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Can anyone help? I now live in Andorra and in Spain, which makes UK research beyond the Internet rather difficult!

In the Monthly Magazine and British Register V.9, published in 1800, page 407, is a list of news and activities for Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire. It includes the following....

At Gloucester Assizes eight prisoners were convicted capitally, and sentenced to death; three of who were named Palmer, Parsons and Burgum, were left for execution. The two former have since been executed, the latter reprieved.

I failed to find a specific reference to this case during an online search of the National Archives. Eight prisoners capitally convicted, some executed, this must have been a high-profile case? Naturally I would like to know who Mr Burgum was, where he was from, what had he done and what became of him. Would this have been covered by the newspapers of the day?

Any suggestions or help very welcome.

Doug Burgum
(formerly of the Forest of Dean!)

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Can anyone help? I now live in Andorra and in Spain, which makes UK research beyond the Internet rather difficult!

In the Monthly Magazine and British Register V.9, published in 1800, page 407, is a list of news and activities for Herefordshire, Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire. It includes the following....

At Gloucester Assizes eight prisoners were convicted capitally, and sentenced to death; three of who were named Palmer, Parsons and Burgum, were left for execution. The two former have since been executed, the latter reprieved.

I failed to find a specific reference to this case during an online search of the National Archives. Eight prisoners capitally convicted, some executed, this must have been a high-profile case? Naturally I would like to know who Mr Burgum was, where he was from, what had he done and what became of him. Would this have been covered by the newspapers of the day?

Any suggestions or help very welcome.

Doug Burgum
(formerly of the Forest of Dean!)

Maybe it was not one trial, and this is a summary of the Assizes sitting (?)

The online database I use doesn't have Gloucester Assizes in 1800 reported :-(

and they are not coming up in Ancestry's criminal register either

on the Prison Hulks :-

Name: William Burgum
Age: 40
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1763
Date Received: 1 Apr 1803
Ship: Prudentia
Place Moored: Woolwich
Date Convicted: 12 Mar 1800 (Capital respite)
Place Convicted: Gloucester

New South Wales for Life
landed 14th June 1805

looks like he is in the New South Wales census in 1828 William Burgin

--
Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

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The Hulks (old warships)were holding prisons prior to transportation for life or 7 years. There were about 275 capital offences by 1800. Most death sentences were commuted to transportation to Australia. The destination up to c1776 was the American Colonies. The practice started about 1712 I believe. You could be transported for stealing a bag of potatoes! That's the way to do it.

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Hi Doug,
Yes you're right re searching Newspaper Archives, you might like to consider signing-up for the apparently excellent British Newspaper Archive site that "opened" this year. I've yet to subscribe but will do, there's a wealth of great info there and more being added all the time. However please be warned it's own search engine needs "driving with care" if the relevant hits are to be found.
The free search lets you find snippets of articles, you then pay to download it.
Using that search I think this must be your man ?;

article from Hereford Journal of Wednesday 19th March 1800 mentions "WilTunn Burgum, and Daniel Foivell, lor Iheep-ltealing"

As you can see, the search engine sometimes has difficulty with the older fonts !

http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results?basicsearch=burgum%20assizes&am...

Apologies for slow reply, earlier I failed to find this, possibly as I made the mistake of including the word Assizes in the search "box" or more likely just spelt Burgam wrong !; I think the searches look for almost adjacent words in the original text, this site's search engine is definitely a good example of "more is less". Fortunately the surnames not common, if it had been my Jones' for example I'd have set the site's filters by "County" and probably "newspaper" and "date" too, and set for only "news" and not "adverts" etc. My experiences has shown the Hereford newspapers often find Forest items as well as the Gloster papers, and particularly those from an earlier date such as this.

Prior thread which should help re using this website
http://www.forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=34654

Re the BNA website, this page lists all the Newspapers in the site's archive and the dates covered, so for us the local papers are currently
Gloucester Citizen 1877 - 1927
Gloucester Journal 1940 - 1949
Hereford Journal 1781 - 1867
Hereford Times 1832 - 1934

plus the likes of the
Bristol Mercury 1716 - 1900
Western Daily Press 1858 - 1949

And of course the bigger nationals for really major events such as murders etc.
Carefull searching will often find mentions of one's ancestors, particularly if they played sport or were occasional(or even regular!) visitors to court even for apparently trivial offences, such as stealing acorns...!
http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/home/NewspaperTitles

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Thank you so much.

