The Hall Family.
At the general session of the delivery of the gaol of our Lord the King of the County of Sussex holden at Horsham in the said county on Monday the 20th. day of March in the 55th. year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third by the grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith before Sir Alan Chamber, Knight, one of the Justices of our said Lord the King of his court of common please Sir George Wood, Knight, one of the Barons of our said Lord the King of his court of exchequer and others their fellow Justices of our said Lord the King deliver the said gaol of the prisoners therein being
Thomas Hall } Attainted of stealing a gelding price twenty pounds
William Hall } of James Knight
William Randall }
Reprieved transported for life.
The jurors for our Lord the King upon their Oath present that Thomas Hall late of the Parish of Maresfield puts himself in judgement on another inditement in the County of Sussex,Labourer, William Hall, late of the same, labourer and William Randall, late of the same, labourer on the fifteenth day of February in the fiftyfith reign of our sovereign Lord George the Third. by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, with force and with arms at the Parish aforesaid in the County of the aforesaid, one cart of the value of Ten Pounds and one set of cart harness of the value of Five Pounds of the godds and chattels of William Austen, did steal and carry away, against the Peace of our said Lord the King his crown and dignity.
Grand Larceny.
Thomas Hall only.
Puts himself. Jury says Guilty. No Goods.
To be hanged by the neck until be dead.
One gelding of the price of Twenty Pounds of the Goods and Chattels of James Knight, then and then being found, did take and lead.
Horse Stealing.
The Sussex Advertiser, 27th. March 1815.
In the Criminal Court, twenty prisoners were tried, ten of whom were capitally convicted, and received Sentence of Death, viz. -
John Row, aged 60, for stealing a gelding, the property of Mr. Gibbs, of Laughton, - James Newman, 31, for stealing a bay gelding, the property of Mr. Leggatt, of Westhampnet. - Thomas Simmonds, 25, for stealing a brown gelding, the property of Mr. Noakes, of Herstmonceux. - Thomas Hall, 32, William Hall, 33, and William Randall, 52, for stealing a horse, the property of Mr. Knihght, of Maresfield, and a cart, the property of Mr. Avis, of Forest Row. - William Matthews, 37, (removed from Newgate) for obtaining a horse, under false pretences, of James Carter. - Jane Rogers, 36, for feloniously stealing divers articles in the shop of Mr. Wickens, of Rotherfield. - John Booth, alias Brown, 54, for a burglary in the house of Robert Taylor, of Buxted. - And, Thomas Elliott, for stealing a sheep, the property of Edward Fielder.
They were all reprieved before the Judges left the Town.
My Hall ancestors come from Sussex, from the village of Maresfield. John Hall and Hannah Diplock, who married there in 1780, had 10 children. Thomas, my ancestor, was the second son, born in 1783. His older brother, William, was born in 1781.
A record at the PRO, London, tells us that, on 20 March 1815 at the Sussex Assizes, Thomas and William Hall, labourers of the village of Buxted, together with William Randall, were convicted of stealing a gelding, priced 20 pounds. they were given the death sentence, but subsequently transported for life.
At this time, Thomas was apparently married to Sarah Brookes and they had three children - Mary Ann (born c.1810), Sophia (c.1812) and Harriett (c.1814). Wives of criminals sentenced to transportation were effectively abandoned and faced a very poor future, so it is perhaps not surprising that we find sarah and the girls accompanying thomas to New South Wales. Thomas and William Hall sailed on the "Ocean", arriving in Sydney on 30 January 1816. Sarah and the three girls "came free" on the "Mary Anne" which arrived on 19 January 1816.
Thomas Hall seems to have worked in and around Sydney Town and more children followed - Susanna (born 15 May 1817), John (born 24 August 1819) and Martha (born 19 July 1821). All three were baptized at St. Phillip's, Sydney. However, Thomas did not live to see the arrival of Martha.
