Summary
Personal Information
Crime
Voyage
Transportation
Samuel Tomlins was transported on the Calcutta, departing 31st Jan 1803 and arriving 4th Oct 1803 with 305 passengers.
HMS Calcutta was the East Indiaman Warley (1795), converted to a Royal Navy ship. This ship of the line served for a time as an armed transport. She also transported convicts to Australia. The French Magnanime captured Calcutta in 1805. In 1809, after she ran aground during the Battle of the Basque Roads and her crew had abandoned her, a British boarding party burned her. In 1803 the Calcutta sailed into Port Phillip bay where at least 4 convicts escaped , in Sydney in April 1804 it was reported that 8 had died on the trip. Of the four known escapees one was shot on escape, 2 turned back after 2 days to reattach to the group at the camp in bay before the boat left , one continued on ...into Australia's history books. At least 13 convicts were transferred on to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), Australia.The ship also carried officers, wives and free settlers.
Calcutta (generic)References
| Primary Source | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 87, Class and Piece Number HO11/1, Page Number 345 (172) |
| 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
On Thursday arrived from a sealing voyage at Kangaroo Island, the brig Jupiter, Captain Ainsworth; having procured 3200 seal, and 2400 kangaroo skins, and thirty tons of salt. She brings the unpleasant account of Mr. C. Feen, her Chief Officer, and Samuel Tomlins, one of the island men, having both been unfortunately drowned while the vessel lay in the Bay of Shoals at Kangaroo Island. Hobart Town Gazette, 3 Apr 1819.
Tasmanian Records. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON22-1-2P449JPG Samuel Tomlins, tried Worcester City, Session of the Peace, 11 Jany 1802, 7 years. ------------------------------------------------- The following news report may refer to Samuel: Committed on Friday to Worcester county gaol, …. also committed to the city gaol, S. Tomlins, for stealing lead from the house of Mr Williams, in Bridge Street. Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 8 Feb 1802.
Hulk Records. Portsmouth. HO-9-8_1. page 50/52 Received four from Worcester, 9 Jun. Samuel Tomlins, age 20, P. Larceny, tried at Worcester, 18 Jan 1802, BS 7 years. Calcutta.
Samuel Tomlins was aged 20 when sentenced to seven years’ transportation, reaching Sydney in 1803 on the Calcutta and Hobart on January 1st 1804. He served a seven year sentence and afterwards took to whaling in the straits. He is recorded as having been on Kangaroo Island before formal colonisation. On Christmas Day 1806 when John Fawner had gone to town, bush rangers Samuel Tomlins and William Russell visited his hut. They threatened Fawkner's two children but they managed to escape and on returning the next day found the house ransacked and most of their possessions gone. The bushranger Tomlins was known to the children, having come across from England aboard the 'Calcutta' as a convict on the same voyage as their family did when they accompanied their convict father. William Russell was also a convict from Port Dalrymple. After he was freed in 1809 Tomlins was on the sealing grounds between Australia and Van Diemen’s Land. Samuel Tomlins fathered a child named Edward (Ned) Tomlins who was born at Cape Barren in 1813 to Samuel Tomlins and a woman whose name George Robinson of the Tasmanian Aboriginal mission gives as POOL.RER.RE.NER, or BULL.RUB, BULLROE, BULRA and BOOLROI. Edward was baptised at St John’s, Launceston, on January 22nd 1819. Samuel Tomlins drowned in 1819 when the ship Jupiter was anchored at the Bay of Shoals, Kangaroo Island.