George MILLETT, our convict

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Background…

On the question of whether there were any convicts in our family, there was nothing definite, only this snippet:

‘Someone stole a hankie,’ my mum told me.

‘Who? Where? When?’ I asked.

She didn’t know and neither did any of my immediate relatives.

A detail on the death certificate of my great great grandfather, George MILLETT, gave me a lead: ‘9 years in Tasmania’.

I made an enquiry to Port Arthur, Tasmania, the convict prison (prior to online convict records).

The records revealed the young George MILLETT was transported to Van Diemen’s Land for 7 years for ‘stealing a handkerchief’.

I had my man.

But who was he?

A recent finding in a Melbourne newspaper gave me the next vital clue.

This is his story….

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George Millett ‘son of a clergyman’ or poor orphan?

The obituary of my great-great-grandmother, Susan Millett, states that her husband, George, was ‘the son of a Church of England clergyman’.[1] I find this intriguing as my research paints George as a regular little Oliver Twist, a pickpocket in London, snatching items from unsuspecting victims. But, of course, being ‘the son of a…clergyman’ doesn’t exclude a youngster from participating in a bit of devilry; a dare perhaps, or just a bit of fun.

Whatever his reason for stealing, I challenge myself to find the true George Millett.

It is well documented that the narrative of a convict’s past history is often embellished or completely fabricated. Such is the badge of disdain accorded a convict; known as the convict stain. There is no mention of George’s convict past in his wife’s obituary. And, unfortunately, there is no evidence of an obituary for George. Even if one does exist, could I trust its contents?

Discovering George was a convict is a revelation to my mother, a direct descendant of George. She knows that ‘someone in the past’ has ‘stolen a hankie’, but she doesn’t know who, or from which ancestral line. The suspicion that the convict is her great-grandfather, George Millett, comes from the details on his death certificate. Under the heading: ‘Where born and how long in the Australian colonies’, the informant, George’s son-in-law, states: ‘London. 9 years Tasmania, 47 years Victoria’.[2]

Why would a 13-year-old boy come to Tasmania in 1836?

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Convict History

The convict records tell the story. In 1835, George Millett steals a silk handkerchief from a lawyer in Lincoln’s Inn, London. He is caught, found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation to Van Diemen’s Land.[3] After some months on a prison hulk on the Medway River in Chatham, he sails to Van Diemen’s Land on the Elphinstone arriving in Hobart on 24 May1836. From there, he is transferred to Point Puer, the boys’ prison at Port Arthur. During his time in the prison, he commits 14 offences, ranging from insolence to pilfering rations. The punishment is generally solitary confinement, anything from 12 hours to 3 days, with only bread and water for sustenance.[4] He receives his Ticket of Leave in 1841[5] and his Certificate of Freedom in 1842.[6] He works in Launceston, Tasmania for a couple of years in 1844/1845.[7] In 1846, he sails to the mainland and settles in Melbourne.[8] The following year, 1847, he marries Susannah (Susan) Fitzpatrick, a 16-year-old Irish girl in St Francis, Catholic Church.[9]

I derive most of the details of George’s life in Australia from his convict records, newspapers reports, and his death certificate. None of these sources, however, document his parentage. Several Millett family trees appear on the popular family history databases and most of them claim George Millett and Sarah Spriggs as George’s parents. The couple are bookbinders and live in and around the Lincoln’s Inn area of London. Yes, they have a son, George, and he is the right age, however, I cannot find convincing proof to link him to George the convict.

According to George’s convict record, he can read and write. He is also ‘very knowledgeable of the scriptures’.[10] The latter detail has me leaning towards a clergyman father. A Reverend George Millett is living in England at the time, but there is no evidence that he has a son, George. I make contact with a Tony Millett in New Zealand who is the administrator of a website devoted to his own Millett family history.[11] The Reverend George Millett is a member of one of the family trees. I receive this reply:

As far as I can tell, “my” George Millett (1793-1850), husband of Eliza Amelia Agnew (1795-1868) did not have a son named George.[12]

Of course, this doesn’t rule out the possibility that my George is the illegitimate son of the Reverend and that the birth has been ‘hushed up’ to avoid the shame. Even so, I abandon this line of inquiry and turn to other possibilities.

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Back to the drawing board

I scour the Victorian newspapers once more in the hope of finding a clue I may have missed. An advertisement in a newspaper from 1861 catches my eye. A ‘Mr. A. Tomsett’ is looking for George Millett.[13] It is a request for George to contact him in England following an inquiry George has made regarding ‘his mother and other members of his family’. It infers that Mr A Tomsett is an employee of ‘Messrs Clowes’. At this time, a William Clowes owns a large printing business in London which includes a bookbinding service.[14] Interestingly, George the convict and George Millett and Sarah Spriggs are bookbinders.

A search on Ancestry finds a connection between Mr. A. Tomsett and the Milletts of London. In 1852, Adolphus Thomas Tomsett marries Caroline Priscilla Millett.[15] And Caroline Priscilla Millett is the daughter of George Millett and Sarah Spriggs.[16]

Bingo.