I shall look into that down under! Does anyone know whether the Gloucester newspapers covered the Glos Assizes? Is there an index to them? It sounds like an interesting story if I can piece it together. Wonderful website, by the way.

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From the British Newspaper Archive:-

Northampton Mercury-April 5th 1800
" William Palmer and James Parfons, condemned at Glocefter affizes, were executed on Saturday--William Burgum, for fheep ftealing, is refpited."

Hereford Journal-Wed March 19th 1800
" At Glocefter Affizes, the bufineff at the Crown Bar was not finished till late on Saturday evening, although both the Judges were engaged in the trial of prisoners. Eight criminals received fentence of death, viz. Richard Palmer, for ftealing eight heifers; James Parfons, William Burgum, and Daniel Powell for fheep ftealing; Thomas Bury and Thomas Rigfby, for house-breaking; James Collier, for ftealing cloth; and Isaac Brooks for ftealing 52 guineas: but they were all repreived, except Parfons, and Burgum, who were left for execution."

Sorry-the order of these two should be reversed.

Note the different Christian names of Palmer. It just goes to show how the papers got it wrong even in 1800!

Sounds like William Burgum was a lucky boy!

Hope this helps.

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Google Books

Monthly Magazine - 1800

http://www.google.co.uk/books?id=P1AoAAAAYAAJ

Search inside: Burgum

To read the whole page: Click on 407

'Provisional Occurrences start at page 399'

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This is an excellent website which covers the wide subject of convict transportation Down Under. It contains much historical information wrt the laws, trials, ships and so on and so forth. Also many census lists, although sadly I couldn't find any Burgams even with spelling variations. Also usefull link, etc etc.

http://www.convictcentral.com/

I see sheep stealing earned a 10year sentence in abt 1850 !

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Fascinating stuff Jeff. Thank you :-)

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From the Gloucester Journal March 17th 1800 the report about the eight gives a few more details. The 3 who appear to be from the Forest were;

"William BURGUM, for stealing sheep from Mr POPE of Westbury"

"Thomas BURY, for breaking open the house of Sarah LAND of Hartpury"

"and Daniel POWELL for stealing a sheep from Mr John WATKINS of Newland"

Later in the report it lists those who were sentenced to 12 months imprisonment who included "John LUCEY, for taking a mare from James MEEK, of the Forest of Dean"

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??

FOD records have a marriage of a John LUCEY 25 April 1803 to Elizabeth TRAVIL at Ledbury

and baptisms for children of John & Elizabeth LUCY

Ledbury

Thomas 1804
John 1807
John 1810 (on the 1841 census for Oxenhall aged 30 + burial 26 May 1844, aged 35)

Oxenhall

Hannah 1812

----

FOD burial at Oxenhall

John LUCY 77 years - 24 May 1857

1851 Census Oxenhall

John LUCY - age 65, Ag. Lab. born Glos. Newent
Elizabeth - 63 - Ag. Lab. wife - born Hereford, Much Marcle

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The publication 'The Murderers of Gloucestershire' gives details of hangings in Gloucester Prison:

March 29th 1800 - James Parsons, age 27, Sheep Stealing, Bisley
March 29th 1800 - Richard Palmer, age 22, Stealing Heifers, Somerville As.

I post this just to add some detail about the two young men that were hung.

Gordon Williams.

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I have not yet found any prison records for William Burgum in Australia but, while looking, I discovered another Burgum unfortunate. Richard Burgum of Kempley, just the north of the Forest of Dean, was convicted at Hereford Assizes for a breach of the peace on 22nd March 1808. He was sentenced to 7 years and sent to the hulk ship Retribution, a prison ship moored on the Thames, at Woolwich.The conditions on board these hulk ships were so bad one in three of the prisoners died before they could be transported to Australia. Richard only served seven weeks before being pardoned and rehabilitated. In May 1811 he married a Gloucester girl, Elizabeth Gabb at Kempley.

