Elizabeth Wood

72

Sheryl on 24th August 2025

Return of persons to Gaol convicted during the week ending 30 Dec 1871, Hobart. Elizabeth O'Neil, per Duchess of Northumberland, F.S., for larceny, sentenced to 24 hours, native of Scotland, age 36yrs, 5 feet 2 1/2 inches high. Tasmania Police Gazette, 5th Jan 1872, p3. Prisoner discharged from H M Gaol during the week ending 3 Jan 1872 & 30 Dec 1871. Elizabeth O'Neil, per Duchess of Northumberland, F.S., for larceny, sentenced to 24 hours at New Norfolk, native of Scotland, age 36yrs, 5 feet 2 1/2 inches high, dark brown to grey hair. Tasmania Police Gazette, 5th Jan 1872, p4.

9

Kay on 2nd March 2019

Elizabeth was born in South Leith, Scotland, one of four children of Alexander and Elizabeth (new Patterson) Wood. Convicted of stealing clothing on several occasions she had been in jail 4 or more times before her transportation to Tasmania. A nursemaid, she had had some schooling and could read. The 17 year old, dark-haired, blue eyed and freckled Elizabeth arrived in Tasmania about May 1853 along with approximately 216 other female convicts and was assigned to various homes in central Hobart over the next three years. Charged with stealing money from a box in the shop of one of her employers, Mr Brady of Macquarie St, she was sentenced to 18 months hard labour. Almost 3 years after arriving in Tasmania Elizabeth was granted her 'Ticket of Leave' in August 1855. She requested and was granted, permission to marry John Tillotson, also a convict. He was a cabinetmaker from Leeds and had been found guilty of shoplifting and sentenced to '14 Years Transportation'. The marriage didn't last and she went her own way reverting to her maiden name of Wood. She was given her 'Certificate of Hobart' on 27 July 1858. Once again bad habits saw her in court in 1862, this time for 'larceny and unlawful pawning' and a second charge of theft. Her sentence was 18 months imprisonment in the Cascades factory. The following year in November 1863 she appeared in the Police Court in Hobart charged with misconduct at the Cascades factory. She was sentenced to another six months imprisonment. Sometime after her release she met and married? a James Devine and they became parents to Henry, born 12 April 1865. Once again, this relationship didn't last and shortly after she met, and eventually married Alexander O'Neil, 38, a former child convict who had been sent to Tasmania at age 11, after being convicted in Perth, Scotland (his homeland) of stealing clothing. They are my maternal Great, great grandparents. Alexander accepted the child as his own and they changed Henry's surname to O'Neil. They had a further 7 children, Alexander, John, William, Robert, Albert, Catherine and Axton and carried on with their professions as a midwife and a sawyer/labourer. A further few scrapes with the law saw the pair in court at various times, but the charges were nothing of significance. They married in Hobart on 19 April 1883 at the Presbyterian Manse. Alexander died in 1907 and Elizabeth re-married, to Henry Joy, on 23 September 1911. He was 76, a labourer from Surrey, England. Henry died 4 years later on 24 December 1915. Elizabeth passed away in March 1923 from 'senilus'. Her death certificate is in her married name of 'Joy' but she was buried with Alexander in the Cornelian Bay cemetery. There has since been a plaque placed on the grave by family.