Abel Sant

Abel Sant

in the Cheshire, England, Parish Registers, 1538-1909

Name: Abel Sant
Gender: Male
Record Type: Christening (Baptism)
Baptism Date: 22 Oct 1780
Baptism Place: Middlewich, Cheshire, England
Residence Place: Middlewich, Cheshire, England
Father: Isaac Sant
Mother: Martha Sant

England wanted master sawyers in Australia, so stolen wheat was hidden in Abel's son Tom's lunchbox while he was working. Abel found it and took it so his 22 year old son wouldn't be charged and sent away. {Many men died following such 'convictions'.} As a result, he was charged for a false crime and sent off to Australia. [This story has been passed down through the family, from Abel to his son Isaac, who told it to Alfred Clifford Sant, Isaac's second great nephew & Abel's second great grandson.]

Abel Sant, one of 144 convicts transported on the Adamant, 26 March 1821

Name: Abel Sant
Aliases: none
Gender: m
Date of Birth: 22nd October, 1780
Occupation: Sawyer
Date of Death: 4th December, 1858
Age: 78 years
Crime: Theft
Convicted at: Chester Quarter Sessions
Sentence term: 7 years
Ship: Adamant
Departure date: 26th March, 1821
Arrival date: 8th September, 1821
Place of arrival: New South Wales
Passenger manifest: Travelled with 143 other convicts

References
Primary source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/4, Page Number 10
Source description: This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Community Contributions:

Ric Cantrell on 21st December, 2014 wrote:
More information compiled at
https://cantrellhistory.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/abel-sant/

Maureen Withey on 22nd December, 2019 wrote:
Adamant: Surgeon’s Log: National Archives ADM 101/1/2/1
Folio 1: 19th March 1821; received eighty convicts from the Justitia, No sick.
Folio 5: 4th April 1821; struck one iron off Abel [Sants?] who assisted in shaving the men.
Folios 8-10: Abel Sants, aged 39, convict, taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, rheumatism, severe pain in his right thigh and knee; put on sick list 13 April 1821, discharged 19 April 1821.

Maureen Withey on 15th February, 2020 wrote:
The Monitor (Sydney) 30 April 1828.
PUBLIC NOTICE.
THE undermentioned Persons have obtained Certificates of Freedom, during the last week; viz.—
Adamant — Abel Sant.
Convict Changes History

https://cantrellhistory.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/abel-sant/
Cantrell Family History

← Richard Carleton Cantrell: His personal history
Dufur Cemetery →
Abel Sant, 1780 – 1858
Posted on January 16, 2012 by rstorm1

Abel Sant –> John Sant –> George J. Sant –> George Sant Jr. –> George Oscar Sant –> Norma Sant –> Cheryl Green –> Me

Map: New South Wales in 1857Birth: Oct 22, 1780 in Sproston, Cheshire, England
Death: Dec 4, 1858 in Picton, New South Wales, Australia

This page is a collection of history about Able Sant, who, in 1821, was convicted of a crime and sent