Hi Listers I have recently found that my husband's great grandfather William MANN may have been sent to Australia as a convict. There was a William MANN, aged 22 on the Australian Convict Index for 1840. He was born in Norfolk and was described as a farm labourer and soldier. On the Australian Convict Transportation Register (Piece HO 11/12) it is stated that he was convicted on 1 January 1839 with a James SKIPPER in the Bedford Quarter Sessions, both receiving 7 years. He was transported on the "Maitland" departing Sheerness (Master Geo (Jn) Baker, Surgeon Plp Toms) 22 March 1840 and arriving in NSW on 14 July 1840. Does any lister know how or where I can get details of his trial? Cheers Wendy in Australia
Wendy, Peter Jarman has already provided the URL address for the Bedford Gaol database site. But as he said, there is no William MANN or James SKIPPER. You might try a more exhaustive search yourself allowing for possible spelling variants or aliases. You can leave out any name and search by sentence using just the word transportation. But still I found nothing obvious. You could look if anyone else was on the "Maitland". It would be unusual if there were not a group from the same assizes. There was a William Marm that looked possible, but none of the other details came close. Have you found his death record that might give some details of parents and age? That might give some clues to his birthplace suggested as somewhere in Norfolk. Bedford Gaol database looks pretty comprehensive so if he is not there it raises the question about whether Bedford Assizes is correct. I had a similar problem with one of my ancestors, where there were two convicts with the same name on the same ship. An earlier researcher got so excited when he found the first one, he didn't go any further. So he missed the later one and had the trial place in the wrong location. I note there were a number of William Mann's in NSW in the early years, but there may have been others in Tasmania for example. I'd just double check to make sure you have the right one. Peter in Sydney