William Nicholls

13

Emily Chaplyn on 26th March 2024

Met his wife Margaret McCall when working for her father on farm In Australia, he was convicted multiple times for animal cruelty, reckless conduct, drunkenness, neglection, threatening, larceny & fraud

174

Iris Dunne on 18th January 2022

Convict Index: aged 17 Single Trade Shoemaker Tried: 30 June 1846 UK Immigrants: Passenger Lists: Departure Pentonville Millbank & Parkhurst Prison Arrival: 25 January 1848 in Port Phillip Bay

William Laws Nicholls / Nichols / Nicholles, alias William Lawes. Born 1829 or 1831 Norwich, England At Norwich City Quarter Sessions on 30 June 1846, William Nichols of Pockthorpe confessed to “stealing one horse of the price of £3, the property of John Armes”, a farmer and dealer, at Hellesdon on 12 June 1846. William had stolen the horse from a field and ridden it to Dereham, where he offered it for sale to a Mr Frost who suspected it was stolen, given the asking price and the general appearance of the horse. Mr Frost gave information to the police. In court, William was “ordered and adjudged to be transported beyond the seas to such place or places as Her Majesty by the advice of the Privy Council shall order and direct for the term of ten years.” He was received at Millbank on 8 July 1846. William arrived on board the ship 'Marion' with exiles from Pentonville, Millbank and Parkhurst Prisons, which arrived at Port Phillip on 25 January 1848, having departed from Plymouth on 29 September 1847. No 12. 9706, aged 17, could both read and write well, former occupation was shoemaker, single. Crime: stealing a hourse. Convicted on 4 May 1846 at Norwich. Sentence: 10 years. Received 8 July 1846 at Millbank Prison. He received a conditional pardon on 20 September 1847. On arrival at Port Phillip he landed in Williamstown and "went on shore at his own request." Married Margaret McCall, 10 January 1855 at St Pauls Vicarage, Kyneton Death unknown. Farmer & labourer of Daisy Hill, near Kyneton, married age 24. He may have been working as a farmer on George McCall's farm at Daisy Hill (Amherst) when he met Margaret. When their first child was born, they were living at Jeffery's Forest, near Kyneton. He claimed to be a horse trainer at that time. Sent to Sandhurst jail (Bendigo) for six months with hard labour for writing worthless cheques in Bridgewater on 19 and 20 January 1877. He was tried at the Police Court in Inglewood. He was also sentenced to two months, to be served concurrently. His wife is said to have remarried in 1887 to Paddy Mathers, in Hay NSW. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, born 13 July 1870, at Penshurst (in Western Victoria). Fathers's details: Patrick Mathers, 23, labourer, birthplace ----? Loddon. Margaret, maiden name McCall, age 23 (or 29). The certificate says that they had been married at Kyneton in 1863, and had two children, Selina age 6 and Albert Henry age 3. Margaret signed with a mark as Margaret Mathers. Selina's birth and marriage certificates both use her surname as Nicholls.