There's lots more information on the
The following two items of information almost certainly refer to the same person:
Prisoners for Trial at the Lent Assizes
WILLIAM WINGEATT: Committed by William KITSON, clerk, charged with stealing at South Tawton, a donkey, the property of Richard Eyres. Warrant dated 1st November, 1836.
- from a transcription, courtesy of Genuki Devon
A note in the margin indicates that he was able to read and write "imperfectly". There is also the figure [24] in brackets which, I assume, is his age.
Thursday, January 19, 1837
"On Sunday last Robert SHEPHERD, and Wm METTER, under sentence of transportation for 14 years; James FOURACRE, Wm. WINGEATT, and John KNIGHT for 7 years each, were removed from the Devon County Gaol, and placed on board the Zephyr steamer at Topsham, in order to being conveyed to the Justitia Hulk at Woolwich."
- Trewman's Exeter Flying Post or Plymouth and Cornish Advertiser, Issue 3721
Links
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External link to a drawing of the Justitia hulk c.1777
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External link to information about convicts on the hulk including links to accounts by convicts of their experiences at around the same time as the men listed above.
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Link to a painting of a death on the Justitia
Despite the dreadful conditions on the hulk as detailed above, it does look as though William made it to Australia because according to the Genealogical Society of Victoria Inc's database of convict arrivals he arrived in New South Wales on 3rd December 1837 on the ASIA. So far, however, I have not been able to find an account of his trial nor any more of what happened to him after his arrival in NSW.
