William Ingold and the 21 Turkeys
William Ingold, b. Elsenham, Essex, 1785, d. Bishop’s Stortford, Essex, 1858
My 3rd Great-Grand Uncle, William Ingold (1785-1858) was transported from England to Australia in 1836 for taking possession of 21 stolen turkeys from a local farmer. He was one of several men involved in the crime.
One of William’s descendants on Ancestry.com describes his crime as a “desperate act of a widowed man trying to feed his 9 children”. I wondered if there were more to the story.
At BritishNewspaperArchive.com, I found a much more colourful story of William Ingold’s criminal past..
He didn’t actually steal the 21 turkeys – his accomplices did the thieving and William took possession of them with intent to sell. Trouble is, by the time he got them to market the turkeys had rotted. He was arrested and charged.
While William may indeed have been a widower with 9 children, he was also a habitual criminal. Not only did he confess to receiving the stolen turkeys, but he showed no remorse and offered a plea deal to give up his accomplices, save for his stepson, Henry Claydon. You have to admire a man who would hang rather than implicate his stepson.
From the Essex Standard, December 15, 1835, British Newspaper Archive:
“If I am promised no punishment and not obliged to name one of them (his son), I will make a further confession, but if not I will have a rope put around my neck and be hanged afore I will impeach one of them”
At trial it was revealed William had been a member of the notorious “Elsenham Gang”, who terrorized the locals with a series of violent night time burglaries in 1817. William Ingold escaped and fled while 3 of his accomplices were hanged for the crimes.
Also, in 1825 William spent a month in jail for an “offence against game laws” (stealing).
Getting back to the case of the 21 Turkeys, William pleaded to the court he should not be jailed as he had not done the stealing.
In the end, William’s plea fell on deaf ears and he was sentenced to 14 years of hard labour at Goulburn, Australia. In January of 1836 at age 51, he was placed aboard “The Bengal Merchant” with 270 other “criminals” bound for the penal colony at Goulburn, New South Wales. His stepson, Henry Claydon continued his thieving ways and was transported 2 years later
Below is a fascinating blog which gives some insight into the kind of hard prison life he experienced at Goulburn. A terrible punishment for thieving.
https://towrangstockade.com.au/convicts/
William Ingold earned his pardon after 14 years and returned to England in 1854. His pardon record describes him as 5’3″ with a ruddy complexion, grey eyes and hair. He had no front teeth and was missing the forefinger of his right hand.
Four years after returning to England, William died in the Workhouse at Bishop’s Stortford in January, 1858. He was 73.
I’m looking forward to digging deeper into his life in Australia, and his return to England. I am also anxious to examine the criminal pasts of his stepson, Henry Claydon and his biological sons, Joshua and Jasper…
Grave Digger 