Henry Smith

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

--000-- NOTE: Year of Birth is known from UK records but not the day and month. The latter dates have been entered as 01/01 because the site does not allow those fields to be left empty.

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

--00-- FREMANTLE Jail record: SMITH, Henry; inmate #9880, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1829 Marital Status: Married Occupation: Labourer Literacy: Illiterate Sentence Place: Manchester Crime: Wounding with intent Sentence Period: 20 years Ticket Leave Date: 16 Jun 1875 Certificate of Freedom Date: 16 Aug 1887 Comments: Conditional Release 1883. Labourer, teamster (https://fremantleprison.com.au/) --000--

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

IN WA: On arrival, Henry SMITH was listed as convict #9880, 39 [in WA], married no children [this is at odds with Millbank jail record], illiterate, labourer, Protestant; family – wife Elizabeth Carter, near Tamworth [also different from Millbank record]; 5’9 ¾ ” tall, black hair, dark brown eyes, very dark complexion; behaviour in jail in England “good”. No previous convictions (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department; Registers (128/40 - 43)). --00--

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

EMBARKATION: 1867, 30 September: Henry Smith was sent from Chatham prison to board the Hougoumont for transportation to WA. “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--

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

1867, 16 April: Henry Smith was sent from Millbank to Chatham prison, Kent; inmate #8920. Chatham prison, east of London at St Mary’s Island in Kent, was a public works prison for male convicts, and was notorious for riots in the 1860s (https://www.prisonhistory.org). --00--

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

1867, 21 March: Admitted to Millbank, Westminster, London – inmate #3103, 37 years old, labourer, married with three children, illiterate, Church of England; family – wife Sarah Smith, Cows Hill, Chadderton (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1866-1867). --0--

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

1866, 31 August: Wakefield – he served 6 months 20 days in solitary confinement; behaviour “good” (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1866-1867). “After a sentence of transportation [or penal servitude] was handed down, the prisoner entered into a separate stage where he was placed into an individual cell, isolated from others, apart from brief periods of exercise and attendance at chapel. However, no communication of any kind with other prisoners was permitted at any time. The philosophy behind this penal methodology had its provenances in the religious, monastic traditions; i.e., that in the isolation of his cell the malefactor would be able to contemplate the errors of his way, unadulterated by the negative influences of former contemporaries, and be reformed.” (Edgar, 2018, pp39-40) When first put into practice, the mandated period of separate confinement was 18 months. By the late 1840s, authorities had conceded that such conditions of imprisonment were “injurious to many prisoners’ mental health” and the stint was reduced to 12 months. Periods of separate confinement were reduced further “as a prisoner displayed good behaviour tendencies” (Edgar, 2018, p40). Wakefield, Millbank, Pentonville and Mountjoy in Ireland were the “Probation” or “Separate” prisons, as were some local jails. --0--

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

JAILS: 1866, July: Salford – Henry SMITH served 1 month 4 days in solitary confinement; behaviour “good” (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Millbank Prison; Register of Prisoners; 1866-1867). --0--

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF TRIAL: SOUTH LANCASHIRE ASSIZES. SALFORD HUNDRED. CROWN COURT Wednesday. (Before Mr. Justice Lush.) CUTTING WITH INTENT TO MURDER. Henry Smith was indicted for having, at Oldham, on the 6th June, feloniously cut and wounded Mary Davis, with intent to murder her; and on a second charge of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Mr Addison appeared for prosecution, and the defence was conducted by Mr. Jones. The prisoner was the prosecutrix's step-father, he having married her mother about eight years ago, and when the prosecutrix was about twelve years of age. Prosecutrix had been educated at a charity school, and when she was fifteen years of age she went home to her step-father's. On various occasions the latter took advantage of her sleeping in an adjoining apartment to forcibly have connection with her and one night her mother was an actual witness to her dishonour. She complained bitterly to her mother of the treatment she had received, but no notice was taken of it, and she appealed for protection to the neighbours with a like result. The prosecutrix went into service for the purpose of being released from the annoyance to which she was continually subjected by the prisoner, but she was followed him, and obliged to leave her situation. She was then in pregnancy. In March the girl went into the service of Mrs. Mills, the Bull's Head, Oldham, and endeavoured keep secret her whereabouts from her step-father; but she had only been there two months when the prisoner heard of where she was. On the 18th May the prisoner endeavoured to persuade the landlady to let him have a bed for the night; but Mrs. Mills refused, knowing that he had home of his own. On another occasion the prosecutrix told the prisoner that if he repeated his importunities she would be obliged to leave the place, and he then said that he would find and kill her. On the 4th of June he went to the Bull's Head and used threats, order to induce the prosecutrix to come back, saying that he had bill against her of £8. On the 6th of the same month the prisoner again went to the Bull's Head, and on his way there he told an acquaintance that "somebody would be dead before the night." When he got to the hotel he had not an opportunity of seeing the prosecutrix alone as the girl was with her mistress at tea; and after calling for some beer left, saying that he would come again in the course of the evening. He returned shortly after, and saw the prosecutrix, who was in the scullery cleaning up the tea things; and before she was aware of his presence he came behind her and drew a razor across her throat. She struggled from his grasp, and fell on to the floor, and she was cut across the fingers by the razor in her efforts at self-protection. Her screams attracted the attention of two young men who had just left the house, and who returned and rescued her from the prisoner. He was seized hold of, and charged with the offence, and he said, "I've done it; I've done it." The wounds inflicted on the prosecutrix were not, however, of a permanently serious nature, and she was restored to health in four or five days, the principal injury having arisen from the shock occasioned to the nervous system. In giving her evidence, the prosecutrix appeared to be suffering from the injuries she had sustained on the throat. —His lordship, summing up, said the prisoner had committed the offence from the basest motives. It was not due to any forbearance or change of purpose that he did not kill the girl; and if he had succeeded in killing her, nothing in his (the judge's) opinion could have saved him from conviction and the gallows. The sentence on the prisoner would be that he should be kept in penal servitude for twenty years. (Manchester Courier, 2 August, p4, at https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000206/18660802/026/0004) --00--

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Dianne Jones on 5th October 2023

TRIAL: 1866, 26 July: Manchester Assizes – Henry SMITH was convicted and sentenced to 20 years’ penal servitude for wounding with intent to murder (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892; England; Lancashire; 1866). --00--