Caroline Butcher

342

Maureen Withey on 6th November 2025

POLICE OFFICE. Committed by W. H. Ferrar, Esq. to Carrickfergus gaol, Caroline Butcher, Mary Skreene and Rose Gray, charged with passing forged bank notes. Belfast News-Letter, 20 Feb 1824.  Uttering Forged Notes.  Rose Grey, Ellen Screen, and Caroline Butcher, were indicted for having in their possession a forged 20s. note of the Bank of Ireland, and for uttering the same knowing it to be forged, to Mr. Boyce, Belfast. Mr. Boyce, merchant, Belfast, stated that the prisoner, Butcher, offered the Note in question, in Feb. last, for some tea and sugar she had purchased; witness suspected it to be a forgery, and asked her where she got it; she said she had got it from her mother to get change ; witness said he would detain it, and Butcher then  said she had got it from her husband, a soldier in the 77th regiment; witness sent for a constable;  when he came, Butcher then said, I will tell the truth; I got the note from Ellen Screen  witness went to Screen's house, in quest of another note which Butcher said she had; but, on Screen being searched, no note was found on her; Screen acknowledged that she got the note from her husband, a soldier in the 77th regiment; Butcher said she was to receive 3s for uttering the note offered to witness. Mr. Paschal Field, of the Bank of Ireland, proved the note to be a forgery. The Jury found Grey, Not Guilty; Screen and Butcher, Guilty to be transported for 14 years.    Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 20 March 1824. On Monday the undermentioned convicts passed  through this town, on their route to Dublin, from the Gaol of Carrickfergus :— To be transported for seven years.—Ellen Dunn, Anne Mellish, Frances Stewart, Eliz. Heyburn, Margaret M‘Guire, Mary Patterson, Rose Morgan. To be transported for fourteen years.—Mary Screen, alias Johnston. To be transported for life.-Elizabeth Moon, alias Harkin. One convict named Caroline Butcher remains, in consequence of indisposition. Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 8 Dec 1824.

71

Robin Sharkey on 16th February 2021

When Caroline landed in NSW off the ‘Brothers” she was approached by one Thomas Ryan who convinced her to abscond and live with him as a free woman. She never made it to her assigned master’s (Mr West) and was put up by Ryan for 7 weeks most of it in the Rocks where he passed her off as being free. But they had a fight and it was Ryan himself who then gave her up to the authorities! However, the authorities saw her as the victim and Ryan himself was charged and flogged. Caroline was sent to her original assigned master, but by the 1828 Census she was at the Factory. Sydney Gazette, 2 May 1827, p.2 "Thomas Ryan, assigned servant to Capt. Gilman, was brought before the Police, on Monday, under the following circumstances. It appeared that a female named Caroline Butcher, lately arrived in the Colony, by the ship Brothers, was assigned from the vessel to the service of a person named West. On coming ashore, and previous to going to her master's, it seems she was met by the prisoner, who, after some conversation, prevailed on her to abscond from her service, and come to live with him. "He conveyed her to his master's residence, where he kept her for some time concealed, and then took her to the house of a person named Smith, in the neighbourhood of the Rocks, where she also remained a considerable time, the prisoner supplying her with provisions as she needed them. " In the meantime, she was advertised as a runaway, and after cohabiting with the prisoner for a period of 7 weeks, some little dispute arose between them and the treacherous scoundrel gave private intelligence to the Police, carefully concealing his own share in the transaction, and she was apprehended. "Information, however, was given to the Magistrates, of the part which the prisoner had taken in enticing the woman away, and that he also was the person who afterwards delivered her up to the constables, and so struck were they with the unexampled baseness of his conduct, that they were of opinion the offence of the female merged into nothing, when compared with his, and accordingly pardoned her, placing the prisoner in her former situation at the bar. A number of witnesses deposed to the fact of seeing them living together, and of his passing her to enquirers as a free woman. The constable also deposed to having received the information upon which she was apprehended, from the prisoner. The Bench sentenced him to receive 100 lashes."

342

Maureen Withey on 13th September 2020

https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/node/1621/browse Marriage Permissions. Permission 21 July 1828, Liverpool. Thomas Field, per Fortune (2), age 45, Life, T. of L., Disallowed, and Caroline Butcher, per Brothers 2, age 26, 14 years, bond. Rev. Robert Cartwright. Marriage Permissions. Permission 31 Mar 1830, Parramatta. Richard Camburn, per Shipley (1), age 31, 7 years, Free., Disallowed, and Caroline Butcher, per Brothers 2, age 28, 14 years, T. of L. disallowed. Married. Rev. William Yate.

342

Maureen Withey on 26th August 2019

Convicted aged 25 at Antrim 1824, and sentenced to 14 years for Bad Notes. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland. She was a widow with 1 child. Her husband was a soldier in the 77th regiment. NSW 1828 census at Government Factory, Parramatta. Catherine Butcher, age 26, arrived 1827, Brothers, sentence 14 years, protestant.