THOMAS PREECE Born abt 1807Herefordshire,

[lizrenshaw]

Thomas Preece was transported to Australia in 1830. Tried at Gloucester Assizes. Father John Preece and Mary Maddox.

In 1843 he applies to marry in New South Wales but is refused as he has stated that he has a wife and 3 children in England.

I am interested in who he married in UK and names of children. This branch of PREECE family seem to reside around Hereford I think.

Looking for ideas on how to locate information on Thomas's marriage .... thanks

[janbooth]

Hello and welcome to BG,

According to my Herefordshire Marriage Index, John PREECE married Mary MADDOX at Bredwardine on 11 June 1797 by licence, he being shown as of the parish of Dorstone.

Is your Thomas PREECE the one who was convicted at Gloucester on 7 April 1830 for stealing from a dwelling house and given a life sentence? If so, his birthdate is given as c1805. Ancestry have several criminal records for him and he is shown as being aboard the prison hulk Dolphin having been received from Gloucester on 13 May 1830. I have found his application to marry Sarah MARTIN in which it stated he is aged 37, arrived on the Florentia and was sentenced to Life.

I have been trying to ascertain where he was living when he was convicted. If I have the correct Thomas PREECE, it looks from the Criminal Registers available on Ancestry that he was sentenced to Death for Housebreaking which was commuted to Transportation for Life. He was born c1805, was of the parish of Castlemorton when convicted and was a Stone Mason. In theory this should help us to find him from the baptismal records of his 3 children but Worcestershire parish register records do not seem to be available online, always assuming that Castlemorton is where his family were living and baptised. Therefore unfortunately it is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Do you have any other information on Thomas PREECE that may help us to track him in the UK and have I found the correct criminal records for your Thomas PREECE?

Janet

[Megan Roberts]

Ancestry have a record set called “Gloucestershire, England, Prison Records. 1728-1914”. You can find the following for Thomas Preece:

No. 38 aged 25 - House-breaking sentenced to death at the Lent assizes held 7 April 1830, held in the County Gaol, Gloucester. He was from the parish of Castlemorton and a stonemason. He was sent from there on 12 May 1830, by which time his sentence had been commuted to transportation for Life.

One of the documents, Register of Prisoners, will give you full details of his crime and a full physical description.

Findmypast has a different set of records to Ancestry and these provide more information through their set of records covered by “England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935”:

These show that he appealed. HO17 : Home Office: Criminal Petitions: Series I
Apparently he hadn’t been in prison before but he had been convicted of poaching. The appeal consists of various people swearing affidavits in support of Thomas and his co-accused. There is also a letter from Thomas to his brother in law which mentions his wife but not her name, and also his children. There are a large number of documents which would take some reading, but I think that the gist of it is that his supporters believed him not guilty. In one of the letters it talks about his wife making her way through London with an infant in her arms to see her unfortunate husband in Chatham aboard the prison hulk Cumberland. I have just spotted a letter from Eliza Preece supporting her husband. All the original documents are there and can be downloaded. Obviously it was not successful.

The appeal itself did not affect the issue of clemency with regard to the death penalty – that was just standard practise. See the letter to the Justices of Assize for the Oxford Circuit dated 29 April 1830 (page 3) and the letter to the trial judge dated 18 May 1830 both in “HO13 Correspondence And Warrants”.

He was actually sent to the Cumberland, and you can see the records for that in both the ADM6 series and the HO8 series. For some reason that I have never had an answer to, all the convicts on the Cumberland also appear in the records of the Dolphin also found in the ADM6 series. The ADM6 series give lots of information about the person, where as HO8 series are the quarterly reports which deal with their behaviour and healthy.

So from ADM6 he had a wife and 3 children and was sent off on the Florentia on the 4th of August 1830, and his Character, disposition, connections and former course of life were bad. Orderly in gaol. Now from other research that I have been doing I believe that report came with him from Gloucester, rather than being what was written about him by the Cumberland.

[lizrenshaw]

Thanks for helping with this brickwall. These records are providing excellent lines of inquiry. Thomas and his wife appear to have lived at Castlemorton. Are the birth and marriage registers available online for 1800 - 1850?.

