George Corduroy

71

Robin Sharkey on 11th October 2018

George Corduroy (probably then aged 54) was first committed to Tothill Fields prison by Justice Bond in 1795. On his trial he was found guilty of: “Stealing a fat ox. John Harpers.” Transportation 14 years. Tried 6 July 1795 by the Recorder at the Old Bailey. [REFERENCE - Criminal Registers, Middlesex 1795 (HO46)]. No description given. His trial is not reported in the records of Old Bailey trials. But his sentence was reported in a newspaper: Kentish Weekly Post, Friday 10 July 1795, p.3: “OLD BAILEY, Tuesday [i.e. 7 July] the following prisoners were put to the bar and received the following sentences: … Mary Ann White, George Corduroy, and Catherine Edmonds, to be transported for fourteen years.” [Mary Ann White was reprieved, but Catherine Edmonds arrived in NSW]. George was not transported for another two years, so he would have been working out of the hulks. Convicts on “Barwell” were embarked from early October 1787 and the ship did not leave Portsmouth until 6 November 1787. The indent recorded his age as 56 (1798 arrival). ‘Barwell’ arrived in NSW on 18 May 1798. It had been an eventful and unpleasant voyage via the Cape of Good Hope. The replacement judge-advocate in NSW, coming out on ‘Barwell’, Richard Dore, claimed twenty-five people intended to mutiny but an informer gave a warning the night before, so the scheme was stopped. Out of Cape Town, many of the soldier guards were insolent and disgruntled, and supposedly conspiring with convicts to take the ship and sail to Ile de France. The soldier leader was put in irons, and some convicts and guards were flogged. (Charles Bateson, ‘Convict Ships’, p.166) DEATH George’s burial is registered in 1801 [NSWBDM – deaths no 1544/1801 V18011544 2A]. He was killed by aboriginals at the farm of Mr Smyth. [Sydney Gazette of 9 December 1804 p. 2]. ‘Smyth’ would be Thomas Smyth, who originally arrived as a serjeant in the marines with the First Fleet. Smyth, in October 1792, was discharged from the marines to be appointed Government Storekeeper. ( Collins, ‘An Account of the English Colony in NSW’ 1801). From here Smyth was appointed Provost Marshal in 1796. He had successive land grants at Bulamaning. This was the original name for the area from around Marrickvlle to Tempe, north of the Cooks River. First he was granted 30 acres in 1794, then another 30 acres a year later. George may have been assigned to him on arrival in May 1798, and it was in the following year in June 1799 that Smyth was granted a much larger additional 470 acres at Bulanaming. This number of convicts could have all been at Bulamaning. [Settlers' Muster Book - List 9: Servants Employed by Officers in 1800; PLNSW ref: Vol. Safe 1/104-5, published in "Musters and Lists, New South Wales and Norfolk Island: 1800-1802" Carol Baxter] Alternatively, George might have been killed at Smyth’s 30 acre farm at Mulgrave Place (i.e. now Windsor) that Smyth purchased in June 1799 from Thomas Peacock. A Nephew Transported It was reported he had a nephew in the colony, named William Collins, who was killed in a terrible crushing accident at Isaac Nicholls’s shipyard near the Hospital Wharf. All this was reported in the Sydney Gazette of 9 December 1804 p. 2 regarding Collins’ death: “The only relative that Collins ever had in the country was an old man of the name of Corduroy, an uncle, who also met a violent death, having been killed by the natives during one of their former excesses at Mr. Smyth's farm.” The only William Collins’ arriving in the colony who are likely to be his nephew are: • William Collins, also arrived on “Barwell” aged 18 years at his 1796 Old Bailey trial, so also resident in inner London. At the time of the accident he would have been aged 26. Had a Life sentence so would still be a government man as per newspaper report of the death. He appears in the 1801 convict muster, but not after that, whereas he would be expected to appear in the 1814 muster or for a sentence reprieve. His death is a likely reason for disappearing. However, the England Criminal Register records that he was a native of Taunton in Somerset, and no information located about Somerset regarding George. Corderoys go back in Middlesex at least 200 years before. • William “Collin”, also sometimes “Collins” or “Collen” was a 13 year old boy in 1792 sent for 7 years transportation. Tried Old Bailey. At the time of the accident he would have been aged 25, similar to the “Barwell” William Collins. He was born in London, however he had only a 7 year sentence so should not have been a government labourer in 1801. There is no official convict record for him after arrival, but there are many un-identifiable William Collins’s.