Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
Thomas Read was transported on the St Vincent, departing 28th Dec 1852 and arriving 26th May 1853 with 214 passengers.
St Vincent (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 92, Class and Piece Number HO11/17, Page Number 627 (316). --0-- Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/ --0-- Somerset, England, Gaol Registers, 1807-1879; Wilton Gaol; Description Book 1841 – 1853 |
| Source Description | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Pro |
| Original Source | Great Britain. Home Office |
| Compiled By | State Library of Queensland |
| Database Source | British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database |
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Convict Notes
OTHER: 30 June, 1857: He was granted a Conditional Pardon. For more details of his convict life, see (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p160). --00—
VDL: 26 May, 1853: On arrival in VDL, THOMAS READ, convict #28004, was listed as a farm labourer; transported for 15 years for assault to rob; 32 years old, 5’4¾” tall with black hair, grey eyes and a dark complexion. He was single, Protestant and literate. Native place: near Bristol. He said he had been transported for “assault and robbery, before transported for 10 years, obtaining money under false pretences”. Gibraltar report “very good” (https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-115$init=CON33-1-115p160). Family: Father George; mother Mary; brothers John and William; sister Maria – at his native place (http://foundersandsurvivors.org/pubsearch/convict/chain/ai58566). --0--
3 February, 1853: He was sent aboard the St Vincent for transportation to VDL (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --00--
On Gibraltar, Thomas Read was described as 27 years old when convicted, sentenced to 15 years for “assault with intent to rob”; “previously transported”; born in Wincanton, Somerset; Church of England; dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a sallow complexion, 5’5” tall; literate; labourer; single; relatives/family – living in Wincanton, Somerset (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --
On Gibraltar, as “convicts worked together with free men on the dockyards, lines between them became blurred. Convicts, like seamen, were ‘easily recognised’ by ‘their swarthy, weather beaten complexions…[and] muscular well-knit frames’. The discipline on the penal settlement was also influenced by the naval department, who superintended part of the works. In the 1840s, for example, convicts were provided ‘a half gill of rum’ at 11am and 5pm, which they drank from a trough. This mirrored the daily allowance of diluted rum, known as grog, to Royal Naval seamen in the Victorian era. Convicts were also allowed to use part of their earnings, to buy goods, usually tobacco, which they were allowed to smoke in the evening in the barracks. Though official correspondence cited health reasons for grog allowance, it seems likely that the convict authorities feared insubordination if they were banned from drinking and smoking, which were provided to the sappers and dockyard workers whom they worked alongside… In 1854, the acting overseer stated that “half of the offences were committed when the men were excited by rum”. For more serious offences, convicts were flogged with a ‘cat o’nine tails’ whip against the ‘flogging mast’, and during an investigation Dr William Baly concluded that the whip which was used was an old naval cat, which was ‘much heavier than any now used in the government prison and hulks at home, or in the army.’” (Roscoe, Katy (2018), “Convicts and the Sea: the naval influence on Gibraltar Convict Establishment” at https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/). —
TO GIBRALTAR: 4 March, 1851: READ, THOMAS #1611, arrived on Gibraltar from England per Cornwall. He was held on the Europa hulk (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1810-1822 [mislabelled]). --
JAIL: 2 April, 1848: Thomas Read was admitted to Wilton jail, aka Wilton (Taunton) County Gaol and House of Correction, Upper High Street, Taunton, Wilton; listed as inmate #543, labourer. Other details as below: NAME: Thomas Read ADMISSION AGE: 27 BIRTH YEAR: 1821 BIRTH PLACE: Wincanton ADMISSION DATE: 2 Apr 1848 ADMISSION PLACE: Taunton, Somerset, England GAOL: Wilton Gaol (Somerset, England, Gaol Registers, 1807-1879 for Thomas Read; Wilton Gaol; Description Book 1841 – 1853). --0--
TRIAL: 28 March, 1848: Thomas Read, 27 and semi-literate, was tried at the Wells Quarter Sessions, found guilty and sentenced to transportation for 15 years for “feloniously assaulting with intent to rob, before convicted of felony” (England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 for Thomas Read; England; Somerset; 1848). --0--
PREVIOUS CONVICTION: 24 October, 1842: Aged 22, he was sentenced at Wells to 10 years for stealing a quantity of copper wire (with a previous conviction). He was pardoned on 4 December, 1847 (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for Thomas Read; Misc.; Register of Prisoners; 1854-1865 [mislabelled]). Other records say he was transported for 10 years for obtaining money under false pretences and served 5 years at Portsmouth jail before being pardoned. --0--