Thomas Wordsworth

Level 345

Maureen Withey on 31st January 2026

https://www.oldscottish.com/convict-records-17.html Old Scottish Genealogy and Family History, Database of  Scottish Court records relating to Australian convicts.  Thomas WORDSWORTH alias Hutcheson, Unemployed Muirdykes, Queen's Place, Greenside, Edinburgh . Tried Edinburgh, 5 Dec 1831, Transportation - 14 years; Per Moffatt, 4 Jan 1834. Van Diemen’s Land. ---------------------------------------------------------- National Archives. Criminal Petitions. HO 17/14/36 1833 Feb 2 individual petitions (the prisoner and George Rogers) on behalf of Thomas Wordsworth convicted at Edinburgh High Court for theft. George Rogers wrote to the Home Secretary stating that prisoner has learned the tailor's trade and could earn his living that way. There are certificates from John Anderson, ex-employer and from John Cockburn, ex-employer and grocer. Grounds for clemency: destitute, both parents died when he was an infant, older companion induced him to steal, and hopes he may be placed at Millbank Penitentiary. Initial sentence: 14 years transportation. Annotated: 'Nil'. AY 10. [Scot].

Level 345

Maureen Withey on 14th July 2021

John Steele, Thomas Wordsworth, Hugh Leslie, and James Hutchison, pleaded guilty to six acts of housebreaking and theft, Wordsworth to seven acts, Leslie to two acts, and Hutchison to one act of theft, all committed within two months. Steele and Wordsworth were sentenced to 14 years, and Leslie and Hutchison to 7 years transportation. This appeared to be a regular gang of housebreakers; the eldest, however, was only 14 years of age. After sentence was pronounced, Lord Medwyn said he wished said he wished to address a few words of advice to the shopkeepers of Edinburgh. It did appear, if the statements from the declarations of these boys could be relied on, that there was great negligence; for, when they came to a shop not fastened, or where the fastenting was not secure, then they were tempted to commit crimes. It was certainly the duty of shopkeepers, not merely for the protection of their own property, but for the security of the public, to see their premises properly secured, and thereby prevent temptation to crime. Aberdeen Press, 14 Dec 1831. -------------------------------------------------- Hulk Records. HO-9-2_4 page 21/40. Euryalus. Twelve received from Edinburgh, 1st Feb 1832. James Hutchison, age 12, Offence: Theft, tried at Edinburgh, 5 Dec 1831, 7 years, Free Pardon 20 May 1833. Hugh Leslie, age 14, Offence: Theft, tried at Edinburgh, 5 Dec 1831, 7 years, NSW, Asia, 30 Jan 1833. John Steel, age 13, Offence: Theft, tried at Edinburgh, 5 Dec 1831, 14 years, NSW, Clyde, 21 Apr 1832 Thomas Wordsworth, age 11, Offence: Theft, tried at Edinburgh, 5 Dec 1831, 14 years, VDL, Moffatt, 25 Nov 1833. -------------------------------------------------- The prison hulk, the Euryalus, an ex-frigate of the Trafalgar fleet, was moored at Chatham. Over the twenty years that this hulk serviced juveniles, about 2,500 boys of fourteen and under passed through. There were also considerable numbers of older boys both in the juvenile hulk and distributed among the other hulks. From the Euryalus, boys were transported both to New South Wales and to Van Diemen’s Land.