The Sydney Gazette of 19 May 1821 tells the graphic story -
"We are sorry to have to report a calamity which involves circumstances of a truly distressing nature. A man, named Thomas Hall, who has been for some time past in the habit of supporting his family by cutting wood and burning lime in the various coves, and has lately been at work in Middle Harbour with three other men, on Friday week dispatched one of the men home, with directions to return to him on the Monday following in the event of his not (by that period) reaching Sydney with the boat. Not returning as expected, the man set out through the woods, and after diligent search and enquiry, saw not the least appearance of the boat. After a lapse of a day or two another boat was dispatched in quest of the absentees. Upon arriving at the place from whence the boat is supposed to have taken her load, there was every appearance of a quantity of lime having been removed; but no traces of the poor men could be ascertained. One oar of the boat, however, has been picked up, with a hat, supposed to have been worn by one of the men. From these circumstances, therefore, there can be no hesitation in pronouncing upon the destiny of three unfortunate fellow-creatures, and declaring that they have met with a watery grave. Providentially, two of the men were without families; but Hall has left a pregnant wife, and five young children, to deplore the loss of a good husband, a kind father and a sober and industrious member of society. We are happy to bear testimony that the Benevolent Society afforded the usual prompt assistance on this melancholy occasion; but, as a burden of such magnitude would be too much for the Society to bear for a continuance, it is desirable that some other means should be devised to enable the widow (a deserving woman) to maintain her little family in honesty. The public has never yet been solicited in vain; and we are pretty well assured, that such a doleful relation as this will lead to increase that susceptibility which is ready to manifest itself at almost every call. A poor woman, far advanced in pregnancy, with five orphans, is now constrained to crave relief from a benevolent Public. With this in view, we are authorized to state, that the Rev. Mr. Cowper, and the Rev. Mr. Hill, will be ready to afford any further information that may be required; and that these worthy Gentlemen also will rejoice much in receiving any pecuniary relief that may be afforded in behalf of such charitable purposes. It is rather remarkable that various trials which this poor family have had to contend with: This is the interesting case stated in the last report of the Benevolent Society:- he had but very few weeks become possessed of the boat as his own property; when, by a severe fall, he fractured his collar-bone, which for a considerable time, prevented his daily labour; and now, by this calamity, all the burden of five little children is suddenly cast upon his widow, who, in a few weeks, as already stated, will have to mourn over a sixth."
Subsequent editions of the newspaper reported sums of money received "to aid the Widow Hall". Having braved much to accompany her husband, Sarah now had to support six children - Mary Ann 11, Sophia 9, Harriett 7, Susanna 4, John 2 and new born Martha. The unfortunate result was that Sarah placed Sophia, Harriett and Susanna into the Female Orphanage at Parramatta on 21 June 1821. Mary Ann, being the eldest, was probably thought old enough to work, so she remained with her mother.
The following year, on 17 June at St. Phillip's, Sarah Hall remarried, becoming the wife of William Jones, a convict who had arrived on the "Baring" in 1814. The census of 1822 records Mary Ann, John and Martha as living in Sydney with Mrs. Jones, while Sophia, Harriett and Susan are listed as being in the Orphan Asylum, Parramatta. By 1825, the Jones family were living at Richmond. In July of that year, Mary Ann aged 15, was married there to Robert Tennant, a convict who had arrived on the "Morley" in 1818 and had been given a ticket-of-leave. Two months later, in September 1825, her mother, Sarah, gave birth to her first child by William Jones, a son, William.
Undoubtably, Sarah was keen to have her children return to her from the Orphanage. In 1826, she sought their release in a memorial to Archdeacon Scott, but it cannot have been favourably received, as the girls remained in the Orphanage, where they are listed in the 1828 census. By this time, Sarah and William Jones and the younger children were living at Black Creek, Luskintyre. Mary Ann Tennant was still at Richmond with her husband and son. Later in 1828 however, Harriett and Susanna were apprenticed to John Staff, a stalwart of the Church of England at Parramatta. It is not clear what happened to Sophia at this time, but she must have been subsequently released, because she married an ex-convict named John White at the school house at Black Creek on 1 April 1831.
January 9, 1832 marked the expiration of Robert Tennant's fourteen year sentence. The same month, he petitioned to have Harriett Hall, his wife's sister, released into his care, proudly stating that.... "I am a free man and am a miller by trade and can support my family in a respectable manner". This may have been granted, because, only months later, on 16 July 1832 at Richmond, Harriett married John Sylvester. In February 1833, the third Orphanage child, Susanna, married John Jackson, a convict who had arrived on the "Burrel". John Hall and Martha Hall, who had remained with their mother throughout, also married in due course - John in 1840 to Sarah Farding, and Martha circa 1843 to Peter Barr. John Hall later married a second time, to Margaret McLeod of Black Creek.
William Jones the younger also married and had children. There may also have been a daughter born to Sarah and William Jones, possibly called Sarah, but nothing else is known of her.
Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, all these families were living in the Hunter Valley. The Jones' were at Black Creek, The Tennants (6 children) at Anvil Creek and Black Creek, the Whites (childless) at Yango, the Sylvesters (at least 8 children) at Wollombi, the Jacksons (at least 4 children) at Glendon, The Halls (at least 10 children) at Black Creek/Branxton and the Barrs (at least 4 children) also at Black Creek. Descendants of these pioneers still live in the Hunter Region.
Sarah Brookes-Hall-Jones died on 27 September 1872 at Yellow Rock Gully and was buried in the Church of England Cemetery, Fordwich. She died of old age, but although her age was declared by her daughter-in-law to be 95, this is at variance with what is recorded in other places. She had outlived her second husband, William, by five years (he had died of strychnine poisoning). She produced seven, perhaps eight, children, who in turn gave her more than thirty grandchildren by the time of her death, not to even try to count her great-grandchildren.
Written by Leigh Flanders. Information supplied by Nita Fraser.
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