George Hazlehurst

71

Robin Sharkey on 29th December 2018

George Hazlehurst was merely 13 years old when he was tried in the Quarter Sessions Court at Lancaster in January 1818 and sentenced to 7 years’ transportation. His crime was recorded in the England criminal register as, simply, “felony”. The British National Archives records, under “Lancashire County Quarter Sessions”, that the Lancashire Archives holds a record: “Salford. Epiphany 1818. Bill of costs of prosecution of George Hazlehurst”. (see British National Archives reference QSP/2730/115) He was transported on “Glory” arriving at Sydney in 1818. The ship’s indent states that he was then 14 years old, a native of Cheshire, working in cotton manufacturing, only 5ft tall, dark flaxen (?) hair, brown eyes and florid complexion. Perhaps this meant his family had moved to Liverpool from Cheshire, looking for work? George was young, impetuous, and unprepared at such a young age to buckle down to penal servitude. This led him further downwards to deeper levels of punishment and exile. As a growing young man from age 13 until his disappearance at 20 or 21, his life would have been harsh, full of punishment and retribution, and without love. About six weeks after his trial he was lodged on the HULK “JUSTITIA” with men of all ages. Justitia’s records show he was received there on 5 March 1818, so he had been kept in gaol at Liverpool until then. — He was received with 7 others from northern England (Preston, Lancaster and Salford trials). He was the youngest of them at only 13 years. — They were all recorded as “Transported 25 April 1818” Nathaniel Robinson, 17, stealing a pocket book, tried Liverpool Qtr Sessions, Oct 1817; Thomas Fishwicke, 38, felony tried Prestons Quarter Sessions, 15 January 1818; George Trueman, 19, stealing muslin, tried Lancaster Quarter Sessions, 19 January 1818; These were all “felony”, tried Salford Quarter Sessions 20 January 1818: Edward, (also “John”), Hughes, 38; James Rushton, 29; Thomas Wilxon, 39; James Cash, 45; and George Hazlehurst SEVEN YEARS in NSW “Glory” arrived in Sept 1818, and George was probably put into a work gang straight away –the masons’ gang. But in NSW he became a serial absconder. (1) Within twelve months he had absconded from the gang: Sydney Gazette, 16 October 1819, 23Oct, 6 November p.2; 13 November 1819, p.1: “The under-mentioned Prisoners having absented themselves from their respective Employments, … George Haslehurst [sic] from Masons, …” He was found and re-assigned to another work gang – that of overseer R. Oaks. (2) By April 1820 he had absconded from R. Oaks’ gang: Sydney Gazette, 22 April 1820 p.2: Undermentioned prisoners having absconded from their usual place of employment: “George Hazlehurst, from R. Oak's Gang, …” He was not at large for long because he was sentenced in Sydney on the same day that the advertisement was published. This time he was given a year’s internal transportation and sent to Newcastle: * 5 May 1820 ‘List of prisoners to be Transported to Newcastle on “Elizabeth Henrietta”’: George Hazlehurst, tried Sydney 22 April 1820 by W. Minchin Esq, Stonecutter, Sentence, one year” (3) He was probably returned to Sydney one year later in April/ May 1821. He very soon absconded again because he was on list dated 11 July 1821, for transportation to Port Macquarie: “George Haslehurst, stonecutter, per Glory, tried by the Bench at Sydney on 13 June 1821, Sentenced for the remainder of his sentence to Port Macquarie.” George was only 20 or 21 years old and had two and a half years left on his original sentence. He was to spend it in Port Macquarie. (4) Arrived in Port Macqurie in July 1821, within two months he had absconded from there and was given the lash: “September 1821 - Monthly returns of prisoners punished at Port Macquarie: “George Hazelhurst. 75 lashes, for “taking to the bush”. “ He was bracketed together for this crime and punishment, with four others: Joseph Connor per “Glory’, George Miller per ‘Gambier’, John ‘Donoghoo’ per Castle Forbes, and Henry Gascoigne per ‘Fame’. (5) However, he absconded from Port Macquarie again. “Ran with a boat. Received sentence of death for same. Respited. Sent to Macquarie Harbour 27 November 1822” this notation appears against his name on the Port Macquarie 1821 List of convicts. Ominously for George, the Sydney Gazette of 2 August 1822 reported: “We presume that the apparently irreclaimable convicts, occasionally sent to Port Macquarie, will not be so readily inclined to effect their escape from a settlement so contiguous to the capital, as has heretofore been the case ;-Government having adopted the wise measure of transporting such runaways to the lately formed settlement of Macquarie Harbour, on Van Diemen's, Land; where no hope of escape can, from what is reported, be for a moment entertained.” For running again from Port Macquarie, he was sent for trial at Sydney by the NSW Criminal Court in September 1822, along with seven others tried on 22 Sept 1822, for escaping from Port Macquarie. This is where he was sentenced to death, but repreieved to transportation for life to Macquarie Harbour, in Van Diemens’ Land. On 27 November 1822 he was on the list of 18 men on the “Elizabeth Henrietta” being sent to Macquarie Harbour penal settlement in North West Tasmania for having “contrived to escape” from Port Macquarie. His occupation here was listed as cotton manufacturer (from the “glory” indent). The Tasmanian Convict List records him as being tried in Lancaster on 20 January 1818, given 7 years and then again in Sydney on 23 September 1822 and given LIFE. HIS VERY SHORT LIFE IN TASMANIA Within a few weeks at Macquarie Harbour he was in trouble. The Tasmanian conduct record for “George Haslehurst” has only one entry: January 25, 1823 ‘Contemptuous and disrespectful conduct. To Commandant. 25 lashes” (M.H.) [i.e. Macquarie Harbour] This seems to have been the final straw for George at Macquarie Harbour. Six days later he was out of there, run away again but this time never again to be heard from. The only further record of him is in the 1838 Report of the British Select Committee on Transportation. “List of Prisoners who Absconded from Macquarie Harbour, Van Diemens Land, from the formation of the Settlement 3 January 1822 to 16 May 1827: GEORGE HASLEHURST, when Absconded – 31 January 1823, supposed to have perished in the woods.” He would have been 19 years old, and with one year left on his original sentence. George absconded that day with six others, all new to Macquarie Harbour since November. Three had been fellow Port Macquarie escapees who had arrived with him on “Elizabeth Henrietta” just two months before in November – Henry Moore (per ‘Morley’ arrived in 1816), John Davis (arrived on ‘Elizabeth’ in Oct 1816) and Thomas Dwyer (Irish, on ‘Minerva’ in December 1819). Alexander Mills had only arrived in November 1822 from being an assigned servant in Jericho, Tasmania, and had been sentenced on 19 No 1822 to 100 lashes and Macquarie harbour for indecent assault on the wife of his master, in the master’s absence. Joseph Byrne – Cannot tell which one he is (had to be present by end January 1823). It’s possible that George made it to Hobart or Launceston and escaped on a ship. But it seems unlikely. He was one of seven men who absconded on 31 January 1823, presumably all together, and none was recorded as being heard of again.