The Family Detective

Samuel had an interesting story of a "bad boy turned good". The following information about Samuel comes from Rootsweb and was written by David Christian: Samuel George Weatherstone was sentenced to Life on 3 July 1837 at Central Criminal Courts, age 19 for Housebreaking; described at 5'2.5" with light brown hair and grey eyes. H e was in the Colonies for about 30 years in the Pioneer Clarence River area. He received his Ticket of Leave #46/974 on 19 August 1846 on recommendation from the Clarence River Bench (24 June 1846); and obtained a Conditional Pardon #51/192 on 1 May 1851. [An interesting post about Samuel's crime & transportation can be read at Caro's Family Chronicles ] Samuel was assigned to Dr Dobie and was a member of his party which travelled overland to the Clarence River, arriving at Ramornie on 16 June 1840; the first overland journey from Maitland. It took 5 months and 11 days. Samuel was a stockman in 1857. At the time of his...

The world was changing when Adam Weatherstone was born in Scotland in 1769. Captain James Cook was preparing to set out and explore the southern seas and to map the land that many of Adam’s children and future descendants would call home. For reasons we can’t be sure of, Adam set out on his own adventures to London sometime before 1809. The district of London he lived in was around the wharves and docks and his occupation as a watchman could give some clues to why he chose to live in London. [The London Docks were constructed between 1799 and 1815 so is not unreasonable to imagine Adam felt the lure of the growing prosperity in London and work as a labourer building the docks.] Census and death records show Adam Weatherstone was born in around 1770 in Edinburgh, Scotland. There are many variants on the spelling of Weatherstone and the death certificate of his daughter, Sarah, indicates he was also known as John. The first records I have found for Adam, is when he married Elizabeth B...