Portsmouth Prison

[eustace]

Hi
I am new so don't know if this is the best way to post my question. However here it is.

I have a convict ancesor who was convicted at The Old Bailey on 6.12.1827. He was imprisoned at Newgate. He was then delivered to the hulk York at Tipnor, Portsmouth on 20.1.1828. Then he was taken from the York on 10.11.1828. He was transported to Australia on the Lord Melville which departed London 5.1.1929.

My question is, what happened to him between leaving the hulk York and boarding the Lord Melville ?

Do you think he was taken to the Portsmouth Prison, which I think was at Gosport, and that the Lord Melville called at Portsmouth to pick up more prisoners before departing for Australia ?
 
Or is there some other reasonable possibility ?

Eustace

[spendlove]

Hello Eustace,

Working on the theory that there would be far too many prisoners for them to have been kept in Prisons on
Land, I googled "Prison Ship York" + Portsmouth with the following result:-

http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.1206/Prison-ship-York-at-Portsmouth-Harbour.html

As you will see York, from 1819, was another Prison Hulk - there is good picture of this ship.

Regards
Spendlove

[eustace]

Hi Spendlove

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes my convict spent a year on the hulk "York", together with 600 other prisoners. It seems they all had a miserable time. I suppose that, like the prisoners on hulks in the Thames and Medway, they were taken ashore each day to work on the port - possibly on the fort in the case of Portsmouth.

My question is really about how prisoners were transferred from a hulk at Portsmouth to a sea going convict ship.

Were they taken ashore several days earlier and waited at an onshore prison until the ship arrived ? Or were they, perhaps, taken by boat to London and loaded on the ship there ?

Regards

Ken

[Bilge]

You may wish to read this article on Crime and Punishment!

http://www.southernlife.org.uk/convict_crime.htm


Lord Melville II
Arrivied  03 05 1829  NSW
Departed 05 01 1829  London
121 Day Voyage
170 males loaded
170 males arrivied 
Vessel Master Robert Brown
Ships Surgeon George S Rutherford

[cecily3]

I was born in Portsmouth many years ago!All my life there was a prison at the top of the next road to ours(Baffins).At that time it was used for military prisoners but may have been in use a longtime before for other purposes.Can`t recall a prison at Gosport which is why I mention this one.

[Tom Piper]

I notice that the Morning Post of 7th January, 1829 and others say that the "Lord Melville" with Captain Brown sailed from Portsmouth for New South Wales.

The whole article reads:

SHIP NEWS .
The Morning Chronicle Tuesday, January 6, 1829

Portsmouth Jan 3 and 4: N. to E. Arrived from London, the Corinthian, Chadwick, for New York; and sailed the Duke of Manchester, Hood for Jamaica; General Palmer, Thomas for madras; his majesty's ships Ranger & Nimrod, on secret service (not that secret if in newspaper my comment); and the whole of the outward bound except the Andromache, Law for Calcutta; General Palmer, Thomas for Madras; "Lord Melville" for New South Wales, and two others.
 Next day the same newspaper said:

Portsmouth, Jan 5-N.E. Sailed the "Lord Melville", Brown, for New South Wales, General Palmer, Thomas for Madras; and Colombia, Wilson for Tobago. Put back the Reynolds, Roberts, for Jamaica with bowsprit sprung.
 
The same newspaper reported on January 13th, 1829
 
Two outward-bound East Indiamen passed down the Channel this morning, and one of them was believed to be the Lord Melville. The other vessel which was mentioned to have gone ashore near Boulogne, was a foreign galliot laden with wheat; crew saved. (Sounds to have pretty rough that day!)

There was a also a fishing smack called "Lord Melville", and a mail boat of the same name, that plied from Falmouth to the empire ports,  and also Lord Melville himself.


On Monday December 1829, the same newspaper reported:
Arrived St Helena the Lord Melville, Brown; Providence Bowers from Batavia, Malay, Gillies, from Sumatra.

January 9, 1830:

SHIP NEWS:
East India Shipping:

The Lord Melville (Brown), from Batavia, has arrived off Penzance-sailed from thence 8th August, and from St Helena, 17th October.


Monday Jan 11th:

Portsmouth: Jan 9th, NW Arrived, Lord Melville-, from Batavia.

So maybe the "Lord Melville" did not leave London as such but left Portsmouth with the prisoners-it would make sense, rather than transport prisoners twice, just move the ship!

Tom





Tom