Dear list, Does anyone have any information about what happened to the convict Robert McLean, Neptune 1849-50, after he reached Melbourne in 1851? He might or might not be my gg-grandfather Robert Lean, whose arrival in Australia remains an unresolved mystery to me. Since coming across this Robert McLean a couple of days ago, I have been thinking about what sorts of evidence I could look for that might at least show that he isn't my ancestor, such as did this Robert stay in Victoria, did he marry, did he have children etc? Here's all I know so far. The Queensland Library database says that Robert McLean was: "one of 289 convicts transported on the Neptune, 18 April 1849 Sentence Details: Convicted at Court Martial, St Johns Newfoundland for a term of 7 years. Ticket of Leave. Vessel: Neptune (Ship) Date of Departure: 18 April 1849 Place of Arrival: Van Diemen's Land" The Tasmanian archives say, under Convicts: "[Database no. 46410] McLean Robert [Date of arrival] 05 Apr 1850 Neptune (2) [Date of departure] 21 Feb 1850 [Port of departure] Cape of Good Hope [Remarks] Conditional pardon on arrival" and under Departures: "McLean Robert Steerage [Ship of departure] Shamrock [Date of departure] 19 Feb 1851 [Port of departure] Launceston [Where bound] Melbourne [Ship to Colony] Neptune [Status] Conditional Pardon The Ancestry database 'Convicts transported 1849-50' says that the date of Robert's Court Martial was 21 Oct 1845. According to the blog http://nebuchadnezzarwoollyd.blogspot.com/ on 29 Aug 08 - the writer is really telling the story of the Irish revolutionary John Mitchel, convicted of treason and on that ship - the Neptune landed its convicts in Van Diemens Land only after attempting to offload (at least some of?) them in South Arica. After a stand-off of several months, this attempt was successfully resisted by the British settlers there. Hope someone out there knows a bit more, especially about Robert's life post-1851. Thanks for reading this. Sue

Dear Sue, I guess you already have the death certificate of your great grandfather X 2. This will tell you his birthplace and will usually give a break up of how long he lived in each state and his overall length of time in Australia. With the information you've already discovered you should be able to verify whether or not he was the convict described. Good luck, Jan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sue Ahrens" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 8:33 AM Subject: [AUS-CON] Robert McLean, Neptune 1849-50 > Dear list, > > Does anyone have any information about what happened to the convict Robert > McLean, Neptune 1849-50, after he reached Melbourne in 1851? > > He might or might not be my gg-grandfather Robert Lean, whose arrival in > Australia remains an unresolved mystery to me. Since coming across this > Robert McLean a couple of days ago, I have been thinking about what sorts > of > evidence I could look for that might at least show that he isn't my > ancestor, such as did this Robert stay in Victoria, did he marry, did he > have children etc? > > Here's all I know so far. > > The Queensland Library database says that Robert McLean was: > "one of 289 convicts transported on the Neptune, 18 April 1849 > Sentence Details: Convicted at Court Martial, St Johns Newfoundland for a > term of 7 years. Ticket of Leave. > Vessel: Neptune (Ship) > Date of Departure: 18 April 1849 > Place of Arrival: Van Diemen's Land" > > The Tasmanian archives say, under Convicts: > "[Database no. 46410] McLean Robert [Date of arrival] 05 Apr 1850 Neptune > (2) [Date of departure] 21 Feb 1850 [Port of departure] Cape of Good Hope > [Remarks] Conditional pardon on arrival" > and under Departures: > "McLean Robert Steerage [Ship of departure] Shamrock [Date of departure] > 19 > Feb 1851 [Port of departure] Launceston [Where bound] Melbourne [Ship to > Colony] Neptune [Status] Conditional Pardon > > The Ancestry database 'Convicts transported 1849-50' says that the date of > Robert's Court Martial was 21 Oct 1845. > > According to the blog http://nebuchadnezzarwoollyd.blogspot.com/ on 29 Aug > 08 - the writer is really telling the story of the Irish revolutionary > John > Mitchel, convicted of treason and on that ship - the Neptune landed its > convicts in Van Diemens Land only after attempting to offload (at least > some > of?) them in South Arica. After a stand-off of several months, this > attempt > was successfully resisted by the British settlers there. > > Hope someone out there knows a bit more, especially about Robert's life > post-1851. > > Thanks for reading this. > Sue > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >