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William Prentice of Tasmania


William Prentice of Hobart, Tasmania
By Linus Joseph Dewald Jr., Editor
Fall 2000 and Revised: 7 Nov 2009

Note:: This article supercedes and replaces the Fall 2000 article on Henry Charles Prentice of Australia.


We are helping Wendy Bunter and Brett Prentice in efforts to identify their Prentice roots. With the invaluable and appreciated help of Richard Cato we know quite a bit about William Prentice from Tasmanian Archives (Ref: 82/312), copies of which Richard Cato received with other Prentis family papers. William Prentice's family tree is set out below:

1. William Prentice was b. 1812. We do not know exactly where he was born, but in Tasmanian Archives his "Native Place" is identified as Woolwich and the only Woolwich we have found so far is in England a bit east of London. Below is a reference to his being in "Aberdeen" and the only Aberdeen we have been able to locate is in Scotland. So, was he born in Woolwich and did he later move to the Aberdeen area? By land it would have been a long journey, but by sea it would have been a relatively easy voyage. His employment in 1828, mentioned below, may shed some light on the question.

In 1828, at the age of 16, he was described as follows:

     Height: 5’ ½" 
     Hair: light brown, 
     Eyes: hazel, 
     Marks: W.P. inside right arm
    

From the records we know something of his youth. He was imprisoned in England once for "miscalling the Postmaster at Aberdeen - Mr Patterson (i.e. name-calling). His last employment in 1828 was in the William Mars Ropewalk (see Fn. 1). He was later arrested for "housebreaking," tried at "Aberdeen Court of Justiciary" (See Fn. 2) on 15 Apr 1828 and sentenced to 14 years transportation to Tasmania for housebreaking. His prosecutor was Provost Robinson. After his arrival in Tasmania, records indicate he was unable to keep out of trouble and was punished for various offenses as follows:

  • Date of Offense: 19 Feb 1830
  • Place of employment: Wright
  • Offense: Neglect of duty and disobedience of orders on 18 Feb 1830
  • Punishment: 12 lashes and retu4rned to his service
  • Magistrate's initials: P.S.

  • Date of Offense: 4 Mar 1830
  • Place of Employment: Wright
  • Offense: Stealing peaches the property of his master
  • Punishment: Treadwheel 2 days and returned to his service.
  • Magistrate's initials: P.S.

    Note: The following about the treadwheel is found at http://www.ihrinfo.ac.uk/ihr/reviews/prison.html: "Administrators believed that the mere denial of freedom was not punishment enough and thought up various ways of intensifying the pains of imprisonment. Their industriousness made the hand crank and the treadwheel common features in prisons of the second half of the 19th century.

    The [treadwheel] was an especially cruel device, constructed of a series of steps on a huge wheel which was to be turned around by the prisoner's climbing motion. Not only was the work physically exhausting, but it was also mentally gruelling for the prisoners as it produced absolutely nothing. The only justification of this, in McConville's words "scarcely veiled torture" (p.147), was to punish the prisoners.

    A medical and scientific committee was set up in the 1860s to determine the amount of labour that could be expected from the prisoners, and after rational deliberation the experts concluded that prisoners sentenced to hard labour were to ascend 8,640 feet per day."

  • Date of Offense: 30 Jun 1830
  • Place of Employment: Captain Clover
  • Offense: Neglect of duty and disobedience of orders, particularly yesterday
  • Punishment: 12 lashes and returned to his service.
  • Magistrate's initials: J. Gordon

  • Date of Offense: 13 Dec 1830
  • Place of Employment: Clover
  • Offense: Neglect of duty repeatedly
  • Punishment: 25 lashes (suspended)
  • Magistrate's initials: J.H.B. & H. Nicholls

  • Date of Offense: 15 Feb 1831
  • Place of Employment: Clover
  • Offense: Disobedience of orders and neglect of duty generally, but particularly within the last 10 days.
  • Punishment: Treadwheel 10 days and returned to his master
  • Magistrate's initials: J. Gordon, J.S. & H.N.

  • Date of Offense: 2 Aug 1831
  • Place of Employment: W. H. Glover
  • Offense: General idleness and neglect of duty, particularly on the 16th day of July
  • Punishment: Treqdwheel 14 days and returned to Government.
  • Magistrate's initials: J. Cordon

  • Date of Offense: 14 Dec 1833
  • Place of Employment: Ball
  • Offense: Out after hours
  • Punishment: Admonished
  • Magistrate's initials: C.P.M.

