Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
Thomas Lines was transported on the Hougoumont, departing 10th Oct 1867 and arriving 9th Jan 1868 with 281 passengers.
875 ton ship was built at Moulmein in 1852. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/on-this-day-in-history-australias-last-convict-ship-docks.htm ---------------------------- Incorrect Image ....This is a four masted steel hulled Barque in the drawing , im surprised Australian Geo didn't do a bit more research on this .......The Hougoumont was a works ship on the Forth Bridge Project in 1885 ....the one potrayed as a drawing in Aust Geo is the later version of this ship.....the photograph i have attached is the correct and original convict vessel. --00-- 1867 "The hired convict ship Hougoumont, which has been taken up by the Government for the conveyance of a numerous party of convicts to Freemantle, Western Australia, left the Nore on October 1, and proceeded down Channel, after receiving on board 150 convicts from the establishments at Chatham and Millbank. The convicts from the Chatham establishment, at St. Mary's, embarked from the dockyard on board the paddle-wheel steamer Adder, Mr. W. J. Blakely, and were in charge of a numerous party of convict guards and wardens, all heavily armed. Among the convicts shipped were a party of fifteen Fenians, who were engaged in the late conspiracy in Ireland, together with the officers and crew convicted of scuttling the ship Severn, and some others who have achieved notoriety from their crimes. The Fenian convicts, like the remainder of the prisoners, were chained together in gangs, but it was observed that they were kept apart from the other convicts in a portion of the vessel by themselves. The steamer Petrel also took down a number of convicts from the establishment at Millbank for shipment on board the Hougoumont, in charge of a strong escort and convict guard. On Tuesday, October 8th, the Hougoumont arrived in Portland roads. Shortly before midday ninety convicts were marched down to the Government pier at Portland under a strong escort of the 12th Light Infantry. The party included twenty-three Fenian convicts, among whom it was said, was Moriarty. The Government steamer employed in the breakwater service was used for conveying the convicts on board the Hougoumont transport ship. The convicts were chained together on embarking, and on board the steamer a strong guard of marines from her Majesty's ship St. George was formed, and saw the convicts safely placed on board the Hougoumont. The Governor of the penal settlement at Freemantle, Captain Young, is on board the Hougoumont, and returns in that ship to his sphere of duty after paying a visit to his native land." Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Thu 19 Dec 1867, p4, English Shipping, available on Trove at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271?searchTerm=hougoumont.
HougoumontReferences
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 93, Class and Piece Number HO11/19, p252 --00-- Edgar, W. (Bill). (2018). “The precarious voyage of her majesty’s convict ship ‘Nile’ to the Swan River colony, late 1857 – and the unexpected aftermath.” The Great Circle, 40(1), 20–43. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26783779 --0-- https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/research/convict-database/ |
| 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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Photos
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Convict Notes
NOTE: Year of Birth is taken from official records but day and month are not known. The latter dates have been entered as 01/01 because the site does not allow those fields to be left empty.
From his FREMANTLE JAIL record: LINES, Thomas; inmate #9806, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1826 Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Painter Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Warwick Crime: Rape Sentence Period: 10 years Ticket of Leave Date: 5 May 1871 Certificate of Freedom Date: 3 Mar 1876 Comments: Ploughman, labourer, general servant, painter, teamster (https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/research/convict-database/). --000--
IN WA: On arrival, THOMAS LINES was listed as convict #9806, 40, single with no children, literate, painter, Protestant; family – Mrs Gould, Fish Street, Pembury, Oxfordshire; 5’6” tall, light brown hair, grey eyes, light to dark complexion, healthy appearance. Behaviour in jail in England “good”. “Prisoner is subject to Epilieptic Fits and has been constantly watched in consequence. Health not good.” Other: 29.1.1870 Thomas Lines was declared a “permanent invalid from partial paralysis”. 29.4.71 “To be discharged to Ticket of Leave 5.5.71.” Certificate of Freedom granted 3.3.76 (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department; Convict Dept Registers, General Registers for Nos 9599-100128 cont. (R16)). --00--
