Cornelius William John Hardy

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Dianne Jones on 28th February 2022

FOOTNOTE: NEWSPAPER REPORT OF HIS TRIAL: March 9, 1856: From the 'Weekly Dispatch' "CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT- Thursday JUDGEMENT. --- Cornelius William John Hardy, James Andrews and Thos. Foster were brought up to receive judgment. The two first named prisoners were clerks in the General Post-office and Hardy had pleaded ‘Guilty' to four, and Andrews to three indictments, charging them with stealing money from letters that had passed through their hands and there appeared to be no doubt that they had been carrying on a regular system of plunder. The other prisoner, Foster was a letter-carrier, and he had pleaded 'Guilty' to two indictments charging him with stealing letters containing money. The two prisoners Hardy and Andrews were sentenced to be transported for 14 years, and Foster was ordered to undergo 6 year’s penal servitude." (http://www.perthdps.com/convicts/w4566.htm)

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Dianne Jones on 5th December 2021

IN WA: From his Fremantle jail record: HARDY, Cornelius William John; #4673, arrived 1 Jan 1858 per Nile Date of Birth: 1831 Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Clerk Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: London, London, England Crime: Stealing post office letter Sentence Period: 14 years Ticket of Leave Date: 13 Jun 1859 Conditional Pardon Date: 24 Sep 1861 Certificate of Freedom Date: 4 Mar 1870 (https://fremantleprison.com.au/) --00--

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Dianne Jones on 5th December 2021

IN JAIL IN ENGLAND: 23 March, 1856: Cornelius WJ Hardy was transferred from Newgate prison, in London, to Millbank prison following his conviction (UK, After-Trial Calendar of Prisoners, 1855-1931; 1856). Millbank, at Westminster in London, served as a holding facility for convicted prisoners before they were transported to Australia. --0-- 23 May, 1856: He was transferred to Pentonville prison, also in London. By the 1850s, Pentonville and Millbank were places for all male convicts to serve “their probationary term (now reduced to 9 months), after which they would be transported or sent to a public works prison. This function continued more or less (notable exceptions including the reception of military prisoners in the 1860s…) until the decision to remove it from the convict prison system in 1885” (https://www.prisonhistory.org). At Pentonville, he spent 10 months and 14 days in separate confinement. --0-- 6 April, 1857: Cornelius WJ Hardy was transferred to Portland prison in Dorset (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Portland Prison; Prison Records to 1875). Opened in November 1848 as the first male convict public works prison, it received prisoners who had already undergone periods of separate confinement at Millbank, Pentonville and specially contracted local prisons (https://www.prisonhistory.org/prison/portland-prison/). At Portland, he was listed as prisoner #6933, 23 years old, Protestant, single, able to read and write well and a clerk. He had been committed for trial on 13 February, 1856, at the Police Court, in Bow Street. By this time, he had spent more than 12 months in separate/solitary confinement -- 1 month and 26 days at Newgate, 1 month and 15 days at Millbank and 10 months and 14 days at Pentonville. His character references from previous jails were "good". His next of kin was Mrs Churcher, Stokes Bay, near Gosport, Hants. He had no previous convictions and was listed as a "respectable" character (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Portland Prison; Prison Records to 1875). --0-- 15 August, 1857: He was sent from Portland for transportation to WA (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; Convicts Transported Per Nile (R32)).

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Dianne Jones on 5th December 2021

TRIAL -- 3 March, 1856: Old Bailey "#347. CORNELIUS WILLIAM JOHN HARDY , stealing, whilst employed in the Post-office, a post letter, containing a half sovereign, and a postage stamp: the property of Her Majesty's Postmaster-General: he was also charged upon three other indictments with similar offences: to all which he PLEADED GUILTY. Aged 23.— Transported for Fourteen Years" (https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/). --00--