Origins in Bicester
William Blincoe was two years old when his mother Hannah died in the outbreak of cholera In Bicester of 1830. William, his older sister Eliza and baby Felix were now effectively orphans, their Father was in jail awaiting trial and deportation and was a never likely to be seen again. Uncle James and Auntie Elizabeth were probably wanting to take care of the children, Elizabeth was Hannah’s sister and so it would naturally fall to her to try and look after them. But circumstances were dire, One in five poor in the town and parents and Uncle and Aunt were part of that group. So it was to the Bicester Poorhouse that the children were sent.
In the Poorhouse census of 1841 the boy Felix is recorded now 7 , william and Eliza being older may well have been farmed out as ‘help’ to other families. The Poorhouse shown above was brand new in 1834 so the children at least had dry conditions, but the food was designed to encourage people to seek employment and get out as soon as possible.
Where William was in this period we don’t know. but in when he was 17 he was caught housebreaking to steal clothes . On 2 July 1849 at Worcester he was tried and convicted of the crime. A like his father received the harshest justice, 7 years deportation to Tasmania.
The voyage of the Lady Montagu 1852
He sailed from Plymouth on the Lady Montagu on 9 August 1852 arriving Hobart, Tasmania on 9 December 1852. Of the 290 male convicts who set sail only 281 survived the voyage.
Port Arthur Penal Settlement
We dont have any records for William in 1853 his first year and so we can assume is behaviour was good, ie no misdemeanours/punishments recorded. We can only speculate if he was sent directly to Port Arthur.
A relatively young William Blincoe at 24 years old sent to a penal colony set up to break hardened criminals with extreme discipline and harsh punishment would have been intimidating, we can only imagine how frightening an environment it was for him. How he was reacted, it seems, was by in general keeping his head down and working hard to get out of there .
William spent 18 months in the notorious Port Arthur penal settlement the records tell us.
Douglas River Coal Co. Eastern Tasmania
Then he was sent some 150 miles (a voyage in those days) to the site of the Douglas River Coal Co., a private mine, that had employed convicts to build infrastructure etc but was not a penal institution. William is recorded a Miner at the coal face. The relative freedom and ease of the new location may have cause William to take liberties and in July 1854: He was sentenced to 7 days solitary confinement for “misconduct.” While the specific nature of this misconduct isn’t detailed in the primary record, it occurred shortly after he was assigned to the Douglas River Coal Co. Again in October 1854: He received two months of hard labour for being “out after hours and disturbing the peace.”
Despite these issues he was recommended for Conditional Pardon 16 November 1854 which was not granted until 10 July 1855. It could be William was valued for his work at the coal face and hence the offences overlooked after a probationary period.
“By the end of 1855 between 40-50 men were working underground. Cottages were built for these workmen on a half acre of land. Transporting coal 5 kilometres by horse drawn tram was a slow and expensive process. A 20 horsepower steam engine was imported from England but the purpose built rope required to operate the engine was not sent out from England with the engine, rendering it useless. At this time questions were being asked about the management of the Douglas River Coal Company’s funds and its failure to appoint skilled Managers despite the substantial investment.“
Return to Hobart Town
William is back in Hobart by 1856 he meets Dorothy Ann Collis six years younger than he and who arrived in 1854 on an assisted passage to Hobart, Tasmania from Bristol, England. They married 4 February 1856 in Hobart. In July of the next year 1857 a son William Felix is born but he dies in January 1858 at 6 months. A daughter Catherine Amelia Blincoe is born almost a year later and a birth record from that event tells us that William still considers himself a Miner by occupation.
Death 16 January 1859, Hobart
One year after the birth of Catherine, William dies of Pneumonia on 7 January in Hobart. He was buried at the St David’s Burial Ground, Hobart, Tasmania
Dorothy was young and had a daughter to raise, so she soon re-married. In fact just one year later to Eli Round in 1860. They reportedly had 10 more children. Dorothy Ann Round (née Collis) died in 1911 in Hobart, Tasmania, at the age of approximately 75.
The last of this line
Daughter Catherine Amelia Blincoe kept her surname and age 19 married in 1877 to William Harrison and thus the Blincoe line in Tasmania ceased.
Link to William Blinco 1804
References
This biography was compiled using the previous research of Anne Burton a Blencowe Family Researcher and sources as listed below. If you have further information regarding William’s later years or his family in Bicester, please contact the site administrator.
- Convict Conduct Records (Tasmania):
- William Blincoe, Ship: Lady Montagu (1852). Archives Office of Tasmania, Record ID: CON33-1-109.
- Convict Description Lists (Tasmania):
- William Blincoe, Ship: Lady Montagu (1852). Archives Office of Tasmania, Record ID: CON18-1-57.
- Convict Indents (New South Wales):
- William Blencowe, Ship: Hooghly (1834). State Archives and Records NSW, Item: [4/4019]; Reel 906. (This provides the description of the father’s scars and missing tooth) .
- Civil Registration of Marriages (Tasmania):
- Marriage of William Blincoe and Dorothy Ann Collis, 4 February 1856. Tasmanian Names Index, Registration Number: RGD37/1/15 no 429.
- Civil Registration of Deaths (Tasmania):
- Death of William Blincoe, 16 January 1859. Tasmanian Names Index, Registration Number: RGD35/1/5 no 1358.
- Death of Dorothy Ann Round (née Collis) Death: 3 Nov 1911 (Hobart, Tasmania), Registration No. 1207 / 1911 (Hobart), Archival Ref: AF70-1-31.
- Civil Registration of Births (Tasmania):
- Birth of Catherine Amelia Blincoe, 6 December 1858. Tasmanian Names Index, Registration Number: RGD33/1/7 no 2933.+1
- Historical Mining Records:
- The Douglas River Coal Company Papers (1849–1858). Historical records of coal mining at the Denison Rivulet and Bicheno infrastructure.
- Poor Law Records:
- Bicester Union Workhouse Census and Admission Records (1834–1841). Newsquest (Oxfordshire) Ltd
Appendix
Ann Burton a fellow researcher of the two Williams, put together a side-by-side comparison of the father and son, from their convict profiles. It illustrates perhaps William juniors, upbringing suffering a lack of nutrition, and seemingly making him very short compared to is father.