Robert Hayband

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D Wong on 8th December 2014

This is Nottingham | Posted: February 19, 2010 by local historian BARRY HOLLAND from Nottingham reviews newspaper reports of an extraordinary trial which took place in Nottingham 160 years ago. ACCORDING to the files, Robert Hayband alias Heyburn, was the youngest person ever to be sentenced in Nottingham to transportation to Australia. Newspaper reports from the time suggest he was just nine-years-old. His story begins in 1843 when Robert, and two pals, were hauled into the Shire Hall court to face a charge of stealing 3lbs of potted beef from a Radford shopkeeper named Richard Walkley. Up before the judge with Hayband were Joseph Brown and Allen Griffiths. On Monday October 16, 1843, the three boys appeared for trial at the Nottinghamshire Quarter Sessions. They pleaded guilty. They had been there before, many times apparently, and the judge had finally run out of patience. Fines and imprisonment were proving no deterrent so he ordered them to be transported to Van Dieman's Land (modern-day Tasmania) for seven years. Young Robert was chained to his two partners in crime and other villains who were being sent to the other side of the world. In December 1843, the Nottingham Journal states: "Removed from the County jail on Monday last to the Penitentiary, Millbank, there to await their sentences being more fully carried into effect, the following convicts: John Brown, William Toplis alias Toplay, and Thomas Hardstaff, each transported for ten years; George Fox, Robert Hayband, Joseph Brown, Allen Griffiths, and William Broughton, each transported for seven years." The three boys arrived on December 13 at Millbank Penitentiary, a scurvy-ridden prison where convicts for transportation were held in solitary confinement and restricted to silence. The prison register reveals that Robert was a labourer, could neither read nor write, and had no previous convictions, although he had been remanded to prison for six days on a charge of felony. "A bad irredeemable lad. Parents bad characters," read the entry. All three boys were sent on to Parkhurst Prison, on the Isle of Wight. Joseph Brown was first to be transported. He sailed to Van Diemen's Land on the ship Maitland in June 1846. Griffiths was next, sailing on the Thomas Arbuthnot to Port Philip in January 1847. Robert Hayband sailed from Spithead on the convict transport Ratcliffe in July 1848, one of 27 Parkhurst boys among a convict roll of more than 200. The Ratcliffe arrived in Hobart in November, after a journey lasting 106 days. The next reference to Robert came from a convict indent which stated that he was 5ft 4in, and by then 18-years-old. The entry is difficult to read but confirms his father's name was Robert, his mother Mary, and he had brothers, William and Joseph. --- **From his conduct record, it said, his father was Robert, Mother was Sarah, sisters: Mary=Anne, Betsey, and Sarah at his native place. Brother, William was in the 60th Regiment. Robert was listed as a 'Brickmaker" Robert had a fresh complexion, dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and tattoos, he could read and write a little. He was again transported – no date or crime found. 1850: Free Certificate. Found a reference to a Robert Hayburn in 1866 around the Beechworth area in Victoria, but was it him?? Also there was a marriage or Robert Hayburn and Emma Wright in Tasmania and they had a daughter, Elizabeth Emma Hayburn in 1864.