Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
William Trim 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 335 (167) |
| 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
OFFENCES.—Some very considerable depredations on sheep have been lately committed. A flock of upwards of 700, belonging to Messrs. STINES and TROY of the Coal River, were driven off last week, and 120 of Mr. EDWARD LORD'S; and others have been missing. Some notorious characters in the neighbourhood of those flocks, who had been frequently charged with and suspected of stealing sheep, were taken up on suspicion; and part of the flock of Messrs. Stines and Troy were traced and found in the possession of John Bentley, a settler at Clarence Plains. Hobart Town Gazette, 20 Dec 1817. -------------------------------------------------- The Criminal Sessions were opened at Sydney on the 25th of March last. The following is the result of the trials of those committed from this Settlement:— William Trimm and John Bentley were both found guilty; the former for feloniously stealing on the 7th of Dec. last, 200 sheep, the property of Messrs. Stynes and Troy, settlers residing on the Coal River Plains; and the latter with purchasing the same knowing them to have been stolen, and with having aided the prisoner Trimm in committing the capital felony. Hobart Town Gazette, 9 May 1818. -------------------------------------------------- Colonial Secretary Index. TRIMM, William 1818 May 23,25,27 Prisoner under sentence of death. To be conveyed per "Minerva" to Hobart for execution (Reel 6006; 4/3498 pp.231, 233, 246) --------------------------------------------------- At eleven o'clock on Thursday morning, were executed pursuant to their sentence, George Gray for murder, and William Trimm for sheep-stealing; they having arrived in the Minerva, under warrants of execution. The crime of the former leads always to the same end—"Whosoever sheddeth Man's Blood, by Man shall his blood be shed." The unhappy malefactor, however, died penitent and resigned; and it may be hoped, that his penitence, and his life surrendered to the outraged Laws, may be received as an atonement for his crime. The offence of sheep-stealing has been carried to such an extent in this Colony, that an example has been long required. The unhappy man, who has in this case suffered, is generally understood to have been for years engaged in these practices; and as he had so long escaped with impunity, and his guilt in this instance was proved beyond all question, perhaps the hand of justice could not have seized upon a more proper object of example. In this trial the necessity of severe punishment, as to the principal offender, was mingled, as it ever is under the British Laws, with mitigation of sentence towards the minor criminals Bentley and Brown, who were convicted before the same Court, and received the GOVERNOR in CHIEF'S mercy in commutation of their sentence, to transportation. The attention and humane offices of the Rev. Mr. KNOPWOOD were on this occasion constant; and no doubt assisted essentially to bring the unhappy prisoners to a just sense of their situation, and to that state of mind which enabled them to meet their fate with decency and resignation. It is to be hoped that the awful examples presented by their fate will be felt as they ought; and that it will tend to prevent the recurrence of those violences amounting to murder, or very near it, which have so often occurred in moments of intoxication during the last year; and that those who are yet engaged in cattle and sheep-stealing will take warning by the termination of Trimm's life, foreseeing the imminent risk they run, in case of detection of coming to the same end. Hobart Town Gazette, 13 June 1818. -------------------------------------------------- Tasmanian Burial record. William Trim, age 38, buried 11 June 1818, registered at Hobart Town.
Exeter Assizes lasted till Saturday the 11th inst. Sentence of death was passed on ... ; Wm. Trim, for house-breaking; .... — Jewell, Hockaday, and Pollard, are left for execution; the others are reprieved. Salisbury Journal, 23 Aug 1802.
Hulk Records. Portsmouth. HO-9-8_1. page 51/52 Received ten from Exeter, 17 Oct. William Trimm, age 21, Felony, Tried at Exeter, 9 Aug 1802, NSW Life, Calcutta.
NSW Convict Index. William Trimm, per Calcutta 1803, Absolute Pardon, 8 Oct 1810. ----------------------------------------------------- Colonial Secretary Index. TRIMM, William. Per "Calcutta", 1803 1810 Oct 10 Of the Derwent. Granted free pardon (Reel 6003; 4/3490A p.120)