Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
William Lucas 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, p241 (123) --0-- England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892; England; Kent; 1867 --0-- UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1867-1868 |
| 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 2: Occupation given as "Coachman" as "Flydriver" is not in the options.
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.
NEWSPAPER REPORT OF HIS DEATH: From the Herald, 30 March 1872, p2: “A FEARFULLY sudden death is reported to have taken place within the walls of Perth Prison, on Monday last, under the following painful circumstances. A prisoner named Lucas who was undergoing a sentence of 21 days’ solitary confinement, upon bread and water, complained, to the medical attendant at the prison on Monday morning, of pains in the chest, and a liniment was prescribed for application to the part of which the sick man complained. This was done at half past one in the afternoon, after which hour the unfortunate man was never seen alive, although later in the afternoon he had been heard conversing with a fellow prisoner confined in an adjoining cell. At 5 p.m. when the officer went round to serve out to them their usual allowance of tea, on opening Lucas' cell door, he found a corpse, having, as we are told, been seized by a fit of aplopexy. We wonder what provision for ventilation is provided in the cells where these men are confined for twenty one days consecutively on bread and water.” (https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/111525124) --000--
FREMANTLE JAIL RECORD: LUCAS, William; inmate #9810, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1841 Date of Death: 25 March, 1872 Place of Death: Perth prison, natural causes Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Labourer Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Maidstone Crime: Rape Sentence Period: 15 years (https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/research/convict-database/) --00--
IN WA: 1868: On arrival, William LUCAS, 26, was listed as convict #9810; sentenced to 15 years, at Maidstone, 29 July, 1867, for rape; labourer; single, no children; literate; Protestant; family – Mrs Montain, Streamly Place, Beckingham, Kent; character “good”. Described as 4’11” tall, light hair, grey eyes, round visage, fair complexion, stout appearance; scar inside left wrist. Other: On 8 March, 1872, William Lucas was sentenced to “1 month in solitary confinement, the last 7 days on bread and water”, for “neglect of duty as a night Constable”. He died on 25 March, in Perth Prison, of “natural causes” while in solitary confinement (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9599-10128 cont. (R16)). --0--
EMBARKATION: 1867, 30 September: William Lucas was sent from Millbank to board the Hougoumont for WA (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for William Lucas; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1867-1868; image 86). “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, 28 September: Admitted to Millbank Prison, London – inmate #3863 (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for William Lucas; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1867-1868; image 86). --0--
1867, 29 August: Admitted to Pentonville Prison, Caledonian Road, London – inmate #4861 (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for William Lucas; Pentonville Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1866-1869). --0--
JAILS: 1867, July: He was held at Maidstone County Gaol, County Road, Maidstone, Kent, while awaiting and following his trial (https://www.prisonhistory.org/). --0--
NEWSPAPER REPORT OF TRIAL: From the Dundee Courier, Saturday, 3 August 1867, p3: “SEVERE PUNISHMENT OF A FLYDRIVER FOR RAPE. At the Maidstone Assizes on Thursday—before Judge Blackburn—William Lucas, a young man, described as a fly-driver, was indicted for a rape on Annie Bush at West Wickham. The complainant, a young woman in weak health, had arrived from London on a Saturday evening at the Beckenham Railway Station, where she was put into the prisoner’s fly to be conveyed to her sister’s at West Wickham. On the road, according to her account, the man stopped the fly, got into it, and committed the offence. Being weak in health she said she could not resist with much effect, but she gave the strongest possible proof of the genuineness of her story immediately afterwards jumping out of the fly as it was going along, hurting herself severely in the act. She rushed through a hedge and cried out to a woman who was there, and begged her assistance. The flyman came back, and she declared he had abused her, which he did not deny. The young woman being unable walk far, the people round persuaded her into the fly again, but this she refused until the woman got into the fly with her, and the man got upon the box with the prisoner. When she got to her sister’s, about midnight, she threw herself into her arms in a highly excited state and charged the prisoner with having abused her. Her sister asked him what he had been doing and again he made no reply. The young woman remained for three hours in a most excited state, and at three in the morning her sister's husband went for the doctor and the police. The doctor's evidence, as far as it went, confirmed her story, and when the police arrested the man he said she was mad, or something like it. He made no defence either before the magistrates or here, except to say that he had ‘been drinking, and was sorry for it’, and afterwards that he knew nothing about it. He was Convicted. The learned Judge, in passing sentence, said he considered it was a case free from all reasonable doubt, and sentenced the prisoner to 15 years’ penal servitude.” (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000162/18670803/044/0003) --00--