Richard and Elizabeth had six children at Kempley between 1811-1824; Mary, Esther, Richard, Elizabeth, James and John. We do not know what caused Richard Burgum to break the law again (criminal or feeding a starving family?) but on 2nd August 1831 he was convicted at Hereford Assizes for stealing a sheep. He was sentenced to a life-term and sent to another hulk ship, the Cumberland, moored at Chatham. On 3rd October 1831 he was transported on board the sailing vessel "Elizabeth", one of 220 convicts bound for Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania). They arrived on 14th February 1832, 130 days later.

Richard was recorded as 'absent without leave' in September 1836 and punished accordingly. In February 1840 his prison record shows he throw a bottle of rum, presumably after drinking it! Although only about six per cent of the convict population were locked-up, others worked for either the authorities or the free settlers, building roads, courthouses and hospitals. In many cases they would be subjected to leg-irons and the lash. In 1835 800 convicts were working in chain-gangs at the infamous Port Arthur penal station in cruel conditions. Richard died at Swanport, 65 miles north-east of Hobart on 28th January 1841.

Thank you to all who have contributed to this thread! - Doug Burgum

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The convict hulk "Retribution", was moored at Woolwich in the River Thames in 1812. This floating prison was launched in 1799 as the 74-gun Third-rate HMS Edgar. Edgar was converted into a prison hulk in 1813, renamed Retribution in 1814 and broken up in 1835. The memoirs of James Hardy Vaux(1829) recall the most tortuous conditions on board Retribution for those awaiting transportation:

"There were confined in this floating dungeon nearly 600 men, most of them double-ironed in a continual rattling of chains, the filth and vermin naturally produced by such a crowd of miserable inhabitants, the oaths and execrations constantly heard amongst them…."

"Prisoners, working in ironed-gangs, laboured in cleaning up the River Thames and building docks and wharves. In the "1811 Report of the Select Committee on Penitentiary Houses", which enquired into conditions and management of the prison hulks, it was shown that prison system had continued to be corrupt, with many officers taking personal advantage of the sources of labour under their command.
The daily ration for those on board the Woolwich hulks in 1812 was 'beer and other extras to the total of from 2d. to 4½ d.' depending upon the convict's rating in the workforce. Those with particular skills, such as shoemakers and tailors were set'ship's duty', keeping the shoes and clothes of others in repair."
(Johnson 1957:39).

From this most interesting site which details the history of the Hulks; my wife's ancestors are from Woolwich, East London, although thankfully only in more recent times .... http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.56/chapterId/429/Prison-hu...

Anyone who's visited HMS Victory, Nelson's First-rate flagship at this time, will know how apparently small & cramped it appears; yet in it's day Victory was considered truly massive, and so considerably larger than the older Retribution !.
Retribution's major dimensions were
Length: 168ft / 51 m (not including bowsprit)
Beam: 46ft9in / 14.25 m

This site carries some Hulk ship photographs tho' not including Retribution. However the Defence started life as a very similar ship to Retribution, a 74gun two-decker.
http://www.theintolerablehulks.com/defense.html

Here is the same photo of Defence at Woolwich, but larger with better clarity.
http://www.digitaldickens.com/content.php?id=179

This site reminds me of my first becoming aware of the prison hulks, from Dickens' "Great Expectations" and the hugely atmospheric B&W film starring Sir John Mills. Charles Dickens' writing about such things, after his childhood experiences as the son of a Navy clerk in Chatham Dockyard who eventually found himself in a London Debtor's Prison, led him to become an important champion of reforms for the poor and prison inmates. For anyone interested in early British Navy history, Chatham Dockyard on the Medway hence Thames Estuary in North Kent, is an excellent visit. It was the first of the Royal Dockyards, predating Plymouth Devonport & Portsmouth, and built over 500 Navy ships in it's 400 year history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Dockyard

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I have looked at the Prison Hulk Registers on Ancestry. The entry for William Burgum I read as - "William Burgum 40 Cap Respite Glocester 12 March 1800 New South Wales Life Pardoned 14 June 1805" The majority of convicts on the same page were pardoned or discharged.

So did William ever get to NSW?

I hope this is of use.

Peter Preece

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