James Kenyon

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Dianne Jones on 14th January 2022

IN WA: From his Fremantle jail record: KENYON, James; inmate #4514, arrived 1 Jan 1858 per Nile Alias: KENYAN Date of Birth: 1819 Date of Death: 31 Dec 1874 Place of Death: Champion Bay, inflammation of lungs Marital Status: Widower, 1 child [UK jail records do not list a child] Occupation: Painter, plasterer Literacy: Semiliterate Sentence Place: Lancaster, Lancashire, England Crime: Manslaughter of his wife Sentence Period: Life Ticket of Leave Date: 12 Jul 1861, at Perth Conditional Pardon Date: 17 Mar 1866 Comments: Self-employed as painter 1863-1865 (https://fremantleprison.com.au/).

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Dianne Jones on 14th January 2022

10 September, 1857: He was sent from Portland to board the Nile for WA (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; Character Book for Nos 4508-5585 (R8)). --00--

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Dianne Jones on 14th January 2022

3 February, 1857: Admitted to Portland prison; inmate #6736. Next of kin -- his brother William Kenyon, Union Street, Blackburn. Listed as 38 (when convicted), a widower, no children; Church of England. Behaviour "very good" (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Portland Prison; Prison Records to 1875). Portland, Portsmouth, Chatham and Spike Island in Ireland were listed public works stations and the second stage in the penal process. After separate confinement, prisoners were “placed on work parties at various locations, most commonly naval stations, where maintenance of facilities was vital for the effective protection of Britain’s far flung commercial and military influences around the world. While there, attitude and behaviour were monitored closely. In theory, only after consistently positive reports was a prisoner moved on to the third stage of his incarceration—transportation.” (Edgar, p40) --0--

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Dianne Jones on 14th January 2022

20 March, 1856: Admitted to Wakefield prison; served 10 months 13 days in separate confinement. “After a sentence of transportation was handed down, the prisoner entered into a separate stage where he was placed into an individual cell, isolated from others, apart from brief periods of exercise and attendance at chapel. However, no communication of any kind with other prisoners was permitted at any time. The philosophy behind this penal methodology had its provenances in the religious, monastic traditions; i.e., that in the isolation of his cell the malefactor would be able to contemplate the errors of his way, unadulterated by the negative influences of former contemporaries, and be reformed.” (Edgar, 2018, pp39-40) When first put into practice, the mandated period of separate confinement was 18 months. By the late 1840s, authorities had conceded that such conditions of imprisonment were “injurious to many prisoners’ mental health” and the stint was reduced to 12 months. Periods of separate confinement were reduced further “as a prisoner displayed good behaviour tendencies” (Edgar, p40). Wakefield, Millbank, Pentonville and Mountjoy in Ireland were the “Probation” or “Separate” prisons, as were some local jails. --0--

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Dianne Jones on 14th January 2022

JAILS: 20 February, 1856: James Kenyon was admitted to Lancaster Gaol where he served 1 month in association with other prisoners. --0--

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Dianne Jones on 14th January 2022

