Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Transportation
James Hodson Jones was transported on the Nile, departing 18th Sep 1857 and arriving 1st Jan 1858 with 271 passengers.
Nile (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/18, Page Number 238. Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; Convicts Transported Per Nile (R32). |
| 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
FOOTNOTE: NEWSPAPER REPORT OF THE TRIAL From 'News of The World', August 24, 1856, p5: "MURDERING A SWEETHEART James Hodson Jones, a warehouseman (45 years of age), was tried at the Liverpool Assizes, on a charge of wilfully murdering Isabella Drew, at Liverpool, on the 26th April last. The prisoner and deceased were cousins, and were about to be married at the time in question. They lodged together at the house of W. Holland, in Gt. Richmond-street, Liverpool. On the 26th April, Mr. Holland was in his own house. The deceased had just returned from market, and had her basket in her hand when the prisoner entered the house, and without the slightest apparent provocation knocked her down. She fell upon her back; and the injuries caused by that fall, and from treatment which it was presumed she subsequently experienced at he hands of the prisoner, she died the next evening. The prisoner was drunk at the time and Holland was too frightened to do anything but run for a policeman. When he returned, the deceased still lay upon the floor, and the prisoner was sitting upon the sofa in a stupid state. The deceased was bleeding, and apparently very seriously injured, the injuries being such as would be caused by something very heavy falling upon her person. It was the object of the prosecution to show, by inference, that death must have been caused by the prisoner stamping upon the deceased during the interval that they were left alone together when Holland ran out for a policeman. On the other hand for the defence it was contended that the attack was made when the prisoner was incapable from drink of judging what he was doing, and that he could not be held accountable for murder. The injuries described as resulting from something heavy falling upon the woman’s person were, by the learned counsel for the defence, accounted for by the probability that the prisoner, in going to help the deceased up, might, in his drunkenness, have fallen upon her several times. In summing up his lordship pointed out that drunkenness was no palliation of the offence. The Jury returned a verdict of manslaughter. Jones was sentenced to transportation for life." (http://www.perthdps.com/convicts/w4643.htm) --00--
FOOTNOTE: THE VOYAGE TO WA James Hodson Jones's behaviour during the voyage was “good”, according to his WA Convict record (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; Character Book for Nos 4508-5585 (R8)). This is very much at odds with an account published 160 years later of the Nile's "precarious voyage" to WA. Although a requirement, no journal/full report of the voyage from the ship’s Surgeon Superintendent has ever been located, according to Bill Edgar (2018) whose research fills in some blanks. Around two-thirds of the Nile’s 268 convicts could be considered “serious criminals”. A point that wasn’t lost on the ship’s crew or warders. Edgar (2018) says between the starting point of the Nile’s voyage at the head of the Thames at Sheerness and her arrival at Plymouth a week or so later to take on prisoners from Dartmoor, two warders “having seen the potential for trouble… decided to refuse duties they could clearly perceive as very dangerous”. They left the ship. Between the Nile’s departure from Plymouth, on 23 September, and her arrival just over 4 weeks later at Bahia (in Brazil), a “litany of frightening incidences took place aboard”. Fearing a mutiny, the captain had nine convicts placed in chains “where they were to stay for the remainder of the voyage”. There was no mutiny. Edgar writes, however: “It had been a near run thing. The prospect of a mutiny had been very real.” Despite the Nile’s arrival off WA late on the night of 31 December, 1857, the bulk of the prisoners were not disembarked for five days. Twelve men were unloaded on 2 January – three bound for hospital and nine who went in chains to Fremantle prison. The latter were the “failed mutineers”, listed as men of “bad character” by the ship’s Surgeon Superintendent in a letter to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty (Edgar, pp24-25, 27). They were: James H Jones (aged 45 when convicted, he was the oldest of the nine), John Turnbull, John Cirans (Ceirans), Thomas Ward, George Foxton (alias Thompson), Patrick McBride, Michael Henry, John Ferguson, and George Woodcock (the possessor of at least seven aliases by this time).
IN WA: From his Fremantle jail record: JONES, James Hodson; #4643, arrived 1 Jan 1858 per Nile Date of Birth: 1810 Date of Death: Jul 1874 Place of Death: Champion Bay Marital Status: Widower Occupation: Wool sorter, warehouseman Literacy: Semiliterate Sentence Place: Liverpool, Lancashire, England Crime: Manslaughter Sentence Period: Life Ticket of Leave Date: 30 Sep 1861 Conditional Pardon Date: 11 Mar 1867 (https://fremantleprison.com.au/). --00--
17 July, 1857: He was sent to Chatham, to await transportation. On the record of “male transports” from Chatham per Nile to WA he was listed as 45, widowed with no children, a warehouseman, and able to read and write imperfectly. His behaviour in separate confinement and in the public works prison was described as "good" (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; Convicts Transported Per Nile (R32)). --00--
24 September, 1856: He was admitted to Millbank jail at Westminster in London, listed as prisoner #3689, aged 45, semiliterate, CofE and a widower. Next of kin -- his mother Grace Boyd, Duckinfield Street, Liverpool. By the 1850s, Millbank and Pentonville were places for all male convicts to serve “their probationary term [of 9 months], after which they would be transported or sent to a public works prison” (https://www.prisonhistory.org). He served 9 months 21 days in separate confinement.(UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners to 1885). --0--
JAILS: Abt 5 May, 1856: He was admitted to Kirkdale (to the Old Swan Police Station and Lock Up House, in Liverpool) where he served 96 days in separate confinement before his trial and 46 days in separate confinement afterwards (stats are from his Millbank record). --0--
TRIAL: 9 August, 1856: James Hodson Jones, 45, a warehouseman was tried at Liverpool Assizes and convicted of manslaughter. He was sentenced to transportation for life (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; Convicts Transported Per Nile (R32)). --0--