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Research in Other Countries => Australia => Topic started by: enzfan on Saturday 26 November 16 01:26 GMT (UK)

Title: What happened to my convict?
Post by: enzfan on Saturday 26 November 16 01:26 GMT (UK)
Hello

I am looking for information with regarding to John EVELEIGH (b. John George EVELEIGH) who was sentenced to transportation to life, commuted from death, through the Dorset Assizes in 1837 for highway robbery.

He arrived in NSW on the Emma Eugenia in Feb 1838.

The next time I find him he is in Gropers Bush, Riverton, Southland New Zealand, the proprietor of an accommodation house known as the Travellers Rest Hotel.

He died in 1899 and is buried in Riverton.

I would like to know his movements between his arrival in Australia in 1838 and his appearance in NZ in 1866 please.

What happened to his sentence? Was he a runaway convict? When did he leave Australia? etc.
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: sparrett on Saturday 26 November 16 01:57 GMT (UK)
Are you aware of this Rootchat thread ?
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=756513.18
Sue
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: Dundee on Saturday 26 November 16 02:38 GMT (UK)
He stole a sheep at Berrima in 1840, sentenced to 10 years and sent to Norfolk Island.  After 3 years and 9 months he was sent to Tasmania.  His records are at Tas Archives.

Conduct Record

http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON33-1-55,269,73,L,70

Indent

http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON17-1-1,386,46,L,80 (page 1)
http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON17-1-1,386,47,L,80  (page 2)

Son of John and Elizabeth, brother Henry, sister Elizabeth

He applied to marry Mary GREEN (ship Angelina) and they married in 1848.

https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD37-1-7p15j2k

Debra  :)
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: majm on Saturday 26 November 16 02:40 GMT (UK)
OOPS,  sorry,  no red post warning.  I think the RChat servers were re-booting.  sorry Dundee.

-------------------------------------  :)

The NSW State Records as partnerships with several commercial websites.

Ancestry has digitised pages from Berrima Gaol’s Entrance Books  1840-1842

Prisoner No 123
John EVELY, ex Emma Eugenia 1838, Bond, of Bridport Dorsetshire, Protestant, a Labourer, admitted to Berrima Gaol 18 April, and then on 13th May 1840 sent to Sydney Gaol for  Transportation for a number of years.  (very difficult to read as I am on a spare ‘old’ puter with poor video card).   So he had been found guilty of a colonial offence, and was sentenced to a further sentence of transportation.   In that era, this would usually mean transported to Norfolk Island. 

I notice that Tasmania Archives Index  has live links to images, free to search, for a John EVELEIGH, a convict leaving Norfolk Island on the Lady Franklin for Van Diemen’s Land 18 May 1844.  And in the remarks at that index it reads “To NSW per Emma Eugenia.  To Norfolk Island 1840”. https://linctas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/

I have not found John EVE* listed on that 1838 arrival to NSW
http://indexes.records.nsw.gov.au/searchform.aspx?id=65&new=1
https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/convicts/indexes

JM.
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: majm on Saturday 26 November 16 02:56 GMT (UK)
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/36860900 28 April 1840 The Australian
Berrima Quarter Sessions 21 April 1840
...
John Evely was indicted for sheep stealing — Guilty. To be transported for ten years


JM
 
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: judb on Saturday 26 November 16 03:09 GMT (UK)
Another spelling of his name -

From
The Salisbury and Winchester Journal, Monday, February 20, 1837; pg. 4
"There are, at present, thirty-one prisoners on the calendar for the forth-coming Dorset Assizes, charged with the commission of the following offences.
-John EVERLEIGH, 22, and Geo Bunn, alias Gerrard, 22, assaulting and robbing Thomas Turner on the highway at Whitchurch Canocorium"

There is an account of the crime in a later paper which I can transcribe later - real life gets in the way of R'chat sometimes  ::)

Judith

Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: enzfan on Saturday 26 November 16 04:15 GMT (UK)
Hi

This is great information.  ;D Thanks so much. Still need to pin him down on NZ arrival.

Link to other thread - I will add a post and advise the chatter that he is not her person
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: Aussie1947 on Saturday 26 November 16 05:23 GMT (UK)
Hi,

From FamilySearch, there were three John Eveleigh marriages in Tasmania in the 1800s.

John Eveleigh, 30, married Mary Green, 30 married Mary Green at Brighton on 1st June 1848.

John Eveleigh, 25, married Jane Collins, 27 at Launceston on 5th Feb 1856

John Eveleigh, 28, married Maria Moss, 19 at Launceston on 20th September 1860.

