Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
Charles Sanders 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 631 (318). --0-- Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/ |
| 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
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Convict Notes
OTHER: 28 August, 1855: He was granted a Conditional Pardon. 7 July, 1868: In the Hobart Supreme Court, he was acquitted on a charge of malicious wounding. For more details of his convict life, see (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p175. --00—
MARRIAGE: 11 September, 1854: Charles Sanders, 29, a plasterer per St Vincent, married Elizabeth (aka Elspeth) Ferguson, 24, a widow per Duchess of Northumberland, in St George’s Church of England Hobart. Witnesses: John Booth and Barbara Cowie. Minister: HP Fry. Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:847523; Resource: RGD37/1/13 no 431 (https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD37-1-13p173j2k and https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD37-1-13p173j2k). --00--
VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, Charles Sanders [sic], convict #28019, was listed as a plasterer; transported for 7 years for housebreaking, stealing £14; 29 years old, 5’8 ¼” tall with black or dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a dark complexion. He was single, Protestant and semi-literate. Native place: Worcester. Gibraltar report “good” (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p175). Family: Mother Ellen; brothers William, Thomas, George, Henry; sisters Elizabeth, Charlotte and Sarah – at his native place (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai62127). --0--
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--
On Gibraltar, Charles Saunders was described as 25 years old when convicted, sentenced to 7 years for “housebreaking”; “common thief, twice attempted his escape”; born in Worcester; Church of England; black hair, hazel and a fair complexion, 5’8¾” tall; semi-literate; plasterer; single; relatives/family – mother living in Worcester (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --
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). --
25 August, 1851: CHARLES SAUNDERS [sic], inmate #1815, arrived on Gibraltar from England per Hempsyke. He was held on the Europa hulk (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --
TO GIBRALTAR: 2 August, 1851: From the West Kent Guardian, p3: “WOOLWICH. The Hempsyke, hired convict ship, arrived at moorings, opposite the Royal Arsenal, Sunday last, and after taking in some stores for Malta, her ultimate destination, she will take on board eleven convicts from the Justicia convict ship at Woolwich ...” — 7 August, 1851: From the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, p3: “PORTSMOUTH — Aug. 6: The Hempsyke, convict ship, has arrived Spithead, for the purpose of taking in prisoners from the convict hulks at this port, for conveyance to Gibraltar, for employment on the works at that fortress. She then proceeds to Bermuda.” — 8 August, 1851: From the Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, p4: PORTSMOUTH—Aug. 7: The Hempsyke convict-ship, Spithead, has taken in 34 prisoners from the hulks in this harbour. She will take in others from Portland, and then proceed Gibraltar.” —00—
31 October, 1850: He was sent to Dartmoor Prison, Princetown, Yelverton, in Devon. Dartmoor was built in 1809 but reopened as a male convict public works prison in November 1850. Within five years the prison became reserved for less able-bodied convicts (https://www.prisonhistory.org/prison/dartmoor-prison/ and UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for Chas Sanders, Misc., Not Stated, 1820-1846). --00--
29 January, 1850: Charles Sanders was sent from Millbank prison in London to an unidentified prison. Listed as inmate #609, 25 years old, single, able to read, labourer, sentenced to 7 years for housebreaking. Character received with prisoner “good”. Behaviour in gaol – “good” (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for Chas Sanders, Misc., Not Stated, 1820-1846). --0--