William Stewart Moncrieff

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Dianne Jones on 15th August 2020

1840, 18 March: From the “New South Wales Government Gazette”, Issue No.16, p274: Government Gazette Notices “Principal Superintendent of Convicts Office, April 22, 1840. The undermentioned Prisoners having absconded from the individuals and employments set against their respective names, and some of them being at large with stolen Certificates and Tickets of Leave; all Constables and others are hereby required and commanded to use their utmost exertion in apprehending and lodging them in safe custody. Any person harbouring or employing any of the said Absentees, will be prosecuted as the law directs. J. McLEAN, Principal Superintendent of Convicts… “Moncrieff William Stewart, [per] Kate, 37, Edinburgh, clerk, 5 feet 10½ inches, dark ruddy comp., dark brown mixed with grey hair, brown eyes, eyebrows meeting, small raised mole over left eyebrow, two back of left cheek, nose large, scar back of top of middle finger of right hand, scar back of left thumb, scar on fore and one on middle fingers of left hand, chin small and declining (was here before in the same name, for seven years, by the Caroline, in 1828), [absconded] from Escort 50th Regiment, proceeding from Kiama to Wollongong, since the 10th March.” NOTE: There are no further notices about William Stewart MONCRIEFF in the "NSW Gazette" after December 1840. Presumably, he was recaptured. However, his former "partner in crime", Robert Deakin - who also absconded at the same time and place - remained at large for at least the next eight years. This is verified by Deakin's repeated inclusion in notices in the "NSW Gazette" for that period.

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Dianne Jones on 15th August 2020

1839, 9 November: From the South Australian Register, p6: “Supreme Court Adelaide: Tuesday, November 5… William Stewart Moncrieff, a respectable looking man, was charged with receiving the mare which [Robert] Deakins had been found guilty of stealing, knowing the same to have been stolen property. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. “Mr. Mann appeared for the prosecution; Mr Richman for the defence. “The evidence led in the case of Deakins was gone over again. The only evidence to countenance the charge of his guilty knowledge was that only the sum of £32 had been seen to pass between the prisoner and Deakins as payment for the mare, and Mr Bonney, in whose employment the prisoner was, as stockkeeper, said that he did not think he had any money when he engaged him in New South Wales, that he only paid him a few pounds on leaving, and that he (Mr Bonney) lent him £20 sometime about July last. “This evidence was given for the purpose of showing that the prisoner had not a sufficient sum of money to purchase the mare. Other witnesses, however, showed that Moncrieff had paid them sums of money about the times he bought the mare, to a considerable amount—one to the amount of £30, and another to the amount of £15, besides the £32 which Mr Calton saw him give to Deakins. “Prisoner received a good character from Mr Bonney, and it was said by his counsel that he had been an officer in the army and was of a respectable family. “The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation.” NOTE: For a better understanding of this trial and the connection between Moncrieff and Deakins (aka DEAKIN), go to the bio page for Deakin per the Kate (1839). Deakin also has a bio page for his first sentence of transportation, aboard the Surry, which arrived in NSW in 1823.

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Dianne Jones on 15th August 2020

On 4 December 1839, William Stewart MONCRIEFF was one of nine prisoners sent aboard the schooner Kate, from Adelaide to Sydney, under sentence of transportation. His is a checkered history, and it began well before his exploits in South Australia in the late 1830s. MONCRIEFF first arrived in Van Diemen's Land as a military prisoner aboard the Caroline in 1828, and was then transported to New South Wales aboard the Calista. Maureen Withey has assembled a great deal of information about him, under the banner of the Caroline (1828). Only a little of it is repeated here, for context. I have also added some new facts to his bio and, hopefully, between the two, anyone interested will start to get a sense of the man.