  • Date of Offense: 31 Jul 1834
  • Place of Employment: Constable
  • Offense: Absent from his beat at 11 o"clock at night and found by the Chief Constable secreted in one of the Out houses in the rear of the Survey Office with refusing to admit that officer into the said Out house.
  • Punishment: Treadwheel 6 days, pay stopped during that time and to sleep in a cell at night.
  • Magistate's initials: C.P.M.

In Septemger, 1836, He received a Conditional Pardon and he apparently went to work for the Constable. However, his record continues as follows:

  • Date of Offense: 4 Dec 1837
  • Place of Employment: Constable
  • Offense: Misconduct
  • Punishment: Charge dismissed
  • Magistrate's initials: C.A.

  • Date of Offense: 14 Feb 1839
  • Place of Employment: Constable
  • Offense: Absent without leave
  • Punishment: Admonished
  • Magistrate's initials: W.A.

  • Date of Offense: 16 May 1839
  • Place of Employment: Constable
  • Offense: Drunkenness
  • Punishment: Admonished
  • Magistrate's initials: J.C.S.

On 6 Jan 1841, William Prentice received a "Free Certificate," which apparently ended his period of servitude.

On 8 Nov 1843, at the age of about 39, he m. Elizabeth Woodland, spinster, at St. David's Church of England. She was b. 1819 and was then 24. His occupation at that time was given as Sawyer; the record indicates he was able to write and that Elizabeth signed with a mark. (Con 31/34 & Con 23)((RGD558/1843).

Elizabeth Woodland had arrived in Hobart on the ship Boadicea on 4 Feb 1836. She was a general servant, then age 18 from Bristol and was accompanied by Mary Woodland (probably her sister), a housemaid, aged 19 also from Bristol. The Boadicea brought 216 free female emigrants to the colony. (GOl/24/p .133 CSO)

William Prentice d. in 1891 and Elizabeth Woodland d. in 1903. Children:

  • Celia Philis Prentice, b. 1836
  • Henry Charles Prentice, b. 1844. . . . . . . . . . . [2]
  • William David Prentice, b. 1844. He m. 1st Mary Ann Murphy. He m. 2nd Elizabeth Bowe, b. 1861. Children:
    • Eliza Jane Prentice, b. 1876
    • Emily Prentice, b. 1876
    • George Henry Prentice, b. 1885 died WW1
    • Albert Charles Prentice, b. 1887 died WW1
    • Margaret Louisa Prentice, b. 1889
    • Eva Prentice, b. 1891 and d. 1893
    • Eva Prentice, b. 1894
    • John James Bowe Prentice, b. 1895
    • Clarence Prentice, b. 1897
    • Doris Petoria Prentice, b. 1900
    • Thomas David Prentice, b. 1903
  • Mary Ann Prentice, b. 1850.
  • Emily Jane Prentice, b. 1858. She m. James Montgomery.
  • Janet Prentice, b. 1860. She m. Alfred Goudge.

2. Henry Charles Prentice, b. born in 1844 (in Tasmania?). Henry m. in 1876 Margaret Alice Bowe. Children:

  • George Henry Prentice, b. 1877
  • Catherine Prentice, b. 1878
  • William John Prentice, b. 1881
    • Kathleen May Prentice, b. 1912
    • Eileen Allison Prentice, b. 1913
    • Joyce Edith Prentice, b. 1916
    • Betty Linnette Prentice, b. 1917
  • Amelia Prentice b. 1882
  • Louisa Cecelia Prentice, b. 1885
  • Charles Albert Prentice, b. 1887. . . . . . . . . . . . [3]
  • Cornelius Woodland Prentice, b. 1889
    • Alice Olwen Prentice, b. 1913
    • Ivy Jean Prentice, b. 1914
    • Cornelis Ernest Raymond Prentice, b. 1917
    • Dorothy Elizabeth Prentice, b. 1920
  • Ernest Gordon Prentice, b. 1891, survived WW1
  • Raymond Franics Prentice, b. 1895

3. Charles Albert Prentice, b. in 1887, Rushworth/Bendigo, Victoria Australia. He died in 1952 in Rushworth. Albert m. Mary Jane Whiteside in 1908 in Bendigo. They had at least 1 son:

  • Ivy Edna Prentice, b. 1908
  • Albert William Prentice, b. 1910 in Bendigo. . . . . . . . . . . [4]

4. Albert William Prentice, b. 1910 in Bendigo. He m. Bernice Frances Scholes. She was b. 1913. They may have lived in Frankston, Victoria. They had at least 1 son:

  • Robert Albert Prentice, b. c. 1936. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [5]

5. Robert Albert Prentice, b. c. 1936. He was an ambulance officer at the time and was stationed at Orbost; they also used their garage as a makeshift morgue. He m. in 1959 Nanette Wise b. 1938.

