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Absconded from service
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Absconded from Newcastle settlement
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In 1823 four men on a fishing expedition from Illawarra in 1823-24 wrecked on Moreton Island. Thomas Pamphlett, John Finnegan - John Thompson and Richard Parsons. Thompson died, Parsons disappeared. Finnegan and Pamphlett found by John Oxley on his expedition to Moreton Bay
Source:
Papers and Correspondence relating to NSW Magistrates etc. 1826
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Present - The Rev. Samuel Marsden....Richard Parsons, prisoner brought forward, charged with robbing John Tarleton of Prospect of one five gallon cask, two iron pots, one tea kettle, one tin saucepan, one bucket, and one brass cock. and also stole a porter cask from James Lara of Parramatta. One iron pot is now produced with Parsons had sold to Ketty Day, the property of John Tarleton. The tea kettle found at the back of the hut where he lives, is also the property of John Tarleton, and the better half of the keg which was cut in two found in Parsons possession, is also the property of John Tarleton. The prisoner Parsons is sentenced to receive twenty five lashes every Saturday, and also to do his Government work until the remainder of the property is returned
Ship:
General Hewitt 1814
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On list of prisoners to be sent to Newcastle per 'Lady Nelson'
Ship:
General Hewitt 1814
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On list of prisoners to be sent to Newcastle
Ship:
General Hewitt 1814
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Prisoner at Newcastle. Sent to Sydney
Ship:
General Hewitt 1814
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On list of convicts in the employof William Cox of Clarendon
Ship:
General Hewitt 1814
Ship:
General Hewitt 1814
Source:
UK Prison Hulk Registers. Ancestry
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Richard Parsons age 28, tried at Taunton 29 March 1813 sentenced to transportation for life. Admitted to the Perseus Hulk 11 June 1813. Transferred to the General Hewitt for transportation to New South Wales
Ship:
General Hewitt 1814.....
Source:
Geographical Memoirs on New South Wales by Barron Field
Details:
Thomas Pamphlett's account of being castaway in the Moreton Bay area with Richard Parsons and John Finnegan until they were rescued by explorer John Oxley......We left Sydney, March 21st, in a large open boat, of twenty-nine feet six inches extreme length over all, and ten feet beam, belonging to William Farrel and Richard Parsons, for the Five Islands, to take in cedar. The crew consisted of Richard Parsons, John Finnegan, John Thompson, and myself. We had a considerable quantity of provision, flour, pork, &c. for the purpose of buying cedar, and four gallons of water and five of rum. About four o'clock the same evening, when within seven or eight miles of our destination, a violent gale came on from the west, which forced us to lower all sail, and keep the boat before the sea. The night came on with heavy rain and increasing wind, but we did not lose sight of land till shut out by darkness. The gale continued with unabated violence for five days, when it moderated; but the sea continued to run so very high, that we were still obliged to keep the boat before it, without being able to carry any sail till the eleventh day, viz. 2d April, when the sea being much fallen we made sail, supposing that the current had drifted us to the southward, and that we were then off Van Diemen's Land. We had no compass, but we steered by the sun, as near as we could guess, a N.W. course, expecting very soon to make the land in the neighbourhood of the Five Islands, our original destination. Our small stock of water was totally expended on the second day, and the rain we caught in the commencement of the gale was so spoiled by salt water, that we were forced to throw it away. Our sufferings were dreadful for the following thirteen days, having nothing to drink but rum. We were almost unable to speak, and could with difficulty understand each other. John Thompson, a Scotchman, the best hand in the boat (having been an old man of war's man), had become quite delirious from drinking salt water, and was totally useless to us. On the fifteenth day (6th April), a heavy shower of rain fell, and our sails being lowered and spread, we caught about a bucket and a half; but from the sails having been so much drenched with saltwater, it was almost useless to us. On the eighteenth day (9th April), a light mizzling rain fell, when we caught a bucket-full, which was much better. Thompson recovered a little on getting some of it, but still continued severely purged and otherwise affected by the salt water he had drank. We still continued steering the same course, N.W. as we imagined, till the nineteenth day (10th April), when about eleven o'clock A.M. John Finnegan having gone up to the mast-head, said that he saw land right a-head, which he declared to be the headland of Port Stephen, he having formerly worked there