Thomas Savage

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Dianne Jones on 16th December 2023

INQUEST: From Eastern Districts Chronicle (York), 4 January, 1879, p2: “CORONER'S INQUEST. (Before W. Cowan, Esq., B. M., Coroner.) JURY—Messrs J. H. Monger (foreman) J. Pyke, & T. Tomkinson. The jury having viewed the body of Thomas Savage found in the bush, the following witnesses were examined— R. Connolly, being sworn said—I overtook Savage on the Sunday after he left York; deceased was in charge of Kett's team going for sandalwood. We were going to Wurkladilling, 18 miles beyond Heland Lakes. It was on the Sunday morning I overtook him. We went together to the place. On arriving there we found there was no water and went four miles further on, and returned the next morning and loaded up. At the furthest place we found only about three quarts of water and it took us some time to get that. When we returned to where the wood was, we had only a pint and a half of water. It was about 11 o'clock a.m. when we started with the load. For about ½ a mile after we left we had nothing but heavy sand to go through, and the horses were very weak for want of water, and had some difficulty to get them along. Having reached a sandplain the horses would not stir. I told Savage that if he didn't do something, I should have to go away and leave him, as I was beginning to suffer for want of water. He replied "That if he knew where there was water, he would take the horses out." I told him there was none nearer than where we waited the day coming out. He asked me the distance to water and I told him thirteen miles, and he asked how far it was the way Bryant had mentioned, and I told him 9 miles, and he decided upon going. I told him he had better take a part of the load, but he would not. He went with the horses and took the harness with him. He also took a bag of chaff with him. Savage took two of the horses and I took two. We both started together. I advised him to drive his horses with a stick as I intended to get there as quick as I could. He said he would. While going, over a sandplain a mile and a half across, I looked back and saw Savage 200 yards behind. The track was so plain that I went on. I never saw him again. I reached the water between five and six o'clock. At a place by the side of the road I stopped to get a drink for myself but none for the horses. It was only a land soak. As he did not come up to where I watered the horses I thought perhaps he had reached where I drank and had drank too much and could not come on. That night I went back to the land soak and found he had not been there. I went and looked over a sandplain and cooeed, but could not see or hear him. I then went in search of the two horses I had hobbled which had no bells on. I expected Stone and Robson's team at the Lakes and made off there in the hope of getting a horse to go in search of the deceased. I found he was not there, and I then started for York. On coming in I met Stone and asked him to lend me the Pony to go in search. We agreed that Stone should start on his Pony in search and I told him where I last saw him; I took charge of his team. He found no trace of him, and I started in search myself. I found no trace of him until late in the evening when I found horse tracks. I tried to follow the tracks but could not. This was on Saturday. Deceased had been lost since the previous Wednesday. I returned to the water. The tracks were about five miles from water. I did not try to get on the tracks the following morning because I thought I might get into trouble for not reporting it to the Police. I reached Beverley on the following Monday morning. I tried to get in on Sunday night but the Pony knocked up. I acquainted P. C. Edwards of the occurrence and told him where I last saw the tracks. When I returned to the water hole after being out on the Pony I found Paddy Murphy and young Higgins there who told me that if he had gone in the direction the tracks were going that I found, he would be sure to find water. They advised me to inform the Police about it as quickly as possible. P. C. Edwards, being sworn, said—On Monday morning the 16th Dec. about 7 o'clock, Richard Connolly came to the Police Station, at Beverley and reported that on Wednesday, the 11th Dec. last, himself and Thomas Savage (William Kett's teamster), started from Jedanning with a load of Sandalwood. After travelling a short distance the horses knocked up, and that they left there and started to the nearest water with the horses which they had left on their way out. Connolly had two horses and Savage had two, and that when he last saw Savage he was on the top of a sandplain just as he entered the