Family Tree Puflett (Part 2)

V. Thomas PUFLETT #46, born 18 March 1817 in Alverstoke, Hampshire, England, baptized 25 May 1817 in Alverstoke, Hampshire, England, died 27 December 1870 in Bagotville, Ascot Vale, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (at his daughter’s house), buried 30 December 1870 in Eastern Cemetery, Geelong, Victoria.

On the 11 October 1830 he was arrested for stealing a dish and one rice pudding in Tabernacle Square and the records of the Old Bailey show that at his trial on the 30 October 1830 he was found guilty, was whipped then discharged. He was arrested again the following year for stealing a tea-kettle valued at 2 shillings on the 24 September 1831. The trial was held on 5 April 1832 at the Middlesex Goal Delivery. He was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation. His occupation in 1832 was a Bakers boy.

Copy of the trials from the Proceedings of the Old	Bailey, London

He was transported June 1833 from Sheerness, England on the convict transport Lord Lyndoch, arriving in Port Jackson – Sydney Town on 18 October 1833. Dr. Watson as surgeon superintendent, the captain was William Masters. The muster on board on 24/10/1833 listed 325 people 1 was relanded and 4 died at sea. In addition there was 3 officers, 33 rank and file from the 21st Regiment and 5 women and 3 children. The ship came via Rio de Janeiro. No photographs or drawings have been found of the Lord Lyndoch but the ship made several trips to Australia carrying convicts.

Prison hulk, where the convicts were often kept until they were transported.	Convict in leg irons from around this period

Copy of the ships Indent on Lord Lyndoch showing details of the convicts transported whose name started with ‘P”. Below : One of the ships used to transport convicts to Australia.

Convicts were housed below decks on the prison deck and often further confined behind bars. In many cases they were restrained in chains and were only allowed on deck for fresh air and exercise. Conditions were cramped and they slept on hammocks. Very little information seems to be available about the layout of the convict ships, but a few books do contain artists' impressions and reproductions of images held in library collections.

Although the convicts of the first fleet arrived in relatively good condition, the same cannot be said for those that followed during the rest of the century. Cruel masters, harsh discipline and scurvy, dysentery and typhoid resulted in a huge loss of life.

After the English authorities began to review the system in 1801 the ships were despatched twice a year, at the end of May and the beginning of September, to avoid the dangerous winters of the southern hemisphere. Surgeons employed by the early contractors had to obey to the master of the ship and on later voyages were replaced by independent Surgeon Superintendents whose sole responsibility was for the well being of the convicts. As time went on, successful procedures were developed and the surgeons were supplied with explicit instructions as to how life on board was to be organised. By then the charterers were also paid a bonus to land the prisoners safe and sound at the end of the voyage.

By the time the exiles were being transported in the 1840s and onwards, a more enlightened routine was in place which even included the presence on board of a Religious Instructor to educate the convicts and attend to their spiritual needs. The shipboard routines on some of the Western Australian transports during the 1860s have been transcribed.

The 1837 General Muster of Convicts showed him working for Master Thompson & Cunningham Maneroo District. Details from the 1837 Muater were: Thomas Purfleet 33-2225 Indent 141 Age 16 can read, Protestant, single, Native place Gosport, Bakers boy convicted for stealing a kettle etc. Tried at Middlesex Goal Delivery on 6.4.1832 sentence to 7 years. Previous conviction flogged. Height 4'8 1/4" fair and freckled colour of hair light eyes hazel. Scar over left eyebrow RPTP inside lower right arm 4 dots back of ball R. thumb.

In the NSW Archive Office fiche for the details of convicts transported to New South Wales Indents 1833-35 page 88 ship LORD LYNDOCH he is shown as a convict. He was given his Certificate of Freedom in 1839 (6/39) and height was given as 5'8 3/4", ruddy, freckled, hair light flaxen still with the scars.

Colonial Secretary’s list of convicts who were to be pardoned.	Pardon for Thomas Puflett	Certificate of Freedom

Convict life in the early days of the NSW penal colony.

A convict’s life depended on who they worked for. A convict employed by the government had a different life to those assigned to free settlers.

