What happened to my convict ancestor?
QPlease can you help trace my 4x great uncle, William Kneebone (alias William Coombe). He was baptised on the same day as his parents’ marriage, so would have spent the early part of his life called by his mother’s maiden surname Coombe.
He was convicted at Exeter in March 1786 of stealing two steers, and sentenced to seven years’ transportation. He was on the Alexander as part of the First Fleet of convict ships to leave for Sydney Cove, Australia. He is listed as having arrived there on 26 January 1788. The arrival record is all I can find for him in Australia.
I would love to know what happened to him.
Paul Kneebone
AThe short answer is that William Kneebone/Coombe never actually arrived in Australia.
As you mentioned in the unedited version of your question, quite a lot of research has been undertaken on the First Fleet. There is even a Fellowship of First Fleeters ( fellowshipfirst fleeters.org.au) open to anyone who can prove their relationship to a First Fleet convict, marine, seaman or government official.
In 2006 the Biographical Database of Australia ( bda-online.org.au) was established to bring together all of the information on a single individual (whether indigenous or European) from a number of source records, starting with those from the first European settlement in 1788. The database is particularly useful for the convict period in New South Wales, and did indeed have the answer to your query.
William Kneebone or Coombe was initially ordered to be on the First Fleet ship Alexander, but before the fleet sailed he was ordered to the
Charlotte. However, for one reason or another William did not embark on the
Charlotte. Therefore, he never arrived in Australia on the First Fleet.
There are two sources for this conclusion. The first is CO201/2 (Colonial Office and Predecessors: New South Wales Original Correspondence); a copy should be available from The National Archives (TNA). The second source is HO10/6 and HO10/7 (Home Office Convicts Embarked). These have been digitised; you can find them online via TNA’s catalogue at discovery. nationalarchives.gov.uk and download them for free. They are also available through ancestry.co.uk.
But why didn’t William Kneebone/ Coombe embark on the Charlotte as ordered? In the Dictionary of Sydney ( dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/charlotte) the entry for the Charlotte reads: “Charlotte received her prisoners from the Dunkirk prison hulk lying in the Hamoaze, Plymouth, during a break in extremely inclement weather on 12 March 1787. The precise number of male and female convicts aboard
Charlotte is difficult to establish, owing to transfers between the transport ships both before departure and during the voyage, as well as a number of deaths at sea.”
The Charlotte’s surgeon, John White, kept a diary of the voyage and from it we can learn more about the weather conditions. After the marines embarked, the convicts were to be boarded the next day, but a very heavy gale made it impracticable to remove them from the Dunkirk prison ship. The following day, the convicts finally embarked. More can be read about the voyage on the Free Settler or Felon? website at jenwilletts.com/convict_ ship_charlotte_1788.htm.
Perhaps William Kneebone/Coombe was sick and it was decided not to send him, or perhaps he simply missed embarkation due to a mix-up after his transfer from the Alexander to the Charlotte. It would have been a chaotic time and given the inclement weather, everything would have been more rushed.
The next step would be to see if there is any further mention of him in the records of the prison ship Dunkirk. Perhaps William finished serving his sentence there and was subsequently freed, or he may have died in prison. Shauna Hicks