Charles Nightingale

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Maureen Withey on 8th September 2025

John Williams and William Monk, condemned our last assizes for house-breaking, are reprieved; Charles Nightingale for uttering forged note, remains. Oxford University and City Herald, 18 July 1812. On Thursday last Charles Nightingale, John Williams, and William Monk, were removed from our county gaol to the hulks at Portsmouth, transported for the term of their natural lives;  Oxford University and City Herald, 19 Dec 1812.

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Phil Hands on 3rd May 2017

Tried and convicted at the Oxford Assizes on 8th July 1812 for uttering a forged note of the Windsor and Berkshire Bank for 5 Pounds, with intent to defraud John Bartlett, of Chippingnorton, he was sentenced to death, this was later commuted to transportation for life. Left England on 2nd June 1813. Ship:- the 'Earl Spencer' sailed with 200 male convicts on board of which 4 died during the voyage. Arrived on 9th October 1813. Charles Nightingale, a chair carver by profession, arrived in the colony of NSW in 1813 as a convict and received his pardon in 1836. He married Rebecca Wright (daughter of convict Mary Wright, 'Speke I' 1808) in 1826 at Sydney, they had 7 children between 1826-1849, six sons and a daughter. After the death of Rebecca in 1853, Charles married Sarah Vaughan in the following year. Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 13th May 1854 p. 5 MARRIAGES. At the Centenary Chapel, York-street, on the 10th instant, Mr. Charles Nightingale, sen., of Strawberry-hill, to Sarah, relict of the late Wm. Vaughan, Esq., for forty-four years officer in her Majesty's Customs, Bristol, England. He became a house and land agent and, in such a role, was a collector of rents to which he added the role of collector of money for charity. In 1837, he was appointed a collector for the Auxiliary of the Bible Society, the Benevolent Society, the Mechanics Institute, the Religious Tract and Book Society and the Sydney Dispensary. It appears that Charles was a very energetic and successful collector of subscriptions and donations and continued to be so until the mid-1850s. He was the dominant collector during this period and added to his list of clients Sydney College, the Sydney Female Refuge Society and the Bethel Union, but charity collection was probably not his main source of income. His work as a land and house agent continued and his income must have been considerable as he managed to accumulate, by the time of his death in 1860, a substantial holding of property in and around Sydney. By 1855, Charles was becoming less productive as a charity collector and though he 'had for many years acted faithfully and energetically, he had, through old age been compelled to resign' his post as Collector in his various charities. His brother Cornelius took on the role, but was clearly less effective and motivated and 'had not been so persevering' in the work for the income to the charities continued to fall. To compound the issue, Cornelius was in some financial difficulty and began to utilise the funds he collected for his personal use as he said the commission of five percent that he received was inadequate to support his family and 'keep the wolf from the door'. Needless to say he was removed as a collector from the various charities, and his brother was clearly unimpressed with Cornelius' dishonesty and lack of energy. In his will, drawn up shortly after the event with his brother, Charles left his brother £100 and gave instructions depriving Cornelius of the bequest if he would not vacate a house owned by Charles. It is notable that, although Charles collected for many charities throughout his life, he left no bequests to any charitable body.