Joseph Lycett

75

iain Frazier on 5th January 2024

Family connetions for Joseph (Lycett) are: LYCETT Joseph (Lycett/Lysaght) was born in 1774 in Litchfield Staffordshire & became a portrait & miniature painter. He maybe had a first relationship with Mary (Stokes maybe Mary Ann (Bogg) her first (10f4) relationship). He was arrested in London & tried with Mary (Stokes) for forgery at Ludlow Shropshire Assizes on 10 8 1811, sentenced to 14years, held at Shrewsbury Gaol & hulks at Portsmouth from July 1812. He successfully sought custody of his daughter Mary Ann. He arrived in NSW as a convict on 7 2 1814 after a voyage 6months on GENERAL HEWITT; where his daughter joined him-to be placed in Female Orphan School. He was appointed as clerk at a police office. He was convicted in 1815 of forging 5shilling bills, sentenced to 3years & sent to Newcastle penal settlement, as Josh (Lyaght) on 8 7 1815 on LADY NELSON-instructions specified a special watch be kept as he was notorious for forgeries. On 8 11 1817, as (Lyatt) he was given a pass to visit Sydney-a measure of his trust. On 14 11 1817, as (Lyatt) he was wounded by natives at Port Stephens. He designed a church for the Governer which was built in 1818 & painted the altar piece & perhaps three-light window which still survives in the bishop's vestry of Newcastle Cathedral. He was issued his Conditional Pardon in about 1818. He returned to Sydney in 1819 & continued painting & drawing-with the Governors personal approval. He was issued his Absolute Pardon on 28 11 1821; he seems to have become chronically alcoholic. He associated secondly with ??? (???) whom he perhaps married. He acquired substantial money & in September 1822 he took his daughters to England on SHIPLEY. In 1824 & 1825 he started publishing his drawings. While living near Bath he forged some notes on the Stourbridge Bank & was arrested; he cut his throat & when recovering in hospital on 9 2 1828 he is said to have torn open the wound and killed himself age54; he was father of perhaps 2children. [Some details taken from this Website] Mary (Stokes maybe Mary Ann (Bogg)) She was arrested in London & tried with Joseph (Lycett) for forgery. She was placed on bail early in 1811 to care for offspring before being acquitted at Ludlow Shropshire Assizes on 10 8 1811.>>> Joseph (Lycett) & Mary (Stokes) produced perhaps 2children: 1.Mary Ann (perhaps (Lycett) & perhaps not child of Mary (Stokes)] was born about 1804. She arrived at Botany Bay NSW in company with Ann (Hubbard) - her mother was on the same ship - on 9 1 1814 after a voyage of 5months on WANSTEAD to join her father. From 1815 she was placed in the Female Orphan School until 1821. She was taken to UK by her father in 1822. ..Ann (Hubbard), at age about 24, had come to NSW to join her husband George (Hubbard) who had been tried for high treason (assistance to French prisoners during Napoleonic Wars) at Shropshire Assizes & arrived in NSW on 7 2 1814 after a voyage of 11months on GENERAL HEWETT-from entry on this Website.>>> ..Ann & George (Hubbard) produced 2children-Sarah Sophia on 12 8 1816 & Catherine in 1818. .. >>[>.Ann (Hubburd/Hibbert) received permission to marry secondly (2of4) Thomas (Wright maybe his first marriage) emancipist on 17 8 1818 & did so on 22 8 1818 at St Matthews CofE Windsor & produced 1child. ..[Thomas (Wright) was born about 1784. He was tried for housebreaking at Buckinghamshire Assizes on 4 3 1809, sentenced to Life, held on hulk LAUREL in Portsmouth from 8 6 1809 & arrived in NSW as a convict on 16 12 1810 after a voyage of 5.5months on INDIAN. On 21 11 1816 he was sent to Newcastle on HMS LADY NELSON, indicating poor behaviour. He was Free by Servitude by 1817. On 5 4 1823 he was sent to Port Macquarie on SALLY, indicating worse behaviour. On 5 5 1824 he complained of his wife living adulterously at Windsor, requesting she be brought to Port Macquarie.>>> ..[Some details taken from this Website] .. >>[>Noted a Thomas (Wright is recorded as living with Margaret (???) & producing 1child. He died on 8 11 1827 age56 father perhaps of 2children & was buried at Christ Church Newcastle.] .. >>>Ann (Hubburd) cohabited thirdly (3of4) with John (Glass), whom she later married. near Windsor. She apparantly had a fourth relationship with Thos (Dillon). She was complained of, on 5 5 1824, as adulterous by her husband, who sought to have her accompany him at Port Macquarie. She was recorded in Port Macquarie on 7 9 1824 with Cerificate of Freedom, charged with a felony & with a child fathered by Thos (Dillon). She married John (Glass) in 1829. She produced perhaps 4children in her lifetime.] CCONVICTmaybe ..[Noted a Thomas (Dillane) is recorded on this Website as arriving on MEDINA in 1823 & lived at Windsor] ..[Ann (Hubburd) & Thos (Dillon/ane) apparantly produced 1child:] ..[1.??? (Hubbard) was born about 1823. She was taken to Port Macquarie by her mother in 1824.] Reference Craig James Smee 'Births and Baptisms Marriages and Defacto Relationships Deaths and Burials New South Wales 1788-1830' ..a complete listing from church & other records in the early colony.

