Samuel Dearn

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 25th June 2024

1838 - 6 Aug. Tried at Sydney Supreme Court. Sentence; Life, Offence; Highway Robbery To Norfolk Island per Lady Franklin 1846 - DIED; in Hospital on 14 June 1846

342

Maureen Withey on 14th July 2021

Source: Hulk Records. HO-9-2_4 page 20/40. Euryalus.

342

Maureen Withey on 14th July 2021

Worcester City Sessions. Samuel Dearn, aged 8, Henry Dearn, aged 12. and George Dearn, aged 50 (father and two sons), were indicted, the former for stealing a quantity of shoes, the property of Mr. Brooks shoemaker, of St. John's, and the two latter for receiving the same, knowing them to have been stolen. The youngest prisoner pleaded guilty to the indictment, but stated that his rather was innocent; the Court, however, from his infantile years deemed it most prudent to record a plea of not guilty. The prosecutor was the first witness called, who stated that kept a stall for the sale of shoes in the Market-house, and that on the evening of Saturday, the of November last, he safely deposited his goods in it, making the doors secure by padlock, but Monday morning discovered the stall had been broke open, and about three dozen pair of shoes stolen. Henry Williams, impudent little rascal of about years of age, accomplice in the robbery, but who had been admitted King's evidence, deposed that on the evening of the robbery the younger prisoner said to witness, Teddy, have got a screw (a bed-key); and that they got locked in the Market-house, where they went to sleep. When they awoke, Dearn proceeded to the proceeded to the prosecutor's stall, and broke off the hasp with the bed-key ; they then removed the shoes, taking with them eleven pair, and leaving a quantity the Market-house gate. They then got over the wall into the Golden Lion yard, and from thence over the over the gate into the Shambles; and afterwards went to the elder prisoner's (who a scavenger and leather-parer), in the Bull Entry, where they were let in by Henry Dearn. Witness breakfasted there the Sunday morning, and the prisoner. George Dearn, said, Teddy, don't split. George and Samuel Dearn and witness afterwards put on pair of the shoes to wear. Tilt, the police-officer, stated that he and Orchard searched Dearn's house, and found under the floor in the garret a pair of new shoes, and concealed under the earth in the coal-hole in the kitchen seven pair more, in a leathern bag; a pair men's shoes, which had been worn, were also discovered a tin kettle, covered over with coal, and likewise a pair of women's in the pocket of Dearn's wife. All of these shoes were positively sworn to by the prosecutor as being part of those stolen Samuel Dearn, in his defence, said that four Saturdays ago, Williams broke open a stall, and put anew hasp again but that it was not discovered; and that Williams had made a bargain a month before to break open Mr. Brook's stall, and shewed him a screw. George Dearn stated that one of the boys gave him the shoes he had worn, saying he had picked them up. The Jury found George and Samuel Dearn guilty, but acquitted Henry Dearn, there being no evidence to criminate him. The younger prisoner was recommended to mercy by the Jury. The Court, in passing sentence on George Dearn, dwelt upon the unnatural, wicked, and heinous nature of his offence, in training up his offspring the paths of crime and guilt, and it not being the first time he had appeared the bar, adjudged him to seven years' transportation. Samuel was also sentenced to seven years' transportation; the Court remarking that that was the only course to be pursued to obtain his admittance into the Penitentiary, where he would be removed from those scenes vice which had surrounded him, and from whence, if he showed contrition and repentance, he would most probably be liberated in two or three years. Worcester Herald, 7 Jan 1832. ---------------------------------------------------- One from Worcester, 17 Jan 1832. Samuel Dearn, age 8, Offence: Stg books & shoes, value 8s., tried at Worcester, 2 Jan 1832, 7 years, NSW, Mary Ann, 30 Jun 1835 The prison hulk, the Euryalus, an ex-frigate of the Trafalgar fleet, was moored at Chatham. Over the twenty years that this hulk serviced juveniles, about 2,500 boys of fourteen and under passed through. There were also considerable numbers of older boys both in the juvenile hulk and distributed among the other hulks. From the Euryalus, boys were transported both to New South Wales and to Van Diemen’s Land.