Joseph Lowen was born c.1810 to Thomas and Mary Lowen in Bramfield, Hertfordshire, England. Bramfield lies in the centre of the county, about 3½ miles north-west of Hertford and 4½ miles west of Welwyn. As revealed in later census returns Thomas was at times an agricultural labourer, herdsman and woodman.
Young Joseph grew up in the post Napoleonic War period when several factors combined to make this an increasingly difficult time for the working classes.
Firstly, the process of enclosures, (which had started in the 13th century), was beginning to accelerate at the end of the 18th century. This process was the privatization of communally owned lands in England. Enclosures enabled landowners to try new agricultural methods, such as threshing machines, to farm more profitably by substantially reducing labour intensive farming. Traditional rights to common land were lost and many small small-scale farmers and rural peasants faced eviction. Poverty and unemployment increased dramatically.
A second major impact were the hostilities with France. During the French Wars the price of corn was high but then fell sharply with the onset of peace in 1815. To help protect farmers financially the 1815 Corn Law restricted the import of cheap continental corn. This raised the price of corn and other grains, with the resultant increase in the cost of living affected the poorest most. A series of bad harvests worsened the situation. Real wages also remained below 1793 levels until the 1830s, and it took many years for improved prosperity for the working class.
The numbers of the unemployed were added to in 1815 by the release of soldiers and sailors (300,000 – 400,000).
These tough conditions led many people to turn to poaching and thieving for survival. As will be seen this had serious consequences for many, including Joseph.
Against this backdrop, Joseph became involved in petty crime in the early 1830s. By 1831, he had been convicted of two misdemeanors. The first incident was reported in the Herts, Huntingdon, Bedford, Cambridge, and Isle of Ely Mercury on July 31, 1830. He spent seven days in the county gaol after being convicted of vagrancy. The prison records stated that Joseph was a farm labourer from nearby Hertford.
Later that same year Joseph was convicted on 6th October of trespassing with nets to take and kill conies (rabbits). He was fined ten pounds.
Joseph twice appeared at the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions in 1832. At the Lent Assizes, he was acquitted on a burglary charge, and at the 1832 Michaelmas Session, he was found not guilty of larceny.
His luck ran out when he was found guilty of larceny at the Hertford Midsummer Session of 1833. For stealing fowls he was sentenced to seven years of transportation.
This harsh sentence was a result of the Game Laws of 1816 that protected the sport of the rich, limiting the hunting of game to landowners. Any person caught poaching or found at night with an offensive weapon and a net for poaching, in any forest, chase, or park was to be punished by transportation for seven years.
A Convicted Man
Most convicts awaiting transportation were sent to a prison hulk. These were harsh places. Stephen Wade in his book ‘Tracing Your Criminal Ancestors’ describes thus “…. a report in 1847 noted that these were awful places, with intolerable neglect evident everywhere. Between 1776 and 1795 one one-third of the total number of 5,722 prisoners died in the hulks. By 1830 there were ten hulks, holding 4,400 prisoners.”
Joseph was incarcerated on the hulk ‘York’, in Portsmouth harbour, and he is listed on three of the hulk’s quarterly returns, 1833 - 1834. These showed Joseph’s age as 22 and re-confirmed that he was sentenced on 1st July 1833 at Hertford to seven years for stealing fowl. He was described as ‘healthy’ on the Surgeon’s Report and it was noted that he was bound for ‘V. D. Land, (Van Dieman’s Land), on 18th Feb’. His conduct was described as ‘good’.
Copies of prison records held in the Tasmania Libraries online collection confirmed that Joseph was transported on the ship ‘Arab’, along with 228 other convicts, leaving Portsmouth on 26th February 1834.
Transport ships’ surgeons kept medical journals during the transportation voyages, and these provide additional detail of convicts’ welfare. The journals are vital in tracing any convicts who may have been sick or died during a voyage. Joseph’s name did not appear on the sick list but the Surgeon’s General Conduct report during the Arab’s voyage describes him as a ‘good, attentive scholar’. The Arab’s Surgeon Superintendent was Colin Arrott Browning, MD.
The ‘Arab’ arrived in Van Diemen’s Land on 30th June 1834.
Tasmanian prison records recorded Joseph’s time and behaviour in Tasmania, where on arrival he was assigned to work for a John Petchey. (John Petchey appears to have been an earlier transportee – his tale will be described in a future post).
An extract from a list of convicts provides a good description of Joseph’s physical attributes:
It would seem that Joseph did not have a particularly subservient character. He was charged for being out of hours on 19th September 1835 and then on 7th July 1836 he was ordered to serve 14 days on a treadmill for being drunk and insolent.
Whilst his record as a convict was not unblemished Joseph was given a Ticket of Leave on 7th August 1838. These tickets allowed convicts to live and work for their wages within a certain Police District. Tickets were generally given to convicts with good behaviour after a certain period of their sentence had been served.
On 19th October 1838 a Permission to Marry was approved for Joseph Lowen and Sarah Gangell. Sarah’s status was noted as ‘free’.
Sarah, née Miller, was a widow who had married a William Gangell on 7th May 1827 in the Parish of Saint George, Hanover Square, Middlesex, England. She had been baptised on 18th March 1804 (born 21st February 1804), at Hammersmith, Middlesex, with her parents named as James and Grace. The family of James and Grace Miller appeared on the 1851 and 1861 censuses and showed that James was a coach builder, as were his two sons.
William Gangell was born in Hobart, Tasmania, and spent some time in England. It appeared that he returned to Australia with his family c.1833. There is no record to suggest that he was transported as a convict. William and Sarah had five children, Isabella Grace (b.1827), Ann Dorothy (b.1829), Luke Jonah (b.1830), William John (b.1831), and Petchey Henry (b.1835). It is possible that there was a sixth child, Elizabeth Emily. All of the children, except for Petchey Henry, were born in England.
William died on 4th November 1835 and the recording of his death stated that he was a coach smith, resident at Hollow Tree Farm. His occupation highlighted a connection with Sarah’s family. Had William worked for, or with, Sarah’s father James whilst in England?
Still seemingly reacting against authority Joseph served one month’s hard labour, out of chains, for disorderly conduct on 26th February 1839.
Shortly after Joseph and Sarah were married on 11th April 1839 in Hobart. Records stated Joseph’s age as 28 and that Sarah was a widow, aged 32. Joseph was illiterate making his mark on the document.
On 20th January 1840 Joseph and Sarah had two children baptised. One was a Gangell and the other a Lowen.
Frederick George Lowen, born 12th September 1839, was recorded as the son of Joseph and Sarah Lowen. The preceding registry entry was for Petchey Henry Gangell, born 17th October 1835. William Gangell was named as being the father of Petchey Henry, born days before his father’s death. William’s profession was recorded as coach smith.
Giving their son the name of Petchey suggests a possible good relationship between William and Sarah Gangell, and John Petchey. It would also appear that Joseph was agreeable to caring for Sarah’s child(ren) from her previous marriage. It would be interesting to know about the relationship between Joseph and John Petchey, particularly because of Joseph’s recorded brushes with authority.
Joseph’s sentence was completed on 1st July 1840 and he was given his Certificate of Freedom. This was reported in the Hobart Town Courier dated 31st August 1838, and the Hobart Town Courier and Van Diemen’s Land Gazette, 3rd July 1840.
A Van Diemen’s Land Return of convicts, showing the distribution of convicts throughout the Colony on 31st December 1841, confirmed Joseph as still resident there. However, this was shortly about to change.
The next part of Joseph's family history charts his life as a free man and will be recounted in next month's post.