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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: DeeG on Thursday 07 April 11 21:10 BST (UK)

Title: Help please
Post by: DeeG on Thursday 07 April 11 21:10 BST (UK)
 Assumption being the mother of all foul-ups, and assuming I am on the right trail, how can I find information on a "Prison Hulk" what ever one of those is  ???

I`m looking for a Saml Turnock born in 1808,
Received: 15 Nov 1831
Ship: Hardy
Moored: Portsmouth
Convicted: 19 Oct 1831
Place Convicted: Stafford

From what other info I can find, maybe the "prison hulk" was called HMS Hardy 1824-1833 ????
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: gc1 on Thursday 07 April 11 21:13 BST (UK)
Just for referance

Prison hulks ,sometimes called prison ships, were vessels used as a prison, often to hold convicts awaiting transportation to penal colonies. These were popular with the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Title: Re: Help please
Post by: stanmapstone on Thursday 07 April 11 21:26 BST (UK)
See HMS Hardy, 1824–1833 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_prison_hulks

Stan
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: Little Nell on Thursday 07 April 11 21:26 BST (UK)
HMS Hardy was a convict hospital ship in 1831, in Portsmouth harbour.

It looks like your man was not very well  :(

Nell
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: stanmapstone on Thursday 07 April 11 21:31 BST (UK)
There is a entry on Ancestry: UK, Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, 1802-1849 Record for Sam Turnock

Stan
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: stanmapstone on Thursday 07 April 11 21:42 BST (UK)
Prison hulks in Portsmouth harbour http://www.nmm.ac.uk/collections/explore/object.cfm?ID=BHC1924

Stan
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: Greensleeves on Thursday 07 April 11 21:46 BST (UK)
Here is his crime:
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: JJbeech on Friday 08 April 11 07:21 BST (UK)
Here is his crime:

Does that say he "Sold Silk"???? what a strange crime!!!!

(Sorry to butt in!....love flicking through roots....such a wealth of knowledge and interesting stories...much better than the telly! :P)

JJ
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: Greensleeves on Friday 08 April 11 08:02 BST (UK)
I think it might say "stole 50 (or  80) lbs silk" but I am by no means sure; perhaps someone better at deciphering will let us have an opinion.  :)
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: JJbeech on Friday 08 April 11 08:16 BST (UK)
I think it might say "stole 50 (or  80) lbs silk"

LOL of course.....can see 50/80 lbs now!!!!  ::) must have been too early for the eyes!! :P
Stealing 50lbs of silk seems much more of a crime than selling it!!!!

heheh

JJ
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: Billyblue on Friday 08 April 11 14:42 BST (UK)
DeeG
Everyone sent to the prison hulks did not necessarily get transported, though most did.

Sometimes they were on the hulks so long that they completed their sentence there!
Others died while on the hulks (they were very overcrowded, generally)
A few got remissions and freed early.

Whatever, it was quite common for them to be on the hulks for years.

Do you know where he went from the "Hardy"?

Dawn M
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: Dizzifish on Friday 08 April 11 14:58 BST (UK)
Hello..... :)

If you are in the UK and your local library subscribes to the Infotrac Gale Newspaper site you can access this article from home via your library card number.

The Derby Mercury (Derbyshire), Wednesday, August 24, 1831

Committed to Stafford county gaol, SAMUEL TURNOCK, M.J. Beard and John Hudson, the first charged with stealing at Leek, about eighty pounds weight of silk, the property of Samuel Milward, and the others with receiving the same, knowing it to have been stolen; and Eliza Wigley, charged with stealing at Burton upon Trent, various articles of wearing apparel, the property of William Barnett.
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: dobfarm on Friday 08 April 11 15:42 BST (UK)
This tells of Sam's life after the Hulk ship

http://www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/turnock/samuel/103826
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: Billyblue on Friday 08 April 11 16:05 BST (UK)
Well, Samuel was relatively lucky if he had to spend only six months on the hulks.

I'm sure some of our 'southerners' will be able to give you more info on him in VDL.  Unless he was a 'model prisoner' when there is little documentation other than the basics.  Some of my convicts were apparently so well behaved that they just disappeared from view of the authorities who seemingly only recorded the bad things, not the good things.

Dawn M
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: dobfarm on Friday 08 April 11 16:37 BST (UK)
Well, Samuel was relatively lucky if he had to spend only six months on the hulks.

I'm sure some of our 'southerners' will be able to give you more info on him in VDL.  Unless he was a 'model prisoner' when there is little documentation other than the basics.  Some of my convicts were apparently so well behaved that they just disappeared from view of the authorities who seemingly only recorded the bad things, not the good things.

Dawn M

Hi Dawn
A lot of convicts did well for themselves after their jail term or some did mandatory time of their sentence Ie;- 7 years sentence and did 2 of 7 years in jail then a sort part time occupation in the community and part jail. This was the idea of sending out people with different trades.( some being sent for near nothing? if they had a good trade.)  to build up a new verity of trades in society out there.

There will be a lot of info on Sam but it can be expensive for a search some sites  but some is free on Google.
Title: Re: Help please
Post by: DeeG on Friday 08 April 11 21:17 BST (UK)
Thank you to all for your help, it`s all certainly given me quite a bit of work to do  :)