JAMES SMEAD / SMEED, Convict

Born: 1804 in Hoad, Kent, England

On 6 January 1827 he was tried in Maidstone, Kent for felony and aiding and abetting smugglers. For this he was sentenced to life transportation. At the time of his trial he was living with a Mr John Brissenden at Allington, Kent, was single and Protestant.

His description was:

• Height 5'7"
• Hair brown
• Eyes grey
• Trade Farmer, ploughman, groom
• Marks scar forefinger left hand, high cheek bones
• Character from goal "very orderly"; in hulks "good"; in ship "good.
• He was transported on the "Governor Ready" in 1827 to Hobart, Tasmania.

Records from...

July 14, 1830: Police/drunkenness. Fined 20/- from his salary (W Lyttleton).

July 11 1831: constable gross disobedience of orders in conveying Geo Woodward charged with forgery from Launceston to Hobart Town by way of the Clyde & N Norfolk instead of the direct road. Recommended to be dismissed from the office of Constable to be suspended until the pleasure of his Excellency the Lieut. Governor be signified.

On 19 February 1835, James received a Free Pardon No. 131. This free pardon was given as a result of James being involved in a shoot out with five wanted bushrangers. He and another former criminal, a man called Buckley worked for Henty an early explorer in Victoria. The party were walking through the bush when they came across these bushrangers and as a result of the shoot out the bushrangers were captured or killed and Smeed and Buckley were each given free pardons along with thirty pounds. Buckley lived with the aboriginals for thirty odd years and was the name used in the express "he/she had Buckley's chance".

In the book "The Hentys" by Marnie Bassett mention is made of a James Smeed, a constable in Tasmania, involved in capturing some bushrangers. It mentions that it was quite common for convicts to be appointed to the government police. James received 33 pounds 6 shillings and 8 pence for his part in this incident.

Mention is also made of James Smead being a companion of Stephen Henty's in Victoria.

We know that James Smeed travelled from Tasmania by ship "Mona" to Portland in 1840 but assume this was one of a number of trips as he is reported to have been in Portland in 1837.

1837 - "Mrs Stephen Henty was a courageous young woman, but when Stephen was absent on his journeys to the Plains his wife, expecting her baby, could not help thinking of her husband's danger among those dark and mysterious people, so sudden in their coming and vanishing and so skilled with their arms. In her anxiety she used to remember gratefully the man who was Stephen's usual companion, James Smead, a trust fellow, she said, who looked after his master well. His name, variously spelt, occurs occasionally in the Portland journal; in the Van Dieman's Land records the spelling of names is equally inconsistent and it seems very probable that this man, deservedly relied on by the Hentys, was that James Smead or Smeed, the 'lifer' who two years earlier had been granted his freedom for helping to capture the bushrangers Jeffkins and Brown. When Frank and John took the first flock to the Plains, it was Smead who accompanied them."

In "The Portland Bay Settlement" by Noel Learmonth firstly an indirect mention is made of James Smead

"...Stephen used to be absent for weeks at a time, causing me great anxiety. The natives were not to be trusted so he usually took with him an expiree from Tasmania...."

Later mention is made from Miss Susan Henty's diary (daughter of Stephen) that when Stephen and John struck off inland Victoria to see the wonderful country described by Major Mitchell they took with them a dray and provisions and a man named Smead......"

The Hentys: -" In 1838 John Henty with James Smead and three other men ' moved to the creek' to begin the homestead later known as Merino Downs."

A James Smead died in 1882 in Penola, South Australia not far from Portland. Many records have been checked regarding James Smead's life in the intervening years, to no avail. Apparently the Henty’s had property in Penola.

Did he marry? There is an Ann Smead who was buried 19/2/1879. Wife?