Edward Tuffts

71

Robin Sharkey on 28th June 2020

IN 1832 Edward Tuffts got his Ticket of Leave. Although he was entitled to go out and find his own living, he remained, however, working with John Jones.So now he would have been entitled to be paid. Better-off farmers sometimes agreed to pay their workers with a sheep or cow, rather than in cash, since cash-flow was often scarce, and being paid in stock enabled ex-convicts to build up their own capital for when they were able to buy land themselves. Ticket of Leave No 32. 908, Dated: 9 October 1832 Allowed to remain the District of Bathurst On recommendation of the xx Bench Dated 31 March 1832. Native place: London Trade: Shoemaker. Place of Trial: London GD [Gaol Delivery] Date of trial: 5 December 1821. Sentence: Life Year of Birth: 1803. Height: 5 feet 3 inches Complexion: Ruddy, pockpitted; Hair: Dark brown; Eyes: Hazel Grey General Remarks: honest By 1835 at least, John Jones had taken up a new pastoral property, named “Turee”, near Cassilis, and 95 miles north of Mudgee. (Information from Jones’s application in October 1835, for four more convicts, residence at “Turee”). Tuffts was recorded there in 1837: 1837 Convict muster - Edward "Tuffes", Aged: 33; Arrived per ship 'Guildford;'1822; Current Status: Ticket of Leave; Residence: Cassilis. 1837 - 1838 Tuffts murdered John Jones on 21 October 1837 at "Turee" near Cassilis. Sydney Gaol book description: 22 Nov 1837 Height; 5ft 4in; Year of Birth 1803: Complexions (hard to read – Fair?) hair Black, Eyes Hazel Wednesday, 14 February 1838 -Indictment and trial at Supreme COurt, Sydney for murder of John Jones. (The Sydney Gazette, Thurs 22 February 1838 p.2) Execution: Tuesday 27 February 1838, at Sydney Gaol in George Street, Sydney. (Sydney Gazette, 1 March 1838).

71

Robin Sharkey on 28th June 2020

Edward Tufts, London born, arrived in NSW as a 19 year old London thief, and found himself for almost all the whole of the rest of his life in country areas - at Bathurst, and on an isolated pastoral run near Cassilis. The stages of Tuft’s life from London thief to NSW gallows were as follows: LONDON CRIMES: • He was probably the same Edward Tufts, then aged 18 years, who was found guilty at the Old Bailey on 6 June 1821 of stealing a hat from the shop of Mr Salter, hatter at Cornhill. Tufts had come into the shop and snatched the hat off the counter. The shopman chased him and caught him. For this crime, he was whipped. • Later that same year, on 5 December 1821, Tuffts was tried at the Old Bailey, but the trail did not appear in the reported record of proceedings of the Old Bailey. He was convicted the same day, and sentenced to transportation for Life. ARRIVAL in AUSTRALIA • The indent of the convict transport “Guildford”, whose journey was made within 1822, recorded the following for Tufts: Aged 19, Convicted London, 5 December 1821. Life, Native Place: London Complexion: Pale, pock-marked, Hair: Brown, eyes: Grey (?) • Tufts and his fellow Guildford convict landed in Sydney on 24 September 1822. Tufts seem to be the only one sent up to Bathurst he was assigned to Mr Thomas Hawkins. • Hawkins had been newly appointed earlier in 1822 as Commissariat Storekeeper at Bathurst, where government approval was still required to move to. Hawkins arrived in Bathurst in April 1822, and selected 2000 acres on the Macquarie River two miles outside Bathurst, naming it “Blackdown”. The Hawkins'es, with their many children and household goods, had taken 18 days to cross the Blue Mountains to Bathurst. (Australian Dictionary of Biogrpahy, “Hawkins, Thomas Fitzherbert”, accessed 27 June 2020). But the mountain crossing may not have taken so long for convicts being sent up to Bathurst. Did Edward Tufts work for Hawkins out on “Blackdown”, or in Bathurst township beforehand? TUFT’S TRANSFER to BATHURST. • List of 104 male convicts landed this day (24 Sept 1822) from the transport ship ‘Guildford’ 5th. [Johnson Master] and forwarded by boat to Parramatta, to be disposed of as follows: • No. 23 on list – Edward TUFTS – Mr Hawkins Bathurst; to be forwarded to Mr Lawson. • 1822 List of Non-artificer Prisoners [all from “Guildford” pages images 20 – 22] Mr “Hawland” – Bathurst Assigned as a / “See Bond No 398”. • In letter from Wm Lawson to Col Sec Goulburn Esq “Bathurst, 24 SEPT 1822 “Transmitting the musters body(?) of the return of the whole of the prisoners in this district – stating the time they arrived in the colony and in whose service they have been in since their arrival. In two months returns of public labour with the number of persons victualled – Mr Hawthorne (?) Bond for Edward Tuffs, Mechanic, Convict per Guildford.” 1825 — 1828: BY the time of the 1825 Muster, Tufts was still at Bathurst but was now assigned to John Jones. “1825 Muster: Edward Tufts, Trial Sentence: Life; Arrived per ship Guildford, 1822; Current Status: Convict; Employment: Govt Servant; Residence: Bathurst [Assigned to] John Jones.” Assignment to Jones continued through to the 1828 Muster: 1828 Census- Edward “Tuffts” [sic] Aged: 25 years, Protestant; Arrived per Guildford (5) 1822; Current Status: Govt Servant, House servant, in household of John Jones, residence Kelso, David’s Creek. Bathurst. Tufts was one of 8 convicts recorded with John Jones in 1828. Except for one other of Jones’s convict servants, Tufts had arrived the earliest in NSW, so may have been the longest serving with his master. Another 1828 Jones convict, William Lilly per the Guildford of 1824, was also still with Jones at “Turee" in 1837. In the trial report, the overseer referred to the shepherd William Lilly as a person he’d had a fight with on that evening. ______________________________

71

Robin Sharkey on 28th June 2020

After fifteen years as a convict in NSW, Edward Tufts was hanged at the Sydney Gaol in February 1838 for murdering his master (John Jones) at Turee Station, near Coolah, 95 miles north of Mudgee. He’d been an assigned government man to John Jones for at least twelve years, originally at Bathurst, and later as a Ticket of Leave man since 1832. MURDERING HIS MASTER The trial was reported in the Sydney Gazette, 22 February 1838, p.1, and reproduced in the Macquarie University Law research site: https://www.law.mq.edu.au/research/colonial_case_law/nsw/cases/case_index/1838/r_v_tufts/ On the night of 21st October 1837, after a day’s sheep washing, ready for shearing, Edward Tufts had attacked his master, John Jones, with sheep shears. Mr. Jones was wounded in the thigh and groin and died six days later. Mr Jones had been on Turee Station since at least early 1835, and presumably Tufts had been there with him since then, having been with Jones at Bathurst since at least 1825. Tufts was intoxicated when he attacked Jones, in the evening after the day’s work was finished. Sheep-washing (usually done in a creek) was hard work, and required the men to get into the water with the sheep. The overseer gave evidence that the men washing the sheep had been given a dram glass of rum at the end of the day. In cross examination he admitted they’d also had rum while the work was underway. He (the overseer) said he served out three bottles between eleven men at four different times in the day: “ … they were in the water about five hours, and had one glass going in, two while they were in, and one coming out; I did not go into the water but had the same rum as they had”. The local JP, Alexander Busby, gave evidence that it was the custom to supply servants with spirits at that time of the year (sheep shearing). The overseer also said that Tufts had his own woman — a free woman (name not reported). She may have been with him in his hut, although the overseer said he didn’t know if she was “on the farm that day”. Overseer also said she was always craving for rum. The evidence was that Tufts was outside his hut that evening when he began calling Jones a robber and other names, and saying he’d robbed him of 400 sheep. (Payment for work was sometimes agreed in sheep, rather than cash). Tufts went in to his hut, then came out and went towards the Jones’ house, passing near Jones when he attacked him with the sheep shears. The overseer heard Tufts say “I have settled the old sweep at last”. There was also some evidence given, by the local JP, and Jones’ blacksmith, that Jones had a reputation for violence (implied as also a result of too much liquor). The judge had commented at the trial that Mr Jones had been indiscreet “in suffering the indiscriminate use of intoxicating liquor among his convict servants.” (The Australian, Friday 16 February 1838 p.2) When Tufts was executed on Tues 27 February 1838, it was reported that: “He was attended in his last moments by the Rev Mr. Cowper, and behaved himself with decency. When on the scaffold he made some remarks, in treating the spectators to refrain from drinking, which had been the means of bringing him to the gallows.” The Sydney Herald, Thursday 1 March 1838 p.2 _____________________________________________