Researchers who have claimed this convict
There is currently one researcher who has claimed Elizabeth Wood
- Researcher (Kay Scott-Lanyon)
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Biographies
Elizabeth was my maternal Great, Great Grandmother,
born in Scotland abt. 1836 to Alexander and Elizabeth (nee Patterson) Wood. They had married in Edinburgh on June 10, 1825. Alexander was a joiner who later became a boot-maker and Elizabeth was the daughter of a weaver.
Like their father Alexander, all the children were christened in the South Leith church:
Mary, b: 25 April 1830, Robert, b: 2 March 1834, Elizabeth (exact birth date unknown)
and Haxton, b: 20 June 1844. He was named after his grandmother, Isabella Haxton.
Alexander was born 24 April 1809 in South Leith and Elizabeth abt. 1805 in Leith.
Elizabeth (the daughter) got 'free passage' to Tasmania. Convicted of stealing clothing on several ocassions,
she had been in jail before: 9 months, 6 months, 30 days (twice) and another 9 months. This time her sentence was harsher: 'Transportation for Seven Years'.
Elizabeth's occupation was a nursemaid and she had had some schooling and could read. But now the dark-haired, blue-eyed, freckled girl was taken aboard the 'Duchess of Northumberland' and left the UK on 28 November 1852 arriving in Hobart about 5 months later. The ship carried 216 female convicts who were assigned to Tasmanian residents.
Over the next 3 years Elizabeth worked in many homes in the central Hobart area. On her convict record are listed her employers: J Davis, a shoemaker, J Featherstone, an innkeeper, J Brady, Mr McLoughlin a furniture dealer and HG Tonkin, an assignee to insolvent estates.
Either necessity or bad habits led her to steal again. On August 25 1853 Elizabeth appeared in the Hobart Police Court. Charged with stealing money from a box in the shop of her employer, Mr Brady of Macquarie Street, she was convicted and sentenced to 18 months hard labour.
Surprisingly, almost 3 years after arriving in Tasmania Elizabeth was granted her 'Ticket of Leave' on 11 August 1855.
Very soon after, she requested and was granted, permission to marry a fellow convict, John Tillotson, a cabinetmaker from Leeds. He had been tried in Warwick for shoplifting, found guilty and sentenced to '14 years Transportation'.
The marriage appeared not to have lasted (no children registered to them have been found) and Elizabeth went her own way reverting to her birth name of Wood.
She was given her 'Certificate of Hobart' on 27 July 1858.
Once again, bad habits saw her in court in June 1862, this time for 'larceny and unlawful pawning' and a second charge of theft. Her sentence was 18 months imprisonment in the Cascades factory, the female equivalent to Point Puer.
(See convict bio for Alexander O'Neil 1840).
The following year in November 1863 she appeared in the Police Court at Hobart charged with misconduct at the Cascades factory. She was sentenced to another 6 months imprisonment.
Sometime after her release she met and married? a James Devine and they became parents to Henry, born 1865. Again this relationship didn't last and shortly after, she met Alexander O'Neil.
He accepted Henry as his own and when their son Alexander was baptized so too was Henry.
They had 8 children, including Henry whose surname was changed to O'Neil:
Henry b: 12 April 1865, Alexander b: 25 December 1866, John b: 29 April 1868, William b: 2 December 1870, Robert b: 3 Jaunuary 1873, Albert b: 24 October 1875, Catherine b: 4 September 1877 and Axton b: 9 July 1879.
Just after William was born Elizabeth was again in court for larceny. The sentence was much lighter this time: '24 hours gaol'.
She and Alexander married on 19 April 1883 at the Presbyterian Manse in Hobart.
They lived on a 25 acre block at 'Arms on Count' near Molesworth each continuing their work as a sawyer/labourer and midwife.
Elizabeth re-married after Alexanders' death in 1907, to Henry Joy, on September 23, 1911. He was 76, a labourer from Surrey, England. They had 4 years together before Henry died on 24 December 1915.
Elizabeth passed away in 1923 aged 86 and is buried with Alexander at the Cornelian Bay cemetery.
Submitted by Researcher (Kay Scott-Lanyon) on 29 January 2019
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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
The info on Elizabeth Wood was given to me by my mother before she died in 2011.
I have since learned that the info was given to her by a distant relative, Rosemary Luyendyk, author of Ocean's Child'
Submitted by Researcher (Kay Scott-Lanyon) on 16 February 2023
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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. Sources
- The National Archives (TNA) : HO 11/17, p.607
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