Henry Eggleton was born in Chalfont St. Giles in Buckinghamshire. He was convicted of stealing a sheep from a neighbour, William Campion’s farm and was transported to Australia for 10 years. A report in the Bucks Herald on the 9 Jan 1847 provides more details of the event. It includes an account by his brother Thomas who was the shepherd to William Campion. It is an interesting insight into the family, why did Henry steal from the farm where is brother worked? Henry admitted his guilt to his brother and William Campion without provocation so clearly, he wanted to be caught. Most convicts stayed in Australia at the end of their sentence rather than return to Britain and potentially return to poverty and probably crime again, so maybe this was an act to get himself transported?
Henry spent almost 3 years in prison in England before being transported. His original incarceration was at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where he was tried, then a couple of months after conviction he was sent to Millbank Prison in London. Six months later he was sent to Wakefield in Yorkshire where he stayed for the next 15 months before being removed to Portland, Dorset in preparation for his transportation 8 months later.
Henry Eggleton, one of 300 convicts, was transported on the ship Adelaide on the 8th August 1849 – destination: Van Diemen’s Land and Port Phillip. The ship landed at Port Jackson on the 24th December and Henry was issued a Ticket of Leave from the Wellington District on the 30th December. All prisoners were sent out with Ticket of Leave and he was issued his within a week of his arrival.
No trace of his dying or marrying in Australia has been found so it is not clear what happened to him after this.
Gillard / Wood Family History 