John Pike of Bucklebury

[pikei]

I am researching my family history and I have come across a John Pike baptised on 20 July 1777. I am trying to determine whether he could be my John Pike who was sentenced at the Abingdon Assizes in 1797 and sent to Australia as a convict in 1802. Can someone let me know if this is a possibility, or was the Bucklebury John Pike married with children and died in England.

At the time of his arrest, he was living in Abingdon and possibly married to a Sarah Moss (married in South Hinksey on 10th May 1795).

[Paco]

There are many online trees with this person in them. You always have to be very careful with the information in online trees though as I am sure you are aware. Some state that he was 2 years old when he was baptised on the 20/7/1777 in Bucklebury-so he would have been born sometime in 1775 if this is correct. His parents were William and Mary.There is no mention of him marrying a Sarah Moss that I can find, however on many of the trees it has him marrying a Jane Ferriday, but when you actually look at the record on the Australian Marriage records it definitely names her as Jane Farralty, so either all the trees are wrong and they have copied one another, or the original record is incorrect. The marriage was in 1807 in Sydney.
The convict records has 2 John Pike's going out to NSW one in June and the other in August 1802, but seeing as it was on the same ship the Coromandel/Perseus this cannot be correct as it wouldn't have been able to get there and back in that short a time back in 1802 I wouldn't have thought.
regards,

[ribbo39]

Hi,
The marriage you refer to in Sth Hinksey is recorded as;
10-5-1795 John PICK, bach of Abingdon (X) to Sara Moss (X) Sp, of Abingdon residents in this P(arish)
Wits; Edward Berryman, Ann (?) Larnes, John Moss, Thomas Denniss.

The only baptism I can see is in Abingdon St.Helens as;
27-12-1781 Sara Moss d/o William & Mary, labr

I haven't been able to find any baptisms for a John Pick/Pike etc.
Alan

[pikei]

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