Joseph Birt

343

Maureen Withey on 19th December 2022

Transportation to NSW effectively ceased in 1842 but between 1846-1850 exiles were transported. Exiles had served part of their sentence in a penitentiary in Britain and were granted a conditional pardon or ticket of leave on arrival in the Colony. (The Exiles index covers the period 1849-50 only. ) THE EXILES. We think we have now vanquished the opposition which our contemporaries made to the introduction of exiles of reformed character. We have also to state, that the twenty men who arrived in the Royal George have comported themselves so well, as to earn for themselves the good opinion of their employers. We may, therefore, look without any fear to the arrival of the Sir George Seymour, which will in all probability be sent to this district to land its exiles. The various districts on the other side are getting up petitions to the Governor for a portion of these exiles. The labor market is bare ; what are the settlers to do ? What can they do when labor advances to an exorbitant price, — and are …? Port Phillip Gazette, 12 Feb 1845. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/224812385?searchTerm=Exile

343

Maureen Withey on 19th December 2022

I think this is Joseph: Colchester Quarter Session. Joseph Birt, 21, ostler, charged with having stolen a silk handkerchief from the pocket of Thomas Law, a livery servant, in the employ of Mr. Tomkin, of Witham.— Guilty.— The Recorder told the prisoner he had been found guilty upon extremely clear evidence of a very serious offence— a robbery from the person daringly and skilfully executed in the face of day, and one which he should not be doing his duty to the public if he did not visit it with the extreme punishment the law allowed. The sentence of the Court, therefore, was that he be transported for the term of seven years. Essex Standard, 30 June 1843.

221

D Wong on 27th June 2013

Joseph Birt was 29 years old, an Exile and was disembarked in Melbourne.