From the 'Weekly Dispatch' p.3, March 2, 1856: "Northern Circuit. Lancaster. [Before Mr. Baron Martin.] MANSLAUGHTER, - James Kenyon, aged 38, a respectable-looking man, a plasterer by trade, was indicted for the manslaughter of Betty Kenyon, his wife, in September last. It appeared that the prisoner lived at Blackburn, where he carried on the business of a plasterer, and also that of a publican, at the Victoria Inn, in that town. The prisoner and his wife, in August last year, appeared to have had frequent quarrels, arising, it was suggested from the wife’s being given to intemperance. In the course of these quarrels, the prisoner was shown to have struck his wife with his fists on the chest and back about five weeks before her death. On another occasion, he had thrown a bottle of ginger beer at her, which struck her on the side; on a third occasion, he had struck her with a brush on the hand; and he had also been seen to strike her with his fists on the face, in the street, using the expression at the time that she was a d- drunken ---, and he would murder her before morning. The deceased died on the 3rd of September last, the immediate cause of death being suffocation from consumption. A post-mortem examination discovered no marks of external injury whatever on the person of the deceased, but the lungs exhibited extensive disease of about a year’s standing, and a lot of blood in the throat, proceeding from the airtubes in the lungs, which deceased, from exhaustion, had been unable to get rid of by coughing and expectoration, had caused suffocation and death. An examination of the lungs showed numerous tubercles, and there was a large ulcer in the right lung, which had destroyed a small blood-vessel, and from this the blood found in the air tubes had proceeded. Two medical man, Dr. Markland and Mr. Morley, of Blackburn, gave their opinions in evidence that the violence to which the deceased had been subjected might have aggravated the disease under which the poor women laboured, and have accelerated her death. Dr. Markland thought it might do so, and probably would, but not swear positively that it had. Mr. Morley had no doubt whether that it would, partly by the nervous shock and the reaction consequent upon it causing weakness and depression, which would render her less able to resist the ravages of the disease, and partly by the irritation caused by such conduct increasing the action of the heart and the flow of blood through the delicate and diseased texture of the lungs. His Lordship, in summing up, left it to the jury to say whether, on the facts proved and on the medical evidence on those facts, they were of the opinion that the death of the deceased had been accelerated by the violence of the prisoner towards her; if they thought it had, they must find him guilty of manslaughter, and his Lordship referred to a dictum of Lord Hale as warranting such a finding. If, however, seeing that the medical testimony on the point was not unanimous, they had any doubt that the deceased’s death had been accelerated by the violence to which she had been subjected, the amount to which she would be affected by that violence depending on her degree of sensitiveness and refinement, or on these feelings, they must acquit the prisoner. The jury retired, and, after an hour’s absence found the prisoner Guilty. His Lordship, in passing sentence on the prisoner, said that cases of brutal violence to women were now so common that he thought it necessary for the ends of public justice, and with the concurrence of his brother Judge, whom he had consulted on the matter, to pass upon the prisoner the heaviest sentence which the law allowed. The sentence of the Court was, that he be transported for the term of his natural life. The sentence appeared to create much sensation in Court." (http://www.perthdps.com/convicts/w4514.htm) --00--

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Dianne Jones on 14th January 2022

NEWSPAPER REPORTING OF HIS TRIAL: From the 'News of the World', March 2, 1856: "MANSLAUGHTER - VIOLENCE TO WOMEN James Kenyon was indicted at the Lancaster Assizes for the manslaughter of his wife. It appeared that the prisoner lived at Blackburn, where he carried on the business of a plasterer, and also that of a publican, at the Victoria Inn. The prisoner and his wife appeared to have had frequent quarrels, arising, it was suggested, from the wife’s being given to intemperance. In the course of these quarrels the prisoner was shown to have struck his wife with his fists on the chest and back about five weeks before her death. On another occasion he had thrown a bottle of ginger beer at her, which struck her on the side; on a third occasion he had struck her with a brush on the hand; and he had also been seen to strike her with his fists on the face, in the street, using the expression at the time that she was a d- drunken ---, and he would murder her before morning. The deceased died on 3rd Sept., the immediate cause of death being suffocation from consumption. A post mortem examination discovered no marks of external injury whatever on the person of the deceased, but the lungs exhibited extensive disease of about a year’s standing. Two medical men gave their opinions in evidence that violence to which the deceased had been subjected might have aggravated the disease under which the poor woman laboured, and have accelerated her death. The jury retired, and after an hour’s absence found the prisoner guilty. His Lordship, in passing sentence on the prisoner, said that cases of brutal violence to women were now so common, that he thought it necessary for the ends of public justice, and with the concurrence of his brother judge, whom he had consulted on the matter, to pass upon the prisoner the heaviest sentence which the law allowed. The sentence of the Court was that he be transported for life. The sentence appeared to create much sensation in Court." (http://www.perthdps.com/convicts/w4514.htm) --0--

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Dianne Jones on 14th January 2022

TRIAL: 20 February, 1856: James Kenyon, a master plasterer, was convicted of manslaughter at the Lancaster Assizes and sentenced to life. --0--