341

Maureen Withey on 14th August 2023

Colonial Secretary Index. LYSAGHT, Joseph. Per "General Hewitt", 1814 1815 Jul 8 To be strictly watched at Newcastle as he was notorious for forgeries (Reel 6004; 4/3494 p.115) 1815 Jul 8 On list of prisoners to be sent to Newcastle per "Lady Nelson" (Reel 6004; 4/3494 p.116) 1817 Nov 8 Pass to go to Sydney on private business for the Commandant; appears as Lyatt (Reel 6066; 4/1806 p.95) 1817 Nov 14 Wounded by natives at Port Stephens; appears as Lyatt (Reel 6066; 4/1806 p.96) ------------------------------------------------------------------- List of prisoners to be sent to Newcastle, by the Lady Nelson. July 8 1815. General Hewitt, Josh. Lyaght, Convict, Convicted by His Excellency the Gov, 7 July 1815, sentence, 3 years.

53

Beth Taylor on 2nd August 2019

The Life of Convict Artist: Joseph Lycett 1810 -1813 Joseph LYCETT & his de facto wife Mary Stokes were arrested in London & returned to Ludlow Shropshire to appear before the Court. They were both charged with the possession of forging equipment & unfinished bank notes & placed in Shrewsbury Gaol for some months to wait their trial at the Azzizes. Mary was released on bail on the 1st January 1811. She set up house nearby to care for their daughter Mary Ann & another child, Emma Selina, was baptised at Shrewsbury in April 1812. (The gaol must have allowed conjucal visits - probably for a price!). In August 1811 the trial was held & Mary was found innocent. Joseph was given a 14 year term of transportation to New South Wales but found another wait incarcerated until his removal in July 1812 to a hulk near Portsmouth. He remained here for one year until his banishment from England on board the convict ship General Hewitt in 1813. Although the evidence is circumstantial, Mary seems to have had a liason with James OATLEY after Joseph's sentencing. James was a watchmaker from Litchfield near Staffordshire (near the home of the Lycetts) & Mary lived with him for some months in 1813 as his wife. Joseph applied for permission to have his daughter Mary Ann accompany him in exile. It is speculated that her mother was not Mary Stokes. ====================================================== 1814 - 1819 - Meanwhile, Mary STOKES & Emma were living with James OATLEY, who had a history of previous thefts & had spent 6 years in the hulks. In August 1813 James was again under arrest & was committed for trial at Winchester Castle. He was found guilty of stealing household goods in March 1814 & sentenced to death! Fortunately he was reprieved & given a life sentence to New South Wales. While Joseph was in Sydney & Oatley was in the hulks, Mary STOKES fell pregnant in April 1814. A son was born & later adopted by James OATLEY who denied paternity. Who was the boy's father? Only legal spouses received permission to join their loved ones across the oceans, so Mary STOKES posed as the wife of James & called herself Sarah OATLEY & stated that they had been wed in 1802! Her daughter Emma also called herself OATLEY & they took passage on the ship Northampton as free passengers. Mary's child Robert (baptised as Robert STOKES), was born 9 days before the ship reached Rio. Mary Ann LYCETT, aged nine, Joseph's daughter, took passage to Botany Bay on the ship Wanstead in company with Ann HUBBARD, the wife of an exiled convict. The ship left England at the same time as the General Hewitt but reached Sydney 4 weeks prior to the other ship in January 1814. They reached NSW in June 1815. OATLEY was working as a "mechanic" in the construction of public buildings when Mary & the children arrived. He was probably working as a watchmaker in his spare time & soon became the Keeper of the Town Clock with a salary of 30 pounds per annum. Mary STOKES & James OATLEY's first child was James, born in Sydney in 1817 & another, Frederick in 1819. Poor young Mary Ann LYCETT was placed into the Female Orphan School from 1815 until 1821 when she was apprenticed as a teacher. There was no mention of Emma LYCETT in the records living with her mother & James OATLEY, & it is supposed that she also spent some time there. Joseph LYCETT had been sent to Newcastle in 1815 for punishment (3 years for forgery in the Colony) & could not care for the child. On his return to Sydney in 1819 his painting flourished, directed by Governor Macquarie. He also traveled with the Governor on a tour around NSW & Tasmania, producing sketches, paintings & engravings. ====================================================== 1821 - 1828 - Joseph received an absolute pardon in 1821 & a year later decided to return to England. It is unknown how he came to have a large amount of money, including 200 pounds for his passage (first class this time!) & paid 800 pounds (by cheque) to a Sydney business man. The Shipley departed the Colony in September 1822 with Joseph and his two daughters, Mary Ann & Emma. Back in London, Joseph had a book published showing some of his lithographs. With money running short, LYCETT returned to the area he knew best & settled in Birmingham in 1826. The local banks were alarmed to discover forged bank notes in 1827 & Joseph was confronted by the police who discovered vital evidence of his guilt. Alarmed by the consequences, LYCETT attempted to commit suicide & slit his own throat. He was rushed to hospital & his wound was still life-threatening months later. Fifteen weeks after his arrest, Joseph LYCETT died in the Birmingham General Hospital on the 9th February 1828, aged about 53. ====================================================== 1832 - 1862 - Back in NSW, Mary had remained for some years with James OATLEY until she separated in 1832 & wed Charles HOWELL. OATLEY then promptly married the widow Mary Ann BOGG (nee COWLE) in 1833. Emma LYCETT was reunited with her mother when she returned to Sydney as an assisted immigrant in 1833. Emma wed George SLATER in Sydney in 1833 & her mother & step-father were witnesses. The fate of the other daughter, Mary Ann, is not known. Mary was living with HOWELL until her death at Brickfield Hill, Sydney in 1838. One of Mary STOKES' sons, James Oatley Jnr. became Mayor of Sydney in 1862 & a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly. (Notes from: "Joseph Lycett, Governor Macqaurie's Convict Artist", by John Turner, 1997 & http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lycett-joseph-2382) ======================================================

