John and Jack Collop – The Blacksmith and the Convict

Recently the National Archives (TNA) enabled certain documents to be downloaded for free. You have to register first (on Discovery), then you can search by name, place or keyword. I searched for “Stapleford Tawney” in the section on Wills proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) and discovered several interesting local characters. The one which first caught my eye was John Collop, blacksmith. He had written his will in 1844 and died in 1846. The sentence which intrigued me (once I had managed to decipher the legal clerk’s handwriting) was a legacy “for my son John Collop who was about the year 1837 sentenced to transportation for fifteen years”. If he returned he was to be given his legacy, but if he had not claimed it after five years beyond the end of his sentence, it was to go to his three named children, ie the blacksmith’s grandchildren. I wondered what crime the son had committed, and whether he ever came back to claim his inheritance.

John Collop senior was born in Stapleford Tawney in 1763 and married Rose Fitch of Stapleford Abbotts. They lived at Cutlers Forge, at the junction of Tawney Lane and the main road near Suttons Manor. The house and the former smithy are both still there though the main road has since been realigned. The house has been much enlarged since it was first built in the 17th century, and its weatherboarding has been plastered over and pargetted. The forge itself was converted to a dwelling about 50 years ago. A photograph taken in 1953 of the last working blacksmith shows the scene looking more like it was in John Collop’s time.

Cutlers Forge, Stapleford Tawney, 1953, and part of the blacksmith’s house

As the village blacksmith, John Collop would have been known to everyone in the locality, and he served his turn in the local church as a responsible parishioner. John and Rose had three children – James, Mary Ann, and the youngest John, known as Jack, who was born in 1800. James disappears from the records (he seems to have died young, in 1816). Mary Ann married a Richard Bonus from North Ockendon. They moved to London and had two children, Emma and John. John Collop Bonus was named in his grandfather’s will as the sole executor, and was to inherit his watch as well as a cash legacy.

The blacksmith’s youngest son Jack originally worked with his father at the forge and was also described as a ‘veterinary surgeon’ or ‘horse doctor’. In those days there were no professionally-qualified vets, and those who shod horses were more knowledgeable about horse health, especially lameness, than most horse owners.

However, despite his respectable background, Jack got into trouble as a teenager. In 1819 he was sentenced at the Essex Assize to three months in prison for larceny (theft). Three years later, at 22, he was convicted again of larceny, and served another three-month sentence. He seems to have kept out of the courts after that for several years, and in 1829 he married Rebecca Davey, a 19-year-old girl from Finchingfield. Possibly she was a servant working just down the road at Suttons Manor, which would have given them the opportunity to meet.

The couple had three daughters: Rebecca was baptised in Stapleford Tawney church in 1830 and Mary Elizabeth in 1831. Hannah/Anna Lucinda was baptised in Chigwell in 1835, suggesting the family had moved there, where the Collops had relatives.

John and Rose must have hoped that Jack had put his youthful thieving behind him as he settled down with his young family. Jack’s mother Rose died in 1835, and was buried with other members of the Fitch family in Lambourne churchyard.

In August 1837, however, Jack was arrested for his involvement with a notorious horse-stealing gang led by the Wicker brothers. The newspapers reported the trial in great detail. They even include a description of his “desperate-looking” physical appearance, given in Newgate jail by the gang leader, who hoped to gain favour by incriminating the others:

“John Collop is about 5 feet 6, about 34 years of age, has a very large and long nose, a thick set man, with scarcely any whiskers and darkish hair; he wears a long shooting jacket and black waistcoat.”

It seems that Jack, along with fellow-thief Thomas Brown, had stolen three horses from a farmer called Robinson in Horndon-on-the-Hill. Jack had brought with him a variety of collars, bridles and bits, and his ability with horses would have enabled him to slip them on the horses they were to steal.

Although the actual evidence against Jack was mostly circumstantial, the jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to 15 years’ transportation. He was first sent to a prison hulk for four months. Then he was one of 330 convicts put on board the Lord Lyndoch which on 4th April 1838 set sail for New South Wales. As well as the prisoners and the crew, there were 35 army personnel to guard them, eight of them having their wives with them, and a total of 14 children.

The ship’s doctor, Obadiah Pineo, kept a detailed medical journal throughout the voyage, revealing that it was a nightmare from the beginning. There was an outbreak of smallpox just two or three days after leaving port, including the barrack sergeant’s wife and children, and several others. Two prisoners died, one of smallpox and one of TB. Fortunately the surgeon had brought supplies of smallpox vaccine, which reduced its spread.

In May there was a serious accident when a pan of boiling tea scalded sixteen prisoners, two of whom died. By the time they reached the Cape, there had already been a few cases of scurvy, caused by lack of vitamin C. However, the master and doctor decided not to put ashore for fresh provisions, but to press on. Scurvy increased rapidly, with eventually 150 cases altogether. The hospital berth was crowded with smallpox, TB and scurvy sufferers as well as victims of scalding. Nineteen men died in the last eight weeks of the voyage.

When they finally arrived in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) on 8th August 1838, the sick men were landed from the vessel; 77 were sent to the General Hospital, and 30 for medical treatment in the Prisoners’ Barracks. On a happier note, two of the guards’ wives gave birth to healthy babies during the voyage.

Jack Collop was probably fitter and better-nourished than many of his fellow-convicts and survived the journey. Convicts were used as gang labour to build roads or buildings, or to work for free settlers. Jack’s skills with horses probably stood him in good stead and towards the end of his sentence in October 1849 he was granted a ticket of leave. This was a form of bail or licence which allowed a prisoner to start building a new life in Australia before the official end of his sentence, which would be in 1852. In November 1850, despite 24 hours in solitary confinement for drunkenness a few weeks before, he was granted a passport, suggesting he was hoping to earn enough for his passage home. However, it was not to be. He died In July 1851 and was buried in the Glebe Cemetery, East Maitland.

What happened to Jack’s family while he was away? His wife and children went to live in north Essex, where Rebecca had relatives. But the family were unable to keep together. Rebecca the mother was at the silk mill in Pebmarsh, as servant to a silk merchant. Her eldest daughter, another Rebecca, went to live with relative Charles Davey and his family. He was a farmer in Toppesfield, a few miles away from Pebmarsh. In the 1841 census young Rebecca, although only just 11, was classed as his servant. The two younger girls, Mary and Hannah, were not far away. They were both staying with the Toppesfield Parish Clerk and schoolmaster and his family in the School House. In 1848, the eldest daughter Rebecca married her cousin Henry Davey, a butcher. But that same year her younger sister Hannah died, aged only 13. In 1851 Jack’s wife Rebecca, by then a seamstress, was living alone in Castle Hedingham and described herself as a widow, although Jack didn’t actually die until a few weeks later, far away on the other side of the world.

I was surprised to find out so much while never leaving my own home.