Did this convict ever make it to Australia?

[ambleetc]

Hi

I have a record of a convict (Baillie Clexton)  who was sent from Ireland to Australia in 1849 - I have put in a transcribe of the record - however, I have looked and can find no record of him ever reaching Australia. Does anyone have any ideas what could have happened to him?

For your information - he is also known as Bayley/Bailey Cluxton.

All help appreciated!!

*Moderator comment: image converted from a PDF to a JPG for viewing online.  Image also cropped *

[Dundee]

Hi ambleetc,

I can't see him either.  The two most likely scenarios are that he died before he could be transported, or his sentence was commuted to imprisonment instead.

Debra 

[ambleetc]

Thanks Debra for looking - at least I know I didn't miss him when I looked through the convict records of those who did arrive in Australia!

I agree with you - these seem the most likely scenarios about what happened to him - I can find no trace though!

[eregli_gene]

I'd be wondering why you are assuming he was sent to Australia ?   That snippet you posted just says, sentenced to transportation, doesn't say where.   Thats a problem for the prisons department to solve,  not the sentencing judge.

Transportation to NSW ended several years before that,   to Tasmania ended about that time,  and then started to Perth a little later,  and then stopped again.    I don't have the dates off the top of my head,  and none of my convicts relate to that particular period.

My advice would be to do some research on exactly when actual transportation ended.  I'd also check whether there was transportation to anywhere else.  What you might find,  is that judges kept on for some time issuing sentences of "transportation",  after there was no actual place to send people.

[Dundee]

The last convict ship arrived in Tasmania in 1853.

Convict exiles who had already served part of their time in prison were transported to NSW in 1849 and 1850, and to Victoria between 1844 and 1849.

The first convict ship arrived in WA in June 1850 with convicts who had been tried several years previously.

The last convict ship from Ireland to WA arrived in1853.

Many records did not survive the Four Courts fire in 1922.

Debra 

[wivenhoe]

The next name down on the list is - Barbara Adams, tried Galway 4 Jan 1848, 7 yrs.

This matches convict arr  VDL  7 Oct 1848, Kinnear.

Clexton might have died or been sent elsewhere?.

What is this list of names that you have found?.

[Dundee]

Hi Wivenhoe,

The list is from the transportation database compiled from surviving records held at the National Archives of Ireland.
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/ireland-australia-transportation-records-1791-1853/

Debra 

[majm]

Hi there,

following from

I'd be wondering why you are assuming he was sent to Australia ?   That snippet you posted just says, sentenced to transportation, doesn't say where.   Thats a problem for the prisons department to solve,  not the sentencing judge.

Transportation to NSW ended several years before that,   to Tasmania ended about that time,  and then started to Perth a little later,  and then stopped again.    I don't have the dates off the top of my head,  and none of my convicts relate to that particular period.

My advice would be to do some research on exactly when actual transportation ended.  I'd also check whether there was transportation to anywhere else.  What you might find,  is that judges kept on for some time issuing sentences of "transportation",  after there was no actual place to send people.

Is it possible that the sentence of transportation resulted in your chap being sent to “The Cape” (South Africa) 

I understand that Earl Grey ordered 288 male convicts onto the Neptune and be sent there....  I understand that Anti-Convict Associations were formed there. 

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2963272 The Courier  10 April 1850

Cheers,  JM

[Dundee]

JM they didn't land the Neptune convicts at the Cape.  The locals threw a wobbly and the ship was sent on to Tasmania.

Debra