Philip Walter, sheep thief of Podimore
A transportation story
Philip was a thirty-five-year-old Podimore farm labourer and married father of six when he was convicted of sheep stealing at the Somerset Assizes in 1838 and sentenced to fifteen years transportation.1 I have been unable to confirm a birth record. The closest match appears to be a December 1800 birth to John and Elizabeth Walter in Kingsdon, Somerset, England.2 Philip married Ann Miles in Kingsdon in March 1824.3 When Philip was convicted on 4 August 1838, he and Ann had six young children, including three-month-old twins, and when he was transported, Ann was left behind to raise their children.4 Ann does not appear to have remarried. The 1851 census for Milton-Podimore records her as a widow living with her twins, Philip (now called James) and Ann, and in 1871 she was living in Surrey with her daughter Louisa and her family.5
On May 15, 1839, Philip departed Sheerness, Kent, one of 240 convicts aboard the 496-ton Parkfield, which also carried twenty-nine soldiers of the 31st Regiment, six women and nine children.6 There may also have been a dog. Ship’s surgeons often used their journals to promote particular ideas regarding the best way to transport large numbers of prisoners by sea but Neill made space to complain that “in five voyages on convict ships [he had] found dogs a very great nuisance” because of the dirt they created and because on a “ship crowded with people … they are liable to be trampled on accidentally by the prisoners”.7 Dog knows what happened to provoke that particular complaint. Philip did not appear in the surgeon’s journal, suggesting he was healthy, and Neill recorded no outbreaks of disease and no loss of life.8
The Parkfield arrived in Port Jackson, New South Wales on September 1, 1839, where Philip’s vital statistics were recorded: 5 feet 6 inches, with a dark, ruddy and freckled complexion, brown hair, chestnut eyes, eyebrows meeting, hairy chest, hairy legs, a couple of moles, scars on the little finger of his left hand.9 While convicts were some of the most documented in history, which is a boon for family historians, not all convict records have survived. It is not known where and to whom Philip was assigned upon his arrival, but his 1845 ticket of leave gave him the right to earn his own living and buy property as long as he remained in the Camden area, suggesting he had been assigned there.10 In 1846, Philip and another convict, Henry West, were specially recommended for a conditional pardon by Joseph Long Innes, the Superintendent of Police in New South Wales, for providing information of an illicit still.11
A conditional pardon allowed a convict to move about the colony but not return home. Philip may have moved as far as Merriwa, around 350 kilometres north-west of Camden. He appears to have married Jane Gallagher in Merriwa in 1851, but I cannot find an application to marry in the convict records.12 A convict with a conditional pardon would be required to seek permission to marry, but, as we saw with Joseph Broadbury, sometimes the rules were ignored. The marriage is recorded as by banns, which was common for convicts. Philip is described as a bachelor, but with a fifteen-year sentence he was likely not required to prove his wife had died. The permission of parents is also recorded because Jane was underage.13 Philip became an innkeeper in Hall’s Creek, near Musswellbrook, New South Wales and they raised a family.14 When Philip died of apoplexy on 8 May 1868, he and Jane had six living children; the youngest Letitia Mary was only 6 days old.15 His father is recorded as James, a farmer, and mother unknown, which is why the birth record I found is tentative. Jane took on the publican’s licence, and raised their children on her own.16 She married again in 1880 but died of pneumonia the year after.17
Because I cannot find an application to marry in convict records, I cannot definitively prove that the Philip Walter who married Jane Gallagher, daughter of my three times great grandparents, William Gallagher and Jane Allen, was the convict Philip Walter of the Parkfield. There is also no record of an absolute pardon for Philip, or a certificate of freedom, which would have been issued once his fifteen years ended in 1853. Transportation to New South Wales ended in 1840, with a brief flurry in 1849, so convict record-keeping may have become less strict after 1840, or perhaps the records were simply lost to time.18
Convict Indent of Philip Walter, Parkfield, New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents, 1788-1842, Ancestry.com.
Baptism of Philip Walter, baptised 4 December 1800, Kingsdon, Somerset Baptisms 1599-1812, Somerset Archives, FindMyPast.com.
