John Cecil of Tidenham transported to Australia 1821 (General)

by sidtoomey01 , Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Tuesday, April 27, 2021, 00:24 (1298 days ago) @ JOHN GILBERT

Hi
This may just be a dead end on the Australian connection but there are a couple of possibilities for John Cecil from a quick search.
The following sources are not perfect and i have only looked at Convicts arriving in Australia with the family name of "Cecil". The possibilities i have listed below do not take in to account the possibility these people might have been free settlers.

There were 5 convict records for a John Cecil arriving in Australia.
Your John Cecil in 1821 on the "Adamant". Certificate of Freedom 1828
Also John Cecil in 1835 on the "Mary Anne". Certificate of Freedom in 1842.
Another in Tasmania 1823 and one in 1844
one in West Australia in 1858.

(1) the Queensland and NSW Government registers of Births Deaths and Marriages show only one marriage in the 19th Century for a John Cecil. 6th January John Cecil married Charlotte Mather in Brisbane St Johns Church. They went on to have 8 children and were landowners in Brisbane starting with land records in late 1840's.
There are Ancestry Trees for this one where he has acquired a middle name of "Smith".
I couldn't see any concrete evidence linking him or ruling him out as being your man.
However an obituary for John Smith Cecil giving his age and the length of time in Australia would seem to rule him out.
Maybe some one in these trees have had their DNA done.

(2) There are records on "Trove" relating to Depasturing Licences being granted to a John Cecil in 1837 at Belwyn River, 1838 Yass,,1839 & 1840 Lachlan.
In May 1837 there was a NSW Land Grant of 900 acres to a John Cecil with the location of the land partly described as " 4 miles South of the junction of the Boorowra River with the Lachlan River". County of King is also mentioned.
NSW Government historic land records were available free on line last time i look although tricky to navigate your way through them. With a bit of luck it might be possible to find this block of land and then find out what happened to the ownership of it in the years after 1837.

Depasturing Licences were given to settlers for £10 allowing them to graze their animals on Crown Land.
All of the Land names /districts shown above are generally in the same large area South West of Sydney.

Trying to get a lead through the name "O'Brien" of Richmond to whom John Cecil was assigned would be difficult without a given name or initial. However i will look through the relevant lists to see if O'Brien had other convicts assigned to him and there might be a slim chance one of them will have left records.

Good luck.