Mary Westaway

71

Robin Sharkey on 20th February 2017

TASMANIAN CONVICT RECORD: DESCRIPTION BOOK , 1834 Westaway Mary – Laundress and Dairymaid, Plain Cook 5ft 2in, aged 23.. Native of Plymouth. Brown hair, hazel eyes, brown complexion, slightly pockpitted Small head, medium height forehead, Oval face, small mouth, medium wide mouth, small dimpled chin, APPROPRIATION RECORD Westaway Mary – Laundress and Dairymaid, Plain Cook.[assigned to] Thomas Walker esq CONDUCT RECORD “Transported for Larceny. Convicted Before – Gaol Report/ “Married. Noted this offence: stealing a quilt and blanket “Once for a camlet (?) cloak – 2 months “Married. Husband a James. – labourer, gone to sea “Ship’s Surgeon’s report – indifferent [n character] • Feb 3rd 1835 – [assigned to Walker] Drunkenness and disobedience of orders. Ten days on bread and water. • Feb 14 1835 – [assigned to Walker] persisting in refusal to return to her service – 2 months in Female house of correction Launceston, and afterwards to be returned to Mr Walker’s service. • Apr 17 1835 – [assigned to Walker ] Drunk, and improperly tearing up clothes her master’s property. 12 months female house of correction Launceston, 6 months of which time in xxx class of accommodation. [ HERE MARY WAS ONLY JUST RETURNED TO WORK FROM THE 14 FEB STINT AT THE FACTORY. BY NOW 4 – 5 MONTHS PREGNANT, SHE SPENDS THE REST OF 1835, PLUS SOME MORE MONTHS WITH HER NEW DAUGHTER, IN THE FACTORY]. • June 8 1836 – [assigned to Turner] Absent without leave 14 days solitary confinement on bread and water, remitted at request of her master. • June 27 1836 – [assigned to Turner] Absent without leave 21 days Solitary confinement on Bread and Water. • Oct 4 1836 – [assigned to Beveridge] Drunk. 7 days’ solitary confinement (This was Adam Beveridge, arrived free in NSW on “Amity” in 1824. ) • Feb 22 1837 – [assigned to Archer] Disorderly conduct • July 31 1837 - [assigned to Archer} Being unfit for service at present being far advanced in a state of pregnancy. Returned to government. • March 18 1839 – [TL] Absconding on Discharge. • FREE CERTIFICATE 1841 Mary arrived on 4th Sept 1834 and was assigned in the Launceston area of Tasmania, near the town of Longford, itself 15 miles south of Launceston. She stayed around Longford for the rest of her time in Tasmania. She became pregnant within three months of her arrival, to another convict assigned to the same rural property. Her Conduct record shows that she was not a quiet orderly convict at all - she was a handful with poor behaviour written up regularly on her convict records, The Walker she was assigned to was Thomas Walker, ex British army, served at Waterloo, Arr NSW 1818, Commissariat at NSW until taking over at Port Dalrymple in Tasmania (now Launceston) and got 800 acre land grant. Back to NSW for a time but retired and returned to Tasmania in 1832 and built an estate on the South Esk River near Longford which he called “Rhodes”, same as his Sydney estate and name of his mother’s family estate near Leeds. This is where Mary was located. She married Richard Masters in 1843 at Longford. Archer could have been either Thomas Archer who built “Woolmers” on the Norfolk Plains or his brother Joseph who followed him in 1820, taking up 2,000 acres next door to Thomas. In 1834 J. Archer built a beautiful mansion on this property, called “Panshanger”, several miles south of Longford. Two other Archer Brothers arrived as well, both with their own large properties. FIRST CHILD: (1) ELIZABETH, daughter of Mary Westaway and William Stephens. Born 5th September 1835. Therefore conceived early December 1834, two months after her arrival in Tasmania. Father of child: William Stephens of Redbank, Assigned servant to Mr Walker. Mary was also an assigned servant of Mr Walker (from her Conduct Record). She was in the Launceston Female Factory when she gave birth to Elizabeth. MARRIAGE: Marriage permission had to be granted by the Colonial Secretary’s Office because Mary was still a convict. Approval was sought on 1st August 1837 between Mary Westaway per “Edward” and Richard Masters per “Clyde”. But they didn’t get their approval (an approval date was crossed out ) and so could not marry to legitimise the birth of their child. Mary’s second child was born: (2) Mark Masters born 11 September 1837 to Mary Westaway and to Richard Masters, of Launceston, a free shipwright. Mary had been returned to the Launceston Factory from her employer, then Mr Archer, on 31 July “unfit for service at present being far advanced in a state of pregnancy”. They sought marriage approval again and it was granted on 3rd January 1838 with a qualification “Approved if the clergyman be satisfied as to the woman being single.” Obviously Mary’s convict record stated that she was a married woman. Probably she then had to say this first husband had died in order to be able to be married again. MARRIAGE on 21 February 1838 - Richard Masters, Free, of the parish of Launceston and MARY WESTAWAY, Convict, of the Parish of Launceston. Both made their marks. (Mary’s first husband back in England - James Westaway - also married again, in 1840 still at Guernsey in the Channel Islands, to Catherine Johns.) Richard Masters had arrived as a convict, on “Clyde” in December 1830. He had a seven year sentence, tried at Ely (the Isle of Ely Assizes) in Cambridge (Isle of Ely) Assizes on Tuesday 6th April 1830. He was described in a local Cambridge newspaper as an “old offender” at the age of 26, originally from Sutton, and had been sentenced for stealing 18 deal planks [this is a type of wood] the property of Mr Baxter, and sentenced to transportation for seven years. [ per Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, 9 April 1830]. 1842 DEATH of RICHARD MASTERS aged 40 , 6th June 1842, a sawyer, of consumption. Died at Launceston. Informant - Launceston police)?) Mary “Westerway” married for a second time in 1843 on January 28th, at Longford Church, “aged 33”, FREE, to Evan Richard DAVIS, aged 40, Free. Anglican ceremony. In presence of Henry Flanders and Emma Clagg. Did they have a child called Evan Charles Davis? This man married in 1880, at Launceston, to Joy Turner who was still a minor, at the residence of Mrs Davis in John St Launceston. Could that be his mother Mary Westaway-Masters-Davis?

