As for the museums in Medway, a lot has been happening. Rochester museum is petite, but packed with interest, but is nowadays swamped by the impact of the Chatham Historic Dockyard, The Royal Engineers Museum, Fort Amherst, plus Rochester, Upnor and Cooling Castles (the latter, though privately owned by Jools Holland, is a minute's walk from the church said to have inspired Dickens' opening scene of Great Expectations).

Alan

You think Thomas wouldn't be a waterman ?. I'm not so sure about that, Churcham village is only about 2 miles from the Severn at Minsterworth, perhaps not ideal if he was a boatowner, but quite possible if he was a worker on the river, an easy walk to work in those days if that was the best work he could get. The Parish of Churcham extended a lot farther than Minsterworth, including as far east as Over right on the river near Gloster.

Thanks again for your interesting post, atb Jeff
(stuck in nautically deprived West Middlesex - altho we're only 100 yards from the Grand Union canal, but no mud to lark in...)

1. Sandhurst and the Severn B 1851 census:
Elizabeth Watkins was the daughter of John Smith of St Peter's, Worcester, who was a waterman and fisherman. She was also the daughter-in-law of Thomas, the transportee, and about this time ended up in the Gloucester Poor House in Great Western Road after her husband, another Thomas, went to America and Australia, ostensibly to search for his father (the transportee Thomas). Her mother-in-law would have been Ruth Bick (later Watkins) but she died before Elizabeth's marriage.

2. Waterman: It seems unlikely to me that transportee Thomas was a waterman given that he had lived at Churcham and Birdwood, some distance from the river.

3. Offence: Contemporary documents differ as to the offences the brothers were convicted of. They were arrested, committed from the magistrates court and shown in the Assize records as stealing hay. However, other documents (chiefly connected with the transportation) show them convicted of sheep stealing which was a capital offence. However, Thomas at least had previous convictions....

4. Dickens: He certainly knew the ones in the River Medway at Chatham because his father had worked at Chatham Naval Dockyard prior to his own imprisonment following financial problems. Charles walked the area after he moved back to Kent to live at Gad's Hill, Higham, and knew the privations the prisoners suffered. However, this was 40 years after the Watkins brothers' imprisonment and the prisoners who had been kept on the Medway were prisoners of war. When younger and his father was jailed, I doubt that he would have been enthusiastic about seeing the inside of floating prisons given the problems of his father. However that didn't stop him writing about the effects of bad laws and unthinking society.

5. Hulks: One legacy of that period is that Rochester Museum includes a gallery reconstructed as a prison hulk in which artefacts from the period are displayed. It is well worth a visit, and gives an idea of the conditions in which the men (and women) were kept on ships like the Justitia.

I am not saying any of the information supplied is wrong, but trying to balance it against what my late father and I have so far discovered. This is part of the fun of trying to untangle family histories, isn't it!

Alan

Witnesses: Francis & Charlotte CLARK

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Apart from the baptisms at Ashleworth

Eliza - 1807
Sophia - 1809
Hesther - 1813
Zachariah - 1816

the Gloucestershire Baptism Index have these baptisms for a Charles & Elizabeth at Cheltenham St Mary, but not sure if it's the same couple??

George - 28 November 1821
Sarah - 27 April 1828
Frederick - 27 April 1828 **

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Gloucestershire BDM - back BICK - mother's maiden name LAWRENCE

Julia - 1852 - Glos South Hamlet
Frances M - 1856 - Cheltenham

these two belong to:

1861 Census, Cheltenham

BURCH

Charles - 41 - Marine Store Dealer, born Wiltshire, Melksham
Dorcas - 37
Jane A - 10
Julia - 9
Frances - 4
William LAWRENCE - 66 - Shoe maker, born Rodborough
----

?

1841 Census, Cheltenham

BICK

Elizabeth - 40
Eliza - 25
Charles - 20
George - 20
Sarah - 18
Frederick - 15 ***
Andrew - 12
Caroline - 6
Henry - 4

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1871 Cheltenham

Elizabeth BICK - 75 - born Gloucester
Charles BICK - 47 - Butcher, unmarried, born Cheltenham

**

Ancestry Criminal Records

Frederick BICK age 16 - estimated birth year abt 1828 - date of trial - 14 August 1844 at Gloucestershire.