I now dismiss the Reverend George Millett, or any other Reverend, as being George’s father and claim George Millett and Sarah Spriggs as George’s parents.

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The London Milletts

With this new information, I expand on George’s family in London. My search reveals a background of poverty. His mother, Sarah, maiden name Jeffreys, is in a disadvantaged state even before George is born. She is living in London, having come from her birthplace in Bristol, probably in search of employment.[17] She marries her first husband, Thomas Spriggs, in London in 1813.[18] Unfortunately, Thomas dies in 1815 the same year Sarah gives birth to their son and only child, Thomas Isaac Spriggs.[19] George Junior (Jnr) is born illegitimately in 1821.[20] Sarah marries his father, George Millett Senior (Snr), the next year in 1822.[21]

Over the next ten years, Sarah and George Snr. have four more children: Elizabeth Mary, Caroline Priscilla, Mary Ann and Charlotte Sarah. George Jnr is baptized at the age of five years in 1826 at St Paul Covent Garden, London.[22] At this time, the family is residing in a ‘workhouse’. Over the ensuing years, the family’s abode changes several times, but they mainly stay within the parish of St Giles in the Fields. One of their addresses, ‘Holles St., Clare Market’ is very close to Lincoln’s Inn. Fancy silk handkerchiefs are in easy reach of the desperate poor. I suspect George Jnr is well acquainted with the opportunities and tries his luck once too often. He’s caught by the scruff of his neck while running through a gin shop.

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George and the gold rush

At the time George leaves England for Australia, he is not an orphan. His parents, his older half-brother and his four younger sisters are all living, but they are existing in very poor conditions. In 1861, when the advertisement appears in the newspaper, George Jnr’s fortunes have turned around. At the time of the gold rush in 1851, George and his wife Susan establish themselves in businesses in the city. People flock to Melbourne from all over the world in search of a fortune. The place is booming. One of the couple’s most profitable acquisitions is The Elephant and Castle Hotel in Little Bourke Street. George secures the licence in December 1853 and disposes of it nine months later.[23] An advertisement for the sale of the hotel in 1855 states that ‘each landlord who has been so fortunate as to hold these premises has realised a speedy fortune’. ‘Mr Millett’ is listed as one of the ‘well known men’ who have ‘quickly realised’.[24]

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Life in the country

Dismissing the probable fabrication of George Jnr’s past in London, the remainder of Susan Millett’s obituary details the family’s road to success. Regarding his move from Melbourne to their property in Aitken’s Gap, near Sunbury in 1854, the obituary states ‘he brought £60,000 in hard cash to the Gap’.[25]

In today’s money, George is a multimillionaire.

The Gap is a stopping off point for the diggers on their way to Bendigo and the Mt Alexander Diggings. George Jnr builds a hotel, the Bald Hill Hotel, to accommodate the weary travellers. The business flourishes. And when the gold rush eases, he ventures into farming. His losses are great, but he retains wealth in the purchase of a significant number of properties in the Sunbury district as well as holding onto the property in Elizabeth St. Melbourne which he acquired in the early days.[26]

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Back in London

While George Jnr lives a prosperous life in Australia, his family in London continues to fall on hard times. In 1849, George Snr, dies of bronchitis in the Strand Union workhouse.[27] His mother, Sarah, is now widowed for a second time. The Strand Union workhouse is the same one the family were living in at the time of George Jnr’s baptism in 1826.[28] Interestingly, Charles Dickens, who lived in the same street based his novel Oliver Twist on this particular workhouse.[29]

Records show that three of George Jnr’s siblings marry: Thomas in 1842,[30] the year George receives his Certificate of Freedom; Elizabeth in 1846,[31] the year George Jnr arrives in Melbourne; and, Caroline in 1852,[32] the year George Jnr makes his fortune. I suspect his sister Mary Ann has died at an early age as she doesn’t appear in the early census records. I could speculate that George Jnr. names his first child, my great-grandmother, Mary Ann, in honour of his sister. In fact, five out of the eventual twelve children (one dying in infancy) born to George Jnr and Susan, have the same names as his London family: Thomas, George, Mary Ann, Caroline and Elizabeth. More welcome detail to affirm the family connection. 

Sarah stays in London for the rest of her life. She continues to be employed in the bookbinding business as a ‘bookfolder’, as is her youngest daughter Charlotte who lives with her mother into her 20s. They change addresses several times, possibly moving from one lodging house to the next.[33] Sarah dies in the Westminster Union workhouse in 1882.[34] Despite an impoverished existence she is nearly 90 years old at the time of her death. George Jnr dies at his residence, Bald Hill Hotel, eight years later in 1890.[35] He is 69 years old. His wife Susan, who dies in 1899, keeps her faith until the end having baptized all the children in the Catholic tradition. George Jnr’s religious leanings take a dramatic turn at the end of his life: ‘on his death bed he embraced his wife’s religion’.[36]

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It seems that George Jnr and his extended family in London were worlds apart, not only geographically, but financially and religiously. I’ll probably never know if George Jnr saw the advertisement in the newspaper from his brother-in-law or whether he made contact. There’s no evidence that George Jnr ever reconnected with his family in England. A family story purports that his English family disowned him because he married a Catholic. This is quite possible as it was not uncommon for the times. Alternatively, they may have disowned him for his ‘criminal’ activities, bringing shame on the family. The ongoing poor conditions his mother lived in suggest the money George Jnr acquired was not shared with his London family or if it was offered, it was rejected. I have no evidence to support either claim. One interesting fact is that George Jnr was a regular donor to the Benevolent Asylum in Melbourne.[37] This institution was set up by the Benevolent Society with the objectives to, ‘relieve the aged, infirm, disabled or destitute of all creeds and nations and to minister to them the comforts of religion’.[38] Maybe this was his way of ‘giving back’ to those who cared for his family in similar situations in London.

