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FF THOMAS RESTELL CROWDER Convict ‘Alexander’
(c1757-1824)
& FF Sarah Davies/Davis Convict ‘Lady Penrhyn’
(c1760-1794)
- this story is under review by Membership Team
Thomas
Restell Crowder was born on 26 December 1757 in Bromley
in Kent, the son of Nathaniel Crowder and Susannnah
Ward, and was baptised on 20 January 1758 in the Parish
of St Martin in the Field, Westminster, London, England.
His early life saw many brushes with the law.
Thomas was first tried on 4 December 1782
at age 25 years,
and was indicted for ‘burglariously breaking and
entering the dwelling house of John Bradford Esq; about
the hour of three in the night on 30 November, with
intent, the goods, chattels, and monies of the said John
Bradford , in the said dwelling house then and there
being, burglariously to steal, take, and carry away’. He
was tried by the second Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Baron
Hotham, and sentenced to death. This was commuted to
life transportation to the East Indies on 17 January
1783, and changed again on 12 September, this time to
life transportation to America.
After the Mercury mutiny, at the
time of his March 1785 trial, Thomas was also facing a
charge of escape from the Mercury transport at
Torbay.
Thomas Restell Crowder (indicted as
Thomas Risdale otherwise Crowder) was tried at Bristol
Quarter Sessions
inMarch 1785with
Aaron Davis for grand larceny which netted them
‘various goods to a very large amount’ belonging to
James Cunning. Both had been present at a public auction
in a warehouse, but not seen together, and were
convicted on the evidence of an accomplice deemed
untrustworthy. Both Thomas and Aaron were found guilty,
and Aaron was sentenced to seven years transportation,
but the judgement was withheld for Thomas as he awaited
trial on yet another indictment for burglary in the
house of John Thomas. At this time, on 29 March 1785,
Thomas was again sentenced to death.
However, on 22 AprilJudge
Richard Burke wrote expressing doubts about the evidence
given by the accomplice, but recommended transportation
for life in view of the earlier robberies. Thomas was
still facing charges of escape from the Mercury.
Three days later Crowder was reprieved from that charge
and sentenced to life transportation, and during 1785 he
was placed on board the "Justitia" prison hulk.At
the age of 30on 6 January 1787 he was delivered to the
Alexander for transport to NSW.
Thomas now 31, married Sarah Davies
(Convict Lady Penrhyn) aged 28, in Port Jackson,
Sydney on 7 June 1788. Sarah was a glove maker who had
been convicted in August 1783 at Worcester for
shoplifting was sentenced to transportation for seven
years. The marriage service was performed by the Rev.
Richard Johnson, probably under a
tree or in a hut, as the first church, St Philips, was
not yet built. One of the witnesses was Samuel Barnes,
the servant to Rev Johnson.
Crowder was one of five who gave evidence
on Friday 7 November 1788 at the trial of John Thomas
(Convict Scarborough) for stealing, on 30
October, with force of arms, one pound of castile soap,
of the value of one shilling and sixpence, the goods and
chattels of one Mary Hill (Convict Lady Penrhyn).
John Thomas was found guilty and sentenced to
‘five hundred lashes thus: four hundred
on his bare back and one hundred on his bare backsides
in the usual manner’
Two weeks later, on 16 November 1788 both
Thomas and Sarah themselves were before the court,
accused of making a disturbance late at night. Thomas
was reprimanded but Sarah had to work for one month.
On 17 February 1789 both were sent to
Norfolk Island on HMAT Supply. There by 1st
July 1791 Thomas was supporting them on 2 acres of land,
with 10 rods cleared, and by 8 December 1791 he was
marked as settled with 14 acres. Their sow had a litter
of 9 in February 1792 and another 18 in the August. At
that time Thomas was also in charge of the patrol watch
for Sydney Town and had begun selling provisions to
Government Stores
In June 1792, Crowder was recommended by
Lieutenant Governor King for his honesty and activity
‘employed before I left this island, during my absence
and since my return, as a General Inspector of Convicts,
and has been of the greatest service to the Publick’
In November 1792 Thomas was recommended for an Absolute
Pardon as long as he did not attempt to return to
England.
On 7 September 1793 Thomas was sworn in
as Constable for Grenville Vale, and at the time he had
8 of his 14 acres of hilly but ploughable land
cultivated. A few weeks later he bought a further 60
acres for £60 and was elected as a member of the Norfolk
Island Settlers Society.
The well-documented fracas during the
performance of a play on 19 January 1794 arose from a
disagreement between Thomas and Sergeant Thomas Whittle
(Marine Royal Admiral) of the NSW Corps, in which
Thomas was eventually exonerated, demonstrated the
difficulties that arose when the authority of a soldier
was countered by the authority of a constable who had
been a convict. This issue was that Thomas was under
orders to reserve seats for the Lieutenant-Governor’s
servants at the playhouse, while Whittle insisted on
seating his own men.
Sadness came to Thomas in May 1794 when
his wife Sarah died, so in June he hired the FF convict
John Barford for 12 months and rented 10 acres to
FFsettler Benjamin Wright. For the next few years Thomas
was busy buying and selling land on Norfolk Island.
