Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
Joshua Exley was transported on the St Vincent, departing 28th Dec 1852 and arriving 26th May 1853 with 214 passengers.
St Vincent (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 92, Class and Piece Number HO11/17, Page Number 631 (318). --0-- Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/ |
| 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
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Photos
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Convict Notes
FOOTNOTE: "Kendall" is given as his "proper name" on his VDL Conduct record.
DEATH: 28 June, 1874: Joshua Exley, 48, a shepherd, died from phthisis or pulmonary TB. His death was reported to authorities by William Lyne Esq of Apsey [sic, Apsley], a “stockholder” [and possibly employer] and registered in “Deaths in the district of Glamorgan” on 5 July, 1874 (https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD35-1-43p81j2k). --00--
IN VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, JOSHUA EXLEY was listed as convict #27990, a knife grinder [change of trade], 28 years old, 5’3½” tall with black hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. He was single, Protestant, and semi-literate. Prison report from Gibraltar “very good”. Family: Father Thomas and brother Jacob Ann at his native place, Leeds (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai22384). For further details see his VDL Conduct record at https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p55 and his Indent record at https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-47$init=CON14-1-47_00152_L. —00—
On Gibraltar, Joshua Exley was listed as 24 years old when convicted, sentenced to 15 years for “robbery with another and with violence”; prior convictions for drunkenness (1 month), for poaching (3 months), and 4 times in prison before for felony; born in Doncaster; Church of England; black/brown hair, dark hazel eyes and fair complexion, 5’4½” tall; semi-literate; labourer; single; relatives/family living at Pontefract, West Yorkshire. —0— 3 February, 1853: He was sent aboard the St Vincent for transportation to VDL (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). —00—
TO GIBRALTAR: 25 January, 1849: EXLEY, JOSHUA #1300, arrived on Gibraltar from the Stirling Castle hulk at Portsmouth per Appoline. 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--
NEWSPAPER REPORTS OF TRIAL: 20 March, 1847: “SUBSIDIARY COURT, Tuesday, March 16. Before Mr. Serjeant Murphy. JOSHUA EXLEY and JOSHUA BROOKE were charged with having at Leeds, on the 26th February, violently assaulted and robbed James Heald.” (Yorkshire Gazette, p6, at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/). In an earlier report, the paper said Mr Heald was “in the employ of the Rev. R. H. Brandling, [and] was returning from Leeds Middleton, where Mr. Brandling's collieries are situate [when he] was knocked down by three men in a field about a mile and half from the latter place, and was robbed of £172 which he had been fetching from his employer's offices at the Old Coal Staith, near the North Midland Railway Station. "Heald has usually been sent once a fortnight to offices for money to pay the colliers' wages, and the thieves doubtless had been aware of the circumstance. One of them was pursued and taken into custody, but the other two escaped with the booty. The money stolen consisted of gold, five pound notes, and the remaining in silver and copper…” (Yorkshire Gazette, 6 March 1847, p5) --00--
TRIAL: 6 March, 1847: Joshua Exley, 23 and semi-literate, was convicted at the York Assizes and sentenced to 15 years' transportation for "robbery in company with violence" (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for Joshua Exley; England; Yorkshire - North Riding; 1847). --0--