William Smith

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Margaret Weston on 18th August 2023

On 26 July 1800 at the Worcester Summer Assizes, before Justice Heath, William Smith, a thirty-seven year old native of Warwick, Thomas Stow, and Richard Stiles were convicted of burglary. They and ten other convicted persons were sentenced to death. This penalty applied to hundreds of offences, but execution occurred in ten per cent of such sentences. Three of the convicted persons were executed and the rest reprieved, to be transported for life, in effect banished from Britain forever. William Smith and his accomplices Thomas Stow and Richard Stiles were sent onto the dilapidated prison hulk La Fortunée on Langstone Harbour. After boarding, the prisoners were stripped and their clothes thrown overboard. They were issued with coarse jackets and breeches, re-chained and sent down below decks. During the day prisoners on the La Fortunée and her sister hulk Capacity were transported to nearby Portsmouth in gangs under escort to work on the fortification of the harbour walls, as England expected to be again at war with France. By long boat William Smith, Stow and Stiles were sent on board the convict ship Perseus on 16 January 1802. On arrival they and other convicts were given a hot bath and then inspected by the Surgeon and his mate, notes were taken of each man's description, his age, his medical condition and his fitness. They each received a new issue of clothes, which consisted of one blue jacket and waistcoat, one pair of Russian duck trousers, three chequered shirts, two pairs of stockings and one pair of strong sturdy shoes, which had been provided by the British Government. They were also provided with new bedding. The Perseus called into Rio and the Cape and she arrived in the Colony on 4 August, 1802, fifty-two days after the Coromandel. Her voyage had taken one hundred and seventy-three days. No convict died on the voyage, and only one convict was disembarked from the ship in Sydney Cove to be taken to the hospital with a case of scurvy. William Smith was assigned to the Reverend Samuel Marsden who had arrived at Sydney Cove in March 1794 and assumed responsibility for the parish of Parramatta. The convict William Smith applied for a Conditional Pardon, a system of early release, known as a ‘Ticket of Leave’. It was processed and approved on 19 December 1809 by the illegal administration governing after Bligh was deposed and shortly before Lachlan Macquarie was commissioned as governor on 1 January 1810. It released him from serving Marsden, but he was not to leave the colony. Cruelly for William his freedom was short lived. All pardons following the Rum Rebellion were cancelled by Macquarie and those convicts given invalid tickets of leave could make fresh applications. William, a convict again after a few weeks freedom, was reassigned to William Lawson at South Creek near Prospect Hill. This is the Lawson of crossing the Blue Mountains fame and he had a very close association with the family thereafter for decades. Thomas Weavers died at Bathurst in 1865, and Sarah Weavers, late Smith nee Lake, died on 21 July 1876 at Bathurst, said to be aged ninety-two years, but overstated by several years.

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Maureen Withey on 14th September 2021

PLEASE DISREGARD LAST ENTRY - MISTAKE.

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Maureen Withey on 14th September 2021

Convict Index. William Smith, Baring, 1819, Ticket of Leave,25/111. District, Parramatta,; Born Wilts, 1795; Trade, Stonemason; Tried, Gloucs 1818.

married Sarah LAKE [[1791-1876]atParramatta on 06.11.1811 (7 children) died Prospect 26.08.1829 buried St John 29.08.1829 assigned Rev Samuel MARSDEN; ticket of leave 19.19.1809 under Rum rebellion revoked; assigned to Lt William LAWSON; ticket of leave 18.11.1815 much more on descendants