William Singleton

341

Maureen Withey on 25th January 2024

The following prisoners, capitally convicted at the last assizes, and who have since received sentence transportation, have been this week removed from our gaol the hulks, at Gosport, viz.: —Wm. Singleton and Benj. Pearce, for life; Philip Walton, John Hape, and James Smith, for 14 years; and W. Johnson, for seven years. Hampshire Chronicle, 18 Sept 1820.

341

Maureen Withey on 3rd February 2020

Medical journal of the male convict ship Lady Ridley for 17 November 1820 to 26 July 1821 by James Wilson, surgeon and superintendent, on her passage to New South Wales. Folios 15-17: William Singleton, convict, aged 42; disease or hurt, seized with cold shivering all over. Taken ill, 10 June 1821 at sea. Discharged 24 June 1821 cured. The following is an extract from a letter, addressed by Wm. Singleton to a magistrate of Hants, dated Hobart Town, Van Dieman's Land, New South Wales, July 10, 1825. Singleton was capitally convicted at the Summer Assizes, 1820, of maliciously shooting and killing a mare at Droxford, the property of John Earwaker, and the sentence was afterwards commuted to transportation for life. He was also charged with setting fire to the barns of Richard Goodlad esq. at Hill Place, in the night of the 8th May, 1820, but being convicted on the first indictment, no evidence was offered of the latter crime:— By industry I have accumulated 100 breeding ewes, a small farm, (which (which I grow about one load of wheat per annum and about 50/. in ready cash. My trade and calling here is carpentering, which I chiefly follow, and find it answers extremely well, and I hope, with the blessing of God, in a few more years, I shall be independent of all the world. I am still with a kinsman that came out here as a marine 22 years ago, he is a large farmer and has stock : and I am happy to inform you that Government neither interferes with me nor me with them—and I may further state, as good as a free man, and happy to say, in a free country. I take the liberty of sending you the state the country as near as possible:—.The average price wheat is ….. Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 23 March 1826.

4

Steven Brown on 14th April 2014

I believe William Singleton is related to my 4 times Great Grandfather. He was living in Dorset at the time of his conviction for shooting a horse and setting fire to property. The following links will give you background to the offence and his reported rehabilitation, he wrote a letter to his local newspaper after settling down in Hobarts Town some 5 years after arriving on the Lady Ridley. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dutillieul/ZOtherPapers/D&WGMarch231826;.html http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details/redirect/?CATID=8862880&CATLN=6 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details/redirect/?CATID=-5874581&CATLN=7 http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details/redirect/?CATID=-5874583&CATLN=7 The first link will take you to extracts from the Wiltshire & Devises Gazette of 1826 and someway down the newspaper you will see a paragrah starting: 'The following is an extract from a letter, addressed by Wm.Singleton'. In the extract Wm Singleton provides some great information on life in Australia in 1826. The last 3 links are to a record kept in the National Archives in the UK of the Medical Journal of the Lady Ridley's Surgeon, Mr James Wilson, it makes fascinating reading.