William Marshman

William Marshman (1804-1873) was my 2nd great-grandfather on my father’s maternal side. He was from Somerset, England. I imagine he was called Billy. Aged 17, he was arrested and charged with larceny of a church house (40/-) during divine service, and sentenced to death.

After some months of orderly behaviour on a prison hulk, his sentence was commuted to Transportation to Van Dieman’s Land for life. He sailed alongside 149 other convicts on the Caledonia in 1822. Six prisoners perished on the four-month voyage.

On arrival, Billy told the VDL authorities that he had been tried and convicted of street robbery at a town near Bath, and had served three years and 7 months in gaol at Bath. No doubt it attracted less opprobrium than saying he’d ‘done the local vicar of the church savings’.

He was assigned to a private settler who was responsible for the food and clothing of their convict workers. Landholders were required to take on at least one convict for every 100 acres. Recordkeeping practices were designed to record each convict’s “career”. They were physically described and prior histories recorded. A rigid system was imposed providing rewards and punishments. If Billy behaved himself and proved his worth, he would be granted a Ticket of Leave to work as a free man for the duration of his sentence. More literate convicts could be placed in government service. Those on secondary punishment were sent to gaols around the colony, and to Port Arthur from 1830.

Billy grew into manhood as a farm labourer, now known as Bill. His career was interrupted five years later when he is charged with being in a church house during divine service (again), and sentenced to a chain gang in Newtown for one month.

A few years later, he was tried for conspiring with another fellow to defame the character of his master and sent to a chain gang for 18 months. The ink on the original record has faded, and the abbreviations obscure, but reports a transfer to what might be a P. and an A. (that could be a W) – the newly opened Port Arthur penal settlement. Having served his time without incident, he was reassigned to another farm estate.

In 1836, aged 32, Bill was found guilty of feloniously stealing one sheep to the value of 16/- from Lieutenant Governor Col. George Arthur who banished him to the district of Launceston and suspended his Ticket of Leave.

He was arrested a short while later for being in the district of New Norfolk when he had been ordered to proceed to Launceston. He was sent packing forthwith to Launceston where he was to reside and never leave the town on any account. Later that year, he lodged a complaint to the Lieut, Governor stating that his Ticket of Leave is of no service to him if he is not allowed to leave the town of Launceston. He was granted a transfer to Morven (Evandale) as a free party on condition that he remain there.
His final stoush with the law came in 1839. Perhaps a drunken rant or scuffle? He was arrested for misconduct and later discharged.
Having spent half his life under sentence, Bill was finally granted a conditional pardon and set about making a life for himself as a labourer in the district of Morven. He married a young widow, Catherine Heath, nee Davis.

A good Catholic Irish lass who could read and write, Catherine had sailed to Van Dieman’s Land from her home in Ireland at the age of 20 as a sponsored domestic servant in Launceston. At 21 she married a Charles Heath from Birmingham. He was sentenced to Transportation for 7 years. He worked as a brickmaker, and they produced three daughters before his untimely death from consumption seven years later.

Bill married Catherine three months after the death of her husband, Charles. They had another seven children. Their firstborn, Catherine Jane Marshman, is my great-grandmother. Her daughter, Lillian May Gibson, of Evandale, was my Nan Ellis.

In 1873, William died at the age of 72 and was laid to rest at St Andrew’s Anglican Cemetery in Evandale.