TRANSPORTATION TO TASMANIA
HOBART, TASMANIA
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

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.


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
INDEX LIST
HANNAH HALE
HER FAMILY
THE HALES
OF
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
The Trial and Conviction
as reported in 1826
A HALE BRANCH
IN ENGLAND
A Hulk with Prisoners bound for Botany Bay
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
This page last modified on Sunday, March 01, 2009
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.