Person:William Neal (31)

William Neal was born on 27th April 1812 at Houghton Conquest in Bedfordshire, son of Sarah Neal formerly Cave and her husband John Neal.

Aged 19, William married Sarah Gobby, who was originally from Woburn, a few miles away. They had two children baptised at Houghton Conquest: Thomas in 1833 and Ann in 1835.

On 18th June 1837, William and a man named John Ridley stole a lamb belonging to a John Redman. Three days later, William was sent to Bedford Gaol, to be tried at the next quarter sessions, which were held at the start of July. He was found guilty, and sentenced to transportation for life. He was sent to the Ganymede hulk (an old ship then used as a floating prison). On 4th October 1837 he sailed on the Neptune to Australia, bound for Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), arriving there on 18th January 1838.^[4] At the time of his conviction, William was described as 5'8" tall with brown hair and hazel eyes, a small mole on his left cheek and being unable to read or write.^[5]

It has yet to be established what became of William in Australia.

Back in Bedfordshire, Sarah and the two children left Houghton Conquest and moved to Toddington, where Sarah's father and siblings then lived. Sarah and the children appear there in the 1841 census living with her sister Esther. In 1845, nearly eight years after William's conviction, Sarah remarried. She described herself as a widow, but may not have known whether or not she truly was a widow. She may have been taking advantage of the convention that after seven years without any contact from her husband she was entitled to consider herself a widow.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 England. Births and Christenings, 1538-1975. (FamilySearch, Ancestry.com, Findmypast).

   ch. 19 Jul 1812, Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire: William son of John & Sarah Neal, born 27 Apr 1812

2.   Huntingdon, Bedford and Peterborough Gazette, Saturday 24 Jun 1837:
   COMMITMENTS.- The following have been committed to the gaol at Bedford; ... William Neal and John Readdy, of Husborne Crawley, by the Rev. E.B. Lewis, charged with stealing one lamb the property of Mr. Redman of Ridgemont... For trial twenty four.
3.   Northampton Mercury, Saturday 8 Jul 1837:
   BEDFORDSHIRE QUARTER SESSIONS
   W. Neal and John Ridley were charged with stealing a lamb, on the 18th of June, from John Redman, of Husborn Crawley.
   John Redman, of Ridgmont, missed a lamb on Sunday week; heard of it about 8 in the morning. Saw a skin and the legs, it was marked with his mark on the shoulder; one leg was wrung off, not cut.
   James Brewer, under-gamekeeper to the Misses Trevor, was in Eversholt parish between two and three in the morning. Saw four men, (prisoners are two of them,) coming from Eversholt church end and towards Tingrith, one of them was a-head of me the way to Ampthill, and they went another way. Neal had a bag on his shoulder, Ridley had a bag, and there was blood on both. Witness said "you dont seem to like to go the way to Ampthill. You have got something unlawful in that bag, and I'll see." They replied "You shall not see it." Witness was armed with a gun, and took two, and the others ran away. He found in one bag the carcase of a lamb, and in Ridley's the head, not skinned, and part of the liver. Witness afterwards saw the skin at Woburn, the splintered bone of the leg fitted the part attached to the skin; and a piece of the skin was also found on the carcase, and that was missing from the skin.
   George Rogers received the parts of the lamb from the last witness now produced, and compared them. Guilty - Transportation for Life.
4. ↑ Convict Records, accessed 14 May 2012
5. ↑ Bedford Gaol Database, accessed 14 May 2012