William Dowson

343

Maureen Withey on 7th January 2023

Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 07 January 2023), July 1830, trial of WILLIAM DOWSON (t18300708-95). WILLIAM DOWSON, Theft > simple larceny, 8th July 1830. First London Jury - Before Mr. Recorder. 1354. WILLIAM DOWSON was indicted for stealing, on the 21st of June , 2 pairs of ear-rings, value 3s.; 3 finger-rings, value 9s.; 1 brooch, value 5s.; 2 half-crowns, 3 shillings, 2 sixpences, and 2 pieces of silver coin, value 2s. , the property of Mary Goodridge . MARY GOODRIDGE . I am in the employ of Mr. Brown, of Ludgate-hill , as a milliner - the prisoner was his errand-boy ; this property was in drawers in the attic, where I sleep, and was all safe at seven o'clock in the evening, on the 21st of June - I was alarmed about ten minutes to eight, by Mr. Brown's son, and went up stairs - the prisoner had been employed up stairs from five o'clock that morning, cutting whalebone; he followed me into the bed-room, and said he had heard some person on the roof of the house, and supposed he had got into my bed-room - I found my drawers forced open, and these things gone; I sent for an officer, and gave him in charge - he was searched twice; I was present at the second search, and saw 6s. found tied up in his shirt, which he had on; two of the shillings were of the reign of George I. and II., which I had lost, but they had no mark on them - we said he had better say where the other money was, and he pointed to a place in which we found 4s.; I missed from my drawer two pairs, and one odd earring, three finger-rings, and a brooch; they were found in the room he was preparing the whalebone in. JAMES SNOW . I am a constable. I was sent for - the prisoner denied the charge; I searched him, and felt some money in his breeches - he popped his hand to it, and said, "Oh, that is only the lining of my trousers;" and after that, as I could not find the money, I made him take his breeches off; we got a candle, and in the room he worked I found a loose brick in the wall, which I took out, and found a purse with the ear-rings, brooch, and other things in it - I afterwards found 6s. tied up in the tail of his shirt; I asked him where the other money was - he pointed to a place, where I found 4s.; I found an instrument in the room he worked in, which matched with the marks on the drawers.(Property produced and sworn to.) GUILTY . Aged 16. - Transported for Seven Years . --------------------------------------------------- Tasmanian Conduct Record: https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-10$init=CON31-1-10P60 No 686. William Dowson, per Argyle, Aug 5 1831. Tried London 8 July 1830, 7 years. Transported for stealing one pair ear rings. Gaol report: Not known. Hulk report: Bad. Single Stated this offence, stealing two pair earrings. Single. Indent: https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-2$init=CON14-1-2P21 and https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-2$init=CON14-1-2P22 William Dowson, 5 ft 2 ½. Age 17, Labouring boy, Tried at London G.D. 8 July 1830, 7 years. Native place, Woodbridge, Suffolk. Single, protestant, can read and write. Relations: M. Ann Dowson at Ludgate Hill. 1 S with M. Offence: this offence, stealing 2 pair of Earrings. Orderly. ------------------------------------------------------- The Schooner Badger, it is supposed, has been carried off by convicts; She had been despatched with stores to East Bay Neck, and has not since been heard of. Several prisoners, accustomed to a sea-faring life, are missing. Among them are Darby, formerly a lieutenant in the Navy, and Philip, who has been a master of a merchant vessel, and the clergyman Roberts, recently transported from Liverpool. Every exertion is making to discover and apprehend them, but, hitherto, they have eluded all vigilance. The Tasmanian, 2 Aug 1833. -------------------------------------------------- PIRACY. " We have had reported to us the escape of the Badger, a Government Colonial vessel, stated to have been, entirely manned by convicts— as such a fact would envolve a charge which must cost Colonel Arthur his commission to govern this Colony any longer, we postpone observation, till due enquiry has been made." Thus speaks The Colonist of last week.— The loss of this vessel is confirmed by the demi-official journal of Friday last. It appears, that she left the port of Hobart Town on Tuesday week, with provisions for some military station at East Bay Neck ; at which place she was seen (by the signal-man from Mount Nelson) to pass without putting in, on the following day. No suspicion of her being taken away took place till yesterday se'n-night, when a signal man, stationed at Mount Nelson, was missing. The master and the whole of the crew are crown prisoners ! The signal-man at Mount Nelson, is a person named George H. Darby, who, it is said, was formerly a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and distinguished himself at the battle of Navarino. Besides this man, the following prisoners are officially advertised in last Friday's Gazette as missing :— William Philp, (formerly the master of a merchant vessel), John Venton, John Nicolas, Isaac Haines, and Lauglan Macintosh. The Clergyman, named Roberts, who was recently transported to this Colony, and who it was supposed had been sent to Port Arthur, is also gone. Several other convicts, used to the seafaring life, are likewise missing. The Badger is well fitted out for a long voyage, with plenty of provisions, muskets, ammunition, and nautical instruments, which the runaways procured. She is nearly a new vessel, about 25 tons, a good sailer, and newly coppered. She had, it is said, a fair wind out of port ; and whatever means may have been used by the Government to discover or overtake her, we fear, they will prove abortive. We have heard a great deal about Colonel Arthur's system of prison discipline. What will the Home Government think of His Excellency manning a Government vessel, thus provisioned and equipped as the Badger, with Crown prisoners, like the above-named runaways, all sea-faring men ? The Colonist, (Hobart Town) 6 Aug 1833. -------------------------------------------------- Piracy by Convicts. Information was received at the different Police establishments yesterday, that in the month of August, 1833, the Colonial