Food.

In the first few years of the colony there was not a lot of food available. Crops did not grow and the colony relied heavily on supplies coming from England. Government employed convicts were given a set ration of 3kg beef, 3kg flour, 1.3kg maize meal and 0.9 kg of sugar per week. They were also given tea. Fresh vegetables were uncommon. Women convicts were given less rations, as their work was often not as physical. Convicts who worked for free settlers were expected to be fed by their master.

Work.

Convicts were expected to work from sunrise to sunset. In hot weather they had an hour off in the middle of the day. The men were given physically harder work than the women. Jobs they might have had include farm labourer, bricklayer, shepherds and working on chain gangs building roads. Women often had jobs as servants.

Clothes.

Convicts often looked ragged and untidy. Most arrived in Sydney wearing their own clothes and with no change of clothing. Men wore coarse cotton shirts and trousers, waistcoats and jackets. The supply ships of the First Fleet brought 2 years supply of materials and clothes for the convicts. Each year a male convict was supposed to receive 2 jackets, 1 waistcoat, 1 pair breeches, 2 shirts, 1 hat, a woollen cap, 2 pairs shoes and stockings. Each woman received 1 jacket, 2 petticoats, 2 shifts (plain dresses), 2 pairs shoes and stockings, 2 caps, 1 handkerchief and a hat.

Shoes & socks.

Convicts sent to Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney weren't always lucky enough to be issued with socks. And to make matters worse, their shoes weren't even specifically made for the right or left foot.

Entertainment.

Convicts didn’t have very much time or energy to spend on entertainment. Government employed convicts lived in buildings like the Hyde Park Barracks. At night, before bed, convicts had 1 hour of recreation in the yard. They might play cards (but gambling was illegal), sport or marbles. Sunday was a day to rest. Religion was very important – more important than music or sport today – so every Sunday the convicts had to go to church. Sunday was also wash day when the convicts washed their clothes and had their weekly bath!

Punishment & rewards.

A convict could be flogged with the cat-o-nine tails for crimes like swearing, a poor attitude, being drunk as well as stealing small items. Convicts who ran way from their work were often sentenced to work in leg irons for at least 6 months and up to 3 years. These leg irons could only be put on or taken off by a blacksmith. If the crime was really serious, they might be sent to harsh penal colonies in Port Macquarie, Newcastle or Norfolk Island.
Of course, there were many well-behaved convicts and they could be rewarded by being given responsible jobs or allowed time away from the Barracks. A convict who was well-behaved may be given a ticket-of-leave that allowed him or her to work for money and own land but they couldn’t leave the area. A convict may also receive a pardon. A conditional pardon allowed them to live anywhere in the colony and an absolute pardon allowed them to go anywhere. Once a sentence had been served a convict received a certificate of freedom. Convict work

Male convicts were brought ashore a day or so after their convoy landed arrival. They were marched up to the Government Lumber Yard, where they were stripped, washed, inspected and had their vital statistics recorded. If convicts were skilled, for example carpenters, blacksmiths or stonemasons, they may have been retained and employed on the government works programme. Otherwise they were assigned to labouring work or given over to property owners, merchant or farmers who may once have been convicts themselves

Convict food.

A convict's daily rations were by no means substantial. Typically, they would consist of:

Breakfast: One roll and a bowl of skilly, a porridge-like dish made from oatmeal, water, and if they were lucky, scrapings meat.
Lunch: A large bread roll and a pound of dried, salted meat.
Dinner: One bread roll and, if they were lucky, a cup of tea.

He then moved to Victoria or as it was called at that time Port Phillip District. Family legend has it that he and his brother John walked overland, a strong possibility as the fare to Port Phillip by boat would have been possibly a few weeks work. The next reference to him is his marriage to Margaret DIXON, married 8 July 1844 in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Geelong, Victoria.

Copy of the page showing the marriage details. At that tine Victoria was not yet a state but a part of New South Wales called Port Phillip.

