I have a lookup request for the parish of Thorton, containing the village of Melbourne, Yorkshire East Riding.
My five times great grandmother Jane James was a convict transported to Australia in 1829 for robbing her mistress, who I think was a Mrs H A Breary from Bootham, York City. Her convict records give her native place as “Milbourne, York”. I can’t find such a place and suspect it refers to Melbourne.
Her Australian death certificate gives her father’s name as William James. I have found an IGI baptism of a Jane James to William & Jane James in 1795 (about the right year) in Great Givendale, Yorkshire. If that is her then one of her brothers Charles James may have been living in Melbourne for the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses, although he gives his birthplace as Givendale rather than Great Givendale and there appears to be a plain Givendale in north Yorkshire.
I have found two deaths of a William James in 1840 (1st and 3rd quarters) in Pocklington in the civil registration records (Pocklington is where Melbourne deaths seem to have been registered), so one of those could be my Jane’s father (although he would have been quite old by then as his first child was born in 1782). I can’t find a civil registration for her potential mother Jane James, so I was wondering if someone who had access to the CD ROM for pre-1837 parish records for Thornton could see if there is a Melbourne burial record for her, and also whether there are earlier William James records. Birth years would presumably have been around 1760 if ages at death are given.
Many thanks in advance if someone is able to help. It will be much appreciated as there are quite a few Jane James researchers in Australia, a number of whom I am in touch with, and no-one seems to have successfully identified her parents.
