Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
Elisha Kemp 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 617 (311). --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 |
Claims
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Convict Notes
OTHER: 13 December, 1853: He was granted a Ticket of Leave. 14 August, 1856: He received a Conditional Pardon. --00--
IN VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, ELISHA KEMP, convict #27951, was listed as a clerk; 32 years old, 5’3½” tall with dark brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. He was single, Protestant and literate. Native place: Heathfields, Sussex. He said he had been transported for “stealing a lamp from the Marchioness of Sligo in London and a small box from Captain Scott”; first conviction. Gibraltar report – “very bad” (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p107). Family: Father Peter; mother Lucy; and Brother Alfred – at his native place. (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai39531). --0--
3 February, 1853: Sent aboard the St Vincent for transportation to VDL. --00--
On Gibraltar, ELISHA KEMP was described as 25 years old, sentenced to 14 years for larceny, 2 indictments; first conviction; born in Sussex; Church of England; dark brown hair, dark hazel eyes and a fair complexion, 5’0¼” tall; literate; clerk; single; relatives/family – London (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: 30 January, 1848: KEMP, ELISHA #1121, arrived on Gibraltar from Millbank prison, England, per Mount Stewart Elphinstone. He was held on the Europa hulk (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --
TRIAL: 16 August, 1847: Elisha Kemp was tried on two indictments, convicted and sentenced to a total of 14 years’ transportation in the Old Bailey, as per the court transcript below: “1873. ELISHA KEMP was indicted for stealing 1 table-cloth, value 6s.; 1 cloth, 10s.; 2 pairs of trowsers, 1l.; 2 waistcoats, 10s.; and 1 pickle-jar and cover, 6s. the goods of Robert, Viscount Jocelyn: also 7 napkins, 12s.; 1 ornaments, 10s.; 1 pin-tray, 3s.; 1 thermometer, 10s.; and 1 tea-cloth, 6s.; the goods of John Pownall Bastard: also 1 blanket, 15s.; the goods of Lady Anna Maria Dawson: also 1 candle-stand and snuffers, 4l.; 1 pair of candlesticks, 10s.; 1 portfolio, 4s.; 3 dishes, 10s.; 4 plates, 6s.; and 1 copper pan, 4s.; the goods of Hester Catherine, Dowager Marchioness of Sligo: also 8 tablecloths, 2l.; 2 pillow-cases, 3s.; 13 napkins, 1l. 10s.; the goods of Hester Catherine, Dowager Marchioness of Sligo: also 1 paper box, 1s.; and 1 frock 3l.; the goods of the Hon. Charles Grantham Scott: to all which he pleaded GUILTY. Aged 25.— Transported for Seven Years on the 1st indictment, and Seven Years further on the 2nd.”( https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/). --00--