Previous editions of the newsletter of Glemsford Local History Society newsletter have contained contributions from the Totman and Watkinson families about their connections with Australia, through the offices of the 19th Century legal system.
John Slater has provided us with further evidence of the "connection", and the workings of that legal system, with some extracts from the reports of the Suffolk Assizes from the "Bury and Suffolk Free Press". They make salutary reading.
23 January 1828
James Oakley and John Hamm, of Glemsford, for stealing 2 horses and 2 saddles from the Reverend E.D. Batts of Glemsford.
Transported for Life
16 January 1839
John Sargent, for stealing a fat pig from Farmer Wales of Glemsford
15 years Transportation
19 January 1842
David Clark, age 21, of Glemsford, for stealing 13 watches and £3 from Geo. Carter
10 years Transportation
19 January 1842
Geo. Oakley, age 42, of Glemsford, for stealing 6 bushels of turnips
7 years Transportation
10 April 1844
Jabez Copsey and Stephen Boreham of Glemsford, for setting fire to James Allen's barn, Glemsford, sentenced to be
Transported for Life
September 1847
John Gridley, of Glemsford, for stealing a knife and handkerchief from Chas. Payne
7 years Transportation
John has also provided the following supporting information and comment.
Between 1828 and 1853, within a 10 mile radius of Sudbury, 62 men, 3 women and a 9 year old boy were transported to the colonies.
The average agricultural wage for a 70 hour week (if employment was available). The Wage Bill for a Long Melford farm, for the week ending 24 May 1839, for the employment of 13 men and 5 boys, totalled £5 16s 0d. By comparison, the annual income (from tithes and glebeland) for 1846, for the Reverend George Coldham, Rector of Glemsford, was £826 0s 0d, an average of £16 per week. The "Suffolk and Essex Free Press" reported in March 1849 that the Rev. Geo. Coldham of Glemsford prosecuted Geo. Gooday, age 66, for stealing some potatoes. Gooday was sentenced to 1 month's gaol. The Rev. Coldham said he had employed Gooday as an act of Charity, to keep him off the Parish.