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Richard WHITEHEAD
Abt 1806 -
Has 64 ancestors and 22 descendants in this family tree.
Set As Default Person 
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Name Richard WHITEHEAD Relationship 
with Teresa Ann GOATHAM Born Abt 1806 Stockbury, Kent, England 
Baptised 29 Jun 1806 St. Mary Magdalene’s Church, Stockbury, Kent, England [1] Gender Male Occupation From 1827 to 1834 Stockbury, Kent, England Labourer - Recorded in the entries for the baptisms of his chidlren.
In this small rural parish a description of labourer would seem mostly likely to mean that Richard was an agricultural labourer, and in his description in convict records he is recorded as a ploughman.
Died (probably), Australia Siblings6 brothers and 7 sisters Patriarch & Matriarch 
Thomas WHITEHEAD, b. Est 1677, d. Aug 1732 (Age ~ 55 years) (2 x Great Grandfather)
Catharine ("Kitty") CLARK, b. Abt 1785, d. Aug 1857, (probably), Loose, Kent, England (Age ~ 72 years) (Mother) Notes - Sentenced to transportation for life in 1833, for the destruction of hop bines belonging to Richard Dawson, a farmer in Stockbury. This may have had a worse effect on his family than on himself - Mary and her daughters were subsequently in Hollingbourne Workhouse, where Mary died in 1840. The description of Richard's family in the convict papers relating to him note him having 3 children - presumably because Jane had not been born when he was convicted. Born January 1834, she appears to have been his as he was tried in late July 1833. Jane died, like her mother, in the Workhouse. There were, therefore, 4 young children left without a father (although I haven't spotted Alfred in the 1841 census I have found him in subsequent ones - he died in 1891).
Richard's trial was reported in the Kentish Gazette of Tuesday 30 July 1833.
It was one of the items under the heading "Home Circuit - Kent Assizes", which gave an account of the Assizes at Maidstone which opened on July 22nd, the article commencing with a description of the judges and jury. The Grand Jury, of 23 men, had Lord Viscount Marsham as the Foreman, and included 2 "Hon.s", 3 "Sirs" and 3 MPs.
The account of the address to the Jury includes the following "His Lordship then further observed that is was the intention of Government to adpot the system pursued by other countries of diminishing capital punishments, and of increasing the severity of secondary punishments. Therefore all those who rendered themselves liable to be sent abroad should understand that they would not, as had been heretofore erroneously supposed, go out to a country where they could amass property by saving the earnings of their own labour, but they would to all intents and purposes be slaves for a certain time, according to the magnitude of their offences. All who were transported for ... life [must work for] eight years, and during the whole of that time neither their labour not their earnings would be their own, and they would have to work in chains during all those years, without the most remote chance of their punishment being in any degree mitigated."
"Richard Whitehead was indicted for cutting and destroying two hundred hop-bines and upwards, the property of Richard Dawson, of Stockbury.
The prosecutor, a farmer and overseer of Stockbury, suspected the prisoner from his having been compelled to send him to gaol a short time before. He had the prisoner's shoes compared with the indentions in the earth around the hop-poles, and the nails and groves of the iron tips were found to correspond exactly.
The prisoner's family attempted to prove an alibi.
He was found Guilty, and recommended to mercy. His lordship said he could not extend mercy to the prisoner, whose case was very aggravated, and differed only in the means employed from arson. It was necessary to put a stop to these outrages, and he should therefore sentence the prisoner to transportation for life.
His lordship remarked that since the commencement of the Assizes, the prosecutor had been exposed to a similar loss."
The next case, where there was insufficient evidence to convict, was for a similar offence against a different farmer.
By "these outrages" the judge may, though, have been thinking not just about the destruction of hop bines but of the detruction wrought in the Swing Riots. These were in 1830-31; while they had contributed to the passing of the Reform Act in 1832 there was still much unhappiness that while rich farmers prospered agrcultural wages were low.
