Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
John Cole was transported on the Calcutta, departing 31st Jan 1803 and arriving 4th Oct 1803 with 305 passengers.
HMS Calcutta was the East Indiaman Warley (1795), converted to a Royal Navy ship. This ship of the line served for a time as an armed transport. She also transported convicts to Australia. The French Magnanime captured Calcutta in 1805. In 1809, after she ran aground during the Battle of the Basque Roads and her crew had abandoned her, a British boarding party burned her. In 1803 the Calcutta sailed into Port Phillip bay where at least 4 convicts escaped , in Sydney in April 1804 it was reported that 8 had died on the trip. Of the four known escapees one was shot on escape, 2 turned back after 2 days to reattach to the group at the camp in bay before the boat left , one continued on ...into Australia's history books. At least 13 convicts were transferred on to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Australia.The ship also carried officers, wives and free settlers.
Calcutta (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 87, Class and Piece Number HO11/1, Page Number 341 (170) |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
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Convict Notes
Tasmanian Records. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON22-1-1_0164 Per Calcutta 1804, & Ocean. John Cole, tried Middx Je. Dy. 13 Jan 1802, 7 years. --------------------------------------------------- Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 13 March 2023), January 1802, trial of JOHN COLE (t18020113-16). JOHN COLE, Theft > theft from a specified place, 13th January 1802. 95. JOHN COLE was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 16th of November , three miniature pictures, value 21s. and ten silver tea-spoons, value 26s. the property of Elizabeth Oliver, widow, in her dwelling-house. ELIZABETH OLIVER , jun. sworn. - I am the daughter of Elizabeth Oliver; my mother is a widow , and keeps the sign of the Standard, in Well-street, in the parish of Whitechapel : On the 16th of November we lost the articles mentioned in the indictment; the prisoner lodged in our house, and upon the spoons being missed, he left our lodgings the next night; the miniature pictures were taken from a drawer; there did not appear to be any violence done to the drawer; he was brought back to our house about five weeks after. ( James Harding , servant to Mr. Matthews, a pawnbroker, in the Minories, produced six tea-spoons, pledged in the name of John Owen, but could not say from whom be received them.) EDWARD SMITH sworn. - I am an officer belonging to Lambeth-street; I apprehended the prisoner on Sunday, the 13th of December; on Saturday, the 12th, I received these pictures from Mary Seaman . JOHN NOWLAND sworn. - I am an officer; the prisoner told me if I would go backwards with him he would tell me all about it; I made him no promise or threat; he told me he found the spoons on the stairs one night when he was going to bed wrapped up in two papers; he said he was very much distressed, and pawned them; he said he found the pictures in his coat-pocket, and did not know how they came there; he said he had left them at Mrs. Seaman's, to be taken care of; he told Smith where the spoons were pawned. Smith. He told me one pawnbroker lived in the Minories, and the other in Rosemary-lane, but did not know their names; we found the other four spoons at a pawnbroker's in Rosemary-lane. MARY SEAMAN sworn. - I live at No. 5, Iron gate; my father keeps an eating-house; the prisoner came to lodge at my father's on the 14th of November, and on the 16th he gave me those three pictures, saying, they were his father, his mother, and his sister; I was to take care of them for him; one evening afterwards I had occasion to go to Mrs. Oliver's to inquire after a young man who had lodged at our house, and I thought I observed a likeness between Mrs. Oliver and the pictures I had at home; I mentioned it to her, and afterwards delivered them to the officer. JOHN PEGRIM sworn. - I am servant to Mr. Ray, a pawnbroker, in Rosemary-lane, (produces four tea-spoons;) I took them in pledge of a person, I believe the prisoner at the bar, but I cannot be positive; they were pledged on the 16th of November in the name of John Cole .(The pictures and spoons were identified by Miss Oliver.) Prisoner's defence. I found the pictures in my great coat pocket, how they came there I do not know; I was going on board a ship, and left them with that young lady to take care of them for me; I picked up the spoons on the stairs as I was going to bed one evening, and being very much distressed I pledged them till I could get some money to redeem them again, and then I meant to find out who they belonged to. GUILTY, aged 21. Of stealing goods to the value of 39s. Transported for seven years . First Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Recorder.
Old Bailey On-Line Born; 1781 Trial; 13 Jan 1802. Tried at Old Bailey, London. Accused of theft from a specified place (feloniously stealing, on the 16th of November, three miniature pictures, value 21s. and ten silver tea-spoons, value 26s. the property of Elizabeth Oliver , widow, in her dwelling-house). Found guilty (theft under 40s). Sentenced to transportation. Australia, Convict Index, 1788-1868 Name John Cole Arrival Year 1803 Arrival State Sorrento Ship Calcutta Occupation Seaman © 1997-2025 Ancestry