forest. He said he went on to the water and made tea and also made some for Savage when he should come. Finding that he did not come, he went back a part of the way and could not find him. He then returned to the horses. He said he and Joseph Stone had made repeated searches without success and thought he had better come in and report it. He said, he believed he had seen the tracks of horses in a gum forest and were heading towards the Heland Lake. I said "You had better give your horse a feed and go back with me." I thought he would materially assist in the search. He said his horse was knocked up and I replied "You can put your horse in my paddock and you can have a horse out of the stable. He then said the horse did not belong to him and Stone would want it, and having explained that he could get it on his way in he complained of being footsore and I could not prevail upon him to go. I then made some notes of what he told me to guide me in my search. I immediately started and arrived at the sandplain on Tuesday morning about 10 o'clock where Connolly said he last saw deceased. It is about 80 miles from Beverley. Native Constable Jimmy accompanied me. Some distance from the sandplain I saw the tracks of two horses close to a cart track which turned in the direction of two old huts and returning into the cart track in a slanting direction trending eastward and direct for the dray. We watched carefully that no horse left the cart track. They ultimately left the cart track and after going a distance of about a mile, made the track again and followed it to the dray and the heap of Sandalwood. They went no further, but returned. All tracks seemed to come from there towards York. It was nearly dusk, and I had to go a distance of 10 miles to water. The next morning I returned to the tracks again about 7 o'clock. We followed Stone's and Smith's track from Kett's dray in the direction of the Lake. About 10 o'clock, about 4 miles from Kett's dray and about five miles from where Connolly got a drink we saw the tracks of two heavy shod horses leaving the cart track and going south. It had rained on the previous Wednesday evening and the tracks were made before the rain fell. We followed the tracks about half a mile and saw the track of a Pony crossing the tracks of the cart horses. Whoever it was had followed the tracks a little way. We afterwards saw where the same Pony had crossed the tracks again. We followed the tracks of the two horses until three in the afternoon. We came to where there was a land soak, but the horses had passed within 20 yards of water, but had not stopped. We followed for a mile further and saw fresh tracks crossing the tracks we were following, evidently made since the rain and going in the direction of Heland Lake. We could not see a man's track. We kept upon the old track and after travelling some distance we found the body of Thomas Savage on a bag of chaff. Deceased had been dead three or four days. His clothes were on him except his hat which was a short distance away. The body had not been interfered with. I saw where the horses had been tied a length of time and had then been let go, the ropes being left on the tree. The harness was in two heaps on the ground. It was the tracks the two we saw crossing the tracks we followed after the rain that were going in the direction of Heland Lakes. I covered the body over with bushes and returned to Beverley on Friday the 20th Dec. The deceased died no doubt from exhaustion and want of water. He had no pannican and no food. Had Connolly gone back with me we should have found the deceased twenty -four hours sooner than we did. I do not think the horses had stopped anywhere else than where the body was found. I remember a man being lost and found on the eighth day and his life was saved. From where I saw the pony's track to where I found the deceased, it is about 18 miles and between 16 and 17 miles from Heland Lake in a S. S. E. direction. James W. Hope Medical Officer being sworn, said—I examined the remains of the deceased which were brought in to-day. I carefully examined the body but could find no marks of external violence. The body is in an advance state of decomposition and the man had apparently died without struggling. I could not examine the internal organs, the bones of the chest being disjointed. There is every probability the man died from want of water. The verdict of the Jury was "That the deceased Thomas Savage died from exhaustion and want of water." The jury added that they thought P. C. Edwards deserving of great praise for his endeavors in trying to reach the deceased before death. (https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/148240782) --000--

