James Green

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NOTE: In Date of Birth, only the year is known (1816 is the year given in WA records ), but a day and month must be entered in order for the window to function. Disregard the day and month as they have not been confirmed.

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DEATH: Name: Green, James Gender: Male Age at Death: 67 years, Place of Death: Jarrahdale Year of Death: 1887 Reg. No.: 517 Reg. Year: 1887 (Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/department-of-justice) --00--

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From his FREMANTLE JAIL record: GREEN, James; inmate #9752, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1816 Date of Death: 10 Aug 1887 Place of Death: Jarrahdale, natural causes Marital Status: Widower Occupation: Shoe maker Literacy: Semiliterate Sentence Place: Leeds Crime: Grievous bodily harm Sentence Period: 20 years Ticket Leave Date: 28 Mar 1877 Comments: Conditional Release 14 May 1883, Fremantle. Shoe maker, general servant, labourer (https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/research/convict-database/) --00--

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IN WA: 1868: On arrival in WA, convict #9752 James Green was listed as 50, a widower with no children [a change from his jail record], semi-literate, Protestant and a shoemaker, sentenced to 20 years for “felony – feloniously wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm”. Next of kin – no information. No previous convictions are listed. His behaviour in Pentonville was listed as “good”. He received his Ticket of Leave on 28 March, 1877. He died of “natural causes” at Jarrahdale on 10 August, 1887 (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department Registers, General Register for Nos 9599-10128 (R16)). —0—

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1867, 30 September: James Green was sent from Pentonville to board the Hougoumont for transportation to WA: “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 [anchorage] 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 [only two were on the Hougoumont – Thomas Berwick and Lionel Holdsworth, each sentenced to 20 years for fraud], 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.” (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 1867, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271). --0—

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1867, 2 February: James Green was received from Leeds Gaol and admitted to Pentonville Prison, Caledonian Road, London. “After a sentence of transportation was handed down, the prisoner entered into a separate stage where he was placed into an individual cell, isolated from others, apart from brief periods of exercise and attendance at chapel. However, no communication of any kind with other prisoners was permitted at any time. The philosophy behind this penal methodology had its provenances in the religious, monastic traditions; i.e., that in the isolation of his cell the malefactor would be able to contemplate the errors of his way, unadulterated by the negative influences of former contemporaries, and be reformed.” (Edgar, 2018, pp39-40) When first put into practice, the mandated period of separate confinement was 18 months. By the late 1840s, authorities had conceded that such conditions of imprisonment were “injurious to many prisoners’ mental health” and the stint was reduced to 12 months. Periods of separate confinement were reduced further “as a prisoner displayed good behaviour tendencies” (Edgar, p40). Pentonville, Millbank, Wakefield and Mountjoy in Ireland were the “Probation” or “Separate” prisons, as were some local jails. In Pentonville, James Green was listed as inmate #4249; 36 years old [this agrees with the newspaper report but is at odds with his records in WA which give his age at this time as 50], single, shoemaker, illiterate; convicted at Leeds Assizes and sentenced on 13 December, 1866, to 20 years for felony (feloniously wounding) (UK, Criminal Records, 1780-1871 for James Green; Prison Registers and Statistical Returns 1864-1871; HO 24/18). --0--

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JAILS: 1866: Some time after his arrest, and until early February of 1867, he was held at the Leeds Borough Gaol and House of Correction, Gloucester Terrace in the Armley area of Leeds. --0--

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NEWSPAPER REPORT OF TRIAL: From the Leeds Times – Saturday, 22 December, 1866, p6: “WEST YORKSHIRE GAOL DELIVERY. [Before Mr. Justice Lush.] Murderous Assault through Jealousy at Sheffield.—James Green, shoemaker, 36, was indicted for murderously attacking Mary Binnell, at Sheffield, on the 19th of August. Mr. Waddy and Mr. Cadman were for the prosecution; prisoner was undefended. Until a few days previous to the assault the prisoner and prosecutrix had been living together as man and wife for about six years, but had latterly been separated. Green appeared to be annoyed that she another she had left him, but she had meanwhile had an offer of marriage from another man, named Jones. On the day above named prisoner found Binnell in the company of a man named Jackson, and threatened her then with personal violence. Jackson placed her in a cab, and took her home to her lodgings. Meanwhile, however, the prisoner had contrived to conceal himself in the house, and as the prosecutrix and Jones were going upstairs to bed – attended by a servant girl with a candle in her hand, and who was about to show them their room – the prisoner suddenly made his appearance on the scene, armed with a hammer weighing about a pound and a half. Prisoner seized the prosecutrix by the neck, and threw her down, placed one knee upon her and otherwise kept her down by putting his left hand on her shoulder, and with the other hand armed with the murderous weapon in question, struck her savagely eight heavy blows on her head. Mary Kay, the servant, saw the whole of this incident, and on her screaming out ‘murder’, he savagely threatened to treat her in the same way if she did not go at once up-stairs. Prosecutrix gave her evidence with considerable difficulty, and was apparently still suffering from the murderous treatment to which she had been subjected, being attended by a medical man and being obliged to be seated during her examination. Thomas Ellis, who resided in the same house as the prosecutrix, stated that the prisoner went there and asked if the woman Binnell and Jones had not taken up their abode there. Ellis, from the description furnished of the parties, was able to return an answer in the affirmative. Witness also heard the scream of ‘murder’ and, when he rushed to the spot, he found the prisoner kneeling on the prosecutrix, and striking her on the head with a hammer. Ellis rushed up to stop the brutal assault, upon which the prisoner turned upon him and threatened to do the same to him. Prisoner then ran down-stairs. The man Jones, who was going to bed with the prosecutrix, at about the same moment received a heavy blow on the side of the head, which stunned him for two or three minutes. On recovering himself, Jones ran out of the house, but was pursued by the prisoner who again struck him with the hammer and knocked him down, saying with an oath, ‘He had killed the woman, and would also kill him (Jones)’. John Thompson, another lodger in the house, deposed to hearing a scream of ‘murder’, and on going to the spot from whence the noise came, met Jones rushing downstairs, the prisoner pursuing him and striking him a blow on the head. Prisoner attempted a second hit, but this was warded off by Thompson. Mr. Geo. Arthur Brown, house surgeon at the Sheffield General Infirmary, stated that he examined the prosecutrix when she was brought into that institution, and he found her suffering from eight scalp wounds on the head, differing in severity, the most serious hurt being one a little behind and above the right ear; several of the wounds were very similar, in size and shape, and such as might have been inflicted with a hammer. One injury on the skull had to be trepanned. He considered her to be in such a dangerous condition that he sent for a magistrate to take her deposition. She now much better but her health was permanently impaired. Henry Hill, the Police officer who arrested the prisoner, found him in bed, and Green then declared he knew nothing about the matter. Found a couple of hammers placed in a basin of water, and he also took them along with him. Prisoner was fully identified by the various witnesses in the case. Police-constable Green confirmed the statement as to the scuffle between Green and the prosecutrix in the street and endeavoured to part them, but prisoner was very much excited, wildly exclaiming he would finish her before he had done with her. The jury found the prisoner guilty of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and his lordship thereupon sentenced him to undergo twenty years' Penal Servitude.” --00—

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TRIAL: 1866, 13 December: Case #4 -- James Green was convicted at the Leeds Winter Assizes and sentenced to 20 years’ penal servitude for “wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm” (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892; England, Yorkshire - West Riding, 1866). --00--