Matthew Sills

343

Maureen Withey on 26th January 2025

NSW Convict Index Hannah Hart, per Elizabeth, 1836, Certificate of Freedom, 26 Dec 1842, No 42/2192. Wife of Matthew Sills, per Dunvegan Castle (1832) fbs (as stated on her CF) (Note- the date of arrival of the Dunvegan Castle is incorrect, Matthew arrived on the ship which arrived in 1830.)

343

Maureen Withey on 21st June 2024

MATTHEW SILLS, aged 21, and SAMUEL HALL. aged 47, 'ere indicted for stealing on the 9th December, ten sacks of potatoes, the property of Job Hodgkinson, of Blidworth. Sills was also charged with having been convicted of a felony at the Nottingham County Sessions, held on the 5th January, 182?. The prosecutor deposed that seventeen sacks of potatoes were laid in a field ready for removal, on the 8th Dec in and next morning ten sacks were gone but a hamper, a shovel, and a hoe were found near the spot. About a fortnight afterwards, saw one of thy same kind at James Jackson's, and also at Thomas Middleton's who had got them of the prisoners. Thomas Jackson proved the purchase of a sack of potatoes from Sills, about the 18th December, who said he was selling them for Hall. Samuel Glassby bought three sacks of potatoes of Samuel Hall, which were afterwards examined and compared by Ephraim Sills the constable. 'Thomas Middleton, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, an accomplice in the robbery, and a very curious looking man deposed that he accompanied the prisoners, with eight asses and sacks, on the night of the 8th December, and assisted getting potatoes from a close, and part of them were afterwards put into his hovel ;and the rest were taken to Sutton. They left a hamper, a hoe, and a shovel in the field. On the following night the two prisoners came to fetch them and the rest of the potatoes, leaving him two sacks and seven pecks as his share. The prisoner Sills here attacked the witness for stealing coals, and Hall declared that the potatoes sold were his own property. Matthew Mole, governor of the House of Correction at Southwell, proved that Sills was the person convicted at the January Sessions in 182?, for stealing brass. Both prisoners guilty. Sills seven years' transportation. Hall, six months' hard labour in Southaven House of Correction; the last fourteen days to be confined in a solitary cell. There was also an indictment against Sills for assaulting the constable. Nottingham and Newark Review, 17 Jan 1829. On Tuesday, the following convicts were removed from the County Gaol on the 3d instant, to be placed on board the Dolphin bulk, at Chatham, viz. Thomas Bollard and Wm. Clews, under sentence of transportation for fourteen years; and Thomas Chamberlain, Matthew Sills, Henry Towle, and John Marshall, for seven years each. Nottingham Journal, 7 Feb 1829. Thomas Middleton, Sutton-in-Ashfield, committed to Southwell, for trial at the next Nottingham county sessions, charged with stealing some hay, belonging to Mr. Samuel Fisher, of Sutton, farmer. [Middleton the man who was admitted king’s evidence at last Nottingham January sessions, against Matthew Sills and other, when Sills was transported, for stealing potatoes from Mr. Hodgkinson, of Blidworlh, and it will remembered they took six asses to fetch the potatoes.] Nottingham Review, 25 Dec 1829.

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Amanda Philip-Moody on 21st June 2024

Matthew married Hannah Hart on the 6th June 1838