Boy Bandit - revisited
Jul. 9th, 2011 08:21 pmI'm revisiting the story of the "boy bandit" from a month ago.
I won't repeat the story here. It's in the original post, although it's different now. The book I have (Tell 'em I Died Game, by Bill Wannan) took the story from Sea Wolves and Bandits, by Leslie Norman, and he took the story from a book called In Old Days and These by "The Captain" (Thomas Ford) that was published in 1930. It's that story that I've put in the first post.
As I said at the end, it gets interesting but it's not the story itself that is interesting, (although it might be) but the process of trying to work out what the story actually is. So I'll start with the easy part, and that's Tom Rares, who wasn't transported at age 9 for stealing an apple. Rather he got life for pickpocketing. That has him as age 17.
He arrives on the Earl St Vincent in August 1836 (aged 14, 5', brown hair, "hazle" eyes) and doesn't seem to waste time getting down to trouble. If you can read all that, you're doing a better job than me (the easiest way to view it is right click and view image so it's outside of the provided frame).
He finds himself in a chain gang within a few months of arriving. Then some absconding, stealing from his master etc. In 1829, when he's in the employ of William Brumby, he absconds again and hooks up with a notorious pair by the names of Samuel Britton & John Bevan
( Cut for length )
I won't repeat the story here. It's in the original post, although it's different now. The book I have (Tell 'em I Died Game, by Bill Wannan) took the story from Sea Wolves and Bandits, by Leslie Norman, and he took the story from a book called In Old Days and These by "The Captain" (Thomas Ford) that was published in 1930. It's that story that I've put in the first post.
As I said at the end, it gets interesting but it's not the story itself that is interesting, (although it might be) but the process of trying to work out what the story actually is. So I'll start with the easy part, and that's Tom Rares, who wasn't transported at age 9 for stealing an apple. Rather he got life for pickpocketing. That has him as age 17.
He arrives on the Earl St Vincent in August 1836 (aged 14, 5', brown hair, "hazle" eyes) and doesn't seem to waste time getting down to trouble. If you can read all that, you're doing a better job than me (the easiest way to view it is right click and view image so it's outside of the provided frame).
He finds himself in a chain gang within a few months of arriving. Then some absconding, stealing from his master etc. In 1829, when he's in the employ of William Brumby, he absconds again and hooks up with a notorious pair by the names of Samuel Britton & John Bevan
( Cut for length )
