Richard Dawkins

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Dianne Jones on 18th July 2022

IN VDL: 11 June, 1851: On arrival in VDL, RICHARD DAWKINS was listed as convict #24384, a farm labourer, 25 years old, 5’5” tall with brown hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion. He was single, Church of England, and able to read and write a little (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-103$init=CON33-1-103p84). Family: Father William; mother Hannah; brothers David [no mention of his incarceration on Gibraltar]), William and Henry; sister Elisa — all at his native place (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai17889). For further details see his VDL Conduct record at https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-103$init=CON33-1-103p84 and his Indent record at https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-41$init=CON14-1-41P366. —00—

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Dianne Jones on 18th July 2022

8 March, 1851: Richard Dawkins was sent aboard the Cornwall for transportation to VDL, his conduct at Gibraltar listed as “very good”. David Dawkins would been sent to VDL almost two years later, in February, 1853 aboard the St Vincent (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). —00—

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Dianne Jones on 18th July 2022

On Gibraltar, he was listed as 21 years old when convicted for stealing a copper boiler, born in Runsey, Hampshire; Catholic; brown hair, grey eyes and florid complexion, 5’5¾” tall; semi-literate; labourer; single. Note: His older brother, David, convicted with him, was sentenced to 14 years’ transportation and sent to Gibraltar at the same time. He was prisoner #799. --0--

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Dianne Jones on 18th July 2022

9 March, 1847: DAWKINS, RICHARD #800, arrived on Gibraltar from England per Euryalus. Held on the Europa hulk (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). Gibraltar and Bermuda were listed public works stations (and the second stage in the penal process). On Gibraltar, as “convicts worked together with free men on the dockyards, lines between them became blurred. Convicts, like seamen, were ‘easily recognised’ by ‘their swarthy, weather beaten complexions…[and] muscular well-knit frames’. The discipline on the penal settlement was also influenced by the naval department, who superintended part of the works. In the 1840s, for example, convicts were provided ‘a half gill of rum’ at 11am and 5pm, which they drank from a trough. This mirrored the daily allowance of diluted rum, known as grog, to Royal Naval seamen in the Victorian era. Convicts were also allowed to use part of their earnings, to buy goods, usually tobacco, which they were allowed to smoke in the evening in the barracks. Though official correspondence cited health reasons for grog allowance, it seems likely that the convict authorities feared insubordination if they were banned from drinking and smoking, which were provided to the sappers and dockyard workers whom they worked alongside… In 1854, the acting overseer stated that “half of the offences were committed when the men were excited by rum”. For more serious offences, convicts were flogged with a ‘cat o’nine tails’ whip against the ‘flogging mast’, and during an investigation Dr William Baly concluded that the whip which was used was an old naval cat, which was ‘much heavier than any now used in the government prison and hulks at home, or in the army.’” (Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/). --0--

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Dianne Jones on 18th July 2022

TRIAL: 19 October, 1846: Richard Dawkins, 21, and his brother David, 27, were convicted for stealing a copper. Richard was sentenced to transportation for 7 years and David to 14 years due to a previous conviction for stealing fish that attracted a sentence of 7 years' transportation (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for Richard Dawkins; England; Hampshire; 1846). —0—