EMBARKATION: 1867, 5 October: Thomas Lines was sent from Portsmouth jail to board the Hougoumont for transportation to WA. Note: His WA convict record incorrectly states he was last held at Woking Prison. “The hired convict ship Hougoumont, which has been taken up, by the Government for the conveyance of a numerous party of convicts to Freemantle, Western Australia, left the Nore on October 1, and proceeded down Channel, after receiving on board 150 convicts from the establishments at Chatham and Millbank. The convicts from the Chatham establishment, at St. Mary's, embarked from the dockyard on board the paddle-wheel steamer Adder, Mr. W. J. Blakely, and were in charge of a numerous party of convict guards and wardens, all heavily armed. Among the convicts shipped were a party of fifteen Fenians, who were engaged in the late conspiracy in Ireland, together with the officers and crew convicted of scuttling the ship Severn [only two were on the Hougoumont – Thomas Berwick and Lionel Holdsworth, each sentenced to 20 years for fraud], and some others who have achieved notoriety from their crimes. The Fenian convicts, like the remainder of the prisoners, were chained together in gangs, but it was observed that they were kept apart from the other convicts in a portion of the vessel by themselves. The steamer Petrel also took down a number of convicts from the establishment at Millbank, for shipment on board the Hougoumont, in charge of a strong escort and convict guard. On Tuesday, October 8th, the Hougoumont arrived in Portland roads. Shortly before midday ninety convicts were marched down to the Government pier at Portland under a strong escort of the 12th Light Infantry. The party included twenty-three Fenian convicts, among whom it was said, was Moriarty [not the senior Fenian, Captain Moriarty; rather, this was Bartholomew Moriarty, aged 17]. The Government steamer employed in the breakwater service was used for conveying the convicts on board the Hougoumont transport ship. The convicts were chained together on embarking, and on board the steamer a strong guard of marines from her Majesty's ship St. George was formed, and saw the convicts safely placed on board the Hougoumont. The Governor of the penal settlement at Freemantle, Captain Young, is on board the Hougoumont, and returns in that ship to his sphere of duty after paying a visit to his native land.” (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 1867, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271). --00--
1867, 27 September: Sent from Woking back to Portsmouth Prison, Hampshire; health “good”, behaviour “good” (England, Criminal Lunatic Asylum Registers, 1820-1876 for Thomas Lines; Quarterly Returns of Prisoners in Convict Prisons/Lunatic Asylums; 1867; December; image 316). --00--
1867, September quarter: Sent from Portsmouth back to Woking Invalid Convict Prison, Thomas Lines – inmate #3260, 36; rape on a child 4 years of age; surgeon’s report “healthy”, behaviour “very good” (England, Criminal Lunatic Asylum Registers, 1820-1876 for Thomas Lines; Quarterly Returns of Prisoners in Convict Prisons/Lunatic Asylums; 1867; September; image 323). --0--
1867: September quarter: Portsmouth Prison, Cumberland Street, Portsmouth, Hampshire – Thomas Lines – inmate #1239, 36 years old; rape; ten years; health “good”, behaviour “good” (England, Criminal Lunatic Asylum Registers, 1820-1876 for Thomas Lines; Quarterly Returns of Prisoners in Convict Prisons/Lunatic Asylums; 1867; September; image 292). --0--
1867, 23 August: Admitted to Woking Invalid Prison. Opened April 1859, Woking jail at Knaphill, Woking, was primarily for invalided male convicts, and by March 1860 had taken over entirely from the temporary invalid prison at Lewes. Between 1862 and 1867, it was responsible for the working party sent to labour for the construction of Broadmoor Criminal Asylum. The prison closed in March 1889 as the decline in the convict population made it unnecessary to maintain a separate prison for invalids (https://www.prisonhistory.org/prison/woking-male-prison/). --0--
1866, 12 March: Admitted to Millbank Prison, London – inmate #1671; 36, single, illiterate, Protestant; convicted 1 December, 1865, Warwick Assizes, of rape on a girl aged 4 years, 10 years’ PS; behaviour “good”, “subject to epileptic fits”. Family – cohabits with Martha Beasley, “Navigation Inn”, Foleshill; mother – Elizabeth Lines, Mill Lane, Banbury, Oxon; and brother – James Bowd, Middleton Cherry Cross Roads, Northampton. (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for Thomas Lines; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1865-1866; image 207). “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). Pentonville, Millbank, Wakefield and Mountjoy in Ireland were the “Probation” or “Separate” prisons, as were some local jails. --0--
JAILS: 1865/66: He was held at Warwick County Gaol, north of the town centre on Cape Road, Warwick, in separate confinement for 3 months 11 days (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for Thomas Lines; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1865-1866; image 207). --0--