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Third Generation
3.
He was baptized on 17 Nov 1805 in Yalding, Kent, England. [St Peter and St Paul Church]. He immigrated in Dec 1823 to Hobart, Van Diemens Land, Australia at `. 'Sir Godfrey Webster'. Convict. Jonathan died on 10 Dec 1856 at the age of 51 in Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia. [Paralysis] His death could probably be attributed in from the earlier attempt to murder him. Died at the Benevolent Asylum. He was buried on 11 Dec 1856 in Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia. [St Stephens Church of England]. [Burial Certificate] Jonathan was taught boot and shoe making by his father. In 1821, Jonathan was charged at the Kent Assizes with "Larceny in a Dwelling House , but he was found not guilty. He was 16 years of age at the time. He was acquitted of this charge. On 17th March 1823 in the Kent Assizes Jonathan Whiting was charged with "Highway Robbery" from a man named Baldwin. On 17 March 1823 he was found guilty and sentenced to death. His reprieve must have occurred between March and August 1823 as Jonathan was put aboard the ship Sir Godfrey Webster on 4 August 1823, and it eventually sailed for Van Diemens Land on 1 September 1823. He was one of 180 male convicts. Jonathan's VDL Convict Department record (1) which is very detailed, is inscribed in red ink transversely across the other writing: Transpd for "Highway Robbery" Gov't report - In custody before Hulk report - Orderly Single Stated this Offence* Highway Robbery from Baldwin, once before for Highway Robbery acquitted. Father and mother live at Maidstone. I worked with him". * Convict's statement of his offence including previous convictions. The above notation was written some two years after the first charge was made against Jonathan and it is not correct in that the charge in 1821 at the Kent Assizes was "Larceny in a dwelling House" although he was acquitted. His behaviour in Hobart after 1824 could be seen as the actions of a man. who felt victimised or even falsely accused and wrongly convicted. It is also entirely possible that he was simply a man who was guilty and hated being a convict. Jonathan was born in 1805 and was 18 years old on arrival in Hobart. Either he stated he was 21 or that age was given to him as that was recorded on arrival. He had taken up the trade of his father and was a shoemaker and bootmaker. He is described as being 5 foot 7 and a half inches tall, with brown hair and eyes. His hometown or Place of Native Origin is shown as Penshey, Kent however this place is now thought to be "Pembury" a town near Tunbridge Wells. (4). A newly uncovered document from the Convict Ship Muster Rolls and Related Records 1790 - 1849 records his "Native Place" as Yalding, Kent which is a part of Maidstone. His origins are certainly in this general area of Kent. He was given the Police number 550 and on another of his convict records, it was noted after the description of his sentence (Life) that he was "To be kept (struck through) worked in chains for 4 years of that period" The convicts were a major source of cheap labour on many of the building projects then under way in Hobart Town and many such buildings survive to this day. They were also assigned to free settlers who could afford to feed and clothe them. Although the work was generally hard, it could also be argued that being out in the fresh air each day was better than being continuously locked up in a dank cell. In early 1824 Jonathan was assigned to a settler named George Meredith (1777-1856) who had arrived with his family in 1821 aboard the vessel Emerald. He seems to have worked satisfactorily until 22 February 1825 when he was found guilty in court of "Imposing on the Colonial Surgeon by feigning sickness". He was sentenced to 50 lashes by Magistrate J. Scott and returned to the "Prisoners' Barracks 2nd Class". The punishment of lashes was usually carried out with the Cat O' Nine Tails, a knotted cord whip that was in common use on His Majesty's ships and in gaols in the 18th and 19th Centuries. In an 1826 Assignment List, Jonathan was "Assigned to Mr. Bisdee". John Bisdee (1796 - 1862) For at least the next two years, Jonathan seems to have behaved in an acceptable manner, perhaps by being under the watchful eye of his gaoler. During this time he was re-assigned to a settler named Peter Degraves. Jonathan Whiting was not always on the right side of Mr. Degraves and on 9 December 1826 (14) was again in court on the charge "Absent from his master's premises last night at half past 8 o'clock". He was "reprimanded" Shortly after, on 13 January 1827 he was again in court where he was judged guilty of being "Found in the new Police Office last night between 9 and 10 o'clock in company with the female prisoners lately landed from Sir Charles Forbes". This offence could not be absolved with a reprimand and Jonathan was consigned to "Chain Gang 2 months". Just before his time on the chain gang would have ended, Jonathan appeared again in court on 7 March 1827 and was found guilty of "Neglect of Duty and repeatedly fighting with the Men employed in the gang". His sentence was "extended one month in chain gang". Jonathan remained an assigned convict to Peter Degraves and after his spell on the chain gang, managed to stay out of trouble until 27 January 1829 when he faced the charge "Riotous conduct in the streets and absent from his lodgings after hours at night". The magistrate's decision was "Discharged no proof". We can only imagine what alleged mischief he might have been up to - there is a pattern in the timing of Jonathan's transgressions in that most of them occurred in the summer months. Was he just hot under the collar? Still an unwilling member of the growing Degraves commercial and industrial enterprise, an Assignment List for 1830 confirms Jonathan was "Assigned to Mr. Degraves". On 6 April 1830 he was found guilty of "Being in company with Lydia Chandler a convict illegally at large in the house of one Colley yesterday morning and with falsely stating he was free". He was sentenced to "50 lashes". Eight months later on 28 December 1830 Jonathan was found guilty of "Being found drinking at Morrissey's public house yesterday with Captain Bamber's female assigned servant whom he took from the gate of the Police Office". He was sentenced to "10 days Tread Wheel". Sometime in 1832, Jonathan Whiting received a Ticket of Leave as he was considered to have served his time in penal servitude ( 9 years out of a Life sentence, reflecting perhaps his record of good and bad behaviour ). So far, I have been unable to find any record of how he spent his time after he received his T-o-L but we could assume he was able to use his trade training and pursue a living as a shoemaker in Hobart. Whatever his circumstances, Jonathan fell foul of the law once again and on 24 July 1833 whilst holding a T.o.L., he was charged with "Stealing 9 lbs. Mutton of the Value of 3 shillings of the Goods etc. of James Miller on the 23rd inst". He was committed for trial and on 8 August 1833 in the Supreme Court, Hobarton received a sentence of 7 years. it appears Jonathan remained in the Prisoners' Barracks or within the Hobart Gaol and was put to work on public works including stretches on the chain gang - the 1833 Assignment List shows him at "Public works" Is it possible that a clerical error on that Assignment List could have enabled Jonathan to have quietly slipped out of the view of the authorities? Originally, he was recorded as "Absconded per Brig 'Bee' Sept 1833" which was in fact the notation required for the next man on the list, John Walker. Researchers can still see the original writing and the erasure and the correct notation of "Public works" On 23 April 1834 whilst a member of No.2 Chain Gang, Jonathan was found to be drunk, though whether this was during the day or night is not recorded. He was reprimanded. As a recidivist or repeat offender after transportation, Jonathan could well have been sent to the Port Arthur Penal Establishment after his conviction for the theft of mutton above, however this did not happen and he remained in Hobart and it appears, on the No.2 Chain Gang. In a letter dated 29 May 1834 (left) to the Colonial Secretary, Josiah Spode the Muster Master of the Principal Superintendent's Office, wrote: Sir, I have the honour to furnish a list of Men going to be embarked this day for Port Arthur in accordance with your Letter of the 6th Instant, and will thank you to issue (ifsue) the necessary (necefsary) instructions both for their Victualling, and also for the Guard. I have the honour to be Sir, Your very obedient Servant Josiah Spode Attached was a handwritten list of 56 convicts who were to be transported on the convict ship Isabella including: · 550 Jonathan Whiting, Sir Godfrey Webster (1823) · 1452 James Bolwell, Clyde (1830) · 102 Thomas Ross, Admiral Cockburn (1819) These three men had been specially chosen to go to Port Arthur because each was a shoemaker by trade and the authorities had decided that there was good reason to use the workshop there. The official record shows "Ordered by His Excellency to be sent to Port Arthur being Shoemakers". As we see later, the shoe and boot making output at Port Arthur was growing in volume and reputation. On an 1835 Assignment List, Jonathan is listed as "Transported to Port Arthur". After twelve months at Port Arthur, Jonathan was again in trouble, this time on 6 May 1835 for "Contemptuous language towards Mr. G.W. Jackson". For this offence Jonathan was sentenced to 7 days solitary confinement and this would have been carried out by restriction to his cell at all times, except for a daily exercise period. All meals were eaten in his cell and silence had to be observed at all times. The solitary cells were behind the prisoners' barracks in the 1830s and solitary confinement seems to have been introduced at Port Arthur in 1834. Sentences were generally between two and twenty one days. Towards the end of the year, on 11 December 1835 Jonathan was hauled up before the Port Arthur authorities on a charge of "Quarrelling and creating a disturbance while at labor (sic) in the shoemaker's shop." He was reprimanded although how this was done is not recorded. The relatively light punishment he received could have been in recognition of his bootmaking skills as the reputation of the footwear made at Port Arthur as mentioned above, was outstanding. After only one year and eight months at Port Arthur, Jonathan was returned to Hobart Town and the life of an assigned convict. He is recorded on 29 January 1836 at Norfolk Plains, (now Longford, north-west of Hobart) assigned to an unknown settler or on Public Works. Shortly after that, on 22 March 1836 he is recorded at Campbell Town on the Midland Highway, again assigned to an unknown settler or on Public Works. Nevertheless, it is recorded that on 7 July 1838, Jonathan Whiting, as a Ticket of Leave man, applied for