But of course it was suggested that Richard had a particualr greivance against Richard Dawson for putting him in gaol before. I have not yet seen any petty session records, but his convict papers refer to his having been imprisoned 21 days for vagrancy and 21 days for neglecting his family - it's not clear if these 2 descriptions referred to the same event. Given his past history and a jury not drawn from across the full spectrum of society, and as has been noted with a disproportionate number of the well-to-do, the recommendation for mercy is perhaps surprising (though I'm not certain if the jury would have known his past history when making their recommendation). One wonders if the thought of another family needing the support of the parish was a factor in this
recommendation.
Richard was transported on the ship Moffatt, leaving from Plymouth on 29 Jan 1834 and arriving in Tasmania on 9 May 1834.
Two accounts of the Moffatt transporting convicts to Australia can be found here. While neither is the trip Richard was on, and they were not at the same time of year, they were probably similar in many respects. The problem of scurvy, and the prisoners being allowed to dance and play, and go on deck to exercise if weather permitted, may well have been the same.
We can see that the surgeon on the ship reported that Richard behaved well (this is in the notes at the top of his conduct entry in the convict log for his time as a convict in Tasmania).
The conduct book shows him to have been a very well behaved convict, with (unusually) not a single note of mis-behaviour. Perhaps the jury recognised he was not at heart a bad person when they recommended him for mercy when finding him guilty. If his "reddish hair" led to the apochryphal quick temper, and this had resulted in his destruction of the hop bines, it was clearly not a problem when he was a convict.
Beyond Richard being alive in 1846 when his conditional discharge was approved, I know nothing of Richard's life in Australia - he may have taken to drink and died quickly, or he may have remarried, been a good father and had a successful business. He was only 40 at this time, so young enough for the latter, but his early life as a ploughman is unlikely to have given him the skills or aptitude to start his own business.
Person ID I5960 All | The descendants (and other halves) of Richard Whitehead and Mary née Grigsby Last Modified 17 Aug 2022
Father Edward WHITEHEAD, b. Abt 1783, Stockbury, Kent, England , d. Sep 1852, Bicknor, Kent, England (Age ~ 69 years) Mother Catharine ("Kitty") CLARK, b. Abt 1785, d. Aug 1857, (probably), Loose, Kent, England (Age ~ 72 years) Married 14 Feb 1806 St. Mary and St. Sexburga’s Church, Minster, Sheppey, Kent, England - With Edward and Catherine in 1851 was a Charles, aged 19, shown as nephew. He was listed after their own children, both older and younger. In the 1841 census a Charles, aged 9, was listed between their children but I think it probable that he too was Edward's nephew. Although there is a gap between their children when Charles could have been born, it is noticeable that I have found the baptisms of their other children, but cannot find one for a son of theirs named Charles.
(I am assuming that 'nephew' meant what we would understand by the term now, and Charles was the son of Edward's sister Ann rather than his daughter Ann, though the age of the latter would make her the more likely mother - see my notes against the birth of Charles).
Family ID F866 Family Group Page | Family Chart
Family Mary GODDEN, b. Abt 1802, d. Dec Q 1840, The Union Workhouse, Hollingbourne, Kent, England (Age ~ 38 years)
Other Partners: [ - ? - ]Married 26 Aug 1826 St. Mary’s Church, Chatham, Kent, England Children4 children Last Modified 17 Aug 2022 Family ID F949 Family Group Page | Family Chart
- Recorded in the entries for the baptisms of his chidlren.
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Sources - [S41] Stockbury Parish Registers (KFHS transcribed data), Kent Family History Society, accessed 22 Oct 2013), Baptism of Richard WHITEHEAD. (Reliability: 3).
1806 June 29 Richard son of Edward and Catharine WHITEHEAD
- [S41] Stockbury Parish Registers (KFHS transcribed data), Kent Family History Society, accessed 22 Oct 2013), Baptism of Richard WHITEHEAD. (Reliability: 3).