218

Dianne Jones on 16th December 2023

IN WA -- FREMANTLE JAIL RECORD: SAVAGE, Thomas; inmate #9864; arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1820 Date of Death: 28 December, 1879 Place of Death: Lost in bush Marital Status: Unmarried Occupation: Cutler Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Pontefract Crime: Larceny Sentence Period: 10 years Previous Convictions: Yes Ticket of Leave Date: 15 June, 1871 Certificate of Freedom Date: 2 August, 1876 Comments: General servant, farm servant, labourer, teamster, road worker (https://fremantleprison.com.au/). --0--

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Dianne Jones on 16th December 2023

EMBARKATION: 1867, 30 September: Thomas Savage was sent from Chatham to board the Hougoumont for WA (England, Criminal Lunatic Asylum Registers, 1820-1876; Quarterly Returns of Prisoners in Convict Prisons/Lunatic Asylums; 1867; September; Chatham; image 112). “The hired convict ship Hougoumont, which has been taken up, by the Government for the conveyance of a numerous party of convicts to Freemantle, Western Australia, left the Nore on October 1, and proceeded down Channel, after receiving on board 150 convicts from the establishments at Chatham and Millbank. The convicts from the Chatham establishment, at St. Mary's, embarked from the dockyard on board the paddle-wheel steamer Adder, Mr. W. J. Blakely, and were in charge of a numerous party of convict guards and wardens, all heavily armed. Among the convicts shipped were a party of fifteen Fenians, who were engaged in the late conspiracy in Ireland, together with the officers and crew convicted of scuttling the ship Severn [only two were on the Hougoumont – Thomas Berwick and Lionel Holdsworth, each sentenced to 20 years for fraud], and some others who have achieved notoriety from their crimes. The Fenian convicts, like the remainder of the prisoners, were chained together in gangs, but it was observed that they were kept apart from the other convicts in a portion of the vessel by themselves. The steamer Petrel also took down a number of convicts from the establishment at Millbank, for shipment on board the Hougoumont, in charge of a strong escort and convict guard. On Tuesday, October 8th, the Hougoumont arrived in Portland roads. Shortly before midday ninety convicts were marched down to the Government pier at Portland under a strong escort of the 12th Light Infantry. The party included twenty-three Fenian convicts, among whom it was said, was Moriarty [not the senior Fenian, Captain Moriarty; rather, this was Bartholomew Moriarty, aged 17]. The Government steamer employed in the breakwater service was used for conveying the convicts on board the Hougoumont transport ship. The convicts were chained together on embarking, and on board the steamer a strong guard of marines from her Majesty's ship St. George was formed, and saw the convicts safely placed on board the Hougoumont. The Governor of the penal settlement at Freemantle, Captain Young, is on board the Hougoumont, and returns in that ship to his sphere of duty after paying a visit to his native land.” (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 1867, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271). --00--

218

Dianne Jones on 16th December 2023

1866/67: Thomas Savage was admitted to Chatham Prison, St Mary’s, Kent; listed as inmate #8807, aged 44; larceny and prev. conviction, 10 years PS; surgeon’s report “healthy”; behaviour “very good” (England, Criminal Lunatic Asylum Registers, 1820-1876; Quarterly Returns of Prisoners in Convict Prisons/Lunatic Asylums; 1867; March image 126; Chatham; June image 115; Chatham). --0--

218

Dianne Jones on 16th December 2023

JAIL: 1866: Admitted to Wakefield Gaol – Thomas Savage, 43, scissors forger, semi-literate; commited by T. Dunn, Esq., JP, Sheffield; warrant issued 6 April; committed 7 April for “stealing a pair of boots, the property of John Carter, at Sheffield, on the 6th April, 1866”; tried 11 April; pleaded guilty of larceny after a previous conviction; penal servitude for 10 years. Previous convictions and licences (tickets-of-leave): Three times disorderly pauper; once rogue and vagabond. Sheffield Sessions, January 1849, stealing sheet, 3 months. Sheffield Sessions, August 1849, stealing lead, 12 months. Sheffield Sessions, March 1851, stealing boots, 7 years. Liberated from Portland Prison, 29 November 1854, early release – Licence number 1933; licence revoked 15 July 1855 (https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C10138293). Sheffield Sessions, 24 August 1858, stealing a coat [the property of Sarah Cutler], 7 years. Liberated from Chatham Prison on Licence, November 1863 (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for Thomas Savage; Wakefield Gaol; Calendar of Trials; 1882-1886 [sic]; image 865). --0--

218

Dianne Jones on 16th December 2023

TRIAL: 1866, 9 April: Tried at Pontefract Sessions, Yorkshire, pleaded guilty, convicted and sentenced to 14 years’ penal servitude for stealing boots and a previous conviction. Witnesses: Thomas Cummings, Samuel Gambles and John White (Yorkshire, England, Quarter Session Records, 1637-1914; and Wakefield; Indictment; 1865 – 1866; and England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for Thomas Savage; England; Yorkshire – West Riding; 1866; image 11). --0--