A top hat, five tame rabbits and a plank

A top hat, five tame rabbits and a plank. In another time and place, they’d be a magician’s props. But in separate trials at the Old Bailey between 1828 and 1836, they were the stolen items that led to three brothers from one family in the outer London suburb of Whitton being transported to one of Britain’s penal colonies on the other side of the world.

The Steers family of agricultural labourers lived in a two-storey cottage near the Red Lion tavern on Nelson Road.[1] John and Sarah Steers had seven sons and two daughters.[2] The second-born, William Steers, was the first to be transported to Van Diemen’s Land, having twice faced trials at which he could have been sentenced to death.

William Steers had appeared with his father at the Old Bailey in October 1826, co-accused of burglary and the theft of 117 pairs of shows from a house in Hanworth Park. Despite testimony that some of the shoes were found in the Steers’ home, they were acquitted. A third co-accused, Charles Pearce, was convicted and sentenced to death.[3] Sixteen months later, 26-year-old William Steers appeared again at the Old Bailey, this time charged with violent theft and highway robbery over the theft of a man’s hat at Isleworth in January 1828. He was found guilty only of the highway robbery charge, and sentenced to transportation for life.[4] Another man tried over the same incident, George Wyeth, was found guilty on both charges, and hanged.[5]

On his arrival in Hobart as a convict aboard the Woodford in August 1828, William Steers told officials he’d been a gardener at Hounslow Heath. Most recently, however, he’d been on the brick fields near the Hounslow Canal, so his trade was listed as a brickmaker’s labourer. It was recorded that he was 5’3”, of dark-fresh complexion, with grey eyes, brown hair and dark bushy whiskers and black overhanging eyebrows. His forehead was high, his nose short and thick, his mouth thin, with a scar on left side of the upper lip. He had ‘W’ tattooed on his right arm, and ‘M’ on the left. The little fingers of both hands were crooked.[6]

In line with the usual practice with most convicts in VDL, soon after arrival William Steers was assigned to work for a private employer – usually one of the sheep or cattle farmers who since 1803 had been gradually claiming parts of the island previously occupied only by Aboriginal people. It didn’t take long for William Steers to get into strife. Early in 1829, orders were issued for his first punishment: having to work for one month in irons for “insubordination and absconding from his station”. Within days, for “refusing to work”, the punishment was increased to working in a chain gang – back-breaking work usually involving road-making.[7]

For much of the 1830s, Steers was in the Norfolk Plains area of northern VDL, assigned to two English masters –former soldier, William Thomas Lyttleton, and his partner, William Archer. Together, they rented more than 1000 hectares to run cattle. According to one contemporary observer, Lyttleton’s “very handsome brick-built dwelling” was conspicuous among many smaller farm houses in a “beautiful district” that was the most heavily-cultivated part of VDL.[8] Lyttleton was police magistrate and deputy chairman of Quarter Sessions in the town of Launceston, the colony’s second biggest town after Hobart.[9] In July 1834, he convicted Steers of “insubordinate conduct and absconding himself without leave”, sentencing him to six months’ hard labour with a road gang, three months of it to be worked in irons.[10]

Steers would have quickly learned that prisoners on life sentences were generally granted pardons after serving some years if they showed good behaviour. That wasn’t incentive enough. In January 1836, he absconded again. This time, he was on the run for a long time, not being apprehended until September 1838.[11] Meanwhile, according to some press reports, he’d become involved in a spate of bushranging in the district. “The indefatigable district constable of Norfolk Plains, Mr James Hortle, has succeeded in capturing two bushrangers, one named Thomas Walker, and the other William Steer,” reported one paper.[12] Had the report been accurate and Steers convicted of bushranging, he’d have been hanged for the capital crime. As it turned out, authorities couldn’t find evidence of bushranging. Still, Steers and Walker were both charged with “absconding, and when captured, having firearms in their possession”.[13]

In court, Walker received a life sentence, while Steers was sentenced to three years at Port Arthur – regarded as one of the toughest convict facilities in any of the British penal colonies. Approving the sentence, the Lieutenant-Governor of VDL, Sir John Franklin, added that it should come “with severe discipline”.[14] Six years later, in 1844, 16 years into his life sentence, Steers had satisfied authorities that he’d shown “proof of reformation” and he was recommended for a Conditional Pardon. Word came back from London that the recommendation had been approved by Queen Victoria in February 1846.[15] It meant the rest of his sentence was cancelled, but the condition of his pardon was that he’d have to spend the rest of his life within the Australian colonies or New Zealand.

