Thomas Peters - transported for the term of his natural life
The Morning Post and Gazetteer (London) Monday, August 16, 1802
via http://www.douglashistory.co.uk/history/articles/rogues&vagabonds.htm
Name: Thomas Peters
Date of conviction: 31 July 1802
Date of Sentence: 14 August 1802
Age: 27 Birth: 1775
Occupation: Labourer
Place convicted: York Assizes County convicted: Yorkshire Country Convicted: England
Crime: Grand Larceny - Thomas Peters and William Douglas were charged with “Stealing 10 silver pints and 1 Tankard and 1 doz Silver Spoons the property of John Gamble of Leeds”.
Sentence: Death. On 18 Dec 1802 this death sentence was commuted to “being transported to the Eastern Coast of New South Wales or some one of their Islands adjacent” for the Term of his natural life. (See the image of a portion this document above.)
Prison: York Castle
Prison Hulk: Received aboard the prison hulk ‘Captivity’ at Portsmouth 14 February 1803
Transport Ship: Went aboard the ‘Calcutta’ at Portsmouth 9 April 1803
Date of Departure: Sailed from Spithead 28 April 1803.
Arrival: 9th October, 1803 Sorrento (Port Phillip) New South Wales (transferred to Van Diemens Land 1804).
England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment 1770 - 1935
Detail from the Register for the Prison Hulk Captivity
At the time when Thomas Peters was sentenced, there were at least 160 crimes that would be considered minor crimes today, that could be punished with a sentence of death, or of life imprisonment. …“because so many people were given long prison sentences as punishment for their crimes, the gaols were full to overflowing. …Old ships were already being used to store coal and gunpowder, and it was proposed that some be made into prisons. These old ships were called ‘hulks’. Their masts were cut off and they were anchored along the banks of the river Thames and in some harbours. If the gaols were bad, the hulks were worse. They were even more crowed, badly ventilated, damp and cold. The prisoners from the hulks along the River Thames carried out public works along the river. ” MacDonald, Wendy. Australia’s Convicts: Criminals or Victims. MacMillan Education, Australia (1999) p. 24 The use of the hulks was to have been a temporary measure, but it lasted for 80 years!
The hulks became as overcrowded as the British gaols, and transportation became “an integral part of the English and Irish systems of punishment. It was a way to deal with increased poverty and the severity of the sentences for larceny. Simple larceny, or robbery, could mean transportation for seven years. Compound larceny – stealing goods worth more than a shilling (about $50 in today's money) – meant death by hanging.” http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/convicts-and-the-british-colonies
After the American war of Independence the British could no longer send prisoners to the penal settlements they had established in North America. They decide to set up another penal colony, this time in Botany Bay, Australia. …“For many years, Europeans had set up colonies in other countries, taking them over from the native people who already lived there. …Australia was the last country to be colonised by Europeans. It was also the only one that began as a penal settlement.” MacDonald, Wendy. op. cit., p. 43
Before being sent aboard the hulk “Captivity” Thomas Peters would have been held in the Debtors prison at York Castle. As well as debtors it housed some of Yorkshire’s most notorious criminals: “The county prison at York housed three groups of prisoners: those committed for trial at the Assize, convicted criminals serving sentence, and debtors incarcerated at the behest of their creditors (Pugh 1961, 521-31; Fawcett 2005). In the early 1800s, the prison buildings at York Castle comprised two buildings known as the Debtors’ Prison (erected 1701-1705) and the Female Prison (erected 1780 and enlarged 1803). The third building within the precinct was The Assize Courts (erected 1773- 1777). The prison was located to the south-east of Clifford’s Tower and was surrounded by a curtain wall.” http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Crime-and-Punishment-in-York.pdf
View near Woolwich in Kent shewing [sic] the employment of the convicts from the hulks.
The convict ship ‘Discovery’ served as a convict hulk at Deptford.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
“These buildings all survive today. The two prison buildings are now York Castle Museum, while people are still tried in the Assize Court building. Before they go in front of the court, prisoners are locked up in the original 1773 cells!” http://richardiiiexperience.com/discover-medieval-york/about-the-city-walls/the-norman-walls/
Image of York Castle via Pixabay
View near Woolwich in Kent shewing [sic] the employment of the convicts from the hulks, c. 1800 / printed for Bowles & Carver, via State Library of New South Wales.
