Joseph Finch.
My 4th great-grand uncle.
Joseph was born in England but died young in Australia, one of several convicts from my family tree who ended up being transported as punishment.
He was likely born towards the end of 1800 and baptised on 3 January 1801 at St Mary’s Church in Reigate, Surrey. He was the son of my 5th great-grandfather Thomas Finch and his second wife Mary Holloway.
Joseph appeared in a 12 August 1819 report from the Surrey Summer Assizes. Listed as a labourer, he was sentenced with Thomas Knight to seven years transportation for assault with intent to rob. Interestingly, there is an earlier larceny conviction for a Joseph Finch from 1818 and it’s highly likely this was my ancestor as he was sentenced alongside Thomas Knight. They both received one month imprisonment.
The UK Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books showed Joseph at Woolwich a short time after his second conviction, awaiting his fate on the prison hulk Justicia. His age was given as 18 while his co-defendant Knight was just 14.
A convict by the name of William Derricourt recalled his experiences of the Woolwich hulks about 20 years after Joseph’s conviction. It’s unlikely that his experiences were any better. “Before going on board we were stripped to the skin and scrubbed with a hard scrubbing brush, something like a stiff birch broom, and plenty of soft soap, while the hair was clipped from our heads as close as scissors could go. This scrubbing we endured until we looked like boiled lobsters, and the blood was drawn in many places. We were then supplied with new ‘magpie’ suits – one side black or blue and the other side yellow.
“Our next experience was being marched off to the blacksmith, who riveted on our ankles rings of iron connected by eight links to a ring in the center, to which was fastened an up and down strap or cord reaching to the waist-belt. This last supported the links, and kept them from dragging on the ground. Then we had what were called knee garters. A strap passing from them to the basils and buckled in front and behind caused the weight of the irons to traverse on the calf of the leg.”
Joseph would have to wait a miserable year on the hulks, doubtless being put to work in the area, before being sent to New South Wales, on the ship named Dick along with about 140 other convicts. The Master was William Harrison, Robert Armstrong the surgeon and superintendent. Security was provided by a detachment of the 24th Regiment.
Many of the prisoners were embarked on 20 September 1820. Armstrong had to treat the men for excoriation – where their irons had rubbed – and minor ailments such as headache and loss of appetite after coming aboard, perhaps bought on by the realisation that there was now no turning back. They would never see friends or family again. They departed on 2 October 1820 and didn’t arrive in Port Jackson, Sydney, until 12 March 1821.
Joseph, like many of his comrades, was sick during the journey. The surgeon recorded “disease or hurt, general languor, loss of appetite and troublesome diarrhoea. Put on sick list, 22 January 1821. Discharged 7 February 1821”. And then again: “Disease or hurt, headache, griping pains in the bowels and diarrhoea. Put on sick list, 22 February 1821. Discharged 7 March 1821.”
The New South Wales Convict Indents mention Joseph and his ‘native place’ of ‘Ryegate’. He was said to be 5ft 4ins tall, with hazel eyes and fair hair.
Governor Macquarie inspected the prisoners, as he did frequently during his stay, as reported in the Sydney Gazette on 15 March. The convicts’ “appearance was a sufficient testimony, independent of their grateful acknowledgements of the kindness and humanity with which they had been treated on the voyage. His Excellency was pleased to direct their distribution in the usual manner”.
But Joseph did not live long, and certainly not long enough to put down roots in Australia. He died on 10 June 1821 in Sydney and he was buried the next day at St Philip’s Church in the fledgling settlement. Perhaps the illnesses during the voyage had weakened him and he’d never quite recovered.
Sources: Ancestry.com, Findmypast.com, Surrey Record Office BMDs. Prisoner recollections from Old Convict Days by William Derricourt (aka Day) edited by Louis Belke, The New Amsterdam Book Company, New York, 1900. Sydney Gazette.