Robert Clist

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 1st June 2021

UK, Royal Navy Medical Journals, Surgeon; Edward Jeffery Ship; Recovery; 4 May 1837 - 13 Nov 1837. Name; ? Clist Age; 17 [1820] Disease; Scorbutus Date; 26 Sept 1837 Discharged; HOSPITAL; 8 October 1837

71

Robin Sharkey on 8th July 2020

Tasmanian Life Overview Robert Clist does not appear on the surgeon’s records as a scurvy sufferer. “Recovery” arrived in Hobart on 8 October 1837. Robert never saw his brother Charles again. In NSW, in November 1839 Charles was hung at Sydney Gaol for his involvement in a murder in western NSW. In 1840, Robert was in service of Mr Hodgkinson. After a couple of offences, he was given twelve months on the roads. Eleven months of this was to be in chains after he absconded from the Green Ponds Road Gang In September 1840, and he was in the Campbelltown Chain Gang in October, and he was in gaol for a short time for having £1 unaccountably in his possession. After this, in 1841 he was sent to the service of M. Gaunt of the Tamar in northern Tasmania. This was Dr Matthias Gaunt, ex-surgeon of the Royal Navy who took up a 2500 acre land grant in the Tamar Valley in 1831, which he named “Windermere”, where Robert Clist would have been serving. Dr Gaunt also ran the Union Steam Mills at Windermere. In 1842 Robert Clist absconded. It seems he was never seen again as he was still recorded in 1849 as an absentee. TASMANIAN CONVICT RECORDS - DESCRIPTION LIST CON 18/1/22 (image 89) Trade: Labourer. Height: (w/o shoes) 5ft 3in Complexion: Sallow. Head: oval. Hair: Black. Age: 17. Whiskers:—- Visagge: Oval Chin Croakhair (?????) Forehead: medium Saverely (??) Eyebrows: Black. Eyes: Hazel Nose: Long Mouth: Medium. Chin:“Do”[i.e. Ditto for mouth]. Remarks: Slightly Pockmarked Convict Ledger Returns – 1841 – in service of M Gaunt Esq, Tamar. Convict Ledger Returns – 1846 – Absconded Convict Ledger Returns – 1849 – Absentee CONDUCT RECORD CON31/1/7 (image 433) Transported for “horse stealing”. “Gaol Report”: Character &c very bad. His father was hung. “Hulk report”: orderly. Single, Stated this offence. Horse stealing from a Common. My father was hung 6 years ago. Single. “Surgeon’s report”: Orderly. "June 22 1840 Hodgkinson Absent without leave. Admonished (GBF) "August 14th 1840. Hodgkinson, Suspicion of stealing a quantity of wheat from his master and taking it to Thomas Groad’s house. 12 months hard labour on the roads (GBF La gage (?) Esq / "Sept 30 1840 Under sentence to Green Ponds. “Absconding” To serve the remainder of his existing sentence Namely eleven months, in chains/ "P Det (?) & T.L. / Approved Campbell Town Chain Gang then returned to his party Vide L.G. Despatch 9 Oct 1840 [JR: Lieut Governor’s Despatch dated 9/10/40] "Oct 20 1840, In Gaol. Misconduct in having a one pound in his possession for which he cannot account. Admonished and money returned to Government. (G.B.F) 12.4.44 3rd Class. "Run in 1842."

71

Robin Sharkey on 7th July 2020

REPORT OF TRIAL FOZR HORSE THEFT [Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 26 March 1836, p.4] "Devon Assizes Charles and Robert Clist for stealing on the 12th Jan., a pony the property of Wm. Carter, of Roseash. Robert Clist pleaded guilty. It appeared that the pony had been left on Ashmore Common on the 26th December and that on the 12th of January the prosecutor missed the animal from that place. The two prisoners were seen together on the previous evening. On the 12th of January, they called at the house of Robert Loosemore, farmer and publican, residing about 17 miles from Roseash and offered for sale a pony. The farmer’s wife, in the absence of her husband, purchased it for 15 shillings, an old cock, and a pint of ale. She had known the prisoners before. The prosecutor in the meantime, was in search of the pony, and in a few days found it in Mr Loosemore’s possession. "The jury returned a verdict of guilty. The Learned Judge then stated that the prisoner, Charles, had very cunningly faced a trial, while Robert had acted most wisely in giving in his plead of Guilty, but the Jury had acted judiciously in their verdict, for it appeared that, according to his own confession, he [note: "He" appears to be Charles] had been imprisoned, and had committed burglary before. Both of them transported for life." _____________________________________________

