200 Years Ago in Norwich : Vine Destroyer in King’s Lynn
This article was published in the Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette 200 years ago, in late July 1824. The text reads:
“The Sessions for this borough commenced on Monday last, before J. M. ALLEN, Esq. Mayor, M. J. WEST, Esq. Recorder, and other Justices. Anthony Blackster was indicted for maliciously destroying two vines in the hot-house, and several shrubs and trees in the garden, of Edm. Elsden, Esq. during the night of Wednesday, the 7th inst. The prisoner had entered the garden by scaling a wall which separated it from a yard at the back of Mr. Elsden’s premises. The vines had been trained with much care, and were loaded with the finest fruit, but the prisoner had broken and destroyed them so effectually as to prevent the possibility of their ever being restored to their previously flourishing state. He was sentenced to seven years’ transportation. There was no other business of public interest.”
It’s not clear to me whether this destruction was wanton vandalism, which wasn’t rare at the time, or whether it was someone so hungry that they were seeking food. The punishment was a sign of the times though, a seven year transportation sentence, it’s just a little fierce. Despite these sentences being handed out regularly, they didn’t seem to be much of a deterrent to people.
One benefit about being a criminal in the early nineteenth century, or at least if you could call it a benefit, is that you continue to exist in records. So many people lived a quiet life and they have entirely disappeared from the record, nothing known about their lives. It’s known that Anthony Blackster was held at the ship Justilla moored at Woolwich until he could be sent to Australia. The transportation record remains for Anthony, who had been born in King’s Lynn in 1797, he was put on the Royal Charlotte which sailed to New South Wales and which arrived on 29 April 1825. As an aside, the Royal Charlotte had been used from 1819 for transportation and it ran aground in Frederick Reefs, near to Australia, on 11 June 1825. Around ten years ago, the wreck was found, so the ship that transported Anthony is still in existence, albeit slightly wet and dented.
He remained in Australia when his sentence had been completed, he married and had one child, Marian Blackster. Unfortunately, what else happened to Anthony I don’t know, that information will be held by Australian archives and I’m not particularly well versed in their archive history. But, it’s a moment of interest to me that someone’s life could change so much just because of the vandalism that they did one night back on 7 July 1824…..