Ancestry:

Frederick sentenced for 18 months - for Larcency and whipped

two more BICK marriages at Sandhurst around the same time as Thomas WATKINS and Ruth BICK

Eliza BICK married Thomas MOREFIELD - 6 February 1826

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Sophia BICK married Richard JAMES - 30 October 1826

1841 Census, Sandhurst

MOREFIELD

Eliza - 30
Thomas - 14
Elizabeth - 12
Mary - 10
Sophiah - 8
Fanny - 6
Esther - 3 months

and 1851 census, Sandhurst

Severn B

Thomas MOORFIELD - 47 - Ag. Lab - born Gloucestershire, Sandhurst
Eliza - 46 - Fisher Scudder - born Glos. Ashleworth
Esther - 10
John - 7
Mary BACK - Visitor married - 47 - Fisher Scudder, born Worcester St Peter
Harriet WATKINS - Visitor, married - 30 - Boatman's Wife - born Worcester St Peter

? are the WATKINS brothers - Boatman??

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Both Sophia & Eliza - were christened at Ashleworth (parents Charles & Eliza)

Eliza - 17 May 1807 and Sophia - 25 June 1809

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1841 Census, Sandhurst

Charles BICK - 55

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On Ancestry

Job WATKINS age 30 - was sentenced for life for sheep stealing

Thomas WATKINS age 35 - (name just above Job's) - also sheep stealing.

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Name: Job Watkins
Age: 30
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1805
Date Received: 20 Jan 1835
Ship: Justitia
Place Moored: Woolwich
Date Convicted: 6 Jan 1835
Place Convicted: Gloucester

The "Justitia" is welldocumented on the net, but beware there were two such hulks, Job was on the second one, originally named Admiral Rainier:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_prison_hulks
Charles Dickens was known to visit the hulks, Justitia was serving in the age of "Great Expectations".
http://www.digitaldickens.com/content.php?id=179
Here is a detailed contemporary account of life aboard for the 400 odd inmates, very harsh indeed....
http://www.kenscott.com/prisons/prisonerexp.htm

Also see this photo of Woolwich hulks,
http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/greenwich/assets/galleries/woolwich/prison-hulks-1856

plus other accounts of life aboard Justitia
http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an8891819
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1847/jan/28/treatment-of-convicts-in-the-hul...
http://www.plumstead-stories.com/story%20-%20Prison%20hulks%20at%20Woolwich.htm
All very grim reading...particularly for such terrible crimes as stealing to eat.

"Before going onboard [the Justitia c1840] the prisoner's were stripped to the skin and scrubbed with a hard scrubbing brush, something like a stiff birch broom, and plenty of soft soap, while the hair was clipped from their heads as close as scissors could go. This scrubbing was endured until they looked like boiled lobsters, and the blood was drawn in many places. They were then supplied with new prisoner's suits, one side yellow and the other side black or blue. After donning these clothes they were marched off to the blacksmith, who rivetted on the ankle chains, which were made of iron and weighed 12 pounds. In this rig they were transferred to the Hulk, where they received their number, for no names were used."
http://www.immigrationplace.com.au/www/248/1040427/displayarticle/1011104.html?pub=1&am...

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So, probably nothing new to you here Alan, I was looking to try and find his likely birthdate, altho sadly I still cannot find him within this site's PRs or elsewhere, yet.

Searching tin ternet for "Job Watkins transported" gives several sites giving more detail

"Job Watkins,
Crime: -
Convicted at: Gloucester Quarter Session
Sentence term: Life
Ship: Marquis of Huntly
Departure date: 23rd March, 1835
Arrival date: 23rd November, 1835
Place of arrival: New South Wales
Passenger manifest: Travelled with 319 other convicts "

http://www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/watkins/job/38277
http://www.convictrecords.com.au/ships/marquis-of-huntly/1835

More details of the ship, built Aberdeen 1804, may be found here
http://www.aberdeenships.com/single.asp?index=140073

Do you by any chance have any information about a Job Watkins, who also lived at Churcham and ended up being transported to Australia in 1835?

Alan

Mike

Alan Watkins