convict

Z for Zelley

Miss W. 1821-1850, 1851-1880, Early families, General information , , ,

Thanks to Greg Williams for writing this post for the A-Z challenge.

My 3X great Grandfather Benjamin ZELLEY lived at Sorell and was a Farmer & Storekeeper.

The name is unusual and originates from English 7th Century ‘Saelig’ meaning happiness & good fortune. There are many derivatives of the surname including Seely and Seli.

Ben was born in 1813 & baptised on 25th July 1813 at Shropshire England. He was transported to Van Diemen’s Land on the ship Argyle. For the crime of stealing & vagrancy, he was given life. He arrived as a convict with surname SULLY on 4th August 1831.

On 3 April 1838, Benjamin married Elizabeth King who was also a convict from the ship Westmoreland. Ben’s surname was Selley for this marriage. As they were both still convicts, they had to get permission to marry.

Benjamin’s brother Robert also came out as a convict on the ship David Clarke in 1841.

By August 1851, Ben was a respected landowner and was on a committee to use money raised under the Dog Act to erect a bridge or causeway across Salt Water Creek which is on the main road from Sorell to Richmond.

After 13 years of marriage Elizabeth died on 15 November 1851 at age 42 from consumption.

Ben married Eliza BYRON (1835-1881) on 1852 at St David’s, Hobart. His occupation was landholder and he said he was 30 years old while she was 18. Her father was John Byron who was a Superintendent of Police and buried at St Johns Church, Richmond.

In October 1854,  Ben was appointed to be a member of a provisional committee for the newly formed Sorell Steam Navigation Company.

They had 3 children Mary Jane (1853-1874), Eliza Blanche (1855-1940) & Benjamin (1858-1941).

Ben senior passed away on 16 Jan 1859 & was buried at St George’s Church, Sorell.  After his death, his property was sold. He also had shares in the Steam Navigation Company and corporate debentures due in the future.

Property sold after death

An obituary in the newspaper has his name spelt as ZELLY. He died at age 44 after a sudden illness. The notices mention he was an old and respected colonist. But the death record says he was fifty years old, a store keeper and died of natural causes.

As there were three young children to raise, Ben’s widow Eliza re-married in 1861 to John Talbot Coram.

 

Benjamin Zelley Junior
My Great great grandfather Benjamin Zelley junior married Matilda Eleanor Hardy in New Norfolk in September 1879. Upon turning 21 in 1879, he took over the shop his father had operated in Sorell.

Readers: Do you know where his store was in Sorell? At the birth of his daughter in 1880, it mentions Fitzroy Store.

U for Umbrella Maker

Miss W. 1821-1850, 1851-1880, 1881-1910, Early families, General information , , , , ,

Thanks to Jo Hopkins for writing this post for the A-Z challenge.

UMBRELLA MAKER is not a trade that springs readily to mind, however that is the occupation that James Jones gave when he was committed to trial in London in 1837.

James Jones was born in 1817 in Shoreditch London. On 27 June 1837, James approached John Love in the street and demanded money, making him a ROBBER.1

He was sentenced to transportation for twenty-one years and began his time as a CONVICT. He was transported on the Moffatt and arrived in Hobart on 1 April 1838. His convict record  has umbrella maker crossed out and the comment LABOURER inserted.2

James Jones was allocated to the New Norfolk area to labour in a WORK GANG, then after his probationary period he was assigned to Robert Thorne of Pitt Water. Thorne was the son of Samuel Thorne, a marine who arrived in Hobart Town in 1804.

As an ASSIGNEE Jones was required to undertake any tasks allotted by his master, and Thorne had varied business interests – coastal shipping, farms, a ferry, the Rose and Crown Inn. Thorne had a grain store on the foreshore in Lewisham and probably operated a passenger ferry from there across to 5 Mile Beach (The middle of the three ferries). James Jones is likely to have been a FERRYMAN who rowed across the channel.

James Jones received a Ticket of Leave on 25 December 1842 and married Ann Kennedy in 1843. On the birth registrations of their three children (William 1844, Harriet 1845 and James 1848), he was described as a MARINER. In 1847 he attained a Conditional Pardon.

By 1848, James Jones had acquired and was the LICENCEE of the Victoria Inn in Lewisham. (The building was extensively remodelled for a century then demolished around 1968. The Lewisham Tavern was built on the site.) 3

NS1553-1-420 Lewisham House

Ann Jones died in 1857, and James remarried to Charlotte Stacey, daughter of John Stacey and Hannah Stacey (Green).  The 1858 marriage record lists him as a LICENCED VICTUALLER. Their son Charles and their eight daughters were born in Lewisham between 1859 and 1875.

For many years James was a great SUPPORTER of the local area. Newspaper reports (found through Trove) see him on organising committees for race meetings held at Forcett and for regattas at Lewisham. The Victoria Inn was often the venue for meetings and celebrations.

In 1865 James Jones, SHIP OWNER, together with Robert Harrod launch the Lewisham Belle, a 55-foot schooner to trade between Sorell, Lewisham, the Tasman Peninsula and Hobart. Unfortunately, the new and uninsured boat sinks off Taroona
with the loss of three crew and the cargo of wheat.

James Jones continued to live in the Lewisham area where he had been assigned in 1839. By the time of his death, he was a LANDHOLDER owning 169 acres of land around the area. Much of the property was farmland – around Boathouse Hill and the hill behind and including the Rose and Crown Inn (no longer licenced). His estate included the Victoria Inn and the parcel of land immediately to the north of the inn. This block, perhaps mistakenly sold by the government, contained the local Watch House, making James a GAOL OWNER.

  1. Digital panopticon The Digital Panopticon James Jones b. 1817, Life Archive ID obpdef2-1634-18370703 (https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/life?id=obpdef2-1634-18370703). Version 1.2.1, consulted 20th April 2022. ↩
  2. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON27-1-7P172#  Founders and Survivors Record ID fasai37630 ↩
  3. Victoria Inn. AA Rollings photo NS1553-1-420 ↩