71

Robin Sharkey on 7th July 2020

Robert Clist (aged 15) and Charles Clist (aged 23) were brothers, charged at Devon Assizes in Spring 1836 with offences of stealing a horse on 12th January 1836, and of burglary of a draper’s house carried out on 21st January 1836. [Sherbourne Mercury, Monday 28 March 1836 p 3, 4.] Both were transported. Robert departed May 1837 on “Recovery” for Tasmania seven months after Charles had departed in October 1836 on “Norfolk” for NSW. The CLIST FAMILY Of their family background, Robert’s hulk records noted that he was a “travelling gypsey” and that his father had been hung, and that his connexions were “bad”. Charles’s hulk records noted only that he was “of very bad connexions” – meaning his family background. No man surnamed Clist was hung in England from 1819 (pre-Robert's birth)to 1836, so either this information is wrong or the father went by a different name. Burglary at a Draper’s. The house of John Snow, draper, at Tiverton, Devon was reported as being broken into on 21st January when it was “plundered of broad cloth and other property to a large amount [Essex Herald, 9 Feb 1836, p.4]. Tiverton, County Devon, is a town about 15 miles north of Exeter. Other family members were also charged over the burglary at the draper’s: Sarah Clist, aged 20, was the wife of Charles Clist (per newspaper reports), William Clist was aged 29 years, and Maryanne Richards was aged 26 ( relationship to the Clist family unknown). Together with 15-yr-old Robert, these were all charged as accomplices, with “counselling and abetting Charles Clist in committing the burglary” [‘Western Times’, Sat 19 March 1836, p.3] Although the newspaper reports did not mention William Clist, he appears on the same page as the others in the Criminal Register for the Devon Spring Assizes commencing 17 March 1836, noted as being charged with burglary, as were the others. All Clists recorded in the criminal register of Devon Assizes were noted as being unable to read or write, except William who could partially either read or write. For the draper’s burglary, it appears that the Grand Jury found a “No Bill” against Robert, Sarah and MaryAnne Richards. This means there was insufficient evidence to indict them at the Assizes. Western Times, 26 March 1836, p.3: “NO BILLS – Robert and Sarah Clist, and Mary Ann Richards, charged with a burglary and stealing from the house of Mr John Snow, Tiverton, draper …”. William Clist was recorded in the Devon Assizes Criminal Register as being found Not Guilty. Charles Clist was indicted and pleaded guilty. STEALING A HORSE Charles was, additionally, charged with stealing a horse from Ashmore Common on 12th January 1836, and his little brother Robert was charged with being an accessory. Roseash was a small village about 13 miles north-west of Tiverton, and the Ashmore Common must have been nearby. (Other Ashmore Commons or Greens are in counties many miles away – Worcester or Dorset or Berkshire). Charles again pleaded guilty, and was given a sentence of Death Recorded, meaning he was to be transported for life instead. Robert Clist, 15, was found guilty as an accessory to Charles’s horse theft, and was sentenced to transportation for life. Robert remained in Devon County Gaol at Exeter (also known as Devon High Gaol) for another seven weeks until Monday 9th May, when he and several others, also sentenced at the Spring Assizes, were moved to the Gannymede hulk, moored at Woolwich. (Western Times, Saturday 14 May 1836, p.3). His brother Charles was not sent to the Gannymede until a week later, with six fellow prisoners who, as a group with Charles, had tried unsuccessfully to break out of Devon gaol on 2 April. • Gannymede Hulk records: “Received from Exeter Gaol 10th May 1836” – Robert Clist, Age: 16, Offence: “horse stealing” • Gannymede Hulk Index (alphabetical) Robert Clist - Gaoler’s report “a strolling gypsey” Charles Clist listed five lines below “A very bad character” (Convict Prison Hulks: Registers and Letter Books; Class: HO9; Piece: 3) On 28 October, Robert’s brother Charles Clist was removed from Gannymede to be sent direct to NSW on the “Norfolk” transport ship. • EURYALUS HULK. On 13 November 1836, Robert was removed from Gannymede to the Euryalus Hulk, also at Woolwich, in a combined group of thirty from Gannymede and Justitia. He was there only two weeks before being transferred again, to the Fortitude Hulk. The Euryalus Index (entry no 2691) recorded: Character from Gaoler: “A Gipsey. Father hung. Connexions very bad.” Euryalus Register: How Disposed of: Transferred to Fortitude, 28th Nov 1836 • FORTITUDE HULK at Chatham. (entry no 3402) Robert Clist Age 16, Horse stealing. Disposed of: “to VDL on 22 May 1837” _________________________________________________