Charles Blackmore
| First name | Charles |
|---|---|
| Last name | Blackmore |
| Country of Origin | England |
| Date of Birth | 1820 |
| Year of Arrival in Australia | 1845 |
| Submitted by | Lillian Dillon |
Story
Charles Blackmore was born in Exeter England. In 1845 when a 25 year old trade farm labourer he was tried in Devon, Exeter for house breaking & transported for 10 years to Australia via the Marion 2 arriving in Van Diemen\’s Land Sept 1845. He was sent with a gang to Darlington (Maria Island) & later to North West Bay and the Huon.
He received a Conditional Pardon 1851 & married Charlotte Craven who had a daughter in 1855. Charlotte died in the Huon area in 1863 and 6 years later as a labourer, Charles married a 36 year old widow Bridget Weldon. As Bridget Kearney born around 1828 in County Roscommon she had arrived 20 years before per “Australasia” after being tried in Kildare Ireland & sentenced to 7 years transportation for stealing a cow.
Bridget was one of 200 female Irish convicts transported to Hobart on The Australasia departing Dublin on June and arriving September 1849. The convicts then endured an additional six months moored on the Derwent in order for them to learn about morality before being available for hire under the probation system.
Her records show that she was contracted into the service of a Mrs Brown of Fitzroy Place, Hobart during January 1851 but absconded and was not apprehended until June in the Domain Hobart, falsely representing herself as a free woman. As it was her first offence in the colony she received a relatively light sentence 4 months hard labour at the Cascades Female Factory and it was recommended that she be hired in the interior as a country servant. Throughout 1851/2 Bridget continued to flail against Authority bucking the system whenever opportunities presented and received various punishments.
In 1853 Bridget had married another convict Robert Wheeldon who was free by servitude having arrived on Convict transport Isabella 2. The Wheeldon’s appeared to have difficulty staying out of trouble and several charges were brought against them over the years. Robert died in 1866 leaving her pregnant with their 7th child. Her children were to be put into the orphanage one being a Robert born 1860 in the Huon area. Two years later Bridget asked for Robert to be taken out of the orphanage but this was refused as Bridget was living with a man (Chas. Blackmore) & the authorities decided they “would have no claim by him for the child’s benefit.” Bridget had a daughter Mary Anne to Charles Blackmore in 1869 .
In 1871 Bridget she was tried at the Hobart Police Court with Catherine Franklin for stealing two dresses valued at 15s each and other articles valued at £2 in all. The charge of larceny was withdrawn for Bridget and substituted with that of feloniously receiving. According to Bridget, “Kate Franklin took the dresses, and I pawned them”. The sentence for Bridget was 4 months hard labour and for Catherine 6 months hard labour. Bridget continued to be charged with various misdemeanours including larceny & drunk & disorderly and was jailed and fined on several occasions.
The Blackmores appear to have remained in Oatlands as Bridget’s son Robert Wheldon was apprenticed to Peter Quinn in that area. Their daughter Mary Anne was also working as a Servant when she married Isaac Beattie at the home of Mr. Batt, Woodbank, Oatlands in 1888.
Bridget Blackmore died at 60 years of age of senility in 1891. A little over a year later Charles Blackmore 82 died of senile debility at New Town Charitable Institution. He was buried in the pauper section Cornelian Bay Cemetery, Hobart. For full family history see http://pandora.nla.gov.au/tep/10421