Robert Hartless

Robert Hartless, aged 21, was transported twice from Leicester, the first time on 22 May 1820 for 14 years. He had been tried and acquitted for receiving stolen goods in 1819, and then found guilty of the same charge in January 1820. He was received on board the prison hulk Justicia, moored at Woolwich on 26 February, 1820. He was transferred to the Shipley. He was a native of Leicester, a wool comber and sorter, 23 years of age (sic) 5ft 4in, dark ruddy complextion, black hair and dark eyes. On 11 April 1829 he was granted a ticket of leave in the Police District of Hobart Town. Robert Hartless and a 'Susanna' gave birth to a daughter Anne in Green Ponds, Tasmania on 13 February, 1830, birth registered in 1831. In 1834 he obtained his certificate of freedom and must have returned to England. Because, in 1837, on Monday March 5th, at the Borough Court in Leicester, Robert Hartless was found guilty of stealing thirty pounds weight of lambs wool from a Wm. Kempton. He waws found guilty and this time sentenced to transportation for life. He was received on board the prison hulk Fortitude and then transferred to the Barrosa . This arrived on 8th December 1839, the convicts were then removed to the Cooks River Station. The last bit of information is that He absconded from the New Gaol Stockade, Parramatta on 22 February 1840.

I have written this about the other Robert Hartless, but I have just discovered this, a more probable candidate. Bronze disc with the collowing writing (looks as if done with a pin): 'Confined within strong walls, Convicted by perjury and when am in a foreign land, dear friends Remember me. Robert Hartless, Aged 41, 1859 (poss. 1839) Prepare to meet thy god.' in my Leicester family for many years, and from my grandfather, E.E.Beazeley, a teacher at Leicester College of Art.