Samuel Townsend

Level 34

Glenda Humes on 29th July 2017

Born 9 March 1822, baptized 7 April in West Drayton in the parish of Hillingdon, son of Samuel Townsend of Uxbridge and Eliza nee Perryman of Hillingdon. He was convicted in the Old Bailey CCC 19 Sep 1842 of simple larceny then in 1844, tried for larceny together with Robert Ball of Uxbridge and acquitted. However, on 10 March 1845, together, Samuel and Robert Ball were convicted of larceny at the Aylesbury Assizes at Buckinghamshire and sentenced to 10 years transportation. Samuel and Robert Ball both ended up on Norfolk Island on 8 Jan and were sent to Van Dieman's Land in May 1847 when the Island colony was decamping. Samuel became a constable during his probation, receiving his Certificate of Freedom 15 Aug 1855. On 3 December 1855, he married Mary Ann Wilton who had arrived from Cornwall aboard the Orleana with her parents. They had 13 children, 2 born in South Australia (Saddleworth) and 11 in Tasmania (one died at birth and one died within a year). Samuel Townsend, the convict is often mistaken as the Samuel Townsend who also arrived aboard the Orleana in 1842 however that Samuel Townsend was born in 1820 in North Bradley, Wiltshire and ended up living in Sydney, NSW as early as 1846 and he died in the Liverpool Asylum for the Infirm and Destitute in Oct 1889. In 1869, Samuel Townsend and his brother-in-law, Richard Cordwell were convicted of unlawful possession of a bullock and sentenced to 9 months in gaol.