Summary
Personal Information
Transportation
John Curtis was transported on the Ganges, departing 31st Jul 1796 and arriving 2nd Jun 1797 with 212 passengers.
Ganges (generic)References
| Primary Source | Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills England & Wales, 1384-1858 |
| 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
No one has claimed John Curtis yet.
Photos
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Convict Notes
A comment by Paul Fergus on the 4th December, 2013 that Ann did not have a son John Joseph Curtis born c1809 has now been proved completely wrong. Paul Fergus based his assumption on the fact that John Joseph gave his mother’s name as Ann Fagan/Feaghan and also that John’s death certificate said he was born in South Wales instead of New South Wales (he did not allow for the possibility that a word had been left out). The death certificate of Elizabeth (the eldest child of John and Ann), who died in 1867, also states that her mother’s name was Fagan. I have been informed that Paul Fergus now accepts that John Joseph Curtis is the son of John Curtis and Ann Moran/Fagan.
His birth date of c1749 is based on his age of 72 given on his headstone.
New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents Age; 45 [1751]
There is evidence that John Curtis (convict) did NOT marry Jane Purrier in 1773 in Bristol England. In Ancestry, there a record of a Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills England & Wales, 1384-1858 for John Curtis (accountant) of Cheese Lane in the Parish of Saint Philip and Jacob, Gloucestershire. The will was written on 15 April 1812 and proved in London on 4 July 1812. It names the majority of his 11 children It is obviously the will of the John Curtis who married Jane Purrier on 10 February 1773 and the father of 11 children, the majority of whom are named in this will. His wife Jane is not mentioned but this is probably because she died in December 1800. The only date I can find in the will is 15 April 1812. John Curtis burial date is given as 19 July 1812. It is clear that this is not the John Curtis who was transported to N.S.W. Australia in 1797 as a convict and who married Ann Moran.
There is doubt about the date of birth but a baptismal record obtained from the Bristol Records Office records the baptism of John and george Curtis, the sons of George Curtis at St Phillip's & St Jacob's Church, in Bristol on 18 september 1748. Other researchers have suggested other dates but this is roughly consistent with the information on his headstone in St John's Pioneer Graveyard as t Parramatta.
I would like to reply to Paul Fergus's comments about John Joseph not being the son of John Curtis and Ann. Moran Firstly his statement that the death certificate says South Wales is likely to only be an omission of the word "New". Numerous errors occur in early records. I am not sure how records were obtained in those days (either written or verbal) but somehow the word New was left out. I am sure that his wife did not know that he was born in Toongabbi or Parramatta. The fact that his mother's name was shown as Ann Feaghan could be explained by the fact that Irish convicts (especially rebels) often changed their name to protect their families. It is also possible that, since she was over 30 when deported, she was previously married in Ireland and that Feaghan was her maiden name and her married name was Moran or vice versa. When I spoke to Ken Eccelston in early 1990 he couldn't explain the difference in the name but he accepted that John Joseph was the son of John Curtis and Ann Moran. Another thing is that just because he was called John does not mean that he does not have a middle name. Most people are called by their first name not both names. John Joseph did not move to Victoria in the 1830s or 1840s. He moved to the Monaro region in the about 1839. there are records of him leasing land in Monaro (Frying Pan Creek) and Murrumbidgee (Jeegar) regions. He was originally married to a Mary Murphy in 1840 but she died in 1853. He remarried in 1856 to a Margaret Louisa O'Doherty. They lived in Sydney and returned to Cooma for a couple of years in 1860. I have records of the birth of his 5 children which show they were living in NSW from 1856 to 1865. There is a newspaper article in 1862 about John involving a court case which mentions his brother James. John moved to Victoria in about 1870 after leasing/buying land in Diamond Creek and remained there for about 5 years before moving to Outback Queensland. He remained in Queensland till he died in 1890. In 1990 Ken Eccelston sent me documents about the Curtis Family one of which is an 1871 document to transfer John Joseph's share of his father's estate to his brother James. It mentions Peter Curtis George Eccleston and Catherine Eccleston and has their signatures on it. It also mentions where John Joseph was living at the time. You also mention that " Careful research in the Bristol Record Office in Smeaton Road, Bristol does not reveal any baptismal records for a John Curtis was born in about 1750." This is not correct. There is a record of a John Curtis's baptism in the parish of St Nicholas, close to St Philip and St Jacob on August 17th 1749 - John Curtis son of John and Elizabeth. There are is also a record of a Elizabeth Curtis and a Mary Curtis born to John and Elizabeth in 1756 and 1758 respectively. Another interesting piece of information is that the witness Eliz Butt on John and Jane's marriage certificate is Jane Purrier's sister - she married a James Butt in 1764 in Bristol.
Please ignore my contribution of the last few minutes. I had already contributed the information.