permission to marry Ellen Bradshaw and his request was approved a few days later on 10 July. (4) By then, Jonathan was 33 years old and his bride-to-be was only 18 but the marriage had the blessing of at least her brother Henry, who was a witness to the marriage along with Margaret Lowe . They married in the Holy Trinity Parish Church in Hobart on 13 August 1838 Jonathan had been granted Conditional Pardon No. 324 on 6 April 1842. The actual citation reads" Conduct being good for some time past and being eligible by servitude in the Colony and with Ticket of Leave" Jonathan and family appear is the Van Diemens Land Census of the Year 1848. (20). This was conducted in early January of that year and shows the family living in a brick dwelling at 105 Argyle Street, Hobart. Within a year, Jonathan and Ellen and their extended family moved to Sydney Town and another chapter in their lives began. It is unclear exactly how the migration to Sydney took place but we know the Whitings were in Hobart for the 1848 census but also the "Comprehensive Registers of Convicts" (3) shows that on 10 April 1849 Jonathan was granted another Conditional Pardon. There is no indication why he received a second CP. Three months later, their third son Oliver was born in Sydney or at least his birth was registered in Sydney. Then there is a record of their occupation in Sydney in 1851, so it appears likely they moved during the second half of 1849. Jonathan Whiting's task now was to establish himself in trade as a bootmaker and to provide for his family which included his father-in-law, Thomas Bradshaw. There are only two references to Jonathan's life and work over this period and they are in the "Roll of Electors for the Electoral Division of Sydney (various Wards) for the Year 1851-52" which shows him living in a dwelling house in Goulburn-street and in "Ford's Sydney Directory and Sydney Commercial Directory for 1851" which shows John Whiting, Shoemaker, Goulburn-street and Whiting, J. Boot and Shoemaker, Goulburn-street East. This latter book is compiled of information up to 31 December 1850. From this, we may deduce that Jonathan was operating his shoemaking business from his home dwelling, not uncommon for the times. Things didn't turn out the way Jonathan may have planned because in early March 1853, Jonathan was viciously attacked by a man named Molloy and a contemporary newspaper account of the time in The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser, issued on Saturday 9 April 1853 which was originally reported in The Sydney Morning Herald, stated: "Remanded for sentence - William Molloy was indicted for assaulting Jonathan Whiting, with intent to do bodily harm, at Sydney, on the 16th of March. The men had had a quarrel, and about nine o'clock that night Molloy quietly approached Whiting, who was sitting on his door step, in Kent-street, when Whiting received a sudden blow on the head with some instrument, which knocked him senseless, inflicting a blow of a serious character. Molloy was seen by a passer by to throw away a stick and run away, but no one saw the blow actually struck. The medical gentleman who attended Whiting said that the blow would have caused death had it fallen a little lower on the head. The defence made was an attempt to prove that the man who ran away was not Molloy. Guilty; seven years on the roads, the first two years in irons." Jonathan Whiting's working life was effectively over as he must have been severely disabled in the murder attempt. He was admitted to the Benevolent Asylum in Sydney on 1 June 1854 and stayed for a month. He was later admitted again and the Inmates' Journal for 10 December 1856 records "Issued for Jonathan Whiting - coffin - indecipherable - to Revd. C. C. Kemp" Jonathan WHITING and Ellen
BRADSHAW were married on 13 Aug 1838 in
Hobart, Van Diemens Land, Australia.
Ellen BRADSHAW, daughter of Thomas BRADSHAW and Margaret GRIMES, was born in 1822 in Warrington, Lancashire, England. She died on 1 Dec 1893 at the age of 71 in Petersham, New South Wales, Australia. [Apoplexy].
Jonathan WHITING and Ellen
BRADSHAW had the following children:
She died on 23 Dec 1838 at the age of 0 in Hobart, Van Diemens Land, Australia. married Thomas Salisbury YATES, 5 Jul 1875, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia died 2 Sep 1895, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia married ElIzabeth Ann HASSON, 30 Nov 1867, Burwood, New South Wales, Australia died 26 Mar 1894, Burwood, New South Wales, Australia She died on 26 Mar 1845 at the age of 0 in Hobart, Van Diemens Land, Australia. [Convulsion]. He died on 29 Sep 1845 at the age of 0 in Hobart, Van Diemens Land, Australia. [Convulsion]. married Louisa Eliza TYE, 11 Sep 1866, South Sydney, New South Wales, Australia died 16 Sep 1923, Mitchell, Queensland, Australia He was christened on 13 Aug 1849 in Picton, New South Wales, Australia. [Church of England]. He died on 15 Jan 1852 at the age of 2 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She died on 10 Mar 1854 at the age of 3 in Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia. Rachael was christened in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. [St Laurence Church of England]. She was buried on 12 Mar 1854 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. [St Andrews]. married Mary Theresa Catherine KEARNEY, 24 Feb 1874, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia died 30 Jan 1923, Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia |
