MATHEWS, James born around 1806 Tiverton (General)

by lmat, Monday, May 05, 2025, 11:32 (10 days ago) @ MPGriffiths

Thank you everbody for your responses! I really appreciate it. Forgive me for the long post - hoping someone can help me make sense of it all!

Here's some additional information I have so far:

Document 1: Shepton Mallet Gaol Register / Committal Roll (Gloucester Assizes)
- Name: James Mathews
- Age: 17 years
- Where born: Hampton, Gloucestershire (not sure if this is a clerk's error as it's the only documentation that refers to 'Hampton')
- Last abode: Tiverton
- Trade: Labourer
- Offence: Stealing cloth (50 yards)
- Sentence: 7 years transportation

Document 2: Convict Indent List (Chapman (2)) 6 April 1824 - 27 Jul 1824
- Embarked: Portsmouth - Arrived Hobart
- Name: James Mathews
- Age: 17 years
- "Stole 50 yards of cloth property of T & M at Tiverton"
- Native Place: Gloucestershire
- Last abode: Tiverton

Other information:

1: Co-Offenders
- Charles Slip and Mark Maggs were listed as his co-offenders.
- Charles Slip is listed as born at Bath, trade as Painter,
- Mark Maggs is listed as being born in Bath, trade as Blacksmith, last abode as Tiverton (it seems he may not have been transported - many listings in the Criminal Lunatic records post transportation of Charles and James)
- James was held at Ilchester Gaol prior to removal to Taunton Assizes. My research says that the Shepton Mallet Gaol register may just be recording his committal, but doesn't necessarily mean he was held physically there (recording all Somerset Assizes prisoners).

2. RootsWeb page (no sources)
There is a RootsWeb page that mentions the following information:
- Gaol report: "Badly connected"
- Offence: "Stealing 50 yards of cloth from Messrs Wilkins & Co"
- Father and Mother at Tiverton, names Matthews
- Weaver, last worked at Mr. Nash's (apparently this is in a hulk/convict description). I'm thinking this means he was employed as a weaver in the workshop or mill of a Mr. Nash at Tiverton. There is one reference in the Dymock Parish Register in Tiverton hamlet to: Nash, Saml. - weaver.

3: Tiverton (Gloucestershire)
- From my research, apparently 'Tiverton' in Gloucestershire was a small hamlet in an area on the eastern edge of the Forest of Dean, with neighbouring parishes including Bream, Abenhall, Newland and Ruardean
- Apparently in modern geography it is NNW of Dymock and SSE of Ledbury, straddling the old A417/A40 road
- It seems that the Gloucestershire Tiverton was never big enough to support anything like a cloth manufactory - while Devon Tiverton was a major cloth-manufacturing centre.

3. Other
- Quite a number of 'Mathews' names listed in Ruardean Parish (Forest of Dean)
- Marriage record of James Mathews & Mary Baldwin in Dymock Parish on 22 October 1805 by banns - BUT - no record of any child born to them called 'James' in 1805/1806
- Have checked for a James Mathews born 1805/1806 in Tiverton (DEVON) - no record
- The only record I have been able to find is of James Mathews born 2 June, 1805 in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire. Parents David Mathews and Betsy Mathews (Gloucestershire Non-Conformist Register)

Questions:
- Does "Hampton, Gloucestershire" mean Minchinhampton?
- Is there any basis to James being born in Tiverton, Gloucestershire?
- Any advice on how to prove that Tiverton, Devon is the actual last place of abode / place of crime? (The "Mr. Nash" reference from Tiverton, Dymock is throwing me)

Thanks in advance!