The date of arrival for the Ganges is incorrect. The ship arrived in Sydney Cove on 2 June 1797 (See Bateson and the governor's despatch at the time). There is also an error on the Muster Roll held in the State Library of New South Wales. A manuscript note (obviously a later addition)on the Roll states that the ship arrived on 2 June 1796. A baptismal record from the Church of St Philip and St Jacob in Bristol shows that the 2 sons of George Curtis, John and George, were baptised on 18 September 1748. John may be the John Curtis who was convicted at Glocester (as then spelt)on Saturday, 14 March 1795 and transported for life.
The anonymous contributor of 14 May 2011 makes a number of erroneous assertions. Careful research in the Bristol Record Office in Smeaton Road, Bristol does not reveal any baptismal records for a John Curtis was born in about 1750. On the contrary, there is a record which shows that John and George Curtis, the sons of George Curtis, were baptised on 18 September 1748. I cannot say conclusively that this is the baptism of John Curtis, accountant, forger and transportee. However, his birth in August or September 1748 is congruent with his age as stated on his headstone in St John's Pioneer Memorial Cemetery at Parramatta and with the statement by Mary Wilson on 23 July 2013 that he was born in about 1749. The court documents relating to John's committal for trial at Gloucester on Saturday, 14 March 1795 do not establish when he ceased to practice as an accountant. However, those documents give his occupation as "labourer" so that the legal authorities in Bristol clearly regarded him as having lost his professional status some time before his arrest and committal for trial. John's arrest and committal was reported in the Gloucester Journal of 8 September 1794: "Last week was committed to Lawford's Gate, Bridewell, Bristol by Rev Dr Small, John Curtis for coining and counterfeiting silver. He was detected at work in the morning about seven o'clock without Lawford's Gate and his implements seized." None of the court papers, this report and at least three press reports (Sarah Farley's Bristol Journal, Felix Farley's Bristol Journal and the Gloucester Journal of Monday, 16 March 1795) mentioned that John Curtis was convicted of counterfeiting 4 coins; they all refer to or imply that it was one coin. Most significantly, the judge's submission to King George III explaining why he had commuted John Curtis's mandatory death sentence to a sentence of transportation for life mentions only one coin. It seems most unlikely that the judge would have misled his King on such a point. A number of researchers appear to have been surprised that John Curtis could not return to England despite the eminence of those in the colony who countersigned his petition to Governor King. Examination of the judge's submission to the King explaining why the death sentence had been commuted to transportation provides the explanation. The death sentence was commuted on the strict condition that he be transported for life. If he had returned to England in any circumstances, the death sentence would revive and he would be liable to execution if apprehended. The anonymous contributor states that John Curtis and Ann Moran had a son, John Joseph Curtis, who was born in about 1809. This appears to replicate an error that appears in Ancestry.com and is based on a misreading of the Queensland death certificate for a John Joseph Curtis who died on 24 August 1890 in Brisbane. Careful perusal of the death certificate shows that this John Joseph Curtis was not born in Parramatta or Toongabbie but rather in South Wales, not far from where John Curtis himself was born. It also shows that the mother of this John Curtis was named Ann Feaghan. From this, the person who contributed the information to Ancestry.com concluded that the name of John Curtis's second wife was Ann Feaghan. Careful research by Ken Eccleston, the great grandson of John Curtis and Ann Moran, leaves little doubt that their third child was simply named "John" and not "John Joseph". Ken Eccleston's research also shows that this John Curtis moved from New South Wales to Victoria in the 1830s or 1840s at the time when most of his siblings moved to the Monaro around Adaminaby. Mary Wilson said on 23 July 2013 that John Curtis was promoted to overseer and Superintendent of the Government Herd in 1802. I have not been able to find any evidence to confirm that he was ever appointed Superintendent. It is significant that one of the five eminent people who supported his petition to Governor King for permission to return to England was in fact the Superintendent of the Government Herd so that means he could not have been the Superintendent in 1803. Nevertheless, support from the Lieutenant Governor, Samuel Marsden, Major Johnston and the Superintendent indicates the respect John Curtis had found during his five years in Australia. I suspect that his family was quite influential in Bristol where the Curtis name is quite common and eminent. This might have had some bearing on his ability to attract such eminent colonial officials to support him. I don't think anyone else has commented on this previously but the youngest child of John Curtis and his first wife, Jane Purrier, was named Charlotte. She migrated to the US in about 1812 and has many hundreds of descendants living in that country. One of her descendants has done an enormous amount of research on her family. Kim Shepherd stated on 17 August 2013 that John Curtis and Ann Moran had a second child born in about 1804. In fact, they had five children: Elizabeth (about 1804), James (about 1805), John (about 1809), Peter (3 July 1811) and Catherine (7 June 1814). Both Ken Eccleston and I are descended from Catherine and her husband George Eccleston.
John Curtis and Ann Moran had a second child James Curtis born c. 1804 at Toongabbie.