John Nicola

341

Maureen Withey on 6th January 2023

Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 06 January 2023), December 1830, trial of JOHN NICOLA (t18301209-101). JOHN NICOLA, Theft > pocketpicking, 9th December 1830. 101. JOHN NICOLA was indicted for stealing, on the 5th of November , I watch, value 31l. 10s.; I watch-chain, value 3l.; I watch-key, value 13s., and 1 seal, value 1l. 2s., the goods of John Campbell , from his person . COLONEL JOHN CAMPBELL. I live at Hampstead. On the 5th of November, about eleven o'clock in the morning. I had come to town from Chipping Ongar - I had a gold watch in my fob, with a gold chain, key and seals, worth thirty-five guineas together; I was in Aldgate , going towards 'Change, and just at the corner of Duke-street I felt a little pull at my watch-fob - I immediately felt, and my watch was gone; I saw a man running from me - I pursued, crying, "Stop, thief! that man has got my watch" - he never got out of my sight; I fell down in the middle of the street, but kept sight of him - he was stopped near the Minories by a gentlemen, who told me he had got my watch; I afterwards saw it, and knew it to be mine - I only saw one person running, that was the prisoner. Prisoner. Q. Did you not see me pick the watch off the pavement? A. No; I saw him throw it on the pavement when he was pursued. JAMES OLIVER . I am a builder, and live in Fenchurch-street. I was in Aldgate on the 5th of November; there was a crowd of people - I saw the prisoner put his hand in front of Colonel Campbell, and draw the watch from his fob; I pursued, and never lost sight of him; he ran from the corner of Duke-street to the Minories, and I saw him drop the watch from his left hand - I picked it up, pursued, and secured him. SAMUEL PATRICK . I am a constable. The prisoner was delivered into my charge - I heard a cry of Stop thief! came up, Oliver had hold of him by the collar, and the watch in his hand.(Property produced and sworn to.) Prisoner's Defence. I came out of the engine-house, saw the watch in the road, picked it up, and hearing a cry of Stop thief! I dropped it in the road. GUILTY . Aged 42. - Transported for Life. ---------------------------------------------------- Tasmanian Conduct Record. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-33P27 No 239. John Nicola, per Larkins, 19 Oct 1831. Tried London 9 Dec 1830, Life. Transported for stealing from the person. Gaol report, Not known here before. Hulk report, Orderly. Single. Stated this offence, Stealing a watch from the person. Married, wife Maria at Whitechapel. No other information on record. Tasmanian Conduct Record. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON34-1-3$init=CON34-1-3P170 John Nicola. Trade, Seaman. Age 43. Native place, Genoa. See record for full details. Run. Struck off records. Dec 1853. --------------------------------------------------- Indent. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-3$init=CON14-1-3P53 and https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-3$init=CON14-1-3P54 John Nicola, 5ft 7, age 43, Seaman, Tried London G.D. 9 Dec 1830, Life. Native place, Genoa. Married, catholic, not read or write. Relations. Wife Maria at Whitechapel, London. F & M, Stephen at N,P. This offence: Stg a watch from the person. --------------------------------------------------- The Schooner Badger, it is supposed, has been carried off by convicts; She had been despatched with stores to East Bay Neck, and has not since been heard of. Several prisoners, accustomed to a sea-faring life, are missing. Among them are Darby, formerly a lieutenant in the Navy, and Philip, who has been a master of a merchant vessel, and the clergyman Roberts, recently transported from Liverpool. Every exertion is making to discover and apprehend them, but, hitherto, they have eluded all vigilance. The Tasmanian, 2 Aug 1833. --------------------------------------------------- PIRACY. " We have had reported to us the escape of the Badger, a Government Colonial vessel, stated to have been, entirely manned by convicts— as such a fact would envolve a charge which must cost Colonel Arthur his commission to govern this Colony any longer, we postpone observation, till due enquiry has been made." Thus speaks The Colonist of last week.— The loss of this vessel is confirmed by the demi-official journal of Friday last. It appears, that she left the port of Hobart Town on Tuesday week, with provisions for some military station at East Bay Neck ; at which place she was seen (by the signal-man from Mount Nelson) to pass without putting in, on the following day. No suspicion of her being taken away took place till yesterday se'n-night, when a signal man, stationed at Mount Nelson, was missing. The master and the whole of the crew are crown prisoners ! The signal-man at Mount Nelson, is a person named George H. Darby, who, it is said, was formerly a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and distinguished himself at the battle of Navarino. Besides this man, the following prisoners are officially advertised in last Friday's Gazette as missing :— William Philp, (formerly the master of a merchant vessel), John Venton, John Nicolas, Isaac Haines, and Lauglan Macintosh. The Clergyman, named Roberts, who was recently transported to this Colony, and who it was supposed had been sent to Port Arthur, is also gone. Several other convicts, used to the seafaring life, are likewise missing. The Badger is well fitted out for a long voyage, with plenty of provisions, muskets, ammunition, and nautical instruments, which the runaways procured. She is nearly a new vessel, about 25 tons, a good sailer, and newly coppered. She had, it is said, a fair wind out of port ; and whatever means may have been used by the Government to discover or overtake her, we fear, they will prove abortive. We have heard a great deal about Colonel Arthur's system of prison discipline. What will the Home Government think of His Excellency manning a Government vessel, thus provisioned and equipped as the Badger, with Crown prisoners, like the above-named runaways, all sea-faring men ? The Colonist, (Hobart Town) 6 Aug 1833. -------------------------------------------------- This incident was reported in the English newspapers: Piracy by Convicts. Information was