Thomas Bock

174

Iris Dunne on 3rd February 2019

Convict Muster, aged 33, est.birth year abt.1791 Convicted 5 April 1823 Prison Hulk ship Justitia moored at Woolwich, aged 30, Received 28 May 1823, Transported 16 July 1823

2

Leanne on 3rd February 2019

What follows is a transcription of a newspaper article from the Worcester Journal on 17 April 1823 reporting on the trial of Thomas Bock. The article describes his crime. "Thomas Bock, late an engraver of Birmingham, and a young woman, named Mary Day Underhill, were brought to the bar, charged with administering decoctions of certain herbs to Ann Yates, with intent to cause miscarriage, contrary to the Statute. – The first witness, Ann Yates, a respectable looking girl, stated herself to be the daughter of a tradesman living in Ashted, and was almost 19 years of age; that she became acquainted with the prisoner Bock about two years since; that she was prevailed upon by him and the female prisoner to leave her father’s house; that she was fetched back by her parents, but that the prisoner Underhill again persuaded her to leave home, and ultimately took lodgings for her, to which she removed, and that Bock soon after effected her seduction. Finding her to be pregnant by him, he told her she must take something to induce miscarriage, and at the instance of the female prisoner she took an infusion, which however had no effect upon her. Bock afterward procured another herb, which was boiled, and she took strong doses of it in presence of both prisoners. This also took no effect, and she was delivered of a child in October last, which is still living. – The woman with whom the witness lodged was next examined, and proved the taking of the room by Underhill, and also the visits of the prisoner Bock. The father of the young woman was examined in confirmation of the former part of his daughter’s testimony. – The learned Judge then addressed the Jury upon the law of the case and after a few minutes’ deliberation, they returned a verdict of guilty against both prisoners. – In passing the sentence of fourteen years’ transportation upon them, his Lordship remarked, that he had never tried a more wicked and malignant case. In addressing himself to Bock, his Lordship alluded to the arts had had practised in seducing the poor girl from the house of her parents to gratify his wicked inclinations, and forcibly remarked on the enormity of his offence, standing in the relation he did as the father of “four children, some of whom were daughters. He considered his crime also to be aggravated by the instruction he had given Counsel, to endeavour to defame the poor creature he had thus cruelly used, by insinuating that she was a common street-walker. His lordship also alluded in terms of just severity to the disgusting situation in which the female prisoner stood, and observed, that had they been capitally convicted he should have considered it his duty not to recommend them as objects of clemency, and must have left them to their fate."

5

Paul Edward Corcoran on 15th January 2014

Thomas Bock was convicted of administering a drug to a young woman, Ann Yates, in order to procure a miscarriage. An accomplice, Mary Day Underhill, was similarly accused and received the same verdict of 14 years. She was transported to Sydney. Thomas Bock established a very successful career in Hobart as an engraver and portrait painter.