TRANSPORTATION TO TASMANIA
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HOBART, TASMANIA
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A SUMMARY OF THE LIFE OF JOHN MILLS (1810 - 1841)
1826 A member of the Wickwar Gang - A Convict makes good
John Mills was tried and convicted in Gloucester Assizes,
Gloucestershire, in 1826, he was just 16 years of age. He pleaded guilty to stealing four Geese and was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in Australia.
He was transported to Van Diemens Land and served his sentence for
seven years as a convict. He was transported from London on 14/10/1826 and arrived Tasmania on 23/2/1827.
As a convict he was given as convict labour to a local publican where he
learned the trade. On 1/09/1834 he was granted the licence for the Old Bell Hotel in Elizabeth Street, Hobart. When he was released he went to Melbourne when it was still a tent town and here he started the first brewery in Victoria. He also had the opportunity to buy land in central Melbourne in the first and second auctons held there. He paid £35 for a half-acre block between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane, well placed between the Yarra River and what was to be the central business district.12
This was the first move in establishing himself in a more ambitious way
than was possible in Launceston. It was also a way of distancing himself from his life as a convict. The enterprise must have taken confidence, an astute planning mind, and perhaps a gambler's temperament. Melbourne in 1837 was still a wilderness in which the outline of a town was just beginning to emerge. John Mills would have seen no more than the thirty or forty scattered huts described by Philip Gidley King in March 1837.
"Some are of sods, others framed and weatherboarded, others wattled
and plastered. The framed houses have all been sent from Sydney or Launceston . . . we called upon the ladies of the place and found them enduring great discomfort, some living in mud hovels, others in tents, and others just entering their new abodes made of 'wattle-and-daub'. "
After buying his piece of land, his stake in Port Phillip's future, Mills
went back to Launceston, where Hannah was waiting. Together they sailed for Melbourne in late October 1837 and their first temporary home beside the Yarra River.
He opened a series of pubs and quickly became quite wealthy. His
fortune was passed on to Emma who was his only child. He died at an early age, possibly he had contracted Consumption. Emma was just 3 years old.
extracted from the notes of Roy Paddock
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Incredible as it may appear numerous Banditts, with the necefsary
appurtenances of Romance, have been located at Wickwar, Gloucestershire, for more than 7 years during which period although they have been the terror of the Neighbourhood and have extended their depredations over an extensive space of Country, they have contrived to elude the prying Eye of Justice - Last week however, in consequence of some suspicious circumstances, the Police were induced to pay a visit to Yate Common, where they took into Custody an old man name of Mills, his wife, and their 4 sons and immediately after their apprehension, these persons disclosed the history of the lawless community with which they had been connected.
The whole Gang is supposed to have amounted to upwards of 40, of
which number, we understand, that 31 men and women have been apprehended. It appears, that connected with a Kitchen, in Old Mill's house, in Yate Common, these Banditts had constructed a subterraneous cave, the entrance to which, was behind the fireplace, where the soot and a large pot affectually prevented the slightest suspicion, and in this cave the officers found 20 sides of bacon, quantities of cloth, wheat, barley, oats, malt, cheese, two bedsteads and 50£, chiefly in half-crown pieces.
The accounts which have reached us of the depredations of the Gang
almost exceed belief.
It has been no uncommon thing for a Farmer to rise in the morning
and find the greater part of his Furniture, Pigs, Poultry, Cheese be swept away: and the cave or depository, was so well contrived, that all search for the property was invariably made in vain - Besides the family of old Mills, a man of the name of Gardner, his wife and 2 sons, are in custody. We understand also, that among the prisoners, is a Parish Clerk; and that a shopkeeper, at Wotton under Edge, stands charged with having been employed in the purchase and sale of the stolen property.
Since the apprehension of the Thieves, a great number of people
have been flocking to Wickwar from the surrounding country, attracted either by curiosity or to give information of robberies. As there is no Gaol in the place, the prisoners are distributed among the different public houses. Two of them made their escape on Sunday morning, but we understand, they have since been taken in the woods. One of old Mill's sons is said to have confefsed, that some years ago, his elder brother and his father, murdered their grandmother, by strangling her with a handkerchief.
Two of the gang, we hear, were from Kingswood. At the date of our
last account, the parties in custody, were hourly disclosing the names of their confederates, and it was expected, that several others, would shortly be apprehended. It is impofsible to describe the interest which the affair has excited in the neighbourhood; and the cave is already connected in popular belief, with many a tale of terror and blood.
So far from this gang of depredators having been "located at
Wickwar for more than 7 years" to the honor of its inhabitants, and of the poor especially, be it recorded, that not one of these desperados resided in, or belonged to, the parish of Wickwar but, for furthering the ends of justice, and to accommodate the numerous persons taken into custody, the Magistrates held daily sittings in the Town of Wickwar, and from that circumstance, and that only, originated the unfouded report of those depredators having been "located at Wickwar for more than 7 years".
With thanks to Mike Hale for putting this on the internet.
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Copied from the Wickwar History Notebook - the original of which was
found to have been published in a Bristol Newspaper in the year 1826 |
APPREHENSION OF A FORMIDABLE gANG OF tHIEVES
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INDEX LIST
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HANNAH HALE
HER FAMILY
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THE HALES
OF
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
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The Trial and Conviction
as reported in 1826
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A HALE BRANCH
IN ENGLAND
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A Hulk with Prisoners bound for Botany Bay
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The accepted wisdom of the upper and ruling classes in 18th century
England was that criminals were inherently defective. Thus, they could not be rehabilitated and simply required separation from the genetically pure and law-abiding citizens. Accordingly, lawbreakers had to be either killed or exiled, since prisons were too expensive.
Although not confined behind bars, most convicts in Australia had
an extremely tough life. The guards who volunteered for duty in Australia seemed to be driven by exceptional sadism. Even small violations of the rules could result in a punishment of 100 lashes by the cat o'nine tails. It was said that blood was usually drawn after five lashes and convicts ended up walking home in boots filled with their own blood - that is, if they were able to walk at all. |
Port Arthur Prison,Van Diemans Land, Tasmania
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This page last modified on Sunday, March 01, 2009
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The first 736 convicts banished from England to Australia
landed in Botony Bay on January 26, 1788. Over the next 60 years, approzimately 50,000 criminals were transported from Great Britain to the "land down under," in one of the strangest episodes in criminal-justice history. During the first 20 years of their establishment, the hulks received around 8000 convicts. Almost one in four of these died on board. Hulk fever, a form of typhus that flourished in dirty, crowded conditions, was rife, as was pulmonary tuberculosis. Most of the deaths on board were caused by neglect. With adequate medical care thousands of lives could have been saved. |