John Hewitt was born April 1797 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom to John Hewitt (bef1797) and Ann Banham (bef1797) and died 12 August 1834 Windsor, New South Wales, Australia of unspecified causes. He married Hannah Ramsay (c1793-1870) 4 December 1820 in Boston, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom.
In 1831 John was convicted of stealing wheat and sentenced to 7 years transportation. Having left England on 7 February 1832, he arrived in New South Wales as a convict aboard the ship John 4 months later on the 8 June 1832. On 21 October 1833, two years after John's conviction, his wife Hannah Hewitt was tried and convicted of shop lifting. This was her 2nd offence, the first for which she had received a sentence of 1 month in gaol. It was common for wives to commit crimes so that they could be transported with teir children to the Colony to join their husbands, and perhaps this is another example. Hannah was transported to Australia as a convict aboard the Numa with the 5 youngest of their 7 children. Hannah's ship arrived in Port Jackson (Sydney) on 13 June 1834. On arrival in Port Jackson Hannah and her children were likely to have been sent to the Female Factory at Parramatta. Records in New South Wales then show that she was assigned as an employee to Judge Dowling in Sydney. John Hewitt died 2 August 1834 at Windsor and it is not known if he saw his wife and children before his death. Following her husband's death in 1834 Hannah married another convict, John Thompson in 1835, then in June 1839 married John Bacon. In September 1854 she again married this time a William Brown.
The voyage of the John - Master (Captain) Samuel Lowe, Surgeon Superintendent James Lawrence.
The John transported 200 male prisoners from England and Scotland to New South Wales in 1832. Surgeon James Lawrence kept a Medical and Surgical Journal from 7 January to 30 June 1832. The John remained in England for over three weeks after embarking the convicts. According to James Lawrence, it was a miserable time. During the three weeks about thirty men were affected with diarrhoea. As well as that they were cold. Some of them had worn flannels while on board the Justitia Hulk at Woolwich. Eighty men were transferred to the John on 12 January 1832 and they were stripped of their flannels before being removed from the Justitia. The weather was then cold, and notwithstanding every exertion made to promote warmth and dryness by frequently using swing stoves in different parts of the ship, it was some time before the John could be brought to the same comfortable state as the hulks which had long been inhabited. The John finally departed the Downs on 7 February 1832. The Guard aboard ship consisted of 29 non-commissioned officers and privates, 3 women and 1 child, under the command of Lieut. George Baldwin of the 30th Regiment. Passengers included Mrs. Baldwin, Master Baldwin, Lieutenant Ronald Campbell and Mr. John Campbell. After a voyage of 122 days, the John arrived in Port Jackson on Friday 8 June 1832. If the prisoners had been allowed on deck on the following day (Saturday), they would have been greeted with a clear, cool winter's day with winds from the south-east.
Children
Footnotes (including sources)
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