This is from a letter written to the Home Secretary by Lord Braybrooke of Audley End. Read the story for yourself and make up your own mind whether John Pluck would have been your favourite neighbour.

The story as reported by the Chelmsford Chronicle

John Pluck, a shoemaker, and well-known Poacher, underwent an examination on Wednesday se'nnight, before T A Cattlin, Esquire, Mayor of Saffron Walden, charged with a burglary in the house of Mr. Middleditch, a miller residing a short distance from that town, It appears that the family were all out and on Mr. Middleditch's return home about 10 o'clock at night he found his door open, and seeing a man making his escape, he followed him, when the fellow dropped a bundle, containing various articles of apparel which he had stolen from the house. The prisoner was fully committed for trial at the quarter sessions.

The Court Records

Town of Saffron	At the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace of our
Walden in Essex	Sovereign Lord the King holden in and for the said
	Town on Friday in the first week next
	after the Translation
13th July	of St Thomas the Martyr (to wit) the thirteenth Day of
1827	July in the Eighth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord
	George the Fourth by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom
	of Great Britain and Ireland King Defender of the Faith
	and in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
	and twenty seven before Thomas Archer Catlin Esquire, Mayor
	Nathaniel Catlin Esquire and officers Justices assigned, etc.

Robert Paul T.	George Archer
John Allen	William Burrows
Henry Burrow	Charles Brown?
William Shelford? Barnes	John Clark
John Clayden	Robert Clark
Hannabal Dunn	John Emson
Thomas Joyce	John King
Scamer? Spicer	Waite? Spicer
William Wiseman	William Ward
Joseph Ward

The King on the	On an Indictment for Felony
Prosecution of William	A True Bill Pleaded "Not Guilty"
Middleditch against	Guilty
John Pluck	To be transported for 7 years to such
	Parts beyond the Seas as his Majesty
	In Council shall think proper
	The Jury present "All is Well"
	and it is ordered by the Court that the
	expenses in the above Prosecution be
	allowed by the Parish

Some Local Lobbying

Following the trial a local landowner, Lord Braybrooke, wrote to the Home Secretary ...

Private                               Audley End

July 22 1827

My dear Lord

The Magistrates and

Inhabitants of Saffron Walden have expressed

a strong desire that I should call your

attention to the case of John Pluck

who has just been convicted at their

Sessions of felony, & sentenced to seven

years transportation.

They wish me to represent that Pluck

is a man of the most abandoned character

& has long been at the head of a Gang of

Thieves by whom every species of depredation

to an alarming extent has been committed

during the two last years. & they are

very anxious that he should be actually

transported instead of going to the Hulks

from a conviction that the example would

produce a good effect.

As I am fully acquainted with the

circumstances of the case I can have no

hesitation in adding my recommendation

to the request of my neighbours.

It would further be matter of

great convenience if you [smudge]

issue an order for Plucks removal to

some more secure place of confinement

than Walden Gaol.

I am

My dear Lord

Yrs very truly

The Marquis of

Lansdowne                        Braybrooke

etc etc

There is a short manuscript note in the corner of the document:

"Transport
Ld L- has written to Ld B"

"Ld L" is Henry Petty-FitzMaurice, the 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne, who was Home Secretary from 16 July 1827 - 26 January 1828 and "Ld B" is Lord Braybrooke

The letter quoted above is in the Public Record Office at Kew.

John Pluck's Criminal Record

It seems that John had a criminal record. The details from the Quarter sessions records are:

Year	Date	County	Parish	Person	Offence/Judgement
1810	2 Oct	Essex	Saff Walden	John Pluck	Assault on Samuel Day - no true bill (not enough evidence)
1813	27 Apr	Essex	Saff Walden	John Pluck the younger	Obtaining money under false pretences - plea not guilty - prison 1 month at House of Correction
1814	22 Apr	Essex	Saff Walden	John Pluck Junior	Assault on the Constable - fine paid
1827	13 Jul	Essex	Saff Walden	John Pluck	Wm Middleditch v JP - indictable felony, true bill, plea not guilty, transported 7 years

There is also evidence of some lesser offences in the records of the Saffron Walden Town Sessions:

• 31 July 1815: James Wisbey v John Pluck the younger - swearing, conviction, commitment 10 days; conviction John Pluck tippling at Greyhound this day, fine 5s.

