John (Age 70) Kelly

71

Robin Sharkey on 7th November 2015

Three men named John Kelly were “Three Bees” convicts. John Kelly aged 70 years old, was convicted at County Clare in March 1813 (per indent), sentenced 7 years. * Original trade: Silversmith (per indent of Elizabeth Henrietta to Newcastle, 2 Sept 1820) * Indent of Three Bees: Native of Limerick, Pedlar, fair-pale complexion, hazel eyes and grey hair. no height given. NSW 1814 muster noted “cripple” Limerick Chronicle 3rd July 1813:- [these men had all been tried at County Clare:] "Thursday evening, Thomas Killeen, Michael McMahon, Michael Brody, and JOHN KELLY, passed through this city from Ennis, for Cork, to be shipped for Botany Bay. Six men and a woman from Galway, for the same destination, also arrived in this City yesterday - and seven convicts (five men and two women) left Tralee on Wednesday for Cork." NSW ARRIVAL: As an elderly man, Kelly would have held no appeal to settlers or farmers wanting labour. * Therefore in 1814 Muster he was probably the John Kelly noted as a “Cripple” on the town gang at Sydney (the other two being with settlers at Windsor). But hard to imagine him doing much work there either! All musters thereafter to 1821 list him only at “government labour” 1820, although now Free by Servitude, Colonial conviction for receiving stolen property. Sent to Newcastle for 7 years. LIST of Prisoners tried at Sydney Criminal Court, 5th August 1820: “ Charged with receiving certain goods and chattels the property of Joseph Morley and others which had been feloniously stolen well knowing the same to have been stolen. GUILTY. Sentence: To be transported to Newcastle for the term of seven years” “Approved LM” (Gov L. Macquarie) Newspaper report: Sydney Gazette 5 August 1820 page 2 "John Kelly was next arraigned for having in his possession property, rather to a considerable amount, well knowing the same to have been stolen. The articles produced in Court, and which were identified by several as having been stolen from them at various times, consisted principally of watches, seals, and jewellery. The property being found in his possession, and sworn to as having been stolen, the prisoner said in his defence he had purchased it, but not bringing the parties forward from whom he had bought it, or attempting to prove he came by the articles in an honest way, he was pronounced guilty. The prisoner seemed to be upwards of sixty years old, very decrepid, and extremely miserable and wretched in his appearance, so much so, that His Honor the Judge Advocate informed the Members of the Court he had been deemed an object of commiseration, and as such the blessedness of that charitable institution, the Benevolent Society, had been extended to him ; but the prisoner, under the garb of poverty and wretchedness, had practiced a most gross imposition upon that Institution, and so far from being any longer entitled to the least spark of compassion, had drawn upon himself, from the aggravated nature of the offence of which he had been clearly found guilty, the severest judgment the law affords in such cases of extreme depravity, and the sentence of the Court was, that he be transported to the settlement of Newcastle for seven years." 2 Sept 1820 - On list of prisoners transported to Newcastle on “Elizabeth Henrietta” Found Guilty at Criminal Court, Sydney at sittings on 15 June continuing by adjournment to 5 August: * John Kelly “Fourteen years” Silversmith “three Bees” tried County Clare 1822 Muster lists only one John Kelly, Three Bees” at Government Emplpyment at Newcastle. this one may have been one of the other “BBB” JohnKelly convicts, who was sent to Newcastle in March 1822. Old John Kelly probably died at newcastle, perhaps early on, as he does not appear again.