WILLIAM HOLLINGSWORTH BUTLER

[daleaway]

This young chap was transported in 1840 for felony.

Where would I look to find out whether he stayed in Australia and became a settler? Is there anything online?

Or is he your ancestor?

(I'll confess - it was my gg grandfather who brought the prosecution, and I'm curious to know what happened to the thief).


Thanks for any light you can shed.

[ChristineR]

According to the name index on the Tasmania Archives website ....

Butler, William Hollingsworth - arrived 19 Jan 1841 in Tasmania, via the ship Hindostan (2) left from London, 07 Oct 1840.

He did not apply for permission to marry during his sentence in Tasmania, or later apply to marry a convict woman.
The Tasmania BDM index does not show any marriages or birth of children with him using his middle name, and the name William Butler is pretty common.

I had a look in the BDM index for Victoria (mainland Australia)
There is a possibility that he married Ann LEE/LEA, as there is a child registered as William Hollingsworth George BUTLER with those parents. They had 9 children from 1855 - 1870, six of them dying in infancy. Only once does the index give the hint of a middle name for the father - and then it is just a H. The later death of an adult child says Holdsworth, so I reckon that is supposed to be Hollingsworth.

I shall try and find his death later, and have a look in Tasmania for his marriage to Ann - have to go to work now

Christine

[daleaway]

Thanks so much Christine - most interesting. I'll look forward to anything else you can locate.

[ChristineR]

I couldn't find anything definite on this fellow - without the middle name or an idea of age, he could be any one of numerous deaths. Marriage not obvious anywhere either, so this Victorian family could be a family that emigrated.

He could be the 24 year old William Butler who died 1842 in Tasmania.

Convict records are available for a fee from Archives of Tasmania.

https://www.archives.tas.gov.au/

Christine

[daleaway]

Thanks Christine.

No, WH Butler was not 24 in 1842, so far as we know he was 18 then.

An account of the Butler trial is in the Old Bailey records here:

https://tinyurl.com/6k6jop

The marriage you found in Victoria sounds quite plausible.

Your help is much appreciated.

Dale

[ChristineR]

If you are overwhelmingly interested in confirming if it is the same fellow, a Victorian birth certificate (after June 1853) will tell you how old the father is, his birthplace and occupation. Will also say when and where they married - but they can fib.

Victoria BDM also has the facility to download the image of the record instantly - $A17.50 the last time that I did so.
https://online.justice.vic.gov.au/bdm/home

from the registration indexes...
Father: William BUTLER
Mother: Ann LEE
all but the first birth were registered at Collingwood, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne (Port Phillip). Date is registration year.

BUTLER, Mary Ann, 1855, Sandhurst (a gold mining town, now Bendigo, central Victoria)
BUTLER, Wm Hollingsworth, 1856 - reg no:135 - died aged 2 in 1858
BUTLER, John Thomas Friday, 1857 - died aged 3 in 1860
BUTLER, Wm Hollingworth (sic) Geo, 1858 - reg no: 15209 - died aged 11 weeks 1859
BUTLER, William Roberts, 1861 - died 1913
BUTLER, Thomas Albert, 1863 - died aged 19 months 1865
BUTLER, Annie, 1865 - died aged 8 months 1865
BUTLER, Charles Alfred, 1867
BUTLER, Henry John, 1870 - reg no: 7020 - he died 1935

This last birth certificate should list all previous children by names and ages, living and dead.

Christine

[AussiePaul]

This young chap was transported in 1840 for felony.

Where would I look to find out whether he stayed in Australia and became a settler? Is there anything online?

Or is he your ancestor?

(I'll confess - it was my gg grandfather who brought the prosecution, and I'm curious to know what happened to the thief).


Thanks for any light you can shed.

William Hollingsworth Butler was my Great Great Great Grandfather on my mother’s side, and the first (possibly) of five generations of William Robert Butler. I have only just started research on that side of the family, but I can confirm he married Ann Lee, he was a hawker, died in 1896 at Lyndhurst, and is buried in Melbourne General Cemetery (PLOT: MGC-COE-Comp-X-No-636). Do you have any genealogy information prior to his deportation to the colonies?

[Jofeath]

Hi, I’m a descendant of Jane and Thomas Key, owner of the toy shop in Paddington from which William stole some cotton and thread and for which he was sentenced to transportation for 10 years. I’m glad to know that he survived incarceration and that least one of his children survived and produced descendants like you, Paul. I can see from baptism records that he was baptised in St James Paddington On 6 March 1825. His parents were Elizabeth and Robert Butler, who was a bricklayer.

[AussiePaul]

Thank you for that information. It is very much appreciated. You have just added another generation to my mother’s branch of the family tree.

[daleaway]

Pleased my 12 year old query led to a good result for you,Paul. This group is a wonder.

Jofeath, didn't we meet in 2006 at the Devenport/Key family reunion? I was the one on crutches!