Transportation to Australia
Child Okeford in the newspapers. A series of stories about a previous generation of villagers as related in the newspapers of the time.
Image ; Prison Hulk Discovery at Deptford Wikipedia
1810 December – Whereas the Game on the Manor belonging to W Trenchard Esq of Child Okeford, has been shamefully destroyed, – It is hereby most earnestly requested that all qualified Gentlemen will in future refrain from sporting thereon; and all unqualified persons who shall be found trespassing will be prosecuted as the law directs.”
In 1722 two gangs of poachers, disguising themselves by darkening their faces, wrought havoc on the game of many estates. Parliament introduced a series of laws known collectively as the ‘Black Act’s’. Punishments were harsh and the Acts introduced the death penalty for over 350 crimes against property, many of which had little to do with poaching. In Dorset at least, such a severe penalty was rarely enforced and the usual punishment was a heavy fine, if it could be afforded, or imprisonment with ‘hard labour’ for various lengths of time. Sometimes a worse fate awaited criminals.
Child Okeford was not a particularly criminous village but offenders from the village appear regularly in the records of Dorchester Gaol. The gaol was the proud owner of two tread wheels [his and hers] which, together with rock breaking, were the favoured form of hard labour. These resembled a hamster’s wheel but served no useful purpose as they weren’t connected to anything and afforded the men and women committed to them considerably less pleasure than that which the hamster gets.
The Game laws were rigorously enforced; in 1801 William Thornhill [21 yr’s] of Child Okeford, a shoe maker, was sentenced to three months for poaching. He did better than James Harvey of Child Okeford and Jonathan Wareham of Shroton who in 1802 were both sentenced to death for stealing a sheep. Wareham, aged 39, was young enough to be pardoned so long as he served in the Royal Navy and he was put aboard the appropriately named ‘Pheasant’, a ‘Sloop of War’ in Weymouth bay. Harvey was too old for the navy but his sentence was also commuted to transportation for life to Australia. Until a suitable ship became available he was sent to HMS Captivity, a prison hulk, in Portsmouth Harbour. The first person with the dubious honour of being the first man from the village to be sentenced to transportation was Thomas Trowbridge in 1801. His sentence for stealing a sack of wheat was seven years transportation. Neither he, or Harvey, ever got to Australia though, as both men died aboard the prison hulk.
It was not necessary to be in possession of any game to fall foul of the Black Act’s. In 1833 George Minchinton [19 yr’s] served two months hard labour for trespass and in 1837 George Ball, a 23 yr old labourer, had to abandon his two young children when he served three months hard labour for stealing ducks -a popular crime according to the prison records. On occasions crime could be a family affair. In 1842 Josiah, Henry and William White were sentenced to hard labour for poaching. Josiah, a shepherd with three children, was lucky as his wife Lucy was able to raise £5 and pay the fine which led to his release. This itself was a considerable hardship as it represented about a third of the annual wage of an agricultural labourer.
Were such severe punishments effective? Not always. In 1833, Jerome Savory, a member of a very large village family, was whipped and then imprisoned for three months hard labour for ‘larceny’. He did not learn though as two years later he burgled a house in Child Okeford and was sentenced to fourteen years transportation. In 1836, after surviving a spell on the prison hulk, he was taken on board the sailing ship ‘Bardaster’ and after any months at sea was landed on Van Diemen’s land. He appears to be the first person to be ‘successfully’ transported from the village although his subsequent fate in Australia is not known.
Author’s Note
The original newspaper article has been digitised by British Newspaper Archive in association with the British Library. The transcription is the author’s own work from images downloaded as a part of a paid subscription to the BNA.