Jabez Copsey

221

D Wong on 11th October 2014

This information is from the research of Eric Drake: A tale of Transportation: Jabez Copsey January 31st 1844 Sudbury Post: `An incendiary is at work in Glemsford, a fire was discovered in the stackyard of Mr Charles Bigg of Churchgate farm at about 7 in the evening, engines from Melford and Hartest arrived and damage was confined to one stack. `A fresh alert was given about 1 in the morning when fire broke out in the barn belonging to Mr Allen the wheelright, the barn was consumed with a lot of seasoned ash plank, there has now been 4 fires in the village in 2 months. `We have now heard, a man named Copsey has been taken up.’ April 10th 1844 `Jabez Copsey and Stephen Boreham of Glemsford were charged with setting fire to Mr James Allen's barn in Glemsford. Walter Bullock said he saw the prisoners in the Cock Inn and they went off together. `Charles Hartley said "prisoners left the Cock before me, later I saw them coming over the hedge from Allen's barn", Frederick Shadbolt said he was a prisoner in Bury gaol and he had asked Boreham if he did set fire to the barn and Boreham said he did, in answer to a question witness said he had also given evidence the day before on a similar charge saying a man named Barley had also admitted setting fire to a stack and he did not give evidence for a reward. Transportation for life. ‘ Jabez was a kitchen gardener, height 5/51/2 , age 21 (two years older than the age given in the court records), complexion fresh, head and visage oval, hair and eyebrows dark, no whiskers, forehead, nose, mouth and chin all medium, eyes grey, no distinguishing marks. He spent three years on Norfolk Island. While there, in January and April 1846, he was punished for offences of insolence and `misconduct in leaving the fields before being mustered’ and for the second offence was given `hard labour in chains the month’. By 1849 he had been moved to Van Diemen’s Land and between then and 1852 is recorded as being in three different locations, all in the south-east of the island. The last entry in the register reads `Abscd Gaz 4/5/52’ which I think means he had absconded and that a wanted notice about him was posted in the Hobart Town Gazette of 4 May 1852. And that is the last definite record I have been able to find. But there is one further intriguing entry in the Tasmanian archives. The colonial authorities were careful about recording ships coming and going and who was on them. On 9 March 1853 a ship called the Sarah Ann sailed from Launceston in the north of Van Diemen’s Land to London with a crew member called James Copsey. Just coincidence, or perhaps Jabez making good his escape?

4

Stewart Duncan on 9th October 2014

Born Glemsford Suffolk Christened Glemsford Suffolk 13/07/1823