Marriage of Philip Walter and Ann Miles, married 15 March 1824, Milton-Podimore, Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914, Ancestry.com.
Baptism of Robert Walter, baptised 17 July 1826, Milton-Podimore, England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975, FindMyPast.com; Baptism of Elizabeth Walter, baptised 12 July 1829, Milton-Podimore, England Births and Baptisms 1538-1975, FindMyPast.com; Baptism of Louisa Walter, baptised 25 December 1831, Kingsdon, Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1914, Ancestry.com; Baptism of Caroline Walter, baptised 13 July 1834, Milton-Podimore, Somerset, England, Church of England Baptisms, 1813-1914, Ancestry.com; Baptism of Philip James and Anne Walter, baptised 20 May 1838, Milton-Podimore, England Births & Baptisms 1538-1975, FindMyPast.com.
Census record for Anne Walters, 1851, Milton-Podimore, Somerset, 1851 England Census, Ancestry.com; Census record for Ann Walter, 1871, St George, Surrey, 1871 England Census, Ancestry.com.
Queensland State Archive; Queensland, Australia; Queensland, Australia, Convict Register (Chronological) 1824-1839.
Alexander Neill, Ship’s Surgeon Journal, Parkfield, 1 May 1839 to 7 September 1839, UK, Royal Navy Medical Journals, 1817-1856, Ancestry.com.
Alexander Neill, Ship’s Surgeon Journal, Parkfield.
Convict Indent of Philip Walter, Parkfield.
Ticket of Leave for Philip Walter, Parkfield, 1845, New South Wales, Australia, Tickets of Leave, 1810-1869, Ancestry.com.
Conditional Pardon recommendation for Philip Walter, Parkfield, 1846, New South Wales, Australia, Convict Registers of Conditional and Absolute Pardons, 1788-1870, Ancestry.com; Australian Dictionary of Biography, Sir Joseph George Long Innes (1834–1896), https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/innes-sir-joseph-george-long-3836.
Marriage registration for Philip Walters and Jane Gallagher, married 3 March 1851, Merriwa, Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 660/1851, certificate held by author.
Jane and her parents and brother arrived in Sydney from Derry, Ireland, on the Adam Lodge 13 July 1837, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Ship_Adam_Lodge_-_Arrived_Sydney_13_July_1837#Passenger_List; Jane’s father William Gallagher’s 1870 death certificate records her age as 36; I have not found her birth record.
Publican’s licence held by Philip Walter, Traveller’s Rest, Hall’s Creek, 13 August 1867, New South Wales, Australia, Certificates for Publicans' Licences, 1830-1849, 1853-1899, Ancestry.com.
Death certificate of Philip Walters, died 8 May 1868, Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 5282/1868, held by author.
Publican’s licence held by Jane Walters, Traveller’s Rest, Hall’s Creek, 28 August 1868, New South Wales, Australia, Certificates for Publicans' Licences, 1830-1849, 1853-1899, Ancestry.com.
Marriage of Jane Walters to James Gately, married 1880, Australia Marriage Index, 1788-1950, 4855/1880, Ancestry.com; Death certificate of Jane Gately, died 27 August 1881, Wingen, Births, Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales, 7988/1881, uploaded by user HelenCarinda in 2021 to Ancestry.com.
The Convict System, 2016, State Library New South Wales, archived, https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections/history_nation/justice/convict/convict.html.
Thank you, Jean, for such a compelling and carefully researched post. The detail you’ve uncovered about Philip Walter’s life is remarkable, and I particularly appreciated the way you made clear what the records confirm, and where you’ve had to weigh possibilities. I’m working on my own family history at the moment and have several convict ancestors as well, so your work struck a chord. Like you, I’m finding that the challenge is not just finding records, but making sense of them and piecing together a life with care. A small note: I think there’s a typo where you mention Philip receiving his ticket of leave in 1945—it should be 1845, I believe. But that’s a tiny detail in what is otherwise a deeply impressive piece. Thanks again.
I find these convict marriages fascinating because the presumption is that transported people will never return to see their families in England again, yet some of them did return after long sentences. I wonder how many returned with their wives knowing they might have another living wife back home.