Hi Diane Ancestry have images of [some of] the convict musters. I had a look on these for Andrew Millar, and in the last one for him (1848 or 1849) he is shown as having been tried in Hobart. Presumably this means that he committed another offence while in Tasmania soon after he was awarded his Conditional Pardon (in 1847). I think Irene is right about the NAS catalogue entries. I had another look at the entries on the National Archives of Scotland website. I am almost sure that the two Precognition entries (1843 and 1848) are for the same Andrew Millar. Both men were weavers living in Glasgow who committed an offence with John and Archibald McNaught, weavers in Paisley. In the first he was Andrew alias Adam and in the second his father was named as Adam. The second case may have been related to the first case. A Precognition in Scots Law is a statement taken from a witness or witnesses to a crime before the case goes to trial. It is different from other witness statements because it cannot be put to the witness at the trial. Precognitions may be taken by the prosecution and by the defence and usually involve a face to face interview between the witness and the precognition taker. It may be that in the second case, the prosecution, having interviewed the witness/witnesses during the Precognition, decided that there was not enough evidence to proceed with a trial. Or, of course, that there could be no trial in Scotland as the defendants were beyond their reach in Australia. This leaves me wondering whether IN THOSE DAYS the jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts could extend to Australia for crimes committed in Scotland, which might explain Andrew Millar's conviction in Hobart. Rhoda ----- Original Message ----- From: "Diane Essex-Clark" <defect@lizzy.com.au> To: <sct-renfrew@rootsweb.com> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 1:29 AM Subject: Re: [SCT-RENFREW] Fw: Andrew Millar of Greenock > Hi Rhoda, > > I did have some information on the Andrew Millar who arrived on the > Stratheden but from what I had, with him being tried in Edinburgh, I > didn't > pick up on him coming from Renfrewshire. Paisley is only about 17 miles > from > Greenock. The second conviction in 1848 with the same people was probably > an > error by someone transcribing the 1843 information. 3, 5 & 8 often get > miss > transcribed. I had a look but couldn't find a link to the second > conviction > in Tasmania in Book 4 No 1148. I will have to send an enquiry to the > Tasmanian archives office. On their site I found no indication of this > Andrew marrying there which is promising. On the other hand I didn't find > anything for him in the Departures either which is disappointing. >

Hi Rhoda, Regrettably I am not currently a member of Ancestry. At the time I was a member I collected a number of documents including some of the Scottish trial documents. I must have missed the 1848-9 document. I didn't renew my subscription when I started working on my Channel Islands ancestors as Ancestry is not much use there. It's a case of visiting the Channel Islands or knowing someone there to gather information. I have only just started catching up on my 'Dead Ends' and working out what information I need to find before joining Ancestry again. I think with Andrew Millar I need to follow up with the Archives Office of Tasmanian to try to find out what happened to the Andrew Millar convicted in 1843 and transported in 1845. There is still the fact that my Andrew said he was from Grennock and the convict was from Paisley. On Australian standards 17 mile is just next door, but for the UK/Scotland in the early 1800's it is a long way away. At the time I had access to Ancestry I thought Andrew was from Glasgow as that is what his son, recorded on his death registration, so I didn't look to anywhere else. Another thing with this family is that they were notorious for using their second names instead of their first. On the death of one of his daughters his name was recorded as William. So that is another possibility. The one place for entry into Australia that I haven't been able to explore properly is South Australia and I need to rejoin Ancestry to do that. It's possible that he arrived in Australia via South Australia. What has me doubting that my Andrew was a convict is that he was a well respected member of the community of Ararat. From what I have read so far the character of the convict just doesn't seem to match. I think that rather than trying to find him in Scotland and tracing him back to Australia, I need to go back to trying to find him in Australia before his marriage in 1853. What I need to do is make a list of all the possibilities and then rejoin Ancestry and search and hopefully find any original documentation. Thanks for all your help, Diane