davyr
17-10-2009, 1:18 PM
My convict ancestor, Charles Rogers, was accused (according to a report in the Sydney Gazette of 22nd June 1837) of attempting to burn down a house and store belonging to Mr. James Milsom, for whom he was working as an assigned servant.
The report says that "Rogers has been fully committed to take his trial", but I can find nothing further about the case.
I have a copy of Charles' Certificate of Freedom dated March 1838. He appears to have worked his way on board ship back to England, where he married in 1844.
Can I assume from the lack of follow-up to the newspaper report, and from his release less than a year later, that the case never came to trial? He would surely have faced the death penalty for such a crime, had he been guilty of it?
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2211547
The report says that "Rogers has been fully committed to take his trial", but I can find nothing further about the case.
I have a copy of Charles' Certificate of Freedom dated March 1838. He appears to have worked his way on board ship back to England, where he married in 1844.
Can I assume from the lack of follow-up to the newspaper report, and from his release less than a year later, that the case never came to trial? He would surely have faced the death penalty for such a crime, had he been guilty of it?
http://newspapers.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2211547