Thomas Holness

20

Roger Kent on 9th August 2016

Thomas Holness (1806-1843) Thomas was baptized on 23 March 1806. He married Jane Whidett at St. Mary, Northgate, Canterbury, on 31 August 1835. Jane had a daughter, Ann (born about 1831) from a previous relationship. In 1835, Thomas and Jane had a son, George who was the probable reason for their marriage and who apparently died in infancy. A second son, John was baptized in Herne on 16 September 1838. The 1841 Census shows that a Jane Holness, apparently Thomas’s wife, with daughter, Ann Whidett (10) and son, John Holness (3) was living with Stephen and Elizabeth. Thomas is not mentioned in the census and thereby hangs a tale because he had been sheep stealing and was a guest of Her Majesty awaiting trial. The Gaol Report states that he was of good character and respectable. On 4 January 1842, Thomas was tried at the East Kent Quarter Sessions on the charge of stealing one wether sheep, the property of David Harris in the parish of Herne. He was convicted and sentenced to transportation to Tasmania for ten years. Thomas was first confined to a hulk, an old wooden ship probably moored in the Thames off Sherness. The Hulk Report states that Thomas was “orderly” and the Surgeon’s Report indicates that his conduct was orderly but that Thomas was “of weak intelligence.” He was then embarked for Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania) on HMS Surrey on 9 March 1842 and arrived in Hobart on 11 August 1842. His initial period of probation was two and a half years with a 3rd Class Pass. He was assigned to a road gang on 18 August and just eleven days later on 29 August, he was given ten days solitary confinement for idleness and making use of abusive and obscene language to an overseer. Reports on Thomas’s conduct from August 1842 to February 1843 ranged from “quiet” through “indifferent” to “bad.” On 4 March 1843, he was again charged with idleness and making use of improper language and this time was given three months hard labor on the roads subject to the opinion of the Principal Medical Officer whether he be in a fit state of mind to undergo the same. Apparently Thomas was not in a fit state of mind for on 6 March he was sent to the prison barracks and admitted to Hobart General Hospital. On 4 April 1843, he was transferred to H.M. Lachlan Park Colonial Hospital in New Norfolk where he died in Ward 9 on 6 December 1843. He was recorded as an imbecile but the post-mortem records a possible brain tumor and pneumonia of the lungs as the causes of death. Given the earlier reports of good character, respectability and orderly conduct from the gaol, hulk and surgeon, perhaps a tumor was the cause of Thomas’s idleness and obscene language as well as the diagnosis of imbecility. His death certificate states: 6502 HOLNESS Thomas. Tried Kent St. Augustines q.s. 4 Jany 1842. 10. Embarked 9 March 1842. Arr’d 11 August 1842. Protestant can neither read nor write. His description is given as: Trade: F (arm) Labourer, Height: 5ft 7ins, Age: 36, Complex: Ruddy, Head: large, Hair: black, Whiskers: Reddh, Visage: broad, Forehd: Med.Ht. Eyebrows: black, Eyes: brown, Nose: large, Mouth: mid, Chin: MedM, Native place: Chiselhurst (sic, should be Chislet) near Canterbury. Remarks: Several scars on left hand and scars on right hand. Scars on back of left hand. Scars at right and left side of neck. Little toe of left foot crippled. The Ship’s Indent for H.M.S. Surrey, in addition to a description similar to the above, records in the remarks column: Wife – Jane. 4 Brothers – Stephen, Richard, Robin and Edward. 3 Sisters – Esther, Jane and Mary Ann. Hulk – 1 Mar. It seems that Thomas had been arrested for stealing the sheep some time early in 1841 and his brother Stephen and wife Elizabeth had taken pity on his family for they had his wife Jane and children living with them even before he was tried and sentenced to transportation to Australia. While Thomas was suffering half a world away in Tasmania, Jane had another son Richard William who was baptized in Herne on 11th December 1842, 11 months after his father was tried and sentenced. Was he the result of a “fond farewell” before Thomas was taken off for trial and transportation? If Richard were born in 1842, he would have been older than the ages shown in the 1851 and succeeding censuses and would have been conceived shortly before Thomas’s final and fateful trip to Australia. If the ages shown in the 1851 and succeeding censuses are true then Richard was not Thomas’s son. During the summer of 1843 as Thomas was dying in Lachlan Park Hospital, a fact probably unknown to his family, his sister Mary Ann married Fred Hammond on 7 June. They had eight children. Another sister Jane married George Mutton on 4 July 1847. They had seven children. In 1851, Thomas’s widow Jane is recorded as a pauper living on Herne Street, Herne with daughter Ann Widdett (20) who is shown in the various censuses to be “deaf and dumb and nearly blind,” and sons, John (12) and Richard (7). It is unclear whether they were living with or next-door to Stephen and his family. In 1861, John is a baker at “The Baker’s Shop” on Herne Street, Herne assisted by his brother Richard and providing a home for mother Jane and stepsister, Ann. In 1871, Jane (67) is recorded as living on Upper Herne Street, Herne with daughter Ann Holness (40). Apparently the enumerator had made an error for Ann is named Whiddett in every other census. In 1881, Jane and Ann are paupers living on Herne Street. Ann is easy to follow in the censuses because her disabilities are recorded. Jane died in 1888. Ann died in 1898.