221

D Wong on 8th June 2014

This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, (MUP), 1967: Joseph Lycett (b.1774?), convict and artist, was born in Staffordshire, England. By profession a portrait and miniature painter, he was convicted of forgery at Salop Assizes on 10 August 1811 and sentenced to transportation for fourteen years. He sailed in the transport General Hewitt, in which Captain James Wallis, of the 46th Regiment, an amateur artist of considerable ability, was coming out for a tour of duty. He reached Sydney in February 1814 and was soon appointed a clerk in the police office. In May 1815 Sydney was flooded by hundreds of skilfully forged 5s. bills drawn on the postmaster. They were traced to Lycett, who was found in possession of a small copper-plate press. He was convicted of forgery and sent to Newcastle. Discipline there was strict and punishments were severe, but Lycett's lot appears to have become comparatively easy after Wallis became commandant in June 1816. Lycett drew up the plans for a church which Wallis projected and, when it was built in 1818, he painted the altar piece; he is said to have also produced the three-light window which still survives in the bishop's vestry of Newcastle Cathedral. He received a conditional pardon on Wallis's recommendation. In 1819-20 he executed many private commissions. In February 1820 Governor Lachlan Macquarie sent to Lord Bathurst three of his drawings, including a large view of Sydney. It is generally believed that the absolute pardon which the artist received on 28 November 1821 was a reward for these. Lycett, whose 'habits of intoxication' were 'fixed and incurable', according to Commissioner John Thomas Bigge, had possibly married in the colony, for in June 1822 he advertised that he intended to leave accompanied by his two daughters. They sailed together in the Shipley in September. Lycett had already planned to publish in England a book of Australian views. There were to be twelve sets, published monthly, each with two aquatint views of New South Wales and two of Van Diemen's Land, with descriptive letterpress, and a supplement with maps of both colonies. By permission the series was dedicated to Bathurst. The parts began to appear in July 1824 at 7s. plain and 10s. 6d. coloured, and when all had appeared they were bound together and sold as Views in Australia (London, 1825). Lycett announced that he intended to publish a natural history series along similar lines, but the project fell through. Nothing is known of the rest of his life. A pencilled note in a copy of his Views in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, states that, when he was living near Bath, he forged some notes on the Stourbridge Bank. On being arrested he cut his throat, and when recovering in hospital he tore open the wound and killed himself. However, this is not confirmed.

The Argus (Melbourne) Wednesday 16 June 1954 page 6 states the following: "Sydney from the North Shore," a water-color by Joseph Lycett, a convict transported to Australia in 1810 for forgery, sold for 62 gns.