CHARLES KELLY One of 224 Convicts Transported on “Sultana” 1859 Sentenced to 4 years at Quarter Sessions Transported to Western Australia

NAME: CHARLES KELLY AGE: 24 / 28 – born about 1831

TRIED: 2 July 1857, Bodmin Quarter Sessions SENTENCE: 4 Years Penal Servitude CRIME: Slaughtering a ewe, property of Edmund Bryant; previous conviction

GAOL REPORT: SHIP: Sultana – departed Plymouth 29 May 1859, arrived Fremantle 19 August 1859, a voyage of 82 days, carrying 224 male convicts (224 landed). Master Arthur Sharp, Surgeon Henry Richardson

RELIGION: Protestant LITERACY: Semi-literate

FAMILY – Marital status: Married, no children

DESCRIPTION – Trade: Farm labourer Height: 5’ 4 ½“ Age: 28 Complexion: Brown Hair: Dark brown Visage: Long Eyes: Grey Native Place: Build: Middling-stout Identifying marks: (tattoos) dots on left arm; has left sight of left eye; mark on left little finger

WESTERN AUSTRALIA – FREMANTLE PRISON RECORDS –

Crime: Killing a sheep and attempting to steal it

Previous Convictions: 1846 - Stealing a barn-door fowl

Probation:

Assignment:

Ticket of Leave: 15 February 1860

Conditional Pardon: 9 April 1861

DEPARTURES INDEX:

NEWSPAPER REPORTS –

ROYAL GAZETTE, 10 JULY 1857 – CORNWALL MIDSUMMER SESSIONS – THURSDAY, JULY 2 – Charles Kelly, 24, and William Rescorl, 60, labourers, were indicted for having, on the 23rd of May, wilfully and feloniously slaughtered a ewe, the property of Edmund Bryant, at Lanreath, with intent to steal and carry away the carcase of the said ewe. Mr Childs conducted the prosecution; Rescorl was defended by Mr Shilson; Kelly by Mr Bishop. Edmund Bryant deposed: I am a farmer living at Court Barton in Lanreath; I keep a flock of sheep on my farm; on Saturday, the 23rd of May I counted them; they were 66 in number – ewe hogs and wethers mixed; the next day, in consequence of something told me, I counted my flock again, and there were only 65; on the following day I gave information to the inspector of the constabulary force, and went with him to the house of the prisoner Kelly, and then to an orchard in his occupation, and there found some staens containing mutton – shoulders and ribs – cut up in a clumsy manner – not as a butcher would cut it up; the staens and mutton were hidden in grass, docks and thistles, so that they could not be found without search. The following morning, my man brought me a sheep-skin; it was the skin of a ewe-sheep and was my property; I afterward gave it to the Inspector. I was satisfied it was the skin of one of my sheep. I compared it with the fleeces of my other sheep, and found it correspond. The skin appeared to have been recently cut; the skull was left in it, but the ears had been cut off. Kelly lives about two miles from me; Rescorl lives in the same village with me; my farm- yard gate opens into the village. Through my farm there is an occupation-road leading to Bogga Mills, about a mile distant from my house; that road passes through a field called Quarries Meadow. The skin was produced before the committing Magistrates, and compared with mutton found in Kelly’s orchard. Cross Examined: I did say before the magistrates that, in my opinion, the ear had been wrenched off by a clever dog or a pig (laughter). Daniel Bryant: I am brother of the last witness, and assist him in his farming matters; I look after the sheep; about 9 o’clock on Sunday morning, the 24th of May, I found there was one of the sheep missing. On Monday morning, I saw the skin of a sheep, produced by a workman called Fearn; it was bloody about the neck, and had the appearance of having been recently taken from a sheep; the ears were gone – they appeared to have been taken off by a pig or dog, or with a knife. I know it was the skin of one of our ewe hogs, because all our wether hogs had a red paint mark over the spine; and our ewes and wethers had fly powder on their fleeces; which fly-powder we ourselves prepared. George Fearn: A labourer in the service of Mr Bryant. On Sunday the 24th of May, about 3 or 4 o’clock, I went to the Quarries Meadow, and there found a sheep-skin; there was a cloth about its neck, and the cloth was bloody with fresh blood; I did not examine the skin, but left it on the ground till the next morning when I went to work, and I then took it to my master. My master did not, at that time, keep any sheep in the Quarries Meadow. The skin was afterwards produced before the Magistrates, by the Inspector, and I identified it as the one I had seen in the Quarries Meadow; and the same with the cloth. James Brazier, Inspector of the new constabulary police: My station is at Dubwalls. On Monday, the 28th of May, in consequence of information, I went to the house of Kelly, with the prosecutor, Serjeant Sambells, and policeman Michell. In Kelly’s house I found a pasty containing mutton; and in the orchard, adjoining the house, two pans or staens, also containing mutton, and covered with nettles, dock-leaves and thistles. (The witness produced the mutton and staens.) On the same day I saw Kelly, and charged him with having stolen a sheep from Mr Bryant; he said he knew nothing about a sheep; I told him I had found some mutton on his premises, and to that he made no answer; I took him back to his house and pointed out to him where I had found the staens, and asked him if that was his premises; he said yes. I afterwards went to Rescorl’s house, in the village of Lanreath; Serjeant Sambells was with me; we there found, in a cupboard, another staen, containing mutton, and also some mutton in a boiling pot. (Witness produced the various pieces.) The whole of the mutton was very badly cut up – torn rather than cut. I afterwards apprehended Rescorl, and charged him with stealing a sheep; he said he knew nothing about stealing a sheep, but he had bought 10 lbs of mutton of a man at Lanreath. I afterwards compared some of the mutton found at Kelly’s with the skin; the legs found at Kelly’s exactly fitted the trotters in the skin. Cross-examined: The pot in which we found mutton in Rescorl’s was in an ordinary place; there was no concealment. The orchard at Kelly’s was not enclosed by a hedge; it was open to the country, and any person could get into it. What the pastry contained might have been lamb; I did not taste it. Re-examined: The dock leaves and thistles on the staens were fresh. Thomas Sambell, a serjeant in the Constabulary Force, and formerly policeman at , corroborated the last witness; and added that when Kelly had been apprehended and taken to his own house, he (Sambell) unbuttoned his leggings, and found on his trowsers, beneath, two spots of blood, which he said were caused by his having had a tooth drawn. Cross-examined: It is not unusual for men going to work to wear leggings; it was a wet morning; I cannot say that the spots of blood were not human blood. Henry Whetter: I reside in the of Lansallos and am now a farmer; I had been a butcher for 20 years. On the evening of the 25th of May, Kelly was apprehended at my house; he had worked for me for 17 weeks and lived in the house. After his apprehension, he was taken to his own house, and I went there; the inspector produced to me some mutton from a pot – the same that has been produced here today; there were some bones which I compared with trotters left in the sheep-skin, and found them correspond. The mutton had not been cut up by a butcher; the skin too had not the appearance of having been taken off by a butcher, and was cut up very much; part of the head appeared to have been much mauled, and the ears had been torn off – I don’t know with what. In the evening of the same day, at Mr Bryant’s house, some mutton was produced to me by the inspector; it corresponded with what I had seen at Kelly’s, and belonged to the same sheep. It was very thin mutton; I have sometimes seen thin mutton brought to market, but this was very thin – not such, I think, as any butcher would take to market for sale. What the pastry contained was mutton or lamb; there was a kidney in it, which I should say was the kidney of a sheep, though it was rather a small one. Cross-examined: There was no comparison of the mutton found at Rescorl’s with the skin. When I say that the mutton at the different places belonged to the same sheep, I mean that both parts were thin – I did not taste the meat in the pastry; I was very small meat, and I will not swear it was not lamb. While Kelly was working with me, and before this affair of the sheep, he asked me one day for leave to have a tooth taken out. I never had any fault to find with him all the time he was with me. Jane May: I am in the employ of Mr Whetter; about half past 9 o’clock in the evening of Saturday the 23rd of May, I saw Kelly, near Bogga’s Mill, going towards Landreath in the direction of Mr Bryant’s farm; he had something under his arm; I spoke to him; he said he was going to Lanreath; he was not going in the direction of his home. Cross-examined: There was nothing unusual in his being where I saw him; it did not look like a heavy bundle that he had with him; it was a coarse cloth or bag, or something of that sort. There was no one with him. Rescorl’s statement before the committing magistrates was then put in and read; it was as follows – I wish to repeat what I said to the inspector, that I bought the mutton; it was 10 lbs weight; I bought it of a strange man, who was going about selling mutton. Mr Whetter was recalled, by request of Mr Bishop, and stated that Kelly was at his house until after 8 o’clock in the Saturday evening named, as he did some extra work, and had his supper there. Mr Shilson and Mr Bishop addressed the jury, on behalf of their respective clients; and after a careful summing up, the jury found both prisoners GUILTY. A previous conviction was proved against Kelly; at the Midsummer Sessions 1846 he was convicted of stealing a barn-door fowl.

