Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
George Rulton was transported on the St Vincent, departing 28th Dec 1852 and arriving 26th May 1853 with 214 passengers.
St Vincent (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 92, Class and Piece Number HO11/17, Page Number 627 (316). --0-- Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/ --0-- http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai61437 |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
Claims
No one has claimed George Rulton yet.
Photos
No photos have been added for George Rulton.
Convict Notes
OTHER: 19 December, 1854: He was granted a Conditional Pardon. For more details of his convict life, see (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p161). --00—
VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, George Rulton, convict #28005, was listed as a labourer; transported for 10 years for larceny – stealing an iron chain; 25 years old, 5’5¾” tall with dark brown hair, blue left eye and a fair complexion. He was single, Protestant and literate. Native place: Bath. He had been in prison 12 times, including 4 months for stealing a coat; 2 months for bread and bacon; 1 month for vagrancy. Gibraltar report “very good” (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p161). Family: Sister, Catherine, at Bath (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai61437). --0--
On Gibraltar, George Rulton was described as 21 years old when convicted, sentenced to 10 years for “larceny after previous convictions”; born in Bath; Church of England; brown hair, one eye only (blue) and a fair complexion, 5’5” tall; literate; quarryman; single; relatives/family – father at the workhouse in Bath (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). -- 3 February, 1853: He was sent aboard the St Vincent for transportation to VDL (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --00--
Gibraltar and Bermuda were listed public works stations (and the second stage in the penal process). On Gibraltar, as “convicts worked together with free men on the dockyards, lines between them became blurred. Convicts, like seamen, were ‘easily recognised’ by ‘their swarthy, weather beaten complexions…[and] muscular well-knit frames’. The discipline on the penal settlement was also influenced by the naval department, who superintended part of the works. In the 1840s, for example, convicts were provided ‘a half gill of rum’ at 11am and 5pm, which they drank from a trough. This mirrored the daily allowance of diluted rum, known as grog, to Royal Naval seamen in the Victorian era. Convicts were also allowed to use part of their earnings, to buy goods, usually tobacco, which they were allowed to smoke in the evening in the barracks. Though official correspondence cited health reasons for grog allowance, it seems likely that the convict authorities feared insubordination if they were banned from drinking and smoking, which were provided to the sappers and dockyard workers whom they worked alongside… In 1854, the acting overseer stated that “half of the offences were committed when the men were excited by rum”. For more serious offences, convicts were flogged with a ‘cat o’nine tails’ whip against the ‘flogging mast’, and during an investigation Dr William Baly concluded that the whip which was used was an old naval cat, which was ‘much heavier than any now used in the government prison and hulks at home, or in the army.’” (Roscoe, 2018). --0--
7 November, 1849: RULTON, GEORGE #1384, arrived on Gibraltar from England per Hercules. He was held on the Europa hulk (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --0--
25 September, 1849: Embarked per Hercules for Gibraltar (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Pentonville Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1847-1849). --00--
2 June, 1849: George Rulton, prisoner #2325, was admitted to Pentonville prison from Millbank prison. Listed as 21 years old, 9 stone 12 lbs, single; quarryman; native place Camden Place, Bath; Father Thomas Rulton, farm labourer, of Bath union; sentenced to 10 years for stealing 7 yards of chain and previous convictions; 12 times in jail for various offences (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Pentonville Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1847-1849). Located in Caledonian Road, London, in 1849 Pentonville became, like Millbank, a place for all male convicts to serve or complete their probationary term (of 9 months), after which they would be transported or sent to a public works prison (https://www.prisonhistory.org/prison/pentonville-prison-2/). --0--
JAIL: 8 July, 1848: He was admitted to Wilton Gaol, Taunton. Listed as prisoner #768, 20 years old, 5’5½” tall with a fresh complexion, blue eyes, brown hair, blind in right eye, pockpitted; single; born Bath; labourer (Somerset, England, Gaol Registers, 1807-1879 for George Rulton, Wilton Gaol, Description Book 1841 – 1853). --0--
TRIAL: 3 July, 1848: At the Somerset County Adjourned Sessions, George Rulton, 20 and semi-literate, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years’ transportation for larceny and a previous conviction (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for George Rulton, England, Somerset, 1848). --00--