Just before Christmas in 1799, on 22
December Thomas now aged 32, married Mary Christmas nee
Smith/Coucher aged 21, a convict from Lady Juliana).Her
trial proceedings indicate that she was indicted for
stealing, on the 26th of September 1787, one silver
table spoon, value 12 s. the property of John Hooper.
Found Guilty she was sentenced to transportation for
seven years.
Mary already had three children from her
partnership to Second Fleeter Charles Smith who had died
on 2nd February 1795 on Norfolk Island. They
were Charles (1791), Sarah (1793) and Elizabeth (1794).
By 1805, Thomas had 14 acres cleared, with 7 acres in
grain, nearly 2 in barley and the remaining 5 in pasture
with 6 female hogs, also 150 bushels of maize in hand,
recorded at the time with a wife and two children.
Thomas sold his 60 acres in December 1807
for 40 pounds and together with his wife Mary and two
daughters, Elizabeth (1794) and Mary (1799) he left for
the Derwent on 26 December by Porpoise. It’s
unclear what had happened to the two other children
Charles (1791) and Sarah (1793). His two-storey house,
44x12 ft., boarded and shingled, his thatched, boarded
and shingled barn 12x12ft and his two log and thatched
outhouses were together valued at £90.Elizabeth passed
away in 1808 aged 14 years.
Thomas was now 53 years old and, ready
for a new life in Van Diemen’s Land, took up farming at
Sussex (in the Dodges Ferry area) on 120 acres. On 21
May 1809 Thomas signed an address to Governor William
Bligh (it is noted that he wrote in a good hand.)
A son, Thomas Russell (sic) Crowder was baptised at
Hobart on 28 October 1810
In 1813 and definitely back in town he
was appointed superintendent of convicts at Hobart Town
at £50 a year, with two assigned servants and rations
for his wife and child. As well as conducting regular
convict musters, recording the names of assigned
servants and attending the issue of their stores, he
acted as master carpenter and bricklayer, assisting the
colonial engineer in surveying leases resumed by the
government and reporting on their value for
compensation. In these duties he was well placed to
observe the wily devices of commissary officials and
landholders, but, although often required as a witness
at inquiries, his evidence was always discreetly
unrevealing.
In 1815 Thomas, as did many other
settlers, signed the petition for a Court of Criminal
Judicature in VDL. Later that year on 1 April Thomas
gave evidence, as principal superintendent and as a
constable, against bushrangers.
By 1818 his convict returns seldom
tallied with those of the colonial secretary, and
Lieutenant-Governor
William Sorell
found it necessary to appoint a second superintendent to
assist the colonial engineer.
In 1820 when Commissioner
John Thomas Bigge
visited Hobart, Sorell praised Crowder's integrity, but
soon afterwards recommended that he should be
superannuated, 'being advanced in life'. With
Macquarie's approval, Crowder was given a pension of £25
and became caretaker of St David's Church
In 1822, aged 65 years Thomas retired as
superintendent of carpenters. In his sixty-seventh year
he died at his home in Elizabeth Street on 28 November
1824, and was buried at St David’s Hobart.
DIED-On Sunday last, in his 67th year,
at his residence in Elizabeth-street, Mr. Thomas Restell
Crowder,36 years an inhabitant of these Colonies, and
several years Principal Superintendent of convicts, much
lamented and regretted by his numerous family and
friends. (Hobart Town Gazette 3 Dec 1824)
Mary Crowder, Thomas’s wife, passed away
nearly six years later on 28 May 1830 in Hobart Tasmania
and was buried, ‘widow of the late verger of the
church’ at St David’s Hobart.
Daughter Mary married twice, first at the
age of 16 to Theophilus Mitchell in 1815 in Hobart, then
to William Cook in 1819 in Hobart after Mitchell had
deserted her. There is no record of children from either
marriage and, as Mary Cook, she died on 15 March 1827.
Son Thomas Restell Crowder married Amelia
Anne Beaumont on 17 September 1833 in Hobart. They had
nine children, three boys and six girls. The boys were
George Herbert 1836, Thomas Restell 1839 and William
Charles 1843. The girls were Mary Elizabeth Beaumont
1837, Sarah Jane 1841, Amelia Annie 1845, Charlotte
Virginia 1847, Emily Isobel 1849 and Eleanor 1851.
Thomas Senior died on 14 October 1851 at Hollyrood
House, Tasmania and his wife Amelia died on 25 November
1892 at Wattle Hill, Port Sorell.
Compiled by John Boyd 2020
Sources:
-The Founders of Australia by
Molly Gillen p 88,89 & 96
- Sydney Cove 1788 to 1800 in 5
Volumes by John Cobley
-The Crimes of the First Fleet
Convicts by John Cobley
-Crowder, Thomas Restell
(1758–1824)published in
Australian Dictionary of Biography,
Volume 1, (MUP), 1966
-
www.convictrecords.com.au/convictsrisdalethomas
- by Eric Harry Daly on 24th December, 2012
-www.geni.com/people/Thomas-Restell-Crowder-Convict-Alexander-1788/6000000069157252076
-http://www.tasfamily.net.au/~schafferi/index.php |
