William Hextall

Level 11

Dianne Baker on 31st July 2017

William HEXTALL married 22 May 1836 to Mary STEVENS in Warwickshire. Daughter Jane Maria HEXTALL bap. 26 September 1836 in Stony Stanton, Leicester.In 1851 Mary was living as the wife of Robert WILDBORE in Stony Stanton with Jane, aged 14.

Level 221

D Wong on 12th June 2017

7/1/1837 The Leicester Chronicle: The County Sessions William Hextall aged 21 COW STEALING William HEXTALL, a well-dressed young man, was charged with haven stolen two cows, the property of Mr James Brooks, from a field at Croft, five or six miles from Hickley, in the night of Monday the 12th of September. The evidence against the prisoner was to this effect: From 7 o’clock until nearly 10, on the night of the robbery, he was at the house of Charles Heath, publican, in Croft, ten or eleven miles distant from his place of residence. At 12 o’clock, John Mason, of Hinckley, watchman, met him in that town, driving two cows…. Mason inquired more than once whence he came and whither he was going, but the prisoner gave him no direct answer. On Tuesday morning, at half-past 8, Elizabeth Moore saw him driving two cows towards William Dowse’s slaughter-house, near Nuneaton. On the same day, in the afternoon, as John (the brother of William) Dowse was passing the slaughter-house, with a horse and cart, he saw the prisoner quarter one cow and shoot another. The prisoner asked him to take the hide of the cow he had shot to the tan-yard of Mr Burton at Nuneaton, and he consented. After taking off the hide, the prisoner accompanied Dowse part of the road and stated he had bought the cows of a Mr Vox at Horseley, near Coventry, on Monday Sept 12. Dowse left the hide at Mr Burton’s; and William Miles, servant to Mr Burton, deposed that the prisoner also brought a hide to the tan-yard. These hides had been seen by the shepherd, Cockerill, and he deposed that they were those of the cows stolen from his master’s field. The horns were produced in Court; and one pair was sworn to both by Mr Brooks and the shepherd, and the latter swore also to the second pair. Mr Brooks further deposed, that the prisoner, after his committal, voluntarily confessed to him that ‘he took the cows he found them in the lane’. Mr Burnsby, after addressing the jury in the prisoner’s behalf, called three or four witnesses, who deposed that he had borne a good character for honesty previous to his apprehension on the present charge. The jury returned a verdict of “Guilty”, accompanied with a recommendation to mercy on the ground of previous good character; but the Chairman said that the recommendation could be of no avail – the penalty was imperatively transportation for life; and this sentence of perpetual banishment was accordingly passed upon the prisoner. William was 5'2" tall, fresh complexion, sandy hair, brown whiskers, light hazel eyes, can read and write, married with 1 child, (Jane Maria Hextall was baptised 26/9/1836 daughter of William, a butcher, & Mary.) Wife Mary at Stony Stratford. 25/11/1845: TOL 31/7/1847: Permission to marry Harriet Doughty (Sea Queen 1846) - 17/8/1847: Married Harriet, aged 22, he was 28 - at the Evandale church, marriage registered at Launceston. Listed as HEXTALE. 1/2/1851: Steerage passenger, Launceston to Melbourne per 'Raven' - Free by Servitude, ship to Colony: Elphinstone. No death found for Harriet but there is another marriage for William Hextall: - 1/1/1870: Married Mary Frost, a widow, aged 30, he was 49 and a shepherd - at Cullenswood, marriage registered at Fingal.