 
• 6 Aug 1816: George Bainbridge v John Pluck, assault

A Move to the Prison Hulks at Woolwich

Lord Braybrooke's request that John should be taken to somewhere more secure than the Saffron Walden jail seems to have had its effect, because the following records have been found in the Quarterly Returns of convicts in prison hulks (decommissioned naval ships used as prisons while the convicts awaited a ship to transport them to the colonies)

From the Quarterly Returns of convicts in prison hulks:

Justitia Hulk at Woolwich Dec 1827 (10Oct - 31Dec)

John Pluck age 40 Stealing Coat & Trousers,13th July 1827, Healthy & of good behaviour

Justitia Hulk at Woolwich Mar 1828

John Pluck age 40 Stealing Coat & Trousers, 13th July 1827, transported 20th Feb 1828

So John must have spent several months in the hulks at Woolwich, before being moved to the ship that was to take him to Australia. We don't know whether prisoners were moved overland to Plymouth or were taken in a coastal ship. The records in Tasmania show that John was transported in the Bengall Merchant and landed in Hobart, on the 10th of August 1828 after a voyage of about four and a half months. They were routed via Rio; in those days a sailing ship had to follow a route that made maximum use of the prevailing winds and, with a large number of mouths to feed a 15,000 miles non-stop journey would be impossible. It was usual to call in at Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town to take on board water and provisions.

Arrival in Australia

From the Convict Transportation Registers:

John Pluck Saffron Walden Quarter Sessions 7 yrs sailed in Bengall Merchant 13 March 1828, Carried 170, 4 deaths. Landed Hobart Van Diemans Land arrived 10/8/1828

Bengall merchant 503 tons built Calcutta 1812

Master Alex Duthie Surgeon Jos Skeoch

sailed 25/3/1828 from Plymouth routed via Rio - 138 days

From the Van Diemans Land - Nominal Return of Convicts for 1830:
 

John Pluck, 1828, Bengal Merchant, Assigned to Mr J Owen

At the moment we know nothing about Mr Owen or how John Pluck was employed in Tasmania.

The following records are from photocopies of original documents supplied by the Archives Office of Tasmania.

Entry in a book ref. Con 31/34

489 Pluck Jn. Bengal Merchant 1828 Essex 13 July 1827 = 7 Transpd. For "stealing a coat & trousers" Goal report "Convicted before, Bad character & connexions" Hulk report "Very orderly"
Stated, this offence stealing wearing apparel from a Dwelling house prosr. Middleditch a Miller at NP (Native Place) Saffron Walden - once a month for an Assault - In 10 weeks I made it up - wife & 8 children Eldest Boy John a shoemaker youngest 2 yrs old - I was last working for Mr Barrow a Master Shoemaker at N.P. - w & 8 ch

Some Personal Details

A picture of John Pluck emerges from other documents obtained from the Tasmania Archives. He was aged 40, height 5ft 2inches, dark brown hair, dark hazel eyes, with "a deep indent on centre afforehead and scar on thumb knuckle left hand". He was a shoemaker in the town of Saffron Walden in Essex, of the protestant religion, married with a wife and eight children.

A Free Man

He served his time and in due course received his Free Pardon or Emancipation: Free Certificate Number 279, dated 30th September 1834.

The final record is an entry in the Register of Deaths ref. RAD 35/18

1845 DEATHS in the District of Horton

When Died	8 October
Name and Surname	John Pluck
Sex	Male
Age	50
Rank or Profession	Shoemaker
Cause of Death	Delirium Tremens
Informant	John Lee Archer, Police Magistrate

So it would seem that he drank himself to death.
He is PL40 in Tree 6.  He was a half-brother of my great great grandfather Nehemiah Pluck.

Acknowledgements

• I am indebted to Pat and Bob Pluck for providing this mass of information about John Pluck which they have gathered by research at the Essex County Record Office, at the Public Record Office at Kew, and from the Tasmanian Archives.

• I am also grateful to Jacqueline Cooper the author of "The Well-ordered Town: a Story of Saffron Walden, 1792-1862", published 2000, (ISBN 1 873669 06 2), which has provided me with much information about life in Saffron Walden during this period, and for providing further information from her research notes.

Derrick G Porter
19 April 2002