Thomas Willington

Story

Thomas Willington’s forbears were Normans who arrived in England at the time of William the Conqueror. Many branches of the family had lived in Warwickshire in the Midlands of England ever since that time. In the early 1700’s Thomas Willington’s direct ancestors left their Warwickshire village of Mancetter to live in the burgeoning town of Birmingham. There they had built small businesses as artisans and craftsmen servicing the Industrial Revolution which was beginning to take hold in England at this time. Thomas was born on 29 April 1808 in Birmingham the second son of John Willington and Mary Price. Like others in his family he began his working life learning a trade. As a ‘laborer and chaser’ he was engaged in building carts and carriages which in the 1820’s was a booming trade in Birmingham as the town’s growth and population exploded .

In March 1830 life took a dramatic turn for Thomas Willington when he was convicted in the Warwick Assizes of stealing a coat and a handkerchief from George and James Waring in Birmingham. He was sentenced to 7 years transportation to Van Diemen’s Land. Effectively this meant he was to be exiled to the other side of the world away from kith and kin for life.

After the trial Thomas Willington was confined in a prison hulk in Portsmouth harbour for 5 months awaiting transportation to Australia. In August 1830 he was transferred to the convict ship ‘Clyde’ which set sail from England on 30 August, 1830. The journey to Van Diemen’s Land took nearly 4 months. The Clyde finally arrived in Hobart on 18 December, 1830. There, Thomas Willington, convict number 1175, was assigned to work on the farm of Captain Hammant at Longford near Launceston.

Although the work on the farm in Longford was hard and the hours long, and of course as a convict he received no wages, Thomas had all his basic needs of food, clothing and shelter provided for. And although Captain Hammant had the reputation for being too fond of the drink, it seems he was treated well. Life at Longford for Thomas passed relatively uneventfully, until July 1831 when his Master Captain Hammant was murdered after a drunken argument with a neighbour. In due course because of his diligence and good behaviour, Thomas Willington was granted his ticket of leave on 19 February 1835. Soon afterwards he married Captain Hammant’s young widow Susannah. Thomas Willington became a fully free man in March 1837 when his sentence expired. Now free to pursue his life as he wished, Thomas established a business as a dealer and trader of goods and he and his young family moved to Cocked Hat Hill just outside of Launceston. But Thomas found the stigma of his convict past socially stifling in Tasmania. When Susannah died of cancer in 1851, Thomas decided to leave his past behind and move right away from Tasmania. He decided to relocate to the only colony in Australia which had no convict heritage – South Australia. In 1852 he moved to Port Adelaide where he remarried (to Ann Howell) and established a successful business as a confectioner and store keeper. After a few years he moved his business to Melrose in the Mid North and then to Smithfield. He died on 26 December 1884 in Adelaide leaving behind a widow and 10 grown up children. He is buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery, Adelaide.

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