The National Archives have medical journals relating to convicts treated at the Royal Naval Hospital, Bermuda - 48 quarterly volumes covering 1824-1835 (ADM 101/8/4). Patients' names and dates are now included in the online catalogue. From this I discovered that Joshua Oliver died in the Royal Naval Hospital in October 1829.

I've recently been to Kew and seen the original documents. There's considerably more detail there than in the catalogue entry. Joshua died of dysentery. His case is described graphically, with his reduction to a 'perfect skeleton'.

It was one of those spine-tingling moments when you feel really connected with history: there in my hands were the notes written by the doctor who had tried in vain to save Joshua's life. The book was in all likelihood in the hospital in Bermuda where Joshua died in 1829 . . . and then in 2011 it was there in front of me at Kew.

Also at Kew are the quarterly returns for the prison hulks at Bermuda. I was able to trace the three turkey-thieves in these records. After some time on the Weymouth (which remained in Bermuda as a hulk), they were moved to the Coromandel. Later, after Joshua's death, Solomon Oliver was moved again, to the Dromedary. In June 1833 he was transferred to HMS Romney which (after about a month at sea) arrived back in England. Solomon was then held briefly on the Captivity hulk at Devonport. He was pardoned on 6 August 1833, as was the third member of the gang, William Barrett. Solomon must have gone straight back to Oxfordshire, and wasted no time in finding a wife: banns were called for the first time less than a month after his pardon!

I hope (eventually) to write up the story for the Oxfordshire FHS journal.

Joshua was probably buried in the convict cemetery on Ireland Island, Bermuda, which is now maintained by the Bermuda National Trust (there are photos on their website). Only a few of the graves there are marked.