Summary
Personal Information
Voyage
Transportation
Francis Woodcock was transported on the Friendship, departing 13th May 1787 and arriving 21st Jan 1788 with 107 passengers.
This convict ship, being 274 tons and 75 feet long was one of the light weight ships in the fllet and was skippered by Master Francis Walton. Built in Scarborough in 1784, she carried 76 male and 21 female convicts. During her return voyage to England her crew came down with scurvy and with insufficient crew to man her, she was scuttled in the straights of Macassar. The survivors were transferred to the Alexander.
FriendshipReferences
| Primary Source | http://www.firstlanding.com.au; Derby Mercury - Thursday 18 March 1784 p 4 |
Claims
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Photos
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Convict Notes
ENGLISH CRIME: Derby Mercury - Thursday 18 March 1784 p 4 "DERBY March 25 "At Shrewsbury Assizes which ended on Wednesday the 17th [March] near fifty Prisoners were tried, thirteen of whom were capitally convicted, and received sentence of death, viz - … and Francis Woodcock & Samuel Grainger, for stealing a wether sheep. the property of the Rev John Chapel Woodhouse". The Rev John Chapel Woodhouse was then the minister at Donington, County of Salop. by 1801 Donington parish only had a population of 290 people. Woodcock's sentence of death was reprieved, on the basis that he agree to be transported for 14 years. Samuel Grainger, Woodcock's co-accused, was one of 144 appearing on orders in council authorising their transportation to NSW on the First Fleet, but who were not embarked, for reasons such as illness, lack of space, last minute petitions & pardons. When Woodcock died in NSW, information as to it happening was eventually published in the press in England, in the following way: Derby Mercury - Thursday 10 May 1792 page 4: "DERBY, May 9th "Letter has been received from Botany Bay, by the keeper of SALOP Gaol, informing him that the following convicts sent from that gaol, are no more, viz: Margaret Fownes, William Fans [i.e. Evans] Francis Woodcock, Joseph Owen, who have died natural deaths; Richard Carter killed by the natives, and E. Wildblood and John Bennet, hanged for stealing."
Francis Woodcock was tried at Shrewsbury, Shropshire on 13 March 1784 for stealing livestock (a sheep) with a value of 25 shillings. He was sentenced to transportation for 14 years having been originally sentenced to death, and left England on the Friendship aged about 48 at that time (May 1787). His occupation was listed as labourer. Report from Dunkirk hulk was “tolerably decent and orderly”, he died in 1788.