SANDERS Thomas

Name Thomas SANDERS
Country Of Origin England
Born 1825
Died unknown
Birth/Baptism Born approx. 1825, Coventry, Warwickshire, England
Parents unknown
Apprenticeship Coventry, Warwickshire
Skills Watchmaker, Watch Finisher
Work Locations No record found working in his trade in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania)
Marriage/Spouse
Trial 9 April 1844: Northampton Borough Quarter Sessions
February 1852: Launceston Quarter Sessions
March 1857: Hobart trial
26 September 1860: Oatlands trial
2 September 1862: Supreme Court, Hobart Town
Sentence 1844: Seven years transportation for housebreaking and stealing lead and money.
1852: Transportation for life for stealing 75 sovereigns from the residence of James Ellis.
1857: Three years penal servitude in irons for breaking, entering, and stealing watches, jewellery and banknotes.
1860: Not guilty of housebreaking.
1862: Death sentence commuted to penal servitude for life for violent robbery.
Arrival 26 December 1844 on the convict ship, Sir Robert Peel
Police Number 15142 and 2249
Convict Assignment
Ticket of Leave
Conditional Pardon
Other Also known as Thomas Saunders.

On arrival, recorded as a Watch Finisher of three years.

Offences on his convict conduct record include idleness, absconding, disobedience of orders, theft, telling a falsehood, talking after the silence bell had rung, and disturbing the public peace. Punishments included hard labour in chains and time in solitary confinement.
Approx. 1848-1869: Served parts of his sentences at Port Arthur.
March 1857: He was described as a stone cutter employed on public works when apprehended for burglary and theft.

Final entries on Thomas’s convict record:
‘20 October 1874 To be discharged to freedom.
19 January 1875 Discharged accordingly.’

Thomas was one of the prisoners photographed at Port Arthur in 1874.

Death unknown
References
TAHO: CON31/1/31, CON37/1/7, CON33/1/63, AB693/1/1 1857 [Tom Sanders], SC32/1/8 1860, AB693/1/1 & SC32/1/8 1862 [Thomas Saunders].
Web: Ancestry: 1841 England Census; https://thomasnevin.com/featured-articles/rogues-gallery-qvmag-collection/
Britannia & Trades’ Advocate 28 March 1850; The Examiner (Launceston) 19 April 1851, 27 September 1860; Hobart Town Mercury 4 March 1857 [Thomas Saunders]; Tasmanian Daily News 30 March 1857 [Thomas Saunders]; Cornwall Chronicle 6 September 1862.