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Thanks folks for your replies. Yes I am always sceptical until I can find a source myself. It looks like someone has made up a date and others have blindly copied it to their trees, as I suspected. My John Pike was always said to have been born in Reading, and as Bucklebury is in the "Reading area", I thought that this could possibly be him.

Are there birth records/Parish records (as opposed to baptism records) for Bucklebury or Reading that cover 1770s? This would possibly be the only chance to confirm the birth date.

Thanks.

Paco and Alan,

The Hulk records in 1797, he was on the Fortunee in Langstone Harbour near Portsmouth, say that John was 21 at the time, which would make him born 1775/6, so the baptism in 1777 two years after his birth fits in with this.

The Jane Ferriday/Farralty records seem to be just misspellings, especially as she or John could not read or write (they signed their marriage record with an X). I also have Pike, Pyke, Peck, Pack, Park and Pick spellings to contend with when it comes to John.

John arrived in Sydney on board the Perseus in 1802. He originally was earmarked to sail on the Hillsborough in 1799, but something changed and he spent an extra 3 years on the dreaded hulks. He was sentenced at the Abingdon summer assizes in 1797 and the transcript says that he was living in Abingdon at the time of arrest.

I think that he was married to Sarah Moss, as John Pick, at South Hinksey on 10th May 1781 and had one child, Ann Pike, baptised at St Helen's Abingdon on 8th November 1795. Ann married George Knapp, at St Helen's Abingdon, on 23rd July 1821. Sarah went on and remarried on 12th January 1817, at Culham Oxfordshire, to Samuel Aker (wit; John Moss and William Porter). Sarah lived with Ann and George Moss according to the 1841 census.

What I am trying to do now is find out who John Pike's parents were and so far, after many attempts, the Bucklebury John Pike is the best fit. What I want to know is whether this John Pike married in Bucklebury and had children there after 1797, as this would rule him out. It is a slow process of elimination. It is marvellous how many people on Ancestry.com have this Bucklebury John Pike as my John's father, but I will be sceptical until I can not eliminate him.

Thanks guys for your reply so far.

Ian Pike

Thanks guys for your replies.

I have searched the PRs for Abingdon and other areas in Berkshire/Oxfordshire without success, in an attempt to find a baptism record for John. I think that John mayn have married Sarah Moss at South Hinksey (as John Pick of Abingdon) and had one daughter Ann Pike. He was living in a house in Turnagain Lane in Abingdon when he was arrested. I have a copy of the Assizes records for his trial in 1797, but no mention of a wife or child. Here in Australia, none of John's records mention anything about his English past except that he was a native of Berkshire. John himself, apparently, would not talk about his life in England, so information is scarce and often misleading. That is why I am getting desperate in seeking a newspaper report on his trial. Unfortunately, living in Australia, with most of John's descendants, it is difficult to search unless indexes etc are online.

A lot of people here in Australia have been searching for John's parents for some time now, so I am trying to "think outside the square" a bit. If you have any other suggestions on ways to find out who John's parents were, I would greatly appreciate then.

Ian Pike

My ancestor was John Pike. He was tried at the summer Assizes in Abingdon in July 1797 and sentenced to 7 year transportation to Australia. I have a full transcript of his trial. The rumour that I have heard is that he was married at the time of his arrest and left his wife and family in England when he was sent to Sydney. There is no mention of a wife or family in the trial transcripts, so I was hoping that a newspaper article may have been written about his trial (he was a local of Abingdon at the time), which may mention a wife (a slim hope I know, but I am desperate).

I have had a quick look at the Jackson's Oxford Journal online, but the indexes only start from 1800 (3 years too late for me). Are there indexes to the earlier years, but just no online yet?

Does anyone know if there was a local newspaper that would have reports on the Assizes at Abingdon in 1797? If so, is there a way to get access? I have a descendent who was tried at Abingdon in this year. Thanks.