Researchers who have claimed this convict
There is currently one researcher who has claimed Thomas Bellamy
- Researcher (Roberta Muir)
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Biographies
Samuel (alias Thomas) Bellamy was born in London, England on 27 June 1809. He was baptized on 2 April 1819 (when he was 10 years old) at St Giles in the Fields, Camden, London. His parents, Samuel Thomas Bellamy (28 May 1785) and Isabella "Isabel" Brown (1784), lived at 44 New Compton St, London and also had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Helen (31 Aug 1806) and two sons George (29 Mar 1813) & Henry Francis (18 Sep 1815).
Young Samuel was in trouble with the law for petty theft from an early age. In 1823 he was sentenced at the Old Bailey to 3 months’ imprisonment for ‘larceny from a person’ and a year later was whipped and served a further month in Newgate Prison for the same offense. In 1825 he served a further 3 months for picking the pocket of a man in Gray’s Inn (stealing a silk handkerchief). At that time, he worked for the butcher, Mr Hammond, in Bloomsbury Market. In 1826 he was acquitted on a charge of larceny, but, in 1827 when he was yet again before the court for larceny, the magistrates had had enough and he was sentenced to 7 years transportation. At the time he was 17 years old and working for a Jewish butcher, Mr Hamblin in Lumber Court (now Tower Court), Seven Dials, London. He spent 12 months in Newgate Prison awaiting transportation and finally sailed aboard the ‘Bengal Merchant’ on 18 March 1828, arriving in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on 10 August 1828, having acquired convict tattoos of a woman on the inside of his right arm and a bird on a tombstone with a wreath under it on his left arm.
He didn’t manage to stay out of trouble while serving his time in Tasmania, spending 12 months on a chain gang for maiming a heifer and, on another occasion, 21 days’ hard labour for ‘neglect of duty’. A charge of ‘using threatening language’ was dismissed however … so perhaps he was more a scoundrel than a bully! He obtained his Ticket of Leave on 13 December 1833 and his Certificate of Freedom on 29 July 1835.
Sometime after that, he sailed across Bass Strait from Hobart Town to the new settlement of Port Phillip (Melbourne), which was founded the same year he obtained his freedom. Here he changed his surname to Bentley and worked as a carpenter and builder, for a while in partnership as the firm of "Bentley and Evans” (which was dissolved in 1841). On 25 February 1839, he married Johanna Hayes in St James Old Cathedral, Melbourne; her brother-in-law who was her guardian was also a carpenter, so this is likely how they met. He was 29 and she was only about 15. They started their family the same year when their first of 8 children, Edward Robert, was born on 27 Dec 1839, followed by Margaret (16 Jul 1841), Isabella (25 Jul 1843), Mary Elizabeth (23 Jun 1845) and Johanna (01 Aug 1847).
Around 1848, the family moved to Gawler (Sth Australia), where Teresa Matilda was born on 09 January 1850 and baptised along with her 4 older sisters. They remained there until about 1851, when they likely relocated to rural Victoria for a year or 2, before settling in Binalong (NSW) as farmers by 1856. Their last 2 children, Lavinia Agnes (09 Jan 1853) and Samuel Jnr (31 May 1856) were baptised in Yass in September 1856.
Samuel died on 16 July 1861 in Binalong (aged 52) and was buried in Galong Cemetery (in the grounds of St Clement's Monastery), where a headstone was erected in memory of him and his youngest son, Samuel Jnr, who died just a few months before him, as well as 2 of his grandchildren, sons of his daughter Isabella who is buried next to him. His wife Johanna, with a young family to care for, remarried 2 years later to William Rumble, whose son John wed Johanna’s daughter, Isabella, 2 months later.
Submitted by Researcher (Roberta Muir) on 27 May 2018
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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 11/6, p.335
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