William Brooks Wetherill (1820-1903).
My 5th great-uncle.
William Brooks Wetherill was born on 7 March 1820 to Thomas Wetherill and Rebecca Brooks and was baptised on the 12th at St John Timberhill in Norwich, Norfolk. He was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to 10 years’ transportation to Australia.
He grew up in Norwich with his family and must’ve learnt his father’s trade because later documents list him as a watchmaker. But he was soon getting into trouble with the law, according to Convict Indent documents in the Tasmanian archives in Australia. These refer to other sentences he was given, including one month for ‘shoes’ (probably referring to a theft) and three months for vagrancy. It’s said that a charge of stealing cocks was discharged. I’ve yet to find confirmation of these.
The case that resulted in him being transported saw William (his surname reported in the Norwich Mercury of 20 March 1841 as Wetherell) and Matthias Barret charged with breaking into the warehouse of a Robert Forman in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on January 1 that year and stealing 3s in silver and 20s in copper money. Several pieces of rag were found on the premises, one with blood on it. Then, on 5 January, when Wetherell was in custody, constables found that the rags matched missing pieces of lining in his coat. He’d also suffered a cut finger, another link to the bloody rag. Barret owned a chisel that appeared to match marks on the tills that had been forced.
The court hearing was held on 16 March 1841 at Tolhouse Hall in Yarmouth before Recorder Nathaniel Palmer. William was found guilty and sentenced to transportation but Barret was acquitted.
William was committed to the town gaol, before the Mayor of Yarmouth was ordered by the Home Office on 27 March 1841 to arrange his transfer to the prison hulk Warrior at Woolwich. The hulk gaolers would go on to report that he was a healthy prisoner and of good behaviour but he would’ve likely experienced grim times on board for the hulks were notorious for their insanitary and unhealthy conditions, and they could be brutal and dehumanising. Men were chained and food could be poor.
While awaiting transportation, William would’ve been put to work and a lot of hard and laborious tasks were carried out at the Woolwich Arsenal and in the docks, as well as on the banks of the Thames. His time on the hulk was reasonably short – some ended up serving their entire sentences on them – as he was one of around 400 convicts who were finally sent on their way on the ship HMS Tortoise under the command of Capt J Hood in August. The prisoners were put under the watchful eye of Surgeon Thomas Brownrigg as the vessel was readied for sail at Chatham dockyards in Kent. Three officers and 100 men of the 96th Foot Regiment went onboard (along with various wives and children) on 16 August. On the 21st 100 convicts from Woolwich were transferred from a steam vessel to the Tortoise, a group that may well have included William.
The ship sailed a few days later, navigating around the south coast until it moored at Plymouth. During this time additional stores and convicts were brought aboard and the prisoners were issued with shirts, bibles and prayer books. By October the voyage was well underway and New Year was spent moored in Simon’s Bay south of Cape Town in South Africa. During the course of the voyage, several babies were born to the wives of soldiers on board and a few convicts died.
The Tortoise arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on 19 February 1842 and the first inspection of the prisoners was carried out on board by the local authorities on the 22nd. They were finally disembarked on the 25th. The record of William’s arrival in the island we know as Tasmania gives his age as 21, his birthplace as Norwich and his occupation as a watchmaker. He was a protestant, could read and write and was said to be about 5ft 4ins tall, with dark brown hair, blue eyes and a long nose. He sported several tattoos on his arms and left hand, including a heart, anchor, a mermaid and stars.
William was put on probation for 18 months and sent on assignment to the Saltwater Creek station, a small penal colony made up of a farm and the coal mines. Those who worked the latter tended to be the hardened, repeat offenders so it’s more likely that William was employed elsewhere on the site. Up to about 500 convicts would’ve populated the colony at its peak and conditions were poor. Today a few ruins remain.
His time there over, the Hobart Gazette of 1 February 1844 reported on a series of further probation assignments in the town (pictured top), with William mentioned in reference to a William Goody of Elizabeth Street for six months. However, in 1845 he was sentenced to 14 days’ solitary confinement for being absent without leave and out after hours. Further short terms of imprisonment with hard labour followed over the following months for similar offences. The musters of 1849 reveal that he had earned his Ticket of Leave, granted in October 1847, but this was revoked on 2 April 1850 because he was absent from the muster.
What happened to him afterwards is a mystery, including when he had his Ticket of Leave restored. However, he could be the man mentioned in Hobart’s The Courier newspaper in an edition dated Tuesday 6 May 1856. This report referred to news from Melbourne and stated that a William Wetherall had been apprehended on suspicion of being a prisoner of the Crown from Van Diemen’s Land, illegally at large. The man said he was sent out in 1841 for ten years, and had therefore been free for five years; but a constable stated that if that were the case, he would be gazetted free in the Hobart Town Gazette, which be was not. He was remanded for a week, in order that the authorities at Hobart Town could be contacted, but I’ve not found any follow up to this report. A number of reports in the newspapers in subsequent years report on petty crimes committed by a William Wetherall, including attempted buggery / “unnatural offences”, but whether this was our man is unknown.
We do know that he died a lonely death in March 1903 in Crowlands, Victoria. An inquiry heard that William was homeless and had been wandering the district for a month or so. Alfred Stevens, a farmer of Crowlands, spotted William’s body lying in the hollow of a tree on the morning of the 17th. He reported it to the police and later learned that William had been to his father’s house asking for food just a few days earlier.
Constable Casson visited the scene and told the inquiry that he’d found no signs of violence or struggle on William’s body, nor any sign of him having any property. By chance he’d spoken to him a few weeks earlier and learned more about him – that he came from Yarmouth in Norfolk, had been transported for burglary and had arrived on the Tortoise. He told the constable that he was single and had no relatives in Australia. He’d also spoken to the officer on the 7th, when he appeared feeble and was suffering from rheumatics but said that he was otherwise OK.
The inquiry found that the old man had died of exposure. He was buried in the cemetery at Elmhurst in Victoria.
Sources: BMDs and census info at Ancestry and Findmypast.com. Records at Norfolk Family History Society. British Newspaper Archive. Victoria State Archives in Australia. Digital Panopticon. Convict records in Tasmania – Founders and Survivors website