Quote Originally Posted by Coromandel View Post
Hello there and welcome to the forum

The 'Leviathan' was one of a number of prison hulks where those sentenced to transportation were held before transfer to a convict transport ship. Many of the prisoners on the hulks never got transported, but served out their sentence on the hulks, or died there, or were pardoned. During the period you're talking about some prisoners were transported to Bermuda, rather than to Australia, so that's another possibility for your man.

The National Archives, Kew, has quarterly lists of prisoners on the hulks. If you look for John in each quarter after his arrival on the 'Leviathan', you should sooner or later find out what his fate was.

Luckily for you, the quarterly lists for the 'Leviathan' for 1802 to 1836 can be downloaded free from the Documents Online site as part of the 'Digital Microfilm' programme.

(You have to click on 'Add to shopping' and then to 'Checkout' but don't need to part with any money!)

P.S. They're very big files
Thanks for your help,I did look at it but it's hard to read. Thanks anyway.