Gerry

Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: judb on Saturday 26 November 16 07:49 GMT (UK)
From
Woolmer's Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, etc (Exeter, England), Saturday, March 18, 1837; pg. 3

Dorset Assizes at Dorchester
CROWN BAR - John Eveleigh and George Bunn, for assaulting and robbing Thomas Turner.  The prosecutor was returning from Bridport Market and having arrived at Baker's Cross Hill, about midnight, Bunn and a person about the size of Eveleigh, came up to him and began to beat him about the head with sticks; he got under the cart for protection; but they still continued beating him until has was nearly senseless.  They then took from his person 16s and a knife, kicked him and then ran away.  He had known Bunn two years.  The prisoners were seen together about two miles from the spot between 7 and 8o'clock and again between 10 and 11.  The knife of which the prosecutor had been robbed was found in the pocket of Eveleigh.
Jury found both prisoners Guilty - Death recorded.

Judith



Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: judb on Saturday 26 November 16 08:21 GMT (UK)
Do you know if he was a widower or was married when he came to NZ?  Any children?

Judith
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: enzfan on Saturday 26 November 16 09:37 GMT (UK)
No I don't know anything. There is no Mary Eveleigh death although not compulsory to register before the 1880s and only he is acknowledged on his brother's monument inscription along with his brother's wife and two of his children.
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: majm on Saturday 26 November 16 09:59 GMT (UK)
Hi there,

May I please ask for some further info re NZ BDM registrations, particularly for deaths and your mention that it was not compulsory to register until 1880.   

I am happy to be corrected, as I have understood that in NZ, from 1847 it was not permitted to bury a body without a certificate from the Deputy Registrar.   To me, that meant that the various Deputy Registrars would have kept registers of certificates issued and those records would be held by NZBDM even now. 

I have skimmed through Papers Past and I can find the following cutting which excludes Natives from the regulations but everyone else seems to be required to abide by, but I see there's penalties for destroying the Register book etc :

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZ18470901.2.8?query=registrar general
New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 131, 1 September 1847 (the heading is : Abstract of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, Registration Bill)

JM
   
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: enzfan on Saturday 26 November 16 10:09 GMT (UK)
Well that's interesting. I didn't know that.

Certainly doesn't look as if Mary died in Tasmania although there is a death for a Mary Eversleigh, pauper, in 1877 aged 57 years - unless he deserted her.

I've determined that she was born in 1816 from finding a reference to her age on board ship when she was sick. Doesn't appear that they had any children either.
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: majm on Saturday 26 November 16 10:15 GMT (UK)
Perhaps that 1847 Bill was not proclaimed - I am not familiar with NZ parliamentary systems, and very shaky on 19th Century NZ parliamentary matters.

JM
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: enzfan on Saturday 26 November 16 10:36 GMT (UK)
Have just discovered that he lived with a woman who appeared in court charged with attempting to murder him. She was found not guilty but they apparently lived together for 13 -14 years making that from about 1856-57
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: majm on Saturday 26 November 16 10:42 GMT (UK)
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DSC18741001.2.16?query=john Eveleigh

Daily Southern Cross 1 October 1874   "A Tasmanian Outcast" ... a sad situation.

JM
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: majm on Saturday 26 November 16 10:49 GMT (UK)
Re the attempted murder .... there's a clue in the newspaper report ... John Eveleigh 'and his brother James' did you already have  'your' chap's details of a brother James alive and in NZ in July 1870  :)

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18700715.2.9?query=john Eveleigh
2 Feb 1874 Southland Times 15 July 1870

JM
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: enzfan on Saturday 26 November 16 11:17 GMT (UK)
Yes I did. It was through my research into James and his family, the direct line I'm interested in, that I discovered that John had made it to NZ
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: Aussie1947 on Saturday 26 November 16 12:31 GMT (UK)

James Eveleigh leave Melbourne for New Zealand in 1863.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/6482315?searchTerm=

5th Column in near the bottom.

Gerry
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: Toban on Saturday 26 November 16 22:08 GMT (UK)
PROV confirms James also visited NZ in 1861 - dep. Melbourne for Otago in September that year per 'King of Italy' aged 36. The entry for 1863 has him aged 38, travelling per 'Alhambra' leaving Melbourne in January '63. With him are Mrs. Everleigh, age 34, and three children aged 10, 9, and 7.
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: judb on Sunday 27 November 16 00:54 GMT (UK)
You probably have this information - You should be able to find his marriage details and any children as well as the time spent in NZ from his death certificate - although I realise, as he is peripheral to your ancestors, you may not want to spend the $NZ20.  I would have thought, as it seems he was living with his brother and his brother died after him that it's likely James was the informant so the information may be accurate.

NZ Death 1899/5533
John EVELEIGH, aged    85

Judith
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: phenolphthalein on Sunday 27 November 16 01:31 GMT (UK)
Some things I have not seen in other posts.
In general Norfolk Island records are held in The NSW archives.
The reason for the move from Norfolk Island to Tasmania is that Norfolk Island ceased to be a punishment settlement and was evacuated prior to the settlement of folk from Pitcairn Island there.
Some of the voyages of vessels to and from Norfolk Island appear on Trove newspapers.
Some court trials in NSW appear on-line though these are mainly Sydney ones.
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: enzfan on Sunday 27 November 16 02:03 GMT (UK)
Thanks so much everyone. I really appreciate the effort and the amount of information you have shared.

