Robert Deakin

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Dianne Jones on 16th August 2020

1839, 4 December: Robert DEAKIN was one of nine prisoners sentenced to transportation, and who were sent aboard the Kate following their convictions in the Supreme Court Criminal Sittings, Adelaide, South Australia, between November 4 and 7, 1839. 1840, 22 April: From the “New South Wales Government Gazette”, Wed 22 Apr 1840 [Issue No.23], p399: Government Gazette Notices... “Principal Superintendent of Convicts Office, April 22, 1840. The undermentioned Prisoners having absconded from the individuals and employments set against their respective names, and some of them being at large with stolen Certificates and Tickets of Leave; all Constables and others are hereby required and commanded to use their utmost exertion in apprehending and lodging them in safe custody. Any person harbouring or employing any of the said Absentees, will be prosecuted as the law directs. J. McLean, Principal Superintendent of Convicts… “Deakin Robert, [per] Kate (43), Leicestershire, labourer, 5 feet 10¼ inches, sallow comp., brown hair, blue eyes, scar right side of chin, breast hairy, large raised mole centre of same, mark of a bile near right elbow, two small moles below the same, scar on thumb, another on third, and two on little fingers of right hand, scar outside left elbow, another below the same, (was transported before in the same name, per ship Surry (4), in 1823, for seven years), [absconded] from Escort 50th Regiment, proceeding from Kiama to Wollongong, since 10th March.” 1840, 18 July: Robert DEAKINS is on a list of prisoners tried by His Honour Charles Cooper in the Supreme Court, Adelaide, and whose convictions carried sentences of transportation to New South Wales (see The South Australian Register, p5). 1840, 14 October: From “NSW Government Gazette”, Wed 14 Oct 1840 [Issue No.65], p1044: Government Gazette Notices... “Deakin Robert, [per] Kate, 43, Leicestershire, labourer, 5 feet 10¼ inches, sallow complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, scar right side of chin, breast hairy, large raised mole centre of same, mark of a bile near right elbow, two small moles below the same, scar on thumb, another on third, and two on little fingers of right hand, scar outside left elbow another below the same; he was transported before in the same name, per ship Surry (4) in 1823, for seven years; [absconded] from Stockade, Illawarra, since September 22. NOTE: As of 1 December, 1848 (see “NSW Government Gazette”, Issue No.136, p1758) Robert DEAKIN was still at large, and – remarkably – was still only 43 years old!

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Dianne Jones on 16th August 2020

ABOUT THAT ALIAS -- Is he DEAKIN, DEAKINS or someone else? From the South Australian Register, Sat 7 Dec 1839, p6: “Resident Magistrate’s Court… On Tuesday, the 19th November, Richard Fenton was charged with receiving a bullock, the property of the South Australian Company, well knowing the same to have been stolen. “William Bevis Randell, superintendent of the Company's stock, stated that on the fourth he saw in the possession of James Sparshott, a bullock, which he recognised as the property of the Company, and which had been lost some time. “He demanded the bullock from Sparshott, who said he had bought it of Fenton. This the latter admitted, and accounted for his possession of it by the production of a receipt signed Robert Muirhead; he also called two parties who had witnessed the document at the time of the purchase. Admitted to bail. “It is suspected that Robert Muirhead is an alias of ROBERT DEAKINS, lately sentenced to transportation for life for stealing a horse belonging to Lieutenant Field.”

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Dianne Jones on 16th August 2020

1839, 9 November: From the South Australian Register, p6: “Supreme Court Adelaide: Tuesday, November 5… Robert Deakins was placed at the bar, charged with having stolen a mare belonging to Captain Field, some time in July last. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. Mr Mann appeared for the prosecution; Mr Nicholls for the prisoner. “Captain Field brought the mare over from New South Wales and gave it to a person of the name of Windsor to break her in to harness. Shortly after giving her to Windsor she was lost; and Captain Field saw no more of her until he found her in possession of Mr Oscar Lines, who had bought her of Mr Chambers at his livery stables. Mr Chambers had her in exchange for a horse from William Stewart Moncrieff, who again had her from the prisoner. “Mr Calton, of the Royal Admiral, remembered having the mare in his stables. While there she was sold by the prisoner to Moncrieff, and Mr Calton identified a receipt which was written in his bar, bearing that the mare had been sold by the prisoner to Moncrieff for £80. “Mr Calton saw Moncrieff — he gave the prisoner £32 as part payment — and it was said by them that sums had previously been paid which, with what was then given, made up £80, the sum stated in the receipt as the price of the mare. “The prisoner produced no evidence to show how he came by the mare; and Mr Thomas Williams and Mr Sleep said that he was not a person likely to be honestly in possession of a mare of such value. “The Jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to transportation for life.” NOTE: DEAKIN and MONCRIEFF may have been well-known to each other before they arrived in South Australia. Their association certainly continued after they were sent back to New South Wales aboard the Kate in 1839.

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Dianne Jones on 16th August 2020

1823: Robert DEAKIN's story in Colonial Australia begins with his arrival per the Surry in 1823, under a sentence of transportation for seven years. For those details, see the Surry (1823). The information in this bio concerns (some of) his exploits in South Australia and their consequences. It is by no means a comprehensive rundown, and I feel sure there is more to learn about the man.