Margaret was born 1816 in Loughjordan, Tipperary, Ireland, (daughter of Richard DIXON) probably baptized 1816 in Tipperary, Ireland, died 24 June 1869 in Corio St, Geelong, Victoria, Australia, buried 27 June 1869 in Eastern Cemetery, Geelong, Victoria. She emigrated on the 9 November 1841 from Cork, Ireland on the ship Thetis with her sister Charlotte who was a witness at her wedding, as a bounty passenger. Her occupation in 1842 was a Servant girl, a Protestant and could read and write. Conditions in Ireland were at this time quite difficult due to poverty and the failure of the potato crop. As the colonies were suffering a shortage of workers and women so to attract people bounty schemes were established were for a free passage they were to work for a year with their sponsor, in her case the business man J. B. Were.

His occupation in1851 was given as a retired settler (for the birth of his son Robert), occupation in 1861 was a hotel keeper, the same in 1868. This was the Bush Inn. The original Bush Inn, situated in Corio Street west of Moorabool Street was a freestone building with a slate roof. Two brick cottages adjoined the hotel and these were included in the property when Edward Carron bought it. He remained in occupation for many years. Thomas Puflett really started the Bush Inn on its long career of business. During his time the hotel was at a disadvantage because of the existence of the Western Gully and the rough approaches to the Western end of Corio Street. Roads works undertaken later improved the situation immeasurably and Corio Street was given a good metalled roadway leading to Mercer Street, Railway Terrace and the Western Beach. The hotel was still standing until around 1995 or later when the surrounding area was demolished for a large shopping centre. Most of his children were born at Ashby, a suburb of Geelong on the Melbourne Ballarat line.

Copy of a declaration from a lawyer's office, showed that Thomas Puflett on the 31st of March 1851 purchased from the late Robert Robinson a parcel of land in North Geelong being part of Allotment 17 of Section 36 having a frontage of 66 ft to Corio Street and a depth of 105 feet for the price of 900 pounds. There is also a copy of another document of an Investure made on the 3rd of November 185? between James Smith and Thomas Puflett for Thomas Puflett to lend him 300 pounds.

Page 1 of the lease for the land where the Bush Inn was,	Thomas Puflett’s death as recorded in the Register	Page 2 of the Register.

His tombstone is in the Eastern Cemetery 15 West C/e Block A. Erected by Thomas Puflett in memory of William Walson native of Sweden died 12.12.1866 age 74 years. . Note. William Walson married Charlotte Dixon, sister to Margaret, Thomas' wife.

East - Sacred to the memory of Thomas Puflett W D T L 20.12.1870 age 56.

North - Sacred to Margaret the beloved wife of Thomas Puflett W T D L 24.6.1869. Age 53 years.

South - Sacred to the memory of Maggie the beloved wife of William Sutton youngest daughter of Thomas Puflett W D Oct. 11 1870 age 18 years 9 months

The Bush Inn Geelong.	Tombstone in Eastern Cemetery Geelong for Thomas Puflett

Thomas served in the Victorian Volunteer Force, in the returns for the year 1860? Pte Thomas Puflett had attended 31 mounted parades and 76 dismounted parades. By 1864 he was shown as a corporal in the Light Horse attending 24 mounted parades and 31 dismounted parades. For 1869 returns he was third in command of the Geelong Troop as a S. Sergeant.

ASSUALTING THE POLICE.- Mrs Puflett, of the Bush Inn, was charged by dective Duross with assaulting him by boxing him over the head, on Wednesday evening last. Duross stated that whilst engaged in his usual duties on the above evening, he was suddenly surprised upon a very smart box over the ears, and before he could look round him he received another with even more force than the first together with a volley of abuse from the defendant Mrs. Puflett. Henry Solomon deposed to seeing the defendant walk up to the detective officer when near Mr. Scott's timber yard, in Corio Street, and give him a very severe box over the face, and that before he was aware the assault was repeated, together with some observations from Mrs. Puflett that he considered highly unbecoming. The defence was that the detective officer had thought proper to introduce into the defendant's house a woman of very doubtful character, which had annoyed the landlady. Fined 20s and costs.

Bertha Cobby could remember Margaret’s daughter being very prim and could imagine her mother doing the above act.