Although William Steers was the first in the family to be transported overseas, he wasn’t the first to be given a transportation sentence. At the Old Bailey in January 1825, William’s slightly older brother, John junior, had been sentenced to seven years’ transportation for stealing a grindstone from a premises in Heston[16]. Evidence was given at his trial that the stone was found in his father’s home “in Twickenham”.[17] Instead of being sent overseas, however, he was allowed to serve a reduced sentence of just over three years in the Millbank Penitentiary in Westminster before his release in early 1828.[18] In May 1830, John Steers was back at the Old Bailey, charged with stealing a plank in Heston belonging to “the Surveyors of the King’s highway”. Convicted, he was again sentenced to seven years’ transportation. This time, though, he was on his way to join his brother in VDL.[19]

On arrival in Hobart, John Steers was recorded as being a “labourer and navigator” – the latter designation possibly indicating he’d been a labourer or “navvy” on the Hounslow Canal. He was 5’6”, with sallow complexion, dark brown eyes, a high wrinkled forehead, hair that was about to grey, and he could read and write. His three years and one month in the Penitentiary were mentioned, as was the fact that he’d had a wife who’d died in August 1829, and that he’d left behind a child in England.[20] UK census and death records indicate John’s wife had been named Anne, and they’d had a son called William, who died and were born in Hanwell respectively in 1829. William ended up living in Whitton with his grandparents after John was transported.[21]

The overwhelming majority of convicts sent to VDL had at least some black marks recorded against them after arrival. Some had whole pages, as clerks listed every misdemeanour and punishment in minute detail. However, throughout his sentence John Steers managed to keep his conduct record clean. Like William, John Steers was assigned to a number of private employers. But he must have been relatively well-behaved because none pressed any court action against him. Except for the arrival statement, his conduct record remained blank. John received his Ticket of Leave in February 1836[22], and in May 1837 was eligible for his Certificate of Freedom, having served his full seven-year sentence.[23]

The third brother in the family transported to VDL was Richard Steers. Described as a labourer who lived at Whitton, he was convicted at the Old Bailey in July 1836 of stealing five tame rabbits from a house in Twickenham.[24] Richard was the seventh child in the family, and still in his teens when William and John were transported. He left as a 22-year-old aboard the Recovery, bound for Hobart, with the same sentence of seven years as John – but ended up with a longer conduct record than even William the “lifer”. He was recorded as being 5’8” tall, with fair complexion, brown hair and grey eyes.[25]

Richard Steers’ first infraction was in October 1838, when he was sentenced to three months’ hard labour for “insolence” at the station where he’d been assigned. Less than a year later, the same offence earned him seven days’ hard labour on one of the worst punishment devices, the tread-wheel. In January 1840, he was back on the tread-wheel, this time for 15 days, for “misconduct in violently assaulting his fellow servant”. Later that year, after he was convicted of assaulting another man, the punishment was stepped up: six months’ hard labour in chains in a road gang. A review of his case in February 1841 resulted in a decision to remit what remained of his original seven-year sentence once he’d served two-thirds of it. However, punishment for misbehaviour continued after he was sent to the Norfolk Plains district where William had been. In January 1842, for “neglect of duty and drunkenness”, he received 36 lashes. Then, not long before he received his Free Certificate in 1843, he was sentenced to seven days in solitary confinement for “misconduct”.[26]

A leading authority on transportation to Van Diemen’s Land, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Tasmania, Lucy Frost, says it was “unusual, but not remarkable” for families like the Steers to have three brothers transported. “Some families seemed to use transportation as a vehicle for family reunion,” she notes.[27] That may not have been the intent of the brothers from Whitton, having all pleaded not guilty, but it could have been the result, albeit with delays because of the staggered times when they gained their freedom.

Shipping records show both John and Richard Steers travelling from VDL to Melbourne, capital of the closest colony on the Australian mainland, Victoria, in 1846 – the year William was finally released.[28] John had been a free man for nine years, and Richard for three. But perhaps they’d waited for William’s release for a short get-together before they took off to explore the other Australian colonies. What John and Richard did after arriving in Melbourne remains unknown. The only seemingly definitive record of either of them that has been found is the apparent death of John in Victoria in 1875, aged 75.[29]

Much more can be found about William Steers. Although he also went to Victoria[30], he returned to VDL, where he became a wheat and sheep farmer in the Deloraine and Sassafras areas, west and north-west of Launceston.[31] In 1857, the year after VDL became Tasmania, 55-year-old William married Bridget Griffin, a 22-year-old Catholic from County Limerick in Ireland. He lived to the age of 84, leaving behind Bridget, four daughters and seven sons when he died in November 1886.[32] A memorial stone later erected on a grave he shared with Bridget in the Latrobe Cemetery in Sassafras noted that he was a “native of London”.[33]

Ironically, the connection between Whitton and the Steers brothers would live on through the only one whose terms of release specified that he must never go home. It’s clear that although he ended up spending more than two-thirds of his life in Tasmania, William never forgot about Whitton. One of his sons, born in 1870 in Deloraine, was named Daniel Whitton Steers.[34] He in turn would have a son, born in 1899, named Witton Daniel Steers, commonly known just as Witton Steers.[35] Another of William’s sons, John, would name his son Charles Whiten (later spelt Witton) Steers, born in 1896.[36] Then in 1931, Witton Steers would continue the tradition with one of his sons, Edward, later known as Ted. In the year 2000, almost 200 years after William Steers was born in Whitton, London, after Ted was buried in Victoria, Australia, the plaque that can still be seen on his grave would include his middle name: Witten.[37] It’s different spelling. But it’s the same pronunciation, and still a reminder of the place where Ted’s great-grandfather lived the first quarter century of his life, but was forced to leave, never to return. Because he stole a hat.