Yes his death record should reveal more

Many thanks  ;D
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: judb on Sunday 27 November 16 06:49 GMT (UK)
A further account of the 1870 poisoning incident can be found here:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18700726.2.11?query=eveleigh

In this account John says he had lived with the accused for "13 or 14 years".  Assuming he met the woman - Mary Ann (Biddy) McCoy - in NZ he may have been in New Zealand since abt 1856.

In 1866 John Eveleigh announces intention to transfer of his "accommodation-house licence for the Travellers' Rest Hotel at Groper's Bush" to a Mary Ann McKay of Groper's Bush.  Perhaps this is the same woman (with poor spelling!) as the woman accused of trying to poison him  ???
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18660716.2.26.1?query=eveleigh

Seems like the same woman - John Eveleigh summonsed for assaulting Mrs Biddy Mckay, Feb 18, 1870
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ST18700218.2.11?query=eveleigh

Judith


Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: enzfan on Sunday 27 November 16 18:12 GMT (UK)
Thanks for that Judith. I hadn't spotted the third one
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: MHGC on Monday 05 August 24 10:10 BST (UK)
I HAVE  Maria MOSS  marrying John EVERLEIGH  ? Convict.  Baptist Chapel, York St. Launceston, V.D.L.  20.9.1860.   Maria's Father was a Convict - Edward. 
Maria then married William George HEALES, @ her Mother's house 106 Moor St. Fitzroy, Vic.  (Interesting thing here - William's Father Richard, was a former Premier of Victoria)
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: sparrett on Tuesday 06 August 24 07:19 BST (UK)
I HAVE  Maria MOSS  marrying John EVERLEIGH  ? Convict.  Baptist Chapel, York St. Launceston, V.D.L.  20.9.1860.   Maria's Father was a Convict - Edward. 
Maria then married William George HEALES, @ her Mother's house 106 Moor St. Fitzroy, Vic.  (Interesting thing here - William's Father Richard, was a former Premier of Victoria)

The Victorian marriage was in 1873.(Reg 686)

I doubt Maria EVELEIGH  nee MOSS ever left Launceston. 1883 news item
1883
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/39684483

The woman who was married to the son of the Secretary General, William Gorge HEALES has
Father Henry, not Edward on the Victorian death index.

Sue
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: MHGC on Tuesday 13 August 24 01:57 BST (UK)
Hello - MARIA  was the 10th child of Edward -Convict from Suffolk & Mary MOSS.   on a Marriage Certificate I have - 6.1.1873 - District of Bourke,Colony of Vic.   -   William George HEALES;Batchelor;Born Melbourne V; Custom House Officer; 26y; 106 Moor Street, Fitzroy; Parents -Richard Heales & Rhoda Parker.
Maria MOSS;Spinster;Born Red Bank,Tas;(B/C says Rhodes and Father worked for Thomas Walker @ Rhodes) Lady;29y;106 Moor  St. Fitzroy; Parents - Edward Moss & Mary Morsely.    They were married @ 106 Moor St. Fitzroy, Melbourne - the brides Mother's residence, By License. Married by Robert Hamilton, Minister for Presbyterian Church, Napier St. Fitzroy.    Now... Witnesses H.T. Moss (that's her eldest brother); Ada Yewers; ?Moss; L. Frankum; Emily Fletcher (sister). The Witnesses are all relations.
I do not know when 1st husband - John Everleigh died. In 1861 she had a daughter who sadly died 1861 Launceston.
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: sparrett on Wednesday 14 August 24 06:37 BST (UK)
My disagreement is that the Maria MOSS daughter of convict Edward MOSS is not the same Maria MOSS who married John EVERLEIGH in 1860, aged 19 unable to sign her name.

She would seem to be in Launceston still in 1883, well after the Melbourne marriage for her namesake. And still not well-behaved!

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/149498812

There is a death in 1887 in Launceston Maria EVERLEIGH aged 41.  Died of alcoholism.

The family history available for Edward MOSS blacksmith and apparently later farmer at Warrandyte
has some confusing points, but that could be topic for another time. ;D

Sue
Title: Re: What happened to my convict?
Post by: MHGC on Thursday 15 August 24 12:10 BST (UK)
I did some scratching and now agree - My Maria Moss was not John Everleigh's wife.  He was married to a Maria Moss however.  Poor John had a rough life and ended up in an Insane Asylum at least 2 times.
Maria,  who married William George Heales is however the 10th child of Edward and Mary Morsely. The witnesses to Marriage are all family members.  Also the Wedding address is brother Henry Thomas'. On Henry's (2nd) M/C the Father is named Edwin. The Father - Edward's D/C says profession Farmer.  Son, Henry's (2nd) M/C to Hannah Ayton has Edward a Blacksmith. He was a Blacksmith for John Archer in Tas. (May have been a Farmer also?)Thanks Poppy