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It has been a long road to finally secure the truth about the parentage of my great-great-grandfather, George Millett. For a time, it was believable that George Jnr was the son of a clergyman, but a small advertisement in a Victorian newspaper put an end to that. And now, finding his rightful parents, George Millett and Sarah Spriggs, puts an end to the possibility that he was an orphan. However, he was a victim of poverty. I’d like to believe his escapades of larceny were done with good intent; a means to an end, a risk worth taking to support his parents and young siblings.

A turn of fate transported this young boy to the other side of the world where he made his fortune. Unfortunately, he left behind a family who continued to endure the misery of poverty. Such is the lottery of life.

References

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[1] Obituary Mrs Susan Millett, Sunbury News and Bulla and Melton Advertiser, 16 Dec1899, p3.

[2] Death certificate of George Millett, Registrar Births, Deaths and Marriages, Victoria, 4982.

[3] Trial of George Millett, 6 Apr 1835, Old Bailey Proceedings Online, www.oldbaileyonline.org

[4] Convict records for George Millett. https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/results?qu=george&qu=Millett  

[5] George Millett, Ticket of Leave, Colonial Times, 3 Aug 1841, p4.

[6] Ancestry, Record for George Millett, ‘Tasmania, Australia, Convict Court and Selected Records, 100-1899’. Tasmanian Colonial Convict, Passenger and Land Records Various Collections (30 series). Tasmania Archive and Heritage Office, Hobart, Tasmania.

[7] Convict records for George Millett. Libraries Tasmania.

[8] Departure of George Millett from Hobart to Port Phillip, ‘Departures’, Libraries Tasmania.

[9] Marriage certificate of George Millett and Susanna Fitzpatrick, Registrar Births, Deaths and Marriages, 496.

[10] Convict records for George Millett, Libraries Tasmania.

[11] Millett family history https://tonymillett.tripod.com/index.html

[12] T Millett, Email with author, 2018.

[13] Herald (Melbourne), 8 Aug 1861, p1.

[14] London Street Views, William Clowes, ‘prince of printers’,  https://londonstreetviews.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/william-clowes/ viewed 23 Aug 2022.

[15] Ancestry, Marriage record of Adolphus Thomas Tomsett and Caroline Priscilla Millett. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P76/LUK/051

[16] Ancestry, Baptism record of Caroline Priscilla Millett. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P69/AND2/A/01/MS 6667/21.

[17] Ancestry, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1881 England Census, Class: RG11; Piece: 124; Folio: 90; Page: 13; GSU roll: 1341028.

[18] Ancestry, Marriage record of Sarah Jeffreys and Thomas Spriggs. England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973.

[19] Ancestry, Death record of Thomas Spriggs. City of Westminster Archives Centre; London, England; Westminster Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: STM/PR/8/19 and Birth record for Thomas Isaac Spriggs, London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P69/AND2/A/01/MS 6667/16.

[20] Ancestry, Baptism record of George Millett. City of Westminster Archives Centre; London, England; Westminster Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: STP/PR/1/7.

[21] Ancestry, Marriage record of George Millett and Sarah Spriggs. England, Select Marriages, 1538-1973.

[22] Ancestry, Baptism record of George Millett.

[23] Argus, 7 Sep 1853, p5.

[24] Argus, 2 Jan 1855, p2.

[25] Obituary Mrs Susan Millett.

[26] Obituary Mrs Susan Millett.

[27] Death certificate of George Millett. GRO UK. St Pancras, Qtr. Mar 1849, Vol.1, p315.

[28] Ancestry, Baptism record of George Millett.

[29] Charles Dickens and the Strand Union workhouse, https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Strand/  viewed 24 Aug 2022.

[30] Ancestry, Marriage record of Thomas Spriggs and Mary Hooker. Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P79/WH/013.

[31] Ancestry, Marriage record of Elizabeth Millett and Henry Carpenter. Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P90/PAN1/088.

[32] Ancestry, Marriage record of Adolphus Thomas Tomsett and Caroline Priscilla Millett.

[33] Ancestry, Sarah Millett. England Census 1841, 1851 and 1861.

[34] Death certificate of Sarah Millett, GRO UK. Westminster, Qtr. Dec 1882, Vol.1a, p344.

[35] Death certificate of George Millett, Victoria.

[36] Obituary Mrs Susan Millett.

[37] The Argus, 19 May 1853, p8.

[38] Benevolent Society https://www.hothamhistory.org.au/the-benevolent-asylum/ viewed 24 Aug 2022.