William Littlewood - Convict on Charles Sturt's Second Exhibition

All researchers know we cannot all rely on what we find on Ancestry.com.  A number of trees have recorded William Littlewood Snr as the step father of William Littlewood Jnr (father of Rose Littlewood). William Littlewood Jnr it seems was the son of Bridget Kelly. To date I have not found the records that connect William Jnr to Bridget Kelly other than her marriage to William Snr. 

Oddly none of the trees seem to have picked up the information that William Littlewood Snr was a convict on Charles Sturt's Second Exhibition. Also, many other vitals seem to be missing. 

It seems nice to think William Littlewood Snr is indeed connected to our tree, and there are some interesting factors that I will explore (ironic). For the purpose of this I will continue to call them William Snr and Jnr.

Here are William Snr's vitals:

Born: About 1793

Native Place: Staffordshire

Convicted: 13 March 1828 (Staffordshire Lent Assizes)

Crime: 

Transportation: Arrived Sydney November 1828, he was assigned to Edward Deas Tomson who came as a free man on the same ship, Royal George. [Convict Indent; https://www.freesettlerorfelon.com/convict_ship_royal_george_1828.htm]

Age When Transported: About 36

Notes: We find baptism records for a William Littlewood in 1794 at Kingswinford which is very nearby and being a small village we can presume this refers to William Snr who's parents are noted as Thomas and Sarah.

A year after arrival on 3 November 1829, William Snr was chosen to accompany Charles Sturt on his second exploration to the interior. William's indents show he was a nailor which meant he made nails. Sturt had been advised he would be assigned a convict that was a carpenter or experience in shoeing horses, so he may have fitted both these descriptions. [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700391h.html]

Ticket of Freedom: In July 1830, after only 20 months

Clayton, Harris, Littlewood, Macnamee, Mullholland, Whelan were all members of Sturt's party.

 

Notes: His Ticket indicates he is to remain in Parramatta. Another year, another November (11 November 1830) and William marries Bridget Kelly. 

Bridget is 30 and her indent shows she has two children. This would have placed her birth around 1800. This is where we have to look critically at the possibility of William Jnr being her son. From his death certificate we have information that says his parents names are unknown. It indicates he was born in 1810. If this is the case Bridget Kelly could not be his mother unless she was 10 years old. He would also have been 20 years old when her ship arrived, perhaps too old to be considered a child of a convict. It may be she had lied about her age and was born prior to 1800 but I cannot think of a reason for it, other than they wanted healthy, young women to populate the colony and a 40 year old may not have "fit the bill". 

Some interesting things to note are William Jnr lives in the very same places that Sturt explored. He lived on Hindmarsh Island, Menindee, at Moama on the Murray river and at Morpeth Vale on the Murray. Perhaps William Snr had been granted land in South Australia. There are names of the exploration party to be found on the maps including Clayton Bay, Hopkinson Court and Point Sturt.  Is there a possibility that William Snr and William Jnr are the same person? South Australia was very much a convict free state. Convicts who did come to settle there most often hid their pasts while establishing new lives. It could be possible that William claimed to be 10 years younger for a number of reasons including hiding his convict past. 

The other issues with sorting these two out is that it has not been possible to verify a death record for William Littlewood Snr. William Jnr died in 1877 at the age of 67 at Moama. There is another William living in the area but this seems to be his child (William Jnr the second!!). 

/tbc