Antony Rowson

343

Maureen Withey on 6th September 2021

Lent Assizes. Anthony Rowson, a private soldier, for counterfeiting a power of attorney, with intent to defraud Mr. James Kane, navy agent, Gosport. Guilty, Death. From the extreme ignorance which Rowson betrayed in the of the forgery, and which in fact could only be as an attempt, not attended with any mischievous or dangerous tendency to Society, the Judge told him, when he passed Sentence, that he might, perhaps, be induced to Spare his life. Hampshire Chronicle, 11 March 1797. -------------------------------------------------- On Friday se’nnight Captain Musgrave, of the ship Atlas, that took convicts from Ireland to Botany Bay, applied to Mr. Bond, Bow-Street, London, concerning two men, supposed to be to be returned transports. Captain M. stated, that in the month of January 1803, he landed the whole of the convicts taken on board his ship, from Waterford, in good health, at Port Jackson, and proceeded from thence to China, the vessel being chartered by the East India Company - and that after they had been five days at sea, two men were discovered, who must have secreted themselves in the vessel while she lay at Port Jackson, and notwithstanding the ship was fumigated, had escaped detection; that believing them to be convicts, who had escaped from that settlement, he brought them home in confinement and that they were then on board his ship at Deptford. Mr. Bond immediately sent two of the Bow-street Officers with Capt, M. to Deptford, who brought the prisoners to town, and lodged them in Tothill-fields Bridewell. On Saturday they were examined before Mr. Bond, his house at Brompton, when they confessed they were convicts, and that they had returned before the expiration their sentence. Their names are Anthony Rawson and William Tucker. They were remanded back to Tothill-fields Bridewell. Saunders’s News-Letter, 24 Dec 1803. -------------------------------------------------- On 28th December 1803, The Times reported: 'Early yesterday morning Anthony Rawson and William Tucker, (the two convicts who escaped from New South Wales, and concealed themselves on board the Atlas, Captain Musgrave, in which they were brought to England), were sent off to Portsmouth under an escort from Bow Street, in order to be put on board the Experiment, transport now under sailing orders for Botany Bay.' -------------------------------------------------- SHIP NEWS. Ship News. The Experiment transport, Capt. Withers, appeared in sight on Thursday morning last, but the wind being right against her making the harbour, she could not get in till this morning. On Friday, a boat was dispatched from the vessel with His Excellency's pacquets, which arrived at one o'clock on Saturday morning. She brings 130 female convicts, and two male, one of whom, Anthony Rowson, had effected his escape from the Colony; she lost on her passage 4 or 5 women, prisoners, and the wives of two free settlers also died. The Experiment left England the 2nd of January, having been obliged to put back into Cowes, owing to damage sustained in a violent gale she experienced in the Bay of Biscay, in which she sprung her bowsprit, and carried away her main topgallant-mast. She sailed in company with about 150 sail of West Indiamen under convoy, from which she separated in the Western Ocean. She arrived at Rio the 8th of March, and sailed from thence the 8th of April. Sydney Gazette, 24 Jun 1804. --------------------------------------------------

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 11th October 2020

New South Wales, Australia, Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1856 Special Bundles, 1794-1825 Thomas Tighe. Age 16. Date of Trial; 1805. 7 years ------------------------------------ New South Wales, St John’s Parramatta Burials. Name; Anthony Rouson, Convict (Spelling as per the register) Aged; 50 years Of the Parish of St John's Parramatta March 15th, 1807. By Samuel Marsden Drowned