THOMAS PALMER One of 308 Convicts on “David Clarke” 1841 Sentenced to 15 years at Central Criminal Court Transported to Van Diemen’s Land

NAME: THOMAS PALMER AGE: 24 BORN: About, 1817, Helston-Cornwall

DEATH: Possible only – unconfirmed: Thomas Palmer, aged 55, born about 1820, buried 18 March 1875 at Cornelian Bay in a Pauper’s Grave, Section A, Number 145. Ancestry shows he died 14 March 1875 (No 2598/1875)

TRIED: 1 March 1841, Old Bailey SENTENCE: 15 years CRIME: Stealing jewellery

TRIED WITH: James Warren (No 3324, b.Devon, onboard “Lord Goderich” to VDL in November 1841)

GAOL REPORT: Not known HULK REPORT: Good

SHIP: David Clarke – departed Plymouth 7 June 1841, and arrived Hobart 4 October 1841, a voyage of 119 days, carrying 308 male convicts (307 landed). Master William B. Mills, Surgeon Edward Jeffery SURGEON’S REPORT ONBOARD: Employed as Overseer; Orderly – Strongly recommended

SURGEON’S REPORT: Folios 27-29: Surgeon's general remarks. The David Clark left Portsmouth on 13 May 1841 with 158 convicts, embarking an further 150 from Plymouth making a total of 308 male prisoners. All appeared generally in a tolerable state of health and arrived at Hobart on 4 October 1841 making a passage of four months having left Plymouth at the beginning of June. A school was established on board and at the period of embarkation, 47 of the prisoners could neither read nor write, once at the termination of the voyage, 18 could read and write a little, 15 could read very well and 12 tolerably well.

RELIGION: Protestant LITERACY: Can read and write

FAMILY * – Marital status: Single Father: Thomas Mother: Catherine Sister: Three – names not given

* Possible Family Tree online (unconfirmed this is the correct family) – Father: Thomas Palmer Mother: Catharine Martin (15 June 1795) Married: 23 October 1817 at Stithians-Cornwall. They had two children who were baptised at Helston – 1818 - Thomas Palmer 1820 - Mary Hawker Palmer http://home.vicnet.net.au/~martinfh/membint/ancestor/i3506.htm

DESCRIPTION – http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON18-1-29,259,109,L,80 Convict No: 3051 Trade: Clerk Height: 5’ 7 ¾“ Age: 24 Complexion: Fair Head: Oval Hair: Brown Whiskers: Black Visage: Long Forehead: Medium height Eyebrows: Dark brown Eyes: Light blue Nose: Long Mouth: Medium Chin: Long Native Place: Helbone-Cornwall (Helston) Remarks: None

TASMANIAN CONDUCT RECORD – http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON33-1-13,321,207,L,80

Police No: No 3051

Crime: Transported for Larceny in a dwelling house – Stated this offence “Stealing jewellery – I was concerned with the Admiral’s son at Devonport Docks and who got three years”

Probation: Period of Probation: Two years Station of Gang: Brown’s River (now known as Kingston) Class: 2nd Class Reports: March 1842 to May 1843 – Quiet and good Probation Expired: 4 October 1843

Assignment: 16 Dec 1843 – Javelin Man *, New Norfolk 26 Apr 1847 – T. Price, New Norfolk – 12 months (* Either a police constable, or holding the position of a bailiff or similar; in the 1820’s in Van Diemen’s Land it referred to men recruited from the “better behaved” class of convicts to transport prisoners between court and prison, and from prison to the gallows, and had other duties in the prison as well, and were paid about £10 per annum. Later on the term was also used for constables – http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/AUS-Tasmania/2005-04/1113978427

Offences and Sentences: 7 March 1843 – Probation – Prisoners Barracks – Being drunk – Ten days solitary confinement 4 Oct 1843 – Original term of Probation expired 21 Oct 1848 – New Norfolk - Breach of the Police Act – Fined 5/- and costs

Ticket of Leave: 21 December 1847

Conditional Pardon: 17 October 1848 – Recommended for a Conditional Pardon 27 November 1849 – Conditional Pardon approved Published in the Launceston Examiner, 21 October 1848 – http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36255864

INDENT – http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON14-1-9,131,103,L,80 http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON14-1-9,131,104,L,80 No 3051 – Thomas Palmer, Helstone, Height 5’7¾ “, Age 24, Occupation Clerk, Single, Protestant, Can read and write, Tried at CCC, 1 March 1841, Offence tealing jewellery – “I was concerned with the Admiral’s son of Devonport Dockyard who got 3 years”, Sentence 15 years, Surgeon’s report: acted as Overseer onboard, strongly recommended – Family (father) Thomas (mother) Catherine, three sisters

