Josiah Goodgame

343

Maureen Withey on 10th December 2019

285. Josiah Goodgame. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON37-1-1$init=CON37-1-1p295 Tried at Dingpare, 15 March 1843, sentence, 7 years, transported for striking Serjeant Haines, six times for threatening my superior officer, 150 lashes twice, 4 weeks once, 10 years in the 62nd Regt. Single. Native of Kingswood, Bucks, aged 27, trade, sawyer. Various incidents of misconduct. Free Cert. 26/3/1850. Remarks. 29.4.45. To Port Arthur as a Constable. Meritorious cond. in capturing 2 absconders from ?. To be recorded in reference to T.L. so soon as he may be eligible. 19/5/44 Convict Indent https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON16-1-2$init=CON16-1-2p98 https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON16-1-2$init=CON16-1-2p99 Father Thos, Mother, Martha, 3 Brothers, William, Thomas, Silas; 8 Sisters, Sarah, Martha, Harriet, Sussanah, Priscilla, Thursa,Prudence, Teresa aat N.P. November 18, 1848. Ticket of Leave: Josiah Goodgame – Tenasserim. Launceston Examiner, 25 Nov 1848. Expiration of Sentences Josiah Goodgame – Tenasserim. Cornwall Chronicle, 6 Apr 1850. Rebecca Coates, p.h. in private service in Macquarie-street, was charged by Constable Josiah Goodgame with absconding on the 1st instant, and remaining illegally at large until apprehended on the 8th. Having pleaded Guilty, and urging nothing in extenuation, the prisoner was sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour, and recommended to be removed up the country. Hobarton Guardian, 12 Jan 1850. Josiah Goodgame was mentioned in a letter published in the Launceston Examiner, 1 May 1852. " Of the entire number of prisoners tried at the recent criminal sittings, an impartial and careful scrutiny of the calendar will skew one incontrovertible result; that by far, the preponderating majority consisted of men who had either expiated the punishment of transportation in Van Diemen's Land, or otherwise had emigrated thence under the indulgence of conditional pardons. One felon, in particular, arraigned under the cognomen of Josiah Goodgame, had served out one sentence of the violated law, by expatriation to Tasmania; and, furthermore, was actually at one period of his penal probation, a paid constable on the Peninsula line. If this fellow is to be considered an eligible specimen of his quondam confederates, or if he may be regarded as a prototype of the class constituting the police department of Tasmania, surely our contemporaries of the Southern Isle will no longer boast of the security of life and property in Van Diemen's Land as contrasted with the existing state of society in Melbourne."