KIDMAN Richard

Name	Richard KIDMAN
Country Of Origin	England
Born	1761
Died	1832
Birth/Baptism	Born approx. 1761, Waterbeach, Cambridge, England
Parents	unknown
Apprenticeship	unknown
Skills	Clock Mender
Work Locations	No record found working in his trade in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania)
Street Address
Marriage/Spouse	Sarah Kidman
Trial	11 March 1801, Cambridge Assizes, Cambridgeshire
Sentence	Death sentence commuted to transportation for life for theft of large amounts of silver plate from Caius College and King’s College, Cambridge.
Arrival	9 October 1803 on the convict ship, Calcutta
Police Number	unknown
Convict Assignment
Ticket of Leave
Conditional Pardon
Other	Richard was a plumber and glazier by trade. Before his sentence, he was reputed as clever and repaired and made clocks in Cambridge. He was held at Woolwich on the hulk Prudentia before transportation to Australia. Lieutenant-Governor David Collins led the Calcutta expedition purposed to establish a new settlement in Bass Strait. They arrived at Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, in October, but after finding the location unsuitable, moved to the Derwent River where the harbour and site were more fitting to establish Hobart Town. October 1810: Free Pardon 1811: Richard Kidman returned to Cambridge.
Death	19 January 1832, Cambridge, England. Huntingdon Bedford & Peterborough Gazette, Saturday 21 January 1832: ‘Died on Thursday evening, aged 71, the noted Richard Kidman, the ingenious rogue who thirty years ago was transported for robbing several colleges of their plate.’
References
Marjorie Tipping, Convicts Unbound: The Story of the Calcutta Convicts & their Settlement in Australia, 1988. Peter and Ann Elias, A Few From Afar, Jewish Lives in Tasmania from 1804, 2003, pp 36-38,142-3, 287-8. TAHO: CON22/1/1. Web: London Courier & Evening Gazette (British Newspaper Archive) 19 March 1801; Bedford & British Newspaper Archive 21 January 1832; Australian Dictionary of Biography, David Collins.