Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
John Holmes was transported on the St Vincent, departing 28th Dec 1852 and arriving 26th May 1853 with 214 passengers.
St Vincent (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 92, Class and Piece Number HO11/17, Page Number 631 (318). --0-- Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/ |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
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Convict Notes
9 September, 1856: Granted a Ticket of Leave. 30 November, 1856: Received a Conditional Pardon (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p82). --00—
IN VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, John Holmes, convict #27938, was listed as a dyer; 27 years old, 6’2” tall with dark brown hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion. He was married, Protestant and literate. Native place: Bradford (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-96p93). He said he had been transported for highway robbery – stealing 13 pounds (prosecutor Mr McGregor) near Bradford. He had a prior conviction (2 months’ jail). Prison report from Gibraltar – “fair”. Family: Wife Ann; father Joseph; mother Sarah; brother James; sisters Mary, Elizabeth, Maria, Martha and Hannah – all at his native place (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai33772). --00--
3 February, 1853: He was sent aboard the St Vincent for transportation to VDL. --00--
On Gibraltar, JOHN HOLMES was described as 21 years old, sentenced to 15 years for “robbery with violence & a previous conviction”; “second conviction”; born in Bradford; “Disenter”; brown hair, hazel eyes and fresh complexion, 6’2¼” tall; literate; dyer; married; relatives/family – at Bradford (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --
Gibraltar and Bermuda were listed public works stations (and the second stage in the penal process). On Gibraltar, as “convicts worked together with free men on the dockyards, lines between them became blurred. Convicts, like seamen, were ‘easily recognised’ by ‘their swarthy, weather beaten complexions…[and] muscular well-knit frames’. The discipline on the penal settlement was also influenced by the naval department, who superintended part of the works. In the 1840s, for example, convicts were provided ‘a half gill of rum’ at 11am and 5pm, which they drank from a trough. This mirrored the daily allowance of diluted rum, known as grog, to Royal Naval seamen in the Victorian era. Convicts were also allowed to use part of their earnings, to buy goods, usually tobacco, which they were allowed to smoke in the evening in the barracks. Though official correspondence cited health reasons for grog allowance, it seems likely that the convict authorities feared insubordination if they were banned from drinking and smoking, which were provided to the sappers and dockyard workers whom they worked alongside… In 1854, the acting overseer stated that “half of the offences were committed when the men were excited by rum”. For more serious offences, convicts were flogged with a ‘cat o’nine tails’ whip against the ‘flogging mast’, and during an investigation Dr William Baly concluded that the whip which was used was an old naval cat, which was ‘much heavier than any now used in the government prison and hulks at home, or in the army.’” (Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/). --
TO GIBRALTAR: 4 March, 1851: HOLMES, JOHN #1603, arrived on Gibraltar from England per Cornwall. He was held on the Europa hulk (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --
NEWSPAPER REPORT OF TRIAL: 13 March, 1847: “ROBBERY AT BRADFORD. JOHN HOLMES, 21, was charged with … [in December 1846] assaulting John McGregor, and stealing from him 13 pounds…” The court heard that McGregor, a glass-hawker, “had been drinking at a public-house along with the prisoner, and some other men. When they left the prisoner walked on by the side of the prosecutor, and after they had got some distance from the public-house, he seized him by the throat threw him on the ground, and took from him his purse, which contained upwards of 20 pounds. The jury found the prisoner Guilty…” (Yorkshire Gazette, p2, at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/) --00--
TRIAL: 6 March, 1847: John Holmes, 21 and semi-literate, was tried at York County Assizes, convicted and sentenced to 15 years’ transportation for “robbery with violence” with a previous conviction for felony taken into account (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for John Holmes; England; Yorkshire - North Riding; 1847) --0—