[1] 1841 England Census; Class: HO107; Piece: 658; Book: 12; Civil Parish: Twickenham; County: Middlesex; Enumeration District: 9; Folio: 50; Page: 18; Line: 20; GSU roll: 438775

[2] Baptisms of Steers children: John (1801), William (1802), Sarah (1804), Isabella (1806), James (1808), David (1810), Richard (1812), George (1821) and Henry (1828); London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Numbers: Dro/174/A/01/008; DL/DRO/BT/068/001; DL/DRO/BT/068/013 & DL/DRO/BT/068/020

[3] Proceedings of the Old Bailey (www.oldbaileyonline.org), Ref. No: t18261026-70

[4] Proceedings of the Old Bailey (www.oldbaileyonline.org), Ref. No: t18280221-32

[5] Proceedings of the Old Bailey (www.oldbaileyonline.org), Ref. No: t18280221-31; Sun (London) 28 March 1828 p2

[6] William Steers, Woodford, 1828, Conduct record, Conduct Registers of Male Convicts arriving in the Period of the Assignment System, Tasmanian Archives, CON31/1/38, Image 321; CON34-1-2, Image 227; CON-18-1-21, p180.

[7] Tasmanian Archives, CON31/1/38, p321

[8] Widowson, Henry (1829). Present state of Van Diemen’s Land: comprising of an account of its agricultural capabilities with observations on the present state of farming &c. &c. pursued in that colony, and other important matters connected with emigration. London: S. Robinson; W. Joy, p134

[9] C. J. Craig, ‘Lyttleton, William Thomas (1786–1839)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/lyttleton-williamiam-thomas-2385/text3143

[10] Tasmanian Archives, CON31/1/38, p321

[11] Ibid.

[12] Hobart Town Courier, 24 August 1838, p2

[13] Ibid., 31 August 1838, p4

[14] Launceston Advertiser, 11 October 1838, p3, Tasmanian Archives, CON31/1/38, p321

[15] Tasmanian Archives, CON31/1/38, p321; UK Home Office: Settlers and Convicts, New South Wales and Tasmania 1845-1846, National Archives, HO 10/59, p42

[16] The transcript of evidence says Hendon, but this is almost certainly a mistake. According to the evidence, Steers’ home in “Twickenham” was only 2 miles from the scene of the alleged crime. Heston, the locality of the future case involving John Steers that led to his transportation, roughly fits this description, but not Hendon.

[17] Proceedings of the Old Bailey (www.oldbaileyonline.org), Ref. No: t18250113-197

[18] Newgate Prison, London: Register Of Prisoners, Series PCOM2, Piece No 198, p25

[19] Proceedings of the Old Bailey (www.oldbaileyonline.org), Ref. No: t18300527-143

[20] John Steers, John 1, 1831, Conduct record, Conduct Registers of Male Convicts arriving in the Period of the Assignment System, Tasmanian Archives, CON31/1/39, Image 102; CON-18-1-9, p191; CON14-2-1, pp18-19

[21] Burial of Anne Steers, 20 Aug 1829, St Mary, Hanwell, Ealing. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: DRO/006/014; Greater London Burial Index, Middlesex Burials, Hanwell; William Steers in 1851 England Census, Class: HO107; Piece: 1698; Folio: 602; Page: 14; GSU roll: 193606

[22] The Hobart Town Courier, 26 Feb 1836, p4

[23] The Launceston Advertiser, 11 May 1837, p4

[24] Proceedings of the Old Bailey (www.oldbaileyonline.org), Ref. No: t18250113-197

[25] Tasmanian Archives, CON18-1-22 p130

[26] Richard Steers, Recovery, 1837, Conduct record, Conduct Registers of Male Convicts arriving in the Period of the Assignment System, Tasmanian Archives, CON31/1/40, p253

[27] Email from Lucy Frost to author of this article, Feb 2023

[28] Tasmanian Archives, CSO95/1/1, p324 & p353

[29] Death No 11018/1875, Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages

[30] Tasmanian Archives, POL220/1/2 p164

[31] The Cornwall Chronicle, 11 Oct 1869, p2; Launceston Examiner, 23 June 1870, p5; Devon Herald, 27 Sept 1879, p2

[32] Tasmanian Archives, RGD37/1/16, No876; The North Western Advocate and Emu Bay Times, 16 September 1903, p2; Devon Herald, 23 Nov 1886, p2; Australian Cemetery Index, 1808-2007, p369.

[33] Find a Grave Memorial ID 240838585

[34] Australian Cemetery Index, 1808-2007, p1085

[35] Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922, Reg. No 1421; The Advocate, 29 Sep, 1942 p2

[36] Australia, Birth Index, 1788-1922, Reg. No 2291

[37] Find a Grave Memorial ID 157640600

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