Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
William Cormack 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 339 (169) |
| 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
Australia, Convict Index, 1788-1868 Name William Cormack Age 36 Birth Year abt 1767 Arrival Year 1803 Arrival State Sorrento Ship Calcutta Occupation Plasterer © 1997-2025 Ancestry
Tasmanian Records. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON22-1-1_0164 Per Calcutta 1804, & Ocean. William Cormack, tried Middx Je. Dy. 20 May 1801, 7 years. Life. ---------------------------------------------------- Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 13 March 2023), May 1801, trial of DENNIS KENNEDY WILLIAM M'CORMACK THOMAS JONES (t18010520-3). DENNIS KENNEDY, WILLIAM M'CORMACK, THOMAS JONES, Theft > animal theft, 20th May 1801. 441. DENNIS KENNEDY , WILLIAM M'CORMACK , and THOMAS JONES , were indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 23d of April , four sheep, value 4l. the property of John Claridge . (The case was opened by Mr. Gurney). WILLIAM WHITSEY sworn. - Examined by Mr. Gurney. I am a constable of the parish of St. Pancras: On the 23d of April, about six in the morning, I stopped the prisoners Kennedy and M'Cormack at Kentish-town; M'Cormack had a bag, and Kennedy had a bit of a blue apron on; the bag appeared to be full, and so did the apron; I had a brother officer with me, and we stopped them; I asked them what they had got, and they said, a man had hired them beyond Highgate to carry them on the road to London, and he was to overtake them at Camden-town; in the bag we found two sheep cut asunder, and two quarters in the apron, there were altogether three whole sheep; we took them back towards Highgate; we took them into the Angel at Highgate, and there Kennedy voluntarily told us to go to a new house upon Finchley Common, beyond the Baldfaced Stag, and he said we should find a man in the house with one carcass of a sheep left behind; he said, they were killed in the night at the back of the house, but he did not say in doors or out; M'Cormack heard Kennedy say this, but did not speak a word; we then got the constable of Highgate, and went with him to the house that Kennedy had described, it was Jones's house; we searched it, and found four heads, four skins, and a carcass of a sheep under the bolster of the bed; the skins were in a bureau bedshead, in the same room where the prisoner Jones was sitting in the corner by the fire, and we brought him away. (Produces the skins). WILLIAM BRASIER sworn. - Examined by Mr. Gurney. I was with Whitsey when he stopped the prisoners at Kentish Town; Kennedy told us if we went to Finchley Common to a house that he described, we should find a whole carcass; he said they had killed four altogether; I went to Jones's house, according to the description of Kennedy, and we found it exactly as he had said; there were four skins, four heads, and a carcass; we found Jones in the same room with the skins, there were three of us; I searched and found these things after the prisoner Jones was taken. Prisoner Kennedy. Before I told him where the sheep were, he said he would procure me a pardon if I did. Brasier. I told him he had better tell where they were. Court. Q.Did you tell him you thought he might be forgiven? - A. I did. WILLIAM CLARKE sworn. - I am the owner of the house in which these things were found. between the Baldfaced Stag and Brown's Well; I had been building two houses; Jones was a labouring man, he slept in the house to protect the premises; there was no other person in charge of the house but him. JOHN CLARIDGE sworn. - Examined by Mr. Gurney. I am a farmer at Finchley; I had sheep grazing upon Finchley Common: I missed four sheep on the morning of the 23d of April, I saw the skins again the same morning; I had seen the sheep the evening before. Q.Look at these skins? - A.They are all marked F C, and F C upon the horns also; I am certain these are the skins and horns of my sheep. Kennedy's defence. M'Cormack desired me to go with him to get some mutton; being hungry, I went with him to Jones's, and Jones gave us the mutton; I saw the skins upon the floor, and he told me it was his own property; as we were coming home, these constables took us, and I told them where I got it. Jones's defence. These men called me up, and M'Cormack told me he would give me two shillings if I would kill four sheep for them, which I did; Kennedy brought them in with his own hands. M'Cormack's defence. I am a plasterer by trade; Jones desired me to go down on Thursday morning to fetch some meat, and to bring another man with me, and I took this man; I told Jones that it was dangerous for us to carry them, if he was sure they were not his own, and he said they were his own. The prisoner Kennedy called three witnesses, who gave him a good character. Kennedy, GUILTY , Death , 'aged 24. M'Cormack, GUILTY , Death , aged 44. Jones, GUILTY , Death , aged, 30. First Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Baron Graham .