OTHER SOURCES:
Correspondence And Warrants (Series HO13; Piece 15; pp 117-118) - England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935 (Findmypast)
Musters And Other Papers Relating To Convict Ships 1790-1849 (Nrs 1155) - State Records Authority of New South Wales (Findmypast)
Home Office: Convict Prison Hulks: Registers and Letter Books; Class: HO9; Piece: 8 - UK, Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, 1802-1849 (Ancestry.com)
Australia, Convict Index, 1788-1868 (Ancestry.com)
Research - Part B
29. RESEARCH Part B - A story of Thomas and Ann Peters.
30. RESEARCH Part B - Thomas Peters is transported for the term of his natural life
31. RESEARCH Part B - Mary Ann Peters accompanied her convict husband
32. RESEARCH Part B - 1803 Thomas, Mary Ann, & Elizabeth (2yrs) came to Port Phillip aboard the Calcutta
33. RESEARCH Part B - 1804 Peters family transferred to Van Diemen’s Land & Martha is born
34. RESEARCH Part B - 1805 Hobart Town: Mary Peters receives a Land Grant on New Town Rivulet
35. RESEARCH Part B - 1806 & 1807 The Peters have a farm with 4 cattle 2 sheep & a goat.
36. RESEARCH Part B - 1808 - 1812 Hobart Town: Martha dies, Thomas is pardoned, & 3 babies are born.
37. RESEARCH Part B - 1814 Hobart Town: Property deals, Horse races & a baby.
38. RESEARCH Part B - 1815 - 1816 Hobart Town: A juror, a boat race, supplying wheat & meat + 8th child
39. RESEARCH Part B - 1817 Hobart Town & York Plains: Thomas Peters receives a Land Grant
40. RESEARCH Part B - 1817 Hobart Town & Bagdad: the Duke of York & Baker’s farm
41. RESEARCH Part B - 1817 Hobart Town,York Plains, Bagdad & Tarrets’s farm
42. RESEARCH Part B - 1817 Hobart Town & Bagdad: Education, an executor, & stock moved from Herdsman’s Cove.
43. RESEARCH Part B - 1818 Hobart: A heavy cart and a ferry accident
44. RESEARCH Part B - 1818 Hobart: A court case, a house for sale. & Elizabeth marries George Armytage
45. RESEARCH Part B - 1818 Hobart: Stock on Birch’s land + Kickerterpoller & the Friendly Missions
46. RESEARCH Part B - 1819 Hobart: Rents to Supreme court & Mary Ann Peters (nee Hews) dies aged 39
47. RESEARCH Part B - 1819 - 1821 Hobart: Found guilty of ‘contumacious conduct in court’.
48. RESEARCH Part B - 1824 - 1829 Bagdad: Louisa marries John Hayes & Charlotte marries Francis Flexmore
49. RESEARCH Part B - 1830 Tasmania: The Black Line.
50. RESEARCH Part B - Nov 1930 Many Aborigines slip through the Black Line and the Peters house is raided.
51. RESEARCH Part B - 1830 Bagdad: As the Black Line advances settlers houses are attacked
52. RESEARCH Part B - 1830 Bagdad: Sophia Peters (16) and Ann Peters (14) are speared & Ann dies of her wounds.
53. RESEARCH Part B - 1830 - Following the Tasmania Wars the surviving traditional owners are rounded up
54. RESEARCH Part B - 1831 - 1839 Bagdad: Mary Ann Peters & Sophia Matilda Peters both got married,
55. RESEARCH Part B - 1839 Bagdad Thomas Peters dies
56. RESEARCH Part B - The 8 Children and 48 Grandchildren of Thomas & Mary Ann Peters
57. RESEARCH Part B - A Story of Thomas Peters and ‘the Brady Gang’
58. RESEARCH Part B - Where to next? Choices, choices, choices.