and against his will, one silver watch, value 40 s. one silk watch string, value 2 d. one steel key, value 6 d. one guinea, value 1 l. 1 s. and one shilling and sixpence, his property . ARTHUR FRENCH sworn. I was robbed between eight and nine in the evening of the 15th of November; I was returning from town to the Gundock, Wapping, where I live; being about half way down the New-road , I saw four or five men; I cannot be exact to their number; they met me; they crossed the road, and came round me; one or two came on my left side, and one kept my hat down over my head, and pressed the left side of my head very much, so much, that I lost my senses at the time, owing to an accident I had met with before. Did they strike you, or use any other violence? - No other. Did they ask you for any thing? - They took my money while I was in that state, they riffled my pockets. In what manner? - I do not know, because I was not fairly myself at that time; I was in so much pain, that I do not know, by their keeping my hat down so over my eyes. So that you do not very well know what happened? - No; I lost my money, and as soon I came to myself, I found they were endeavouring to get my watch out of my pocket. You perceived that? - Yes, I did, I helped them to take it out; they got the watch, then they grumbled among themselves; one of them wanted me to be dispatched; I think that was the term they made use of; however, the rest prevailed, and they went away, and I returned home. What sort of a night was it? - It was very dark, I could not see even their clothes. You did not know any of them, I suppose? - Neither of them. Was your watch ever found? - I heard of it two or three days after. Had you advertised it? - No. How did you hear of it then? - One of the officers of East Smithfield came and acquainted my brother of it; my name was on a paper in the inside; I went in the evening to the Justice's office, and the watch was then produced, and I swore it was mine. Was any body in custody there? - Two men. EDWARD HYDE sworn. I live at No. 95, in Rosemary-lane; on the evening of the 15th of November, about half past eight, as near as I can tell, the watch was brought to me by the tall man; it was pledged for one guinea in the name of William Bead ; Justice Smith's man, Mr. Dawson, came to my house with the prisoner Bead, and asked for a watch pledged for one guinea, in the name of Bead; I went and looked for it, and found it; I immediately recollected that Bead was not the man that pledged it; I never saw him before; I attended at the Justice's, and described the man that brought it; Bead and Fitzsimmons were in custody be fore the Justice; but neither of them were the man I took the watch of; I do not rightly know the man; he was remarkbly tall; I do not think it is any one of these prisoners; two or three days after it was pledged, Bead was brought in custody to my shop; he asked for the watch in the same manner as if he had pawned it himself; he said, I want the watch that was pledged a day or two in the name of Bead for a guinea; I looked for it, and found it, and said, I was positive I did not take it in of the prisoner, for he was a much taller man that brought it; and when I went to the office, there was another man in custody, but it was neither of these men; about a week or eight days after, the officer came and told me, he had taken the other man; and I attended at the Justice's again to see if I knew him; and I am not able to swear to any of them; the man that was at the second examination was that tall man; he appeared to be very much like the man that pawned the watch with me; but I have a doubt about him, for he was not in the same dress. Was it that tall man or not, are you able to say? - I do not think it was; I believe it was not any of them; Bead made a kind of confession in my hearing. In the first place was there any promises of favour made to Bead if he did confess? - I understood from himself from what little conversation he had with me that he had been promised; but I did not hear the officer say so; I only heard him say so. Did the officer admit or deny his intimation of having a promise made him? - He denied it before the Justice. ROBERT DAWSON sworn. I am the officer that took these men; I apprehended Bead and Fitzsimmons, in St. Catharine's, on an information; the Magistrate was not then sitting; I was going to lock them up, and Bead desired to speak to me; he asked me if I thought it would be of any service to him, as he had a poor old mother, if he was to make a confession of this robbery; I told him it rested with the prosecutor and the Magistrate; I could not give him any answer as to that, at that time I did not know the prosecutor, I only was informed there was a robbery committed in the New Cut that night, and that Bead and Fizsimmons, and the other two people that were in custody, committed it; I told Bead what my information was, and he said, he would go with me, and shew me where the watch was. Was there no expectation given this man on the part of the crown, that he should be shown favour if he made a confession? - No, I tell you the plain fact; I declare there was no promises made to him of any kind whatever; at that time I did not know the prosecutor, so far from that I put on a pair of hand-cuffs to him immediately; I went with him to the pawnbroker's where he directed me; when he came in, he called for a watch in the name of William Bead , pledged for a guinea; Mr. Hyde the pawnbroker let me look at the watch, and in the outside case was a paper, and in the under part of that paper was Mr. French's name, Arthur French ; I referred to the watchmaker's name, and took the number, and went to the watchmaker; the watch is here. (Produced by the pawnbroker.) I have had it ever since; it is the same watch. (Deposed to by the Prosecutor.) Dawson. The pawnbroker said, you are not the man that pawned it; no, said he, I am not; James Wyley pawned the watch; I never knew him by the name of Aldridge till this time; he then said, that Charles Shelton , Robert Aldridge , and Patrick Fitzsimmons were concerned; but when he was committed for further examination he then denied every thing he said; we were not able to apprehend the others for a considerable time after; I took them on board a man of war, out of the Maidstone frigate, in Long Reach; I know nothing further of any of the prisoners. Court to Prosecutor. What money did you lose? - A guinea and eighteen pence. Court to Hyde. You say you do not think it was any of the prisoners that pledged it? - No. Court to Prisoner Bead. Have you any thing now to say in your defence? - No. Have you any body to give you a character? - No; I did not know my trial was coming on. WILLIAM BEAD , GUILTY, Death . CHARLES SHELTON , ROBERT ALDRIDGE , otherwise JAMES WYLEY, PATRICK FITZSIMMONS , NOT GUILTY . Jury. We particularly wish to recommend this man to his Majesty's mercy, on account of his confession . Prosecutor. I wish also to recommend him; I apprehend that was the man that shewed me favour. Upon what do you ground that belief? - Merely by his voice, no other reason; his voice exceedingly accords with that of the man who spoke in my favour. Court. Then you think his voice was not the voice of the man that meant to do you a mischief? - No, my Lord. That is all? - That is all. Tried by the first Middlesex Jury before Mr. RECORDER. -------------------------------------------------- National Archives. HO 47/9/21 1789 July 21 Letter from James Adair enclosing a list of capital respites, in Newgate on 24 June, to whom no pardon has yet been granted, and on which his recommendations are noted against each name. Adair mentions that he is at a loss as to what to suggest for James Carse, convicted of murder, but periodically insane. List of capital convicts in Newgate, 24 June 1789. December Sessions, 1786 5. William Bead, for a highway robbery and taking goods, value at £4:4:01/2d, property of Arthur French. Recommendation: transportation for life.

221

D Wong on 24th September 2017

William Bead, was transported for a highway robbery and taking goods, value at £4:4:01/2d, property of Arthur French. William was on the 'Scarborough'. The Surprise, Neptune and the Scarborough were named as the deathships of the Second Fleet. There was a report that the Surprise was dumping corpses in the harbor. Ranks of sick, emaciated men needed immediate treatment for scurvy, diarrhea and Jail fever. The convicts had been kept in irons and confined below-decks for most of the half-year voyage. 5/7/1790: William was buried.