Researchers who have claimed this convict
There are currently 2 researchers who have claimed Thomas Read
- Researcher (Clarke Whitehand)
- Researcher (Trevor READ)
|
 |
Biographies
THOMAS READ WAS ONE OF SEVEN MEN TRIED AT KENT QUARTER SESSIONS ON 25TH. NOVEMBER 1830 ON CHARGES OF HAVING PARTICIPATED IN THE SWING RIOTS. HE WAS CONVICT NO. 694.
HE WAS SENTENCED TO TRANSPORTATION TO VAN DIEMANS LAND TO SERVE A LIFE SENTENCE. HE SAILED FROM PORTSMOUTH ON THE 6th. FEBRUARY 1831 ABOARD THE ELIZA 2, ARRIVING IN VAN DIEMANS LAND ON 27TH. MAY 1831. RECORDS INDICATE THAT HE WAS MARRIED AT THE TIME OF SENTENCE TO (COINCIDENTLY) AN ELIZABETH (MARRIED AT MARGATE)
HIS PRISON RECORDS ALSO INDICATE THAT HE HAD BEEN CONVICTED ONCE BEFORE FOR STEALING LEAD ABOUT 7 YEARS AGO (PRIOR TO HIS CHARGES OF MACHINE BREAKING), FOR WHICH HE WAS SENTENCED TO 3 MONTHS AND A WHIPPING, AND HAD BEEN REALEASED FROM PRISON IN 1825 (AGED 20).
On arrival in Tasmania he would have been taken from the ship to the Hobart Town Prisoners Barracks (which then took up the whole block of Campbell Street between Brisbane and Bathurst Streets where he would wait assignment. OCCUPATION WAS CLASSIFIED AS A PLOUGHMAN, AND WAS ASSIGNED TO WORK FOR MR. GEORGE DIXON WHO HAD A PROPERTY IN THE CLYDE VALLEY
NOTE: GEORGE DIXON WAS BORN IN 1800 IN DURHAM ENGLAND AND ARRIVED IN TASMANIA WITH HIS BROTHER GEORGE IN 1821. FOR 2 YEARS THEY BOTH WORKED FOR EDWARD LORD, TENDING HIS CATTLE STATION. IN 1823 THEY WERE BOTH GRANTED 100 ACRES OF LAND IN THE VALLEY OF THE RIVER CLYDE, AND IN 1824 THEY BOTH RECEIVED A FURTHER 200 ACRES. IN JULY 1926, GEORGE BOUGHT HIS BROTHER'S LAND AS HIS BROTHER MOVED TO SYDNEY.
THOMAS IT SEEMS DID NOT LIKE WORKING. PRISONER RECORDS (Page 57 of 246) SHOW THAT HE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING PUNISHMENTS DURING HIS STAY...........
JANUARY 15th. 1834 - INSOLENCE AND GROSS DISRESPECT TO HIS MASTER (GEORGE DIXON). GIVEN HARD LABOUR ON A ROAD PARTY FOR 4 MONTHS.
APRIL 9th. 1834 - NEGLECT OF WORK WHILST IN CHAIN GANG. GIVEN 20 LASHES.
APRIL 23rd. 1834 - NEGLECT OF WORK. REPRIMAND.
APRIL 30th. 1834 - NEGLECT OF WORK. 30 LASHES.
MAY 7th. 1834 - NEGLECT OF WORK. 30 LASHES.
MAY 21st. 1834 - NEGLECT OF WORK. 30 LASHES.
JUNE 16th. 1834 - NEGLECT OF WORK. 1 MONTH HARD LABOUR IN ADDITION TO HIS ORIGINAL SENTENCE.
JUNE 23rd. 1834 - DISOBEYING ORDERS. 25 LASHES.
JUNE 30th. 1834 - MAKING AWAY WITH HIS PROVISIONS. 25 LASHES.
Sent back to George Dixon from the Road Gang
DECEMBER 31st. 1834 - NEGLECT OF DUTY. REPRIMAND.
APRIL 15th. 1835 - ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE. DISCHARGED.
JANUARY 23rd. 1835 - BEING ON W. PATTERSON'S PREMISES WITHOUT LEAVE AND NEAR A HUT WHERE A FELONY HAD BEEN COMMITTED THE PREVIOUS DAY. SEVERLEY REPRIMANDED.
HE WAS PARDONED ON 24TH. APRIL 1837 AND LEFT "TASMANIA" FOR "PORT PHILLIP" IN APPROX. 1840.
ON THE 7th. MARCH 1842 HE WAS MARRIED IN GEELONG. MARRIAGE EXTRACT SHOWS SURNAME SPELT "REID". WITNESSES AT HIS WEDDING WERE THOMAS FREEMAN & RICHARD GROVES. Registration No. 608.
SOMETIME AFTER HIS MARRIAGE ( PROBABLY AFTER 1859 AS HIS LAST CHILD WAS BORN IN GEELONG THAT YEAR), THOMAS AND ELIZA MOVED FROM GEELONG TO ALLANSFORD.
