Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
Henry Gabbites was transported on the Hougoumont, departing 10th Oct 1867 and arriving 9th Jan 1868 with 281 passengers.
875 ton ship was built at Moulmein in 1852. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/on-this-day-in-history-australias-last-convict-ship-docks.htm ---------------------------- Incorrect Image ....This is a four masted steel hulled Barque in the drawing , im surprised Australian Geo didn't do a bit more research on this .......The Hougoumont was a works ship on the Forth Bridge Project in 1885 ....the one potrayed as a drawing in Aust Geo is the later version of this ship.....the photograph i have attached is the correct and original convict vessel. --00-- 1867 "The hired convict ship Hougoumont, which has been taken up by the Government for the conveyance of a numerous party of convicts to Freemantle, Western Australia, left the Nore on October 1, and proceeded down Channel, after receiving on board 150 convicts from the establishments at Chatham and Millbank. The convicts from the Chatham establishment, at St. Mary's, embarked from the dockyard on board the paddle-wheel steamer Adder, Mr. W. J. Blakely, and were in charge of a numerous party of convict guards and wardens, all heavily armed. Among the convicts shipped were a party of fifteen Fenians, who were engaged in the late conspiracy in Ireland, together with the officers and crew convicted of scuttling the ship Severn, and some others who have achieved notoriety from their crimes. The Fenian convicts, like the remainder of the prisoners, were chained together in gangs, but it was observed that they were kept apart from the other convicts in a portion of the vessel by themselves. The steamer Petrel also took down a number of convicts from the establishment at Millbank for shipment on board the Hougoumont, in charge of a strong escort and convict guard. On Tuesday, October 8th, the Hougoumont arrived in Portland roads. Shortly before midday ninety convicts were marched down to the Government pier at Portland under a strong escort of the 12th Light Infantry. The party included twenty-three Fenian convicts, among whom it was said, was Moriarty. The Government steamer employed in the breakwater service was used for conveying the convicts on board the Hougoumont transport ship. The convicts were chained together on embarking, and on board the steamer a strong guard of marines from her Majesty's ship St. George was formed, and saw the convicts safely placed on board the Hougoumont. The Governor of the penal settlement at Freemantle, Captain Young, is on board the Hougoumont, and returns in that ship to his sphere of duty after paying a visit to his native land." Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Thu 19 Dec 1867, p4, English Shipping, available on Trove at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271?searchTerm=hougoumont.
HougoumontReferences
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/19, Page Number 254. --0-- KW Amos, 1987, "The Fenians and Australia c1865-1880". --0-- https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.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
NEWSPAPER report of the trial: “AFFECTING SCENE. (by telegraph from our own correspondent.) At Leeds Assizes, yesterday, before Mr. Justice Lush, Henry Gabbites, a youth of sixteen, was indicted for murdering Arthur Allen, at Sheffield. The prisoner and deceased were fellow apprentices with a Sheffield draper, and last November there was some little disagreement or ill-feeling between them, owing to Allen having informed their employer where they spent the evenings after business hours. The prisoner conceived some resentful feeling against him in consequence, and, on the night in question, took up a hammer and knife to bed with him; and whilst Allen was asleep struck him twice on the head with the hammer, and then stabbed him in the ribs with the carving knife, which broke in the poor boy’s body. The prisoner, who acknowledged his guilt, said his purpose, before he committed the dreadful crime, was first to give information to his master of the murder. The defence set up was homicidal mania, arising from a low type of physical and mental development, the latter intensified by epileptic attacks to which he had been subject, and also to general depression of spirits, from ill-treatment on the part of his stepmother from an early period of his life. Two doctors were called to express their opinion in support of this theory. After Dr. Campbell Foster had elaborately replied to the defence, the jury found the prisoner guilty, but recommended him to mercy on account of his youth. Ladies in the gallery were sobbing whilst his Lordship, who was also deeply affected, passed sentence of death upon the prisoner and said he would not trust himself to comment on the awfulness of having to pass sentence on a criminal so young, and would forward the recommendation to mercy to the proper quarter, but his duty was simply to pronounce the sentence of the law, which his Lordship did in a voice broken by emotion. The convict received judgment without moving a muscle, and descended the steps from the Court into the cells below lightly and freely as if he were passing out into the outer world instead of into the gloomy and fearful recess of a condemned cell...” (Wednesday 19 December 1866, Newcastle Daily Chronicle, p3). --00—
TRIAL: 13 December, 1866: Case #30, Henry Gabbites was convicted at the Leeds Assizes and sentenced to death by hanging (later respited and then commuted to penal servitude for life) for the murder of Arthur Allen, at Sheffield, on 22 November (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for Henry Gabbites; England, Yorkshire - West Riding, 1866). --0—