Also the context of the contribution many of their descendants have made to this country. Farmers, teachers, soldiers (especially in WW1), nurses, police and many more. Many of the convicts turned their lives around once they got their Certificate of Freedom. My 3x great grandparents, convicts, had obituaries written for them at their deaths (1891 & 1925) and contain terms like "respected members of the community", "the very best of the old English kind" and "a real gentleman". If only they new their backgrounds & reasons for transportation. They changed their way of life once they married and had a large family and built a happy life for themselves in northern Tasmania.
Very interesting, I didn't realise that people wanted to be transported but can see why if they lived in the slums of the cities. It was extremely hard there at that time
I have one of those as well. Well respected, a pillar of the community. If only......he wasn't my ancestor but what he did to my female ancestor beggars belief. It happened in NSW. He was already a convict. After that he was sent to Tasmania for life, never to return and he didn't. When I found all that had been written about him in family history trees, I soon let them know. Only one person had the nouse to apologise to me. It wasn't me that deserved the apology though. It was her daughters. The three girls, after their mother died from the trauma and breast cancer were themselves assaulted by a bushranger. One aged 3 years.
I so feel for yours Sue. I recently found extra family one of whose dtrs married a chap who was reported in the local paper of 1892 as beating his wife & another 72 yr old woman while drunk, one of many assaults. Their small dtr had to live with an Aunt. In 1894 at his death he was noted as respected & loved by all who knew him. An Odd fellow indeed.
I am a direct descendant of Francis Bowen Jr, Sarah Chandlers brother. Theirs is a story I have been piecing together for some time. Happy to share what I have although much has been covered in this thread. Most of the Bowen brothers hit the Victorian goldfields around the Muckleford diggings near Castlemaine, and had some success. Later Francis was in transportation for the government. It was probably their good fortune on the Goldfields which allowed them to buy adjoining properties at Hesket. (Near Hanging Rock). Richard Bowen would go on to become an alderman of Melbourne (Bourke Ward). It seems a fued developed between the families in later life. I know Richard Chandler travelled to Melbourne with his wife and was living in Collingwood in 1854. I lose track of him then. Did he meet up with his cousins? He and his mothers fate have elluded me thus far.
Before transported on the Lady Nelson to Port Maquarie, Sarah was a servant on a property of Philip Parker King, a noted explorer and son of Phillip Gidley King, 3rd Governor of New South Wales. See Wikipedia entries for both. She was covicted of stealing from PP King and sentenced to 7, if memory serves, years at Port Maquarie.
Welcome in Mark. Re Sarah Chandler see # 30-32. There are two deaths for a Sarah Morris in Sydney Sarah Morris death 1828 age 45 Sarah Morris death 1830 age 33 I thought I saw her birth year in earlier posts but now cannot find it. So, she may be neither of these.
I found a record on Ancestry.com of a burial of a Sarah Chandler in St Johns Cemetery, Parramatta in 1835. Does anyone have access to this record? If so is there any other info is available from it?
I have the St Johns Cemetery book with details of all remaining headstones. She’s not in there but a phone call to St Johns Church, Church Street Parramatta might get you an answer.
Thanks Archie’s Mum, I have read that unmarked graves may not be registered at the cemetery. That’s why I am interested in the Ancestry record. She married Denis Morrow at St Johns Church. This could be my best lead to her ultimate resting place.
I have unconfirmed information that she may have gone back to her previous name. The same source says that Sarah Chandler is in the Parramatta Gaol entry book in 1833.