received at the different Police establishments yesterday, that in the month of August, 1833, the Colonial Schooner, Badger, belonging to the Government of Van Diemen’s Land, was piratically seized and carried off {it was believed) by the following nine convicts, viz., George Harding Darby, convicted at Somerset in March, 1830, and transported for life, reported from the Hulks to have behaved very badly there and headed a party designing to mutiny; Wm. Phillip, convicted Cornwall, August, 1830, of setting fire to vessel, and transported for life ; John Nicola, convicted in London of robbery from the person, and transported for life; John Veaton, tried at Devon, March, 1829, and transported for life; Isaac Haines, tried in Sussex in July, 1832, transported for seven years; Lochlan Mackintosh, transported for life from Edinburgh July, 1831; John Deacon, tried Dorset in July, 1830, for sheep-stealing, and transported for life; Dowson, transported from London in 1830, for seven years; Joseph Ward, tried at Leicester in March 1831, transported for life; and John Roberts convicted in Middlesex in September, 1830, of forgery, and transported for life. They arrived with the schooner at Lifutta one of the Friendly Islands, in September, 1833, and were known to have afterwards reached Macao, China, from whence it was supposed some of them would find their way back to England. Morning Advertiser. 5 June 1835. -------------------------------------------------- The following is part of an article which appeared in the Colonist, 13 Aug 1833. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/201158184?searchTerm=Badger We next have to notice the palpable departure, in individual cases, from the general rule, as having in a great measure led to the loss of the Badger. The man, Darby, we understand, was put on board, the William Glen Anderson, with a warning to the Surgeon Superintendent, that he was a dangerous man, and would, in all probability, be the means of inducing a mutiny on board the ship, unless vigilantly watched. In consequence of this warning, the strictest possible curb was put on him, all the way out from England; and on his arrival, our information goes on to state, the Surgeon Superintendent warned the Authorities here of the character of the man; but, instead of adopting- those measures, which anyone would have supposed such a warning would have suggested, this man is first appointed on his arrival, as signal man at Mount Nelson, an isolated station, and subsequently made Deputy Water Bailiff at Hobart Town with a salary of £20 per annum, in which situation, as a matter, of course, he had the selection of the crews for the various Government vessels; and had also: an opportunity of knowing the respective qualifications of each! Again, the man, Roberts, formerly a Clergyman, was an exception to the general rule, and was exempted from the barbarous regulations, which, consign all educated Convicts to the Penal Settlement at Port Arthur. Roberts was given to Captain Swanston, Member of the Legislative Council as a tutor, for his children! In this situation, he of course had every indulgence and opportunity to enter into and perfect plans for escape from a Colony, in which he had no other prospect, after his services, as instructor to Captain Swanston's children, should be no longer needed, than to drag out the remainder of a miserable existence at Port Arthur. Under such circumstances, it would have been surprising had he not attempted to get away. Now, let. us ask, what must have been 'the natural feelings of these two men, both brought up as gentlemen, when they looked around and saw numberless others , circumstanced as they were themselves, degraded to the lowest pitch of human degradation, because they, were educated, and found themselves exempted from that degradation for the time-being, although they must have been well aware that such indulgence, only depending as it did upon their present utility, was liable to be withdrawn in a moment, and they hurled madly heedless of all considerations to the misery and degradation of a Penal Settlement— there to herd with the most incorrigible of all incorrigible characters? With the power in his own hands, of selecting a crew fit for his purpose — possessing in himself the requisite knowledge, of navigation and seamanship, to take the command of a vessel — with every opportunity of looking out a vessel, suitable for the enterprise, and maddened with the fall from society which he had experienced —what man, in Darby's situation could be expected to refrain from what he has done? Circumstanced as Roberts was, who would not have embraced the opportunity thus put into his hands? Do the Authorities imagine that the sweets of liberty would not be powerful enough to instigate man to undertake an enterprise of far greater hazard than the piracy of the Badger? which seemed actually put in the hands of these unfortunate men !!! Look at the daring deeds which have been done for the sake of a mere Ticket of Leave, and say, what will not the desire of escape from a thraldom, so horrid, so unnatural, so cruel as that which the unexempted educated convict is subjected to cause men of that description to undertake. The Government is, therefore, in this instance solely to blame — to blame for issuing regulations, like those respecting educated convicts, for no earthly reason that we can discover — to blame for departing from those regulations when once established, in the one instance, and adhering to them in others — to blame, to leave a man, like Darby, with the character which he brought with him, perfectly his own master — to blame for making an officer of him, so responsible as that of Deputy Water Bailiff - to blame for, leaving Government vessels in charge of convicts— to blame in every sense of the word. Not a shadow of an excuse can be made. These are the facts, and here is a pretty contrast with Dr. Ross's flaming panegyric upon Colonel Arthur's system of Prison Discipline! How does our worthy friend's theory look by the side of these facts, which are not a tenth of the number of similar errors which will ere long issue from the Press? Here is an example to set the Settlers, of that prison discipline they are so pathetically urged from time to time to adopt. The Colonist, 13 Aug 1833.