Good afternoon Listers, I am hoping SKS can help me regarding the marriages of the two sons of John Tawell, the man who was hung in Aylesbury for the murder of his Mistress Sarah Hart aka Lawrence. I believe both marriages would have taken place in London, who before the Free BMD records on the Website. "...John Tawell (1784-1845) was a British murderer. In 1845, he became the first person to be arrested as the result of telecommunications technology. Transported to Australia in 1815 for the crime of forgery, Tawell obtained a ticket of leave, and started as a chemist in Sydney. He also in 1823 arranged for and paid for his wife Mary and two sons John and William to join him in Sydney Town. John running his Chemist and Drug store flourished, and after fifteen years left it a rich man. John returning to England, he married a Quaker lady Widow Sarah Calford as his second wife in 1841, after his wife Mary died in England in 1838. John Snr.and Sarah TAWELL (Calford) had one son Henry Augustus TAWELL born in 1843 in Berkhampstead. Both John Snr and his new wife Sarah appear on the 1841 Census living in Berkhamstead. John TAWELL confessed to the murder of his mistress, Sarah Hart, by prussic acid, his motive being a dread of their relations becoming known. Mary had two illegitimate children by him. He was hung in Aylesbury in 1845...." It appears the two children of Mary Hart, where separated and may have been adopted. Before the TAWELLS returned to England from Colonial Sydney, John sent his eldest son John Downing TAWELL to LONDON to study to become a Surgeon, this may have been around 1825, (also the second name DOWNING may be a clue to other family connections). John Snr's younger son William Henry TAWELL returned to England with his parents around 1829-30, John the Surgeon may have been with them. In newspaper reports in the Sydney Press, it appears that both Dr. John Downing TAWELL with his WIFE and also his brother William Henry TAWELL with his WIFE, visited Sydney on a number occasions, between the years 1832 and the early 1840s. It also appears that John Snr., also returned to the Colony on a number of occasions, maybe to sell off some of his vast property holdings. In March on 1836, while on a visit to Sydney, he attempted to give dramatic proof of his high principles when he poured £500 worth of rum and gin into Sydney Cove to impress the visiting Quaker Missionary, James Blackhouse. John Snr. had received an Absolute Pardon from the Governor, which was what allowed him to return to England with his family, he was a very rich man, and left many properties and investments in the Colony in the hands of his Agent. When the family left for England, John TAWELL as reputed he was worth over £14,000. The only way a convict could return to England was with an Absolute Pardon adn they were very rate indeed. Even though all had served their sentences of 7, 14, 21 years, they were not encourage to leave the shores of the place they had called home for so long. A convict given the sentence of transportation for Life, meant Life. They recieved what was referred to as a Conditional Pardon after serving at least 8 years of their sentence. Also, all convicts when they received their Certificates of Freedom or Condition Pardons, where given substanicial Land Grants, as where their Colonial born children. A great incentive to stay put. My husband's convict ggg grandfather and his two sons, received large land grants in Castlereagh Street, right in the middle of what is today to CBD of Sydney. Both Dr. John Downing TAWELL and his brother William Henry TAWELL, both died young in England. It was lucky for them that they both died before their father committed his ghastly crime of murder most foul. John Jnr. died on a lung complaint in the June Quarter of 1843 in Islington. I am trying to find out the name of John Downing TAWELL'S wife and what was her maiden name. I found John Downing TAWELL aged 30 on the 1841 Census, of Independent means, living in Earls Colen, living with him was Richard Russell 5 and Sarah Drake 20, however no Mrs. TAWELL. I am not quite sure of the actual year of William Henry TAWELL'S death, it could have been 1839 or 1842, these deaths are under the name TOWELL (this was they way the name was pronounced). However, it is the marriages of the brothers in London that I would love to be able to locate, so their wives names can be found and added to this very intriguing story. In the Sydney newspapers, they would refer to the wives as Mrs. TAWELL, not even giving an initial to help to identify them. Also, where would John Downing TAWELL have studied to be a Surgeon. Would it have been at a London hospital or at a University or College? Cheers Janice Belrose, Sydney Down Under