Elizabeth Powell

71

Robin Sharkey on 6th December 2016

ELIZABETH POWELL WAS aged 19 years. She was tried on 26 Oct 1791 at the Old baiey for stealing a silver watch off a man on the street. Cornelius Courtney was teh prosecutor and he said "I am a gardener ; on Sunday, the 16th, I was going up Hedge-lane , I was accosted by the prisoner at the bar; she put her hand into mine, and asked for some gin; " It was the usual style of hustle with several girls accosting him, and taking what they could find off him. Elizabeth and he had a tussle over the watch and it broke off its chain and fell in teh ground. She took it up. The constablte came up and secured her. Elizabeth's version: "On Sunday evening as I was coming up Hedge-lane, with tobacco in my hand, this gentleman was calling out watch, and said he had lost his watch. The constable's nephew found the watch. The man put his hand into my bosom, and seized me, he said I was the person who robbed him." She was sentenced to death but on 19 February 1792 was reprieved to a life sentence. She was transported on “Royal Admiral” departing in May 1792 and arriving in NSW on 7 October 1792. The indents recorded her as Married. REPRIEVED: Kentish Gazette Tuesday 10 April 1792 p3 Wednesday, the Recorder made his report to the King in Council of the Prisoners in Newgate capitally convicted in January and February Sessions, when the two following were ordered to be executed on Wednesday next, viz Twenty were reprieved during pleasure. HEADING TO THE CONVICT SHIP Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 17 May 1792 page 2: “Friday, 54 transports, of whom five were women, were removed from Newgate on board a Lighter, to be conveyed to the Royal Admiral, lying at Gravesend, and bound for Botany Bay. “It is hoped the above transports may be useful hands in the whale fishery of New South Wales. Four of the five women taken out of Newgate for the Royal Admiral were: Harriet Wray, Mary Graham, Elizabeth Powell and Elizabeth Terry. All were young women - Harriett 17, Elizabeth Terry only 15 and married, Elizabeth Powell 19 and married, and Mary Graham aged 27. 1805, 9th October - MARRIAGE to William Etsell,/ Excell (per “Albermalre 1791) Abode: Hawkesbury. William made his mark; & Elizabeth Moles, Abode: Hawkesbury Signed properly; Married at the Hawkesbury, but registered at St Johns Church of England Parramatta by Samuel Marsden; Witness: Thomas White, Signed; Witness: Jane Noel, Signed Elizabeth and William Excell remained together. 1806 He rented land from “Widow Moseley” - 30 acres, Cultivated, 2 bushels wheat 2 bushels barley held / 4 male hogs 4 female hogs; one employed free man. 1810 - Settler at Hawkesbury 1814 -she was free and mustered at Windsor She received a Conditional Pardon. 1822 - William was a Lease Resident; Total: 9 acres, Cleared: 9 acres, Cultivated, Windsor. In 1828 she was recorded as Catholic, and living on the Windsor Rd at Baulkham Hill sith her husband William “Etsell” . Supposedly her age was 74, however based on being 19 in 1792 she would be 56 years old. William Etsell, Age: 54, Catholic, Arrived per Albemarle 1791, 7 years, Free by Servitude; Labourer; Property: Etsell's Farm