Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
William Cooper was transported on the Thomas Arbuthnot, departing 6th Jan 1847 and arriving 4th May 1847 with 289 passengers.
Built 1841 at Aberdeen, Scotland. Wood ship of 621 Tons. Thomas Arbuthnot, 1847. “The Thomas Arbuthnot convict ship, Captain Thomson, sailed from Spithead this morning for Port Phillip, with a superior class of delinquents, officially called “exiles.” These are the first “exiles” sent to the above settlement, which the inhabitants of that respectable place are very wroth at, and have memorialised the Government on the subject. The most ingenious trades and professions are carried on, on board this ship; in fact, we believe, all trades in vogue have their representatives on board. The most ingenious affair, however, is a newspaper in manuscript, published every Saturday, having its foreign and domestic correspondence, advertisements, and, indeed, all the necessary accessories to an apparently well-conducted journal. The articles are well written and the arrangements well made. The name of this paper is the Citadel, and the conductors dub the captain of the ship ” the governor.” The Citadel having no opponents enjoys a large circulation. The editor is a man who has been of considerable note in the legitimate literary world; but all names and circumstances in connexion with their present position is strictly preserved secret with regard to these “exiles,” the greatest majority of whom are juvenile offenders from Millbank, Pentonville, and Parkhurst (Isle of Wight) prisons.”—Times, January 12. Published in the Launceston Examiner, 2 June 1847. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/36252218?searchTerm=Thomas Arbuthnot There was a lot of public criticism of the arrival of these “Exiles” in New South Wales, and of their treatment, by being offered training, etc, to the detriment of honest but poor labourers.
Thomas Arbuthnot (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 92, Class and Piece Number HO11/15, Page Number 153 (78) |
| 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 |
Claims
"William Cooper is my husband's 2nd GGF and my sons 3rd GGF as confirmed via records and DNA links."
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Convict Notes
William Cooper was the son of Jane Cooper and William Windridge, who married shortly after his birth. William Cooper married Ann Parson on 2 Nov 1840. They had a son, William, born 1840 and a daughter, Hannah, born 1842. He married Mary Ellen Palmer at Geelong in 1853.
Burglary at Pipe Ridware. THOMAS HYDEN and WILLIAM COOPER breaking into the dwelling-house William Leese, at the parish of Pipe Ridware, on the night the 15th of August, and stealing a number of cheeses. Mr. Arryston conducted the prosecution. Mrs. Leese, wife of the prosecutor, deposed to the cheese-room attached her husband's house being broken into on the 15th of August, and 13 cheeses being stolen from a stock of eight score. Elizabeth Walthull, the next witness called, was evidently a most unwilling one, as she refused to state anything respecting the prisoners and the robbery, although she had made statements in her depositions taken before the magistrates tending materially strengthen the evidence against them. The proscecutor: You made certain statements when before the magistrates ; tell the Court what you then said. Witness.—I don't know what I did say. I was put about so. The Judge,—If it should be proved that you are committing perjury, you will be liable be transported. The witness still persisted, after repeated interrogatories from the learned Counsel, that she knew nothing of the matter, adding how can I tell you about what I have not seen? Thomas Willetts, constable, of Armitage, was watching the house of the prisoner Cooper shortly after the robbery, in consequence of some suspicion attaching to him. In the course of the night he saw Cooper come out his house with something under his arm. went to the canal and threw some substance in, which appeared to make distinct plunges, he could not see what it was. The prisoner then returned home, when he apprehended him, on being told the charge against him, the prisoner's wife said, Will, do you tell. You know you are guilty stealing Mr Leese's cheeses; which the prisoner said that would when he went before the magistrates. The canal watershed and two Cheeses were found. Cooper, asked the witness.—Did you see with two cheeses ? I mean to say. Mr. Willetts, you are a very false man. The prisoner Cooper having made a statement then before the magistrates, read by the officer of the Court. The statement was to the effect, that he, with the prisoners Thomas Hyden and Daniel Hyden went a public-house the night of the robbery and had a pint of ale, and they afterwards agreed to and break into the prosecutor's cheese-room. When they got to the premises, a ladder was fetched from the orchard and placed against the cheese-room window, and Thomas Hyden went up and took out one of the panes of glass, he (Thomas Hyden) then entered the room. and gave him four cheeses out, which were divided amongst them. Two them were afterwards thrown into the canal. One the cheeses found in the canal was dearly identified us the property of the prosecutor, from particular burn mark upon it. The learned Judge said there was no evidence against the prisoner Hyden, and he therefore was entitled to his acquittal, as what one prisoner says against another could only be taken evidence against himself. The prisoner Cooper, who had been three years in the service of the prosecutor, a servant, and had only recently left, was found guilty. His Lordship remarked that his case was one of an aggravated nature, and one too which called for severe punishment. He then sentenced the prisoner be transported for ten years. Staffordshire Advertiser, 14 Dec 1844. --------------------------------------------------- (The former parish of Pipe Ridware, was known as Mavesyn Ridware after 1934. It is near Rugely, Staffordshire, on the Trent and Mersey canal.) -------------------------------------------------- Convict Exiles Index. William Cooper, age 25, per Thomas Arbuthnot. Date of trial, 10/12/1844, at Stafford, sentence, 10 years, Charge, Burglary. Remarks: Exiles.