Richard Goulty aka Henry Lock (1801-?).
My 3rd great-grand uncle.
Richard was born on 13 November 1801 in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, to parents Charles Goulty and Rebecca Lock, but as an adult he was transported to Australia for bigamy under the alias Henry Lock.
His parents had Richard baptised at St Fabian & St Sebastian in Woodbastwick two days after his birth and he grew up in and around the village. He married Susanna Church on 21 February 1822 at All Saints Church in Freethorpe, Norfolk, at a time when he was living in the neighbouring parish of Southwood about 10 miles south of his home village. Susanna was baptised in Southwood on 31 August 1800 to parents William and his wife Susanna. There’s no record of Richard and his wife ever having any children.
Quite how successful his relationship was with Susanna is open to question but it can’t have been that strong because on 10 October 1832 he married Ann Hathan in Wyberton, Lincolnshire, using the alias Henry Locke. Lock was, of course, his mother’s maiden name and Henry the name of one of his brothers. As Susanna was still alive and living back in Norfolk, the marriage was bigamous and Richard/Henry was caught and found guilty on 6 March 1833 at the Norfolk Sessions in Norwich of marrying Ann bigamously. He was sentenced to seven years’ transportation to Australia.
The Bury and Norwich Post dated 13 March 1833 reported on the case. Appearing as Henry Lock, the defendant listened as his sister-in-law Mary Goulty confirmed that he’d married Susanna Church in 1822 and that she’d been at the ceremony to witness it. A copy of the parish register was produced as evidence. Ann Hathan then told the court that she was married to the prisoner at Wyberton in 1832 when he was going by the name of Henry Lock. He left her six weeks later but she followed up on news about him, travelling first to Norwich and then to Litcham in Norfolk, where she found him and he confessed that he had already been married.
In reply, Richard/Henry claimed that he had left some clothes with Ann in Wyberton and that later she wouldn’t give them back unless she ‘went’ with him, which she wanted to do as she’d been given notice to leave her home. He had therefore lived with her as man and wife in various places but had never officially married her. Unfortunately for him, his claim that the couple never married was scuppered when another witness produced the record of his marriage to Ann. Not surprisingly the jury found him guilty. Passing sentence, the chairman said he had received a letter from the clergyman of Wyberton confirming the marriage had taken place but he hadn’t mentioned before because he didn’t want to prejudice the jury. He also criticised the prisoner for destroying Ann Hathan’s peace of mind and of damaging her character.
After the trial in March 1833 Henry was sent to the prison hulk Hardy, anchored in Portsmouth Harbour. He was transferred to the convict ship Aurora on 26 June and left Portsmouth on 3 July 1833. The vessel was commanded by Captain Dalrymple Dawson and arrived on 3 November in Sydney, New South Wales.
Three hundred male prisoners arrived in all, the youngest aged just 13, under the close eye of surgeon Alexander Stewart. None had died during the voyage. Also on board were some free passengers and men of the 21st Fusileers. After arriving at Port Jackson the men were mustered on board on 7 November 1833, and details such as their age, education, religion, family, native place, trade, offence, when and where tried, physical description, sentence and prior convictions were recorded. The men were landed and taken to Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, where they were assigned for service. Convict Indent documents on his arrival describe Richard/Henry as a farm labourer, with brown hair and blue eyes, a dark, ruddy and freckled complexion and a hairy chest. He could neither read nor write and claimed to have no children or convictions prior to committing bigamy. He was assigned as a servant to Walter Scott, a free settler who was born in Scotland and arrived in New South Wales in 1823.
Scott had been granted 600 acres of land by the Paterson River, which he named Wallalong, and it was here, in the Lower Hunter Valley, about 180kms north of Sydney, that Richard/Henry worked. The house still exists, although much changed, and is a wedding venue today. In February 1838 Henry was granted his ticket of leave but was restricted to the Paterson area. However, his trail then goes cold. Did he die, change his name again or travel back to the UK?
Was he the Henry Locke who travelled on the ship Dart from Victoria to Sydney in December 1852 (outwards passenger lists)? Or did he become a publican in Sydney? There are several Henry Locks in the records that could be him but there’s no definite link with any of them…
I don’t know what happened to Richard’s wife Susanna.
Sources: Free settler or Felon. Convict Records. BMDs, census criminal records, Prison Hulk records, Convict Pardons and Tickets of Leave (for UK and Australia) at Ancestry.com and Findmypast.com, where I also accessed the British Newspaper Archive. Records confirmed at Norfolk Family History Society. Newspaper records at the National Library of Australia.