THE ROYAL CORNWALL GAZETTE, 5 JUNE 1857 – LANREATH – We mentioned in last week’s paper that two men, Charles Kelly and William Roscorla, were remanded on a charge of stealing a sheep from Mr Bryant , of Court Farm. On Friday last, they were brought before Capt Peard, by police inspector Brazier, to answer the charge; and the case having been gone into, both prisoners were committed to the Bodmin Gaol to take their trial for the offence. The capture of the prisoners was effected by Inspector Brazier, Serjeant Sambels, and P.C. Mitchell, of the County Constabulary, on the Monday previous, and it is the first case the County police have been engaged in in this district.

THE ROYAL CORNWALL GAZETTE, 29 MAY 1857 – SHEEP-STEALING – On Saturday night last, a sheep was stolen from a field belonging to Mr Bryant, of Court Barton, Lanreath; and on Monday morning the skin was found in an old quarry on the same farm. Information was immediately given to the police; they were soon on the search, and quickly succeeded in apprehending William Rescorla, and Charles Kelly, two labourers, on whose premises a quantity of mutton was found concealed. They were taken before Capt Peard, and remanded until Friday.

THE ROYAL CORNWALL GAZETTE, 10 JULY 1846 – CORNWALL MIDSUMMER SESSIONS – SENTENCES OF PRISONERS – Charles Kelly, 2 months hard labour, and once privately whipped.

THE ROYAL CORNWALL GAZETTE, 3 JULY 1846 – CORNWALL MIDSUMMER SESSIONS – Charles Kelly, 15, was found guilty of stealing a hen, the property of William Wilcock, a farmer at Winnick, in the parish of St. Veep.

NEW BRITON, 10 JULY 1846, MIDSUMMER SESSIONS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 1 – Charles Kelly, 15, was found Guilty of stealing a hen, the property of William Woolcock, a farmer at Winnick, in the parish of . Two months’ hard labour, and to be once privately whipped. The chairman remarked that fowl-stealing had greatly increased in this county, and the court was therefore disposed, at these sessions, to visit that offence with severe punishment.

REFERENCES –

Last Updated: 10 December 2010

Compiled by Trish Symonds