WEST BRITON NEWSPAPER, 17 FEB 1854 (Page 1)
ESCAPE OF PRISONERS - £2 REWARD. The following are descriptions of two men who made their escape on Wednesday evening last, as they were being conveyed from Callington to Bodmin Goal (sic) for stealing corn and fowls. One of the men is called Thomas Tamlyn, the other Simon Tamlyn; they are brothers. Simon Tamlyn is about five feet four inches, rather dark complexion, very dark hair and whiskers - the whiskers are shaved off even with his ears, and his hair bushy. He had on when he left a dark-green velvet jacket, red flourished-up plush waistcoat, light fustian trowsers, high shoes, almost new, plates on the toes and scutes on the heels; there are three hob-nails in the heel of the right foot shoe and two in the left foot shoe-heel, and two or three nails gone out of one of the inside rows of the same shoe. He had on a pretty good hat.
Thomas Tamlyn is something taller than Simon, and much slighter; had on a dark frock-coat, black waistcoat, and fustian trowsers, very dirty; long flannel drawers, very dirty and torn; high shoes, with the heels cowed down pretty much, and half of each heel-scute gone; hair much the colour as the other man's; in person, small and spare. Thomas is about 41 or 42 years of age, and Simon is several years younger. Thomas had on a very poor hat. All reasonable expenses will be paid, and £1 given for the taking of each man.
Information to be given to Mr Henry Bullen, Constable, Callington. Dated 8th February, 1854.
If you are interested in Criminal History from either an academic or family history perspective, I can do no better than recommend two books by David T Hawkings FSG: "Bound for Australia", Phillimore, Chichester, 1987 and "Criminal Ancestors", Alan Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 1992.
When I started to trace the misfortune of my great great great grandmother, Hannah Mayes (see "Research at the PRO"), I found her name in the local newspaper at the time of her appearance in court, with a note of the charge against her. On 21 October 1825, she was found guilty of stealing a sovereign and five shillings' worth of halfpence and the newspaper noted she was sentenced to transportation for seven years.
The next step was to find a record of the trial but unfortunately, Leicester Borough Quarter Sessions records no longer exist for that time. If it had been at the Assizes, I could have looked at the PRO but Sessions are kept at the county record offices (when they survive.) So, I started with the assumption that she had gone to Australia and checked records of the hulks, of the ships used for transportation and of the colonies themselves. This last category includes the census and muster of New South Wales.
I found nothing about Hannah Mayes except a basic record of the facts in the Criminal Register but did spot one or two people from Leicestershire and Cornwall with names of interest. Eventually, I discovered that a petition had been raised by the parishioners of Barrow upon Soar and sent to the Home Secretary, Robert Peel. As a result of this, her sentence was commuted to seven years in the Penitentiary. She served this and seems to have been married seven years to the day after being sent down.
Having checked through "Criminal Ancestors," I had several new types of document through which to search. There is a letter book which records when the Bailiffs of Leicester were instructed to send Hannah to the Penitentiary at Millbank in London. Another letter was sent to the Governor of the gaol informing him to expect her arrival. Of most interest, though, is the actual register of convicts for Millbank which gives her dates of arrival and departure, along with personal details like height, colour of eyes, colour of hair and distinguishing features.