WHEN HE DIED HE WAS A FARMER.
HE DIED ON 21st. SEPTEMBER 1868 WHEN A TREE FELL ON HIM. Registration No. 5473. AT HIS INQUEST INTO HIS DEATH, TWO OF THE WITNESSES WERE BOTH NAMED GEORGE GOLDSTRAW. GEORGE SNR. (BORN 1800, DIED 1870) WAS A TIMBER MERCHANT (HIS SON GEORGE JNR. (BORN 1840, DIED 1870) WAS A FARMER AT NARINGAL). IT IS BELIEVED THAT THOMAS WAS ASSISTING GEORGE WITH HIS BUSINESS AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH.
BURIED IN WARRNAMBOOL CEMETERY ON 23rd. SEPTEMBER 1868 IN THE WESLAYN SECTION ROW 8, GRAVE 34. HE IS BURIED WITH HIS WIFE ELIZABETH AND WILLIAM (WHO IS HIS SON).
Submitted by Researcher (Trevor READ) on 2 September 2024
|
Thomas Griggs Read, was a farm labourer (“a ploughman, able to reap grain, milk cows and plant and pole hops”) he married Elizabeth (nee Marsh) in Wingham, Kent, in March, 1829.
They were confronted with harsh times, caused by (3) successive low grain harvests, nationwide recession, deflation, low wages, tithes, low Poor Law payments. They became part of a caste of impoverished agricultural workers.
During the Summer of 1830, rich tenant farmers introduced grain threshing machines, that significantly reduced the amount of manual labour required for separating grain from stalks. The result was widespread unemployment among agricultural workers. The threshing machines concerned, consisted of a sturdy wooden frame, which housed a metal swinging mechanism which held the cereal stalks. The machines were driven by harnessed horses.
Worker protests, against use of the machines, began during the Autumn of 1830. The protests escalated into rioting and to the destruction of threshing machines, the first of which occurred in the Elham Valley (near Wingham) East Kent during August, 1830. Protestors who had participated in the destruction of the machines, were arrested. Trials of the first protestors resulted in sentences that were lenient and designed to offer a deterrent to further such activity.
On the evening of 25/26 October, 1830, Thomas Read was one of about 200 of farm labourers who assembled near Sarah Matson’s farm at Wingham (the Matson’s were known to have acquired a threshing machine). The labourers had met to protest the loss of work and income caused by the use of threshing machines.
The leader of the group was an anonymous man dressed in a white hat – dubbed “Captain Swing” (a symbolic figure, named after the swinging mechanism of the threshing machines). Thus began the notorious “Swing Riots” of the early 1830’s; the protestors - “Swing Rioters,” also became known as “Machine Breakers,” because they destroyed threshing machines.
The protestors at the Matson farm demanded keys to the barn, and when asked why they wanted the keys, said that they intended to destroy the threshing machine that was inside the barn. They said that they were doing the Matson’s a favour, as that would save the barn being destroyed by fire. The protestors were given the keys and they entered the barn.
Thomas Read was one of about 6 protestors that overturned the Matson’s threshing machine and broke it into pieces. Thomas was witnessed by two members of the Matson family, to have been carrying a hammer and to have participated in breaking their threshing machine. He was also recognised as being part of a mob that destroyed a threshing machine at another Wingham farm, later that night. He was arrested on the 26th of October, by military and constabulary officers.
On the 25th and 26th of November, 1830, Thomas Read, together with 9 other protestors, appeared before the Eastern Division of the County Court of Kent, at Saint Augustine’s, near Canterbury. The court was chaired by Sir Edward Knatchbull, Baronet, to hear charges relating to the October riots.
Thomas charged “on the oath of Robert Matson, with having, on the twenty-fifth day of October, 1830, at the Parish of Wingham, in this County, feloniously broken and destroyed a threshing machine, the property of Sarah Matson.”
Thomas Read was found guilty and sentenced to be “transported (to Van Diemen’s Land) for life & one day imprisonment.” His wife, Elizabeth, was present in court when his sentence was handed down, and fainted on hearing it. Thomas Read’s sentence was greater than earlier sentences for similar offences, in light of earlier sentences not having the desired deterrent effect. In addition, Thomas had a prior conviction (stealing lead).
Thanks: Jill Chambers, her 2006 - “Kent Machine Breakers, The story of the 1830 riots;” “Volume 1: The Riots and Trials,” and “Volume 2: The Rioters.”
Geoffrey Sharman; Thomas’s 1840 passage from Tasmania, aboard the “Lowestoft.”
Submitted by Researcher (Clarke Whitehand) on 1 August 2025
|
Disclaimer: The information has not been verified by Claim a Convict. As this information is contributed, it is the responsibility of those who use the data to verify its accuracy. Research notes
There are currently no research notes attached to this convict. Sources
- The National Archives (TNA) : HO 11/8, p.3
|