  • Kevin Ian Prentice, b. 1959
    • Kelly Lee Prentice, b. 1994
    • Emily Nicole Prentice, b. 1997
  • Brett Prentice, b. 1961 in Orbost, Victoria. . . . . . . . . . . . . [6]
  • Mark Casey Prentice, b. 1962
    • Sidonie Casey Prentice, b. 1996

6. Brett Prentice, b. 1961 in Orbost, Victoria. His father left when Brett was 3 and Brett was reared by his mother. He m. in 1985 Amanda McDonald who was b. 1961. Children:

  • Kylie Nanette Prentice, b. 1986.
  • Caitlin Amanda Prentice, b. 1991.
  • Maddison Shae Prentice, b. 1994.
  • Ryan William Ian Casey Prentice, b. 1999

Brett also has information about his other kin. His wife's great-great-grandfather, Norman Hume McDonald, emigrated to Australia from Isle of Skye in 1854. They moved to Maryborough with his wife and daughter in 1854 and remained until 1861 before moving to Clydesdale to try his hand at farming. His children were born in Amherst, Daisy Hill, Friars Creek and Maryborough. His wife's name is Johan McKenzie Munro, sister of Victoria's Premier in 1890-92.

Who is William's Father?

By email of 29 Jul 2001, Brett Prentice has supplied the following information:

    "William Prentice was born around 1812-1814 in Woolwich, which we presume is the one located in London. His Trail documents state his mother was Jean Paterson, daughter of George Paterson, Gardner of Banff, and father is un-named. William's father appears to have been a soldier in the Train of Artillery and once again as the reference to Woolwich is made, and the large Artillery is based at Woolwich I feel so far we're on the right track.

    "William's father was killed when William was around one. Don't know anything about his death or where it happened. This is the only reference made in the Trial documents. Some say he may have been killed in the Napoleonic Wars. I have found a William Prentice who was in the Glengarry Light Infantry in 1812 who fought in the War of 1812 but this may be a dead-end as this William may be Canadian. I am guessing William's father's name was also William.

    "Jean Paterson took William back to Banff, Scotland after the death of her husband/defacto and left him with her father George Paterson and Jannet Wiseman. Jean left and appears ended up in Edinburgh where she died one year prior to William's conviction in 1827.

    "William was transported to Australia in 1828 after receiving a 14 year sentence for housebreaking and theft.

    "I do not know if he had any siblings and cannot find any reference to Jean Paterson on LDS site.

    "William moved to the State of Victoria and headed to the goldfields. His family stayed there and are probably still there today. Albert Charles Prentice (there are two of them 1st cousins) my great grandfather was killed in WW1 at the Battle of the Somme. His brother George Henry (there are two of them 1st cousins) was also killed in WW1 with a third brother James being severely wounded at Gallipoli and returning home."

By Comment of 22 Oct 2016, Brett Prentice offered the following information:

    Have not seen any documented evidence that William Prentice's father was William Prentice. Based on documents provided by National Archives Scotland, William Prentice was 14yo at the time of his trial in 1828. He is shown as 29yo when married in 1843. Some are stating death of his William? Prentice father was 1813, well before his birth. Although originally shown as birth c.1812 for William Prentice, this has been modified to 1814. I would not be listing his father as William Prentice until such proof has been provided, at this stage his father remains unknown although a lead is currently being followed for a soldier in the Royal Artillery that may not have died as stated in the trial documents. The court documents are clear that William's father died when William was 12 months old.

If you have any information about the folks mentioned in this article, please contact us at dewald@prenticenet.com.


Fn. 1: For an illustration of a Ropewalk, see Ropewalk .

Fn. 2: A discussion of the Court of Justiciary can be found at The High Court of Justiciary. Briefly, The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland and it is both a trial court and a court of appeals. There is no appeal from it to the House of lords. The judges are the same as those in the Court of Session but wear different robes and the Lord President as head of the High Court is called 'Lord Justice-General'. As a trial court, it sits in Edinburgh but also travels to different parts of Scotland, e.g. Glasgow, Stirling, Oban, Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Perth, etc., whereas as an appeal court, it only sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh.

The High Court has jurisdiction over all Scotland, and covers all types of crime not specifically reserved to another court. Its exclusive jurisdiction covers all major crimes (treason, murder, rape, incest, piracy, offenses under the Official Secters Act, breach of duty by magistrates, and obstruction of officers of the court). Normally only one judge sits at a trial, but in cases of importance or difficulty two or more can sit, and there is always a jury.


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