Thomas Wilmore

42

Kate on 8th November 2025

From the New South Wales Government Gazette 28th March 1851 - THE Tickets of Leave of the undermentioned Prisoners of the Crown, have been cancelled for the reasons stated opposite their respective names :- Thomas Wilmore, Randolph, absent from District ; Wellington Bench.

71

Robin Sharkey on 25th February 2021

Thomas Wilmore had murdered two men in western NSW two years after arriving, and was hanged for this at Bathurst Gaol a few months later in April 1852. He was only about 18-19 years of age at his death, having been transported as a convict to NSW in 1849, aged about 16. He’d been sent to Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight between his sentencing at Worcestershire, England and departure for NSW. Parkhurst Prison ran a reform scheme for boys like him. It had been opened in 1838 for young male offenders (ideally 16 years at most, but others were in their late teens). Its purpose was to provide the young men “with a course of moral, religious and industrial training, together with corrective discipline, to prepare them for emigration (both as free emigrants and convicts).” www.Prisonhistory.org/prison/Parkhurst-prison. Thomas Wilmore's early life in England Thomas Wilmore was reportedly 13 years old in when he was sentenced in March, 1847 to transportation for 7 years. He’d stolen a range of property from the home of a Richard Lewis Esq, (per the Berrows Worcester Journal, Thurs 4 March 1847, p.4). Lewis was a gentleman who lived in the village of Sinton Green in the parish of Grimley (R. Lewis details per 1851 England Census). It appears from evidence later in 1852 that Mr Lewis had been his employer. FZROM: Berrows Worcester Journal, Thurs 4 March 1847, p.4) “Worcester Adjourned Sessions “The business of the Sessions commenced on Friday morning [i.e. 26 Feb 1847] “Thomas Wilmore, 13, labourer, pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing, at the parish of Grimley, seven silver tea spoons, one coat, one pair of trowsers, one pair of boots and ninepence, the property of Richard Lewis, Esq. Seven years’ transportation.” 14 Mar 1849 Worcester Chronicle: “Thomas Wilmore was sentenced to seven years' transportation, his lordship intimating that he would recommend him as a fit candidate for Parkhurst." Thomas Wilmore’s life story was published after his execution. (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 April 1852) “He was a native of Worcester, and son of a wheelwright then still living. At an early age he lost his mother, and his father married again. He received a tolerable education but at the age of ten or twelve appears to have been neglected by his parent. He therefore went into service under a butler, and until he attained the age of fourteen served two masters successively. “Being naturally of a sulky disposition he quarrelled with his second master, and the result was, that he was discharged from his situation without warning. “Three nights after his dismissal he secreted himself on his late master's premises previously to the family retiring to rest, and before daylight he made his exit, taking with him some of his late master's spoons. Notice of the robbery was quickly circulated in the city of Worcester, and Willmore was apprehended in the act of offering the plate for sale.” On the convict voyage out, he was sick with erysipelas for a short while. The sick book for the ship Randolph recorded his age as 16, and his being put on the sick list with this disease on 15 August 1849, discharged to duty on 21 August 1849. (UK National archives, ADM 101/63/2/2). Erysipelas is a now-rare disease of the skin, probably from streptococcal bacteria. It is a superficial form of cellulitis, that results in a fiery red rash with raised edges, that is firm, swollen and painful. The Randolph arrived at Port Phillip, Victoria, on 8th August 1849, but, because the Victorian people had been promised that no convict ship would be landed there, the Victorian Governor refused to let them come onshore. The captain was eventually persuaded to go to Sydney and so he arrived in Port Jackson on 20 August. Thoas Wilmore in NSW Applications were lodged with the Superintendent of Convicts for more men from ‘Randolph’ than he could supply. (SMH, 24 August 1849) On arrival in Sydney, Wilmore was given a Ticket of Leave for the Wellington, NSW, district, and sent to a squatter there, Mr Edward Brooking Cornish who had a number of large stations around the Macquarie River - Terramungamine of 25,000 acres; Burway, of 30,000 acres on the Macquarie River; and Emogandy. ((SMH 28 Sept 1848 p.3). However, Wilmore absconded and made for the “Big River” (a local name then for the Castlereagh River) where he got work under the name “Nott”. He was advertised by the Convict Dept in April 1851 as having absconded, and was described as follows: " 5ft 4&1/2 inches, with a complexion that was fair, ruddy and freckled, dark brown nearly black hair and brown eyes." (per ‘Empire’, 21 April 1851, p.4) Now an illegally absconded convict, he constantly quarrelled with one Wheeler, an Irishman on the station where he was working, and in November 1851 he took revenge having heard that Wheeler had complained about him to their master. He fired a pistol at Wheeler who was luckily saved by the trajectory of the bullet passing between two bones and then glancing off a button. From here, Wilmot took to the bush (now effectively a bushranger) and subsequently held up and killed two men at gunpoint. ______________________________________