Schooner, Badger, belonging to the Government of Van Diemen’s Land, was piratically seized and carried off {it was believed) by the following nine convicts, viz., George Harding Darby, convicted at Somerset in March, 1830, and transported for life, reported from the Hulks to have behaved very badly there and headed a party designing to mutiny; Wm. Phillip, convicted Cornwall, August, 1830, of setting fire to vessel, and transported for life ; John Nicola, convicted in London of robbery from the person, and transported for life; John Veaton, tried at Devon, March, 1829, and transported for life; Isaac Haines, tried in Sussex in July, 1832, transported for seven years; Lochlan Mackintosh, transported for life from Edinburgh July, 1831; John Deacon, tried Dorset in July, 1830, for sheep-stealing, and transported for life; Dowson, transported from London in 1830, for seven years; Joseph Ward, tried at Leicester in March 1831, transported for life; and John Roberts convicted in Middlesex in September, 1830, of forgery, and transported for life. They arrived with the schooner at Lifutta one of the Friendly Islands, in September, 1833, and were known to have afterwards reached Macao, China, from whence it was supposed some of them would find their way back to England. Morning Advertiser. 5 June 1835. --------------------------------------------------- The following is part of an article which appeared in the Colonist, 13 Aug 1833. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201158184?searchTerm=Badger We next have to notice the palpable departure, in individual cases, from the general rule, as having in a great measure led to the loss of the Badger. The man, Darby, we understand, was put on board, the William Glen Anderson, with a warning to the Surgeon Superintendent, that he was a dangerous man, and would, in all probability, be the means of inducing a mutiny on board the ship, unless vigilantly watched. In consequence of this warning, the strictest possible curb was put on him, all the way out from England; and on his arrival, our information goes on to state, the Surgeon Superintendent warned the Authorities here of the character of the man; but, instead of adopting- those measures, which anyone would have supposed such a warning would have suggested, this man is first appointed on his arrival, as signal man at Mount Nelson, an isolated station, and subsequently made Deputy Water Bailiff at Hobart Town with a salary of £20 per annum, in which situation, as a matter, of course, he had the selection of the crews for the various Government vessels; and had also: an opportunity of knowing the respective qualifications of each! Again, the man, Roberts, formerly a Clergyman, was an exception to the general rule, and was exempted from the barbarous regulations, which, consign all educated Convicts to the Penal Settlement at Port Arthur. Roberts was given to Captain Swanston, Member of the Legislative Council as a tutor, for his children! In this situation, he of course had every indulgence and opportunity to enter into and perfect plans for escape from a Colony, in which he had no other prospect, after his services, as instructor to Captain Swanston's children, should be no longer needed, than to drag out the remainder of a miserable existence at Port Arthur. Under such circumstances, it would have been surprising had he not attempted to get away. Now, let. us ask, what must have been 'the natural feelings of these two men, both brought up as gentlemen, when they looked around and saw numberless others , circumstanced as they were themselves, degraded to the lowest pitch of human degradation, because they, were educated, and found themselves exempted from that degradation for the time-being, although they must have been well aware that such indulgence, only depending as it did upon their present utility, was liable to be withdrawn in a moment, and they hurled madly heedless of all considerations to the misery and degradation of a Penal Settlement— there to herd with the most incorrigible of all incorrigible characters? With the power in his own hands, of selecting a crew fit for his purpose — possessing in himself the requisite knowledge, of navigation and seamanship, to take the command of a vessel — with every opportunity of looking out a vessel, suitable for the enterprise, and maddened with the fall from society which he had experienced —what man, in Darby's situation could be expected to refrain from what he has done? Circumstanced as Roberts was, who would not have embraced the opportunity thus put into his hands? Do the Authorities imagine that the sweets of liberty would not be powerful enough to instigate man to undertake an enterprise of far greater hazard than the piracy of the Badger? which seemed actually put in the hands of these unfortunate men !!! Look at the daring deeds which have been done for the sake of a mere Ticket of Leave, and say, what will not the desire of escape from a thraldom, so horrid, so unnatural, so cruel as that which the unexempted educated convict is subjected to cause men of that description to undertake. The Government is, therefore, in this instance solely to blame — to blame for issuing regulations, like those respecting educated convicts, for no earthly reason that we can discover — to blame for departing from those regulations when once established, in the one instance, and adhering to them in others — to blame, to leave a man, like Darby, with the character which he brought with him, perfectly his own master — to blame for making an officer of him, so responsible as that of Deputy Water Bailiff - to blame for, leaving Government vessels in charge of convicts— to blame in every sense of the word. Not a shadow of an excuse can be made. These are the facts, and here is a pretty contrast with Dr. Ross's flaming panegyric upon Colonel Arthur's system of Prison Discipline! How does our worthy friend's theory look by the side of these facts, which are not a tenth of the number of similar errors which will ere long issue from the Press? Here is an example to set the Settlers, of that prison discipline they are so pathetically urged from time to time to adopt. The Colonist, 13 Aug 1833. ---------------------------------------------------

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 4th June 2021

UK, Royal Navy Medical Journals - Argyle Age; 17