It would seem that Eliza Preece was left with 3 children when Thomas was transported can you suggest other records where she may show up after he leaves UK?

[Megan Roberts]

Castlemorton is actually in Worcestershire. If you go to:
https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/Gazetteer/
and enter “Castlemorton” in the place name box it will show on a map exactly where it is.

Prior to 1837 if you are looking for BMD records you have look at church records. After 1837 all BMDs were supposed to be recorded with the civil authorities.

Church records – there is never one place that has all records. It depends upon whether they were Anglican (Church of England), Catholic, non –conformist etc. There was no automatic need to baptise a child. Marriages had to be conducted in the Anglican church. Everybody has to be buried.

Findmypast has Worcester parish records which will be the Anglican records. FamilySearch has baptisms and marriages for Castlemorton. The link below will take you to the Archer Software page will lets you select the Castlemorton records rather than searching the whole of the FamilySearch site.
https://www.archersoftware.co.uk/igi/fs-wor.htm

After 1837 BMDs need to be registered with the civil authorities and these can be search on line with Ancestry, Findmypast, FreeBMD etc. These are indexes only and certificates should only be purchased from the GRO at:
https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/c...es/default.asp
You can also search for free the birth and death indexes at the same site. They contain more information that the other sites mentioned because the birth index contains the mother’s maiden name and the death index contains the age of the deceased.

The other records to look for her would be in the Censuses of 1841 and 1851. These can be looked at on line at Ancestry, Findmypast or Family Search. The 1841 Census is not very helpful – the ages are out by +/- 5 years and there are no relationships given, or marital status. The 1851 census has more information.

[janbooth]

Clutching a bit at straws here, but given the Hereford link, I wonder if this 1851 census record Hereford St Peter could be relevant to you (HO107/1978, folio 270, page 26):

Gaol Lane, City Prison

Eliza PREECE Prisoner Mar 40 Mason's Wife Hereford

There is a marriage on the Herefordshire Marriage Index at Hereford St Peter on 23 September 1824 for a Thomas PREECE and an Eliza RUDGE which given the timescale of your Thomas being married and having 3 children prior to his conviction could fit timewise.

Trouble is that we do not have an awful lot of information about Thomas, Eliza or their 3 children in the UK. We only know that Thomas was living at Castlemorton when he was convicted, that he was a Stone Mason born c1805 and you presumably know from his Australian records that his parents were John PREECE & Mary MADDOX who were married at Bredwardine, John being shown as of Dorstone. So Thomas could have married in Herefordshire or elsewhere and as we do not know the names of his children, it is difficult to search for their baptisms. The most likely baptism I can find for Thomas is one at Bosbury, Herefordshire on 1 March 1807, son of John & Mary PREECE. I cannot find one at Dorstone or Bredwardine which are the two parishes mentioned on the marriage record of John PREECE & Mary MADDOX.

Janet

[Megan Roberts]

Clutching a bit at straws here, but given the Hereford link, I wonder if this 1851 census record Hereford St Peter could be relevant to you (HO107/1978, folio 270, page 26):

Gaol Lane, City Prison

Eliza PREECE Prisoner Mar 40 Mason's Wife Hereford

Hereford Gaol records - Eliza Preece simple larceny 3 indictments - before convicted of Felony, 3 convictions - 4 months with hard labour for each offence.

There are a number of other criminal records for an Eliza Preece in Hereford, but I think that there were 2 ladies of the same name, one whose husband's name was John. One of them was an habitual criminal and ends up at one point in Brixton prison (London).

Findmypast has these records.

[janbooth]

Yes, I saw those records too, Megan. The 1851 census record caught my eye because she is shown as Eliza PREECE not Elizabeth and a Mason's wife. However, whether she is the correct Eliza is still a moot point.

Janet

[Megan Roberts]

Yes, I saw those records too, Megan. The 1851 census record caught my eye because she is shown as Eliza PREECE not Elizabeth and a Mason's wife. However, whether she is the correct Eliza is still a moot point.

Janet

I agree with you Janet.

[grisel]

Not quite sure how I found it ... but the Quarter sessions for Worcestershire Michaelmas 1830 record an Eliza Preece of Castlemorton for keeping peace towards Hannah Lutridge. She is recorded as a widow.