71

Robin Sharkey on 20th February 2017

Mrs Mary Westaway, nee Conly, convicted 1834 transported on “Edward” for 7 years for larceny of a quilt and blanket. Convicted at Plymouth (Devon Asizes) on 6th January 1834. * Born 1811 because age stated as 23 years on arrival Sept 1834 Tasmanian convict records. Therefore born 1811. * Husband James Westaway had gone to sea at the time of her conviction (per Tas Convict conduct record), Mary was probably forced into theft to support herself – or just to keep warm in the English winter. Mary’s marriage registration at Guernsey in the Channel Islands, recorded her maiden name as “Mary Conly” and that she came from the town of Plymouth in Devon. This could have been Connelly, Connolly etc. MARRIED in Guernsey 1831, 19th February, to James Westaway who had been working as a labourer at Peter Port, Guernsey since 1826 together with his brother Dennis (per Guernsey 1827 Census, resident for 18 months). Dennis also married in Guernsey, 18 months after Mary and James, in July 1832. WESTAWAY FAMILY CONNECTIONS Mary’s husband James Westaway was born 1808 at South Tawton in Devon, son of William Westaway (B South Tawton) and Elizabeth Beere. At the time of his 1831 marriage he recorded that his parents were living at nearby Drewsteignton, Devon. James Westaway grew up in a very poor family at South Tawton, as had his own father before him. James Westaway’s father William had regularly needed assistance from the South Tawton parish poor union (as had his grandfather Benjamin Snr), and James’ parents had apprenticed out most of James’ siblings once they had turned 8 years of age, each for a period of thirteen years, to farmers and yeomen around South Tawton:– in 1802 Mary aged 9 & George aged 7; 1805-Elizabeth aged 8, 1807 -William aged 8; 1810- Francis aged 8 (Francis in turn needed South Tawton poor union assistance once he was an adult). William in adult life would become a “higgler” [1841 Census] travelling around selling wares, and after his death his widow and family would migrate in 1858 to Newcastle, NSW. The eldest brother John had been saved until he was 15 years - probably he had been able to work directly helping his father - until he too had to go and was apprenticed in 1807 to a Drewsteignton farmer. Dennis, the second youngest, may have been apprenticed also since he was 22 before he went to Guernsey taking with him James, the youngest child then aged 17 and therefore not apprenticed out. WESTAWAY CONVICT RELATIVES: There is no direct connection from Mary’s husband James to the other Tasmanian Westaway convict, William Westaway, who arrived in Dec 1829 on “York” However, coincidentally, the two other Westaway convicts to Australia were close relatives of Mary’s husband, James Westaway: (1) John Searle Westaway, the first convict to NSW arr in 1832, was James’ first cousin. William Searle Westaway’s father (Benjamin Jnr) and James’ father (William) were brothers, growing up in a poor household in South Tawton with four other siblings and their own parents Benjamin Snr & Mary nee Garland. Their sister, Susannah, was the grandmother of another Westaway convict - Robert. (2) The father of convict Robert Westaway (to WA 1852) who was also called Robert, was born out of wedlock to Susanna Westaway, and so was another first cousin to James and to John Searle Westaway. ___________________________________________