APPROPRIATION LIST – http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON27-1-9,198,88,L,80 No 3051 – Thomas Palmer, Clerk, Stealing jewellery, CCC, 15 years, Helston, Probation Two years, sent to Brown’s River (now known as Kingston)

CONVICTS PERMISSION TO MARRY INDEX – 15 November 1845 – Application Sent to the Secretary for No 3051 Thomas Palmer of “David Clarke”, and Emma Mills, free – December 1845 Approved December 1845 Reference – CON52/1/2, p159

TASMANIAN COLONIAL FAMILIES INDEX – 1846 – Thomas Palmer (b.1818) married Emma Mills (b.1823) in Hobart in 1846 Children – 1846 – Thomas George, b.Hobart; died 1846 Hobart 1850 – Female, b.New Norfolk 1854 – Thomas *, b.Hobart – possible marriage 12 October 1878 to Matilda Moore (newspaper item); they had a son, Frederick Thomas Palmer, born 21 December 1884, died 31 December 1945 1854 – Male, b.Hobart 1856 – Robert, b.Hobart; died 1858, Hobart

* http://www.turnbullclan.com/tca_genealogy/tca_all2-o/p224.htm#i54922

SPOUSE – Name: Emma MILES Born: 1823, Hobart-Tas. Father: William Miles, born 1797 Mother: Hannah Chaffey, born 15 March 1803 at Siblings: Elizabeth Miles, b.1822, Hobart; married John McCoy in Hobart in 1840 Edward Miles, b.1830, Green Ponds (now Kempton) Hannah Chaffey was the daughter of Second Fleeters, Thomas Chaffey, a Norfolk Island convict, born 1763 and died 10 May 1849 Hobart aged 86 years; and of Maria Israel, also a Norfolk Island convict, born 1767 and died 19 October 1849 Hobart – they had 9 known children between 1790 and 1808

The convict Maria ISRAEL was onboard the ’s “”, aged 17 at time of trial, and married Thomas CHAFFEY, NI-NRF, died 1849 VDL

Thomas CHAFFEY arrived in NSW aboard “Scarborough” as part of the Second Fleet, and arrived in VDL on the “Porpoise” 1808

Convict Stockade – Thomas Chaffey, Highway Robbery, Old Bailey, 10 December 1788, Death commuted to Life Maria Israel, Stealing 2 pieces of muslin from a shop, Old Bailey, 22 April 1789, 7 years Born 1771, died 19 October 1849 at Hobart, buried 25 October 1849 at St David’s, Hobart; Married Thomas Chaffey in November 1791 at Norfolk Island; 1 August 1790 sent to Norfolk Island from Port Jackson; December 1807 transferred to VDL on “Porpoise” with Thomas and their children; they received a 62-acre land grant at Queenborough at a spot later known as Chaffey’s Point – the Wrest Point Casino is now on the site

BIOGRAPHIES FOR THOMAS CHAFFEY AND MARIA ISRAEL –

THOMAS CHAFFEY – NORFOLK ISLAND CONVICT - Arrived in on the 28 June 1790 aboard the Scarborough as part of the Second Fleet to Australia. In 1808 he arrived in Tasmania from Norfolk Island aborad HMS Porpoise*

The first house was built at Wrest Point in 1808 by Thomas Chaffey, who had arrived in the infant colony of Van Diemens Land with a group of settlers from Norfolk Island in 1808. The site became known as Chaffeys Point. Chaffey's son William was the first to associate what was later to become Wrest Point Casino with the hospitality for which it is now famous, building an inn on the site in 1839.

Just a few years later, in 1842, it became the venue for the Hobart Regatta. In 1845 William Chaffey sold five acres (two hectares) of land, where Wrest Point stands, to a prominent merchant David Dunkley, who built a substantial house.

IMPOSING THE ROYAL PARDON: Execution, Transportation, and Convict Resistance in London, 1789 - (by Simon Devereaux) THEIR OWN EXECUTIONERS – Shortly after two o'clock on the afternoon of Saturday, 19 September 1789, the last act of the sessions at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey began. London's accused capital offenders were tried here eight times yearly. Those who were convicted and received sentence of death or transportation remained in nearby Newgate Prison until their sentences could be carried into execution. So, too, did the capital respites: those convicts who were to be spared execution but who would not actually be pardoned until the Recorder of London, the chief sentencing officer at the Old Bailey, had decided what condition should be imposed. The vast majority of pardoned capital respites were transported to New South Wales. Before that condition of pardon could be put into effect, however, the respites had first to be brought back into the court at the end of another sessions in order to be formally notified, and to signal their acceptance, of the condition of their pardon—that is, to "plead their pardon" at the bar of the court. Although it is unclear from the sources whether or not the respites were still obliged, as they had been down to the 1690s at least, to present the most overt symbol of deference—kneeling while pleading their pardon—the symbolic significance of this procedure seems still to have been thought important, even if it had become largely a formality.1 1 The events of this particular day, however, when the first fourteen of no less than ninety-five capital respites were brought in to learn of their final disposition, would prove to be remarkably different.2 The first convict brought to the bar, John Boxley, had been convicted of robbery in October 1786 and now accepted a long- delayed pardon on condition of transportation for life. The trouble began with William Davis and William Rayner, who had been jointly convicted of a similar offense during the same sessions as Boxley.3 Rayner accepted the same conditional pardon as had Boxley, but his former associate did not. "Death is more welcome to me than this pardon," proclaimed Davis. The Recorder warned him to "accept the terms of the king's pardon" or else be issued an immediate warrant for his execution and thereby "throw away that life which you now have an opportunity of saving." But Davis would not be moved, and he was sent to the condemned cells in Newgate. The next two convicts, James Watts and Francis Hardy, convicted of robbery in December 1786, professed the injustice of their original convictions. Their complaints were heard at some length, but both finally accepted sentences of transportation for life, though not before affording the Recorder an opportunity of warning the other respites present that "no man who refuses the king's pardon, and treats it with contempt, can expect after that, to receive any favour from the crown...." Seven of the nine remaining men who followed, however, proved equally obstinate. John Robinson, convicted a year-and-a-half earlier of stealing a horse, insisted that he would rather "go to my former sentence" and joined William Davis in the condemned cell. So too did George Hyser, convicted of robbery in May 1787, and Edward Crowther, convicted of burglary in December of that same year.4 By this time the Recorder was determined to "spare myself the pains of repeating to every prisoner" his promise of immediately signing death warrants for the recalcitrant. But four more prisoners—Thomas Messenger, Thomas Newby, James Dawson and Thomas Chaffey—still claimed to prefer death to transportation and were sent to the condemned cells before order was restored to the proceedings.5 2 Later that evening, five of them changed their minds and accepted transportation for life after all. Only Davis, Crowther, and Chaffey—the latter convicted of a robbery in December 1788—remained determined to die rather than be transported. Four days later, they too at last gave in.6 Thus ended quietly what had begun as a remarkable display of defiance to the professed "mercy" of English criminal law. For several days, however, that display had caused serious difficulties in the uppermost legal and administrative branches of government, one of the twelve high court judges having expressed doubts as to whether the royal pardon could be denied a prisoner once the intention to award it had been explicitly announced, and thus casting doubt on the legality of any threat of subsequent execution. Fortunately for all the officials concerned, the three obstinate hold-outs changed their minds before this legal reservation—whose awkward implications will be made fully apparent in the course of what follows—could be put to the test. Only a few historians have mentioned the resistance of these men, as well as that, five months earlier, of seven female respites at the Old Bailey. But neither the administrative pressures underlying them nor their larger significance for penal practice and ideology in late eighteenth-century London have been fully examined.7

MARIA ISRAEL – Arrived in Sydney Australia on 4 June 1790. She was tried in the Old Bailey in April 1789 and found guilty of stealing 2 pieces of muslin. She was transported on the Lady Juliana which left Portsmouth 29 July 1789, arriving in Sydney 4 June 1790 after spending 2 months in the port of Rio de Janeiro.

The Second Fleet Transports – Lady Juliana The Lady Juliana was the first convict transport to leave England after the departure of the . A ship with a burthen of 401 tons she was chartered by William Richards Jr. She left Plymouth on 29 July 1789 with a complement of 245 female convicts (from “The Convict Ships” by Charles Bateson). This figure however appears inaccurate as there were a number of convicts embarked after the ship left Plymouth who were not included on the ship’s indent. One such example was Jane Reed.

Following a voyage that took it via Teneriffe, St Jago & Rio de Janeiro she finally made landfall at Port Jackson on 3 June 1790, a voyage of over 10 months. Five of the convicts died while the Lady Juliana was at sea. Through my research I have so far identified 255 female convicts associated with this voyage of the Lady Juliana

DEPARTURES INDEX:

NEWSPAPER REPORTS –

THE MORNING POST (London), Friday, 19 February 1841 – POLICE INTELLIGENCE – MARYLEBONE – Yesterday, shortly before the close of the Court, two dashingly dressed young men, who gave their names as James Warren and Thomas Palmer, were brought up in custody and placed at the bar before the sitting magistrate, Mr Rawlinson, charged with having stolen some billiard balls from rooms in which they had been playing. The circumstances of suspicion having been detailed, Phelps, 132D, stated that he took the prisoners into custody at The Feathers, in Brook-street, and that Warren, who denied his guilt, said that he should be able to bring forward the person who had stolen the balls. The other prisoner (Palmer) said nothing. They were then taken to the station-house. Inspector Black, of the D Division, stated, on putting his hand into the breast coat pocket of Warren to discover what he had there, he attempted to tear up something, but, finding he could not do so, he gave him (witness) a card. It was a printed one, and ran thus:- “Mr Conie, Estate and House Agent. Permit the bearer and company to view the house No. 3, Hyde-Park-gardens.” There was a number of other cards found upon him, amongst which was one signed “E. Bailey, House Agent, Mount-street, Grosvenor-square”, and purported to be for the admission of Sir Robert Otway, Bart., to view the house 7, Hyde-Park-place. There was also found upon him three valuable gold pins and other property, together with gold rings and duplicates for articles of much value. On Palmer was an elegant shirt pin and a ring. Jane Boyce, servant to Mr Joshua J. Brandon, 5, Harley-street, stated that on last Wednesday week the prisoners came to look at the house, bringing with them a card from the proper agent. After examining the lower apartments they went into Mrs Brandon’s bedroom, when the prisoner Palmer expressed his approbation of all he had seen, and had no wish to go to the next floor. Warren, however, accompanied the witness up stairs, and shortly afterwards they both made their egress. Some pins and other articles of jewellery were stolen by one or other of the prisoners from her mistress’s bedroom. The prisoners, in reply to the charges against them, declared their innocence. Inspector Black said that within the last five or six weeks the police had received information of numerous robberies of jewellery and other property at the residences of the nobility and gentry at the west end, and that the appearance of the prisoners corresponded exactly with the description given of the thieves. He therefore begged that they might be remanded; at the same time giving his opinion that there was not the slightest doubt with regard to his being able to bring forward such evidence as would substantiate at least five or six charges of robbery against them. They were remanded till Tuesday next. A large number of swell mobsmen had congregated in and about the Court, and it is imagined that the prisoners have, by their well concocted plans, amassed within the last few months a considerable sum.

THE MORNING POST (London), Friday, 26 February 1841 – POLICE INTELLIGENCE – MARYLEBONE – Yesterday, James Warren and Thomas Palmer, the two dashingly-dressed young men who have undergone previous examinations at this Court upon the charge of having plundered various houses of jewellery &c, to a considerable amount, were again placed at the bar before the sitting magistrate, Mr Rawlinson. (Long report followed)

THE MORNING POST (London), Saturday, 6 March 1841 – CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, MARCH 5 – (Before Mr Sergeant Arabin and Sir Chapman Marshall) – James Warren and Thomas Palmer, two respectably- attired young men, the former described in the calendar as a surgeon, and the latter a clerk, were placed at the bar, and indicted for feloniously stealing three billiard balls the property of James Ariel. There were other indictments against the prisoners, charging them with stealing two rings, two brooches, and other property of great value, belonging to Mr John Broadhurst, in his dwelling-house, &c. The prisoners pleaded guilty to the different indictments. The particulars of these cases have been fully detailed in this journal under the Marylebone police. The Learned Judge sentenced the prisoners to fifteen years transportation. Their offences, he said, were of a most aggravated description.

THE MERCURY (Hobart, Tas), TUESDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 1883 – MARRIAGES – PALMER-MOORE – On October 12, 1878, by the late Rev Mr Dear, Thomas Palmer, only son of Emma Palmer, of Hobart, to Matilda Moore, second daughter of the late John Moore of Hobart. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9011889 Note: There is no mention of his father, Thomas Palmer, in the article, which would tally with the possible death of Thomas in Hobart in 1875

REFERENCES –

Central Criminal Court – Old Bailey – JAMES WARREN, THOMAS PALMER, Theft > simple larceny, Theft > theft from a specified place, Theft > theft from a specified place, Theft > theft from a specified place, Theft > simple larceny, Theft > theft from a specified place, 1st March 1841 Reference Number: t18410301-868 868. JAMES WARREN and THOMAS PALMER were indicted for stealing, on the 22nd of January, 3 billiard-balls, value 7s. 6d., the goods of James Ariell.— Also, on the 1st of February, I painting and frame, value 30l., the goods of George Alexander Reid, Esq., in his dwelling-house,— Also, on the 8th of February, I watch, value 20l.; 2 seals, value 30s.; and I watch-key, value 5s.; the goods of Charles Herring, in his dwelling- house.— Also, on the 13th of February, 2 rings, value 12l.; and 5 studs, value 30s.; the goods of Sir Thomas Erskine Ferry, Knt., in his dwelling-house.— Also, on the 15th of February, 1 bracelet, value 5l., the goods of John George Shaw Lefevre.— Also, on the 18th of February, 2 rings, value 10l.; 2 brooches, value 20l.; and I chimney ornament, value 5l.; the goods of John Broadhurst, in his dwelling-house: to all of which indictments. WARREN pleaded GUILTY . Aged 23. PALMER pleaded GUILTY . Aged 24. Transported for Fifteen Years. Fourth Jury, before Mr. Common Sergeant.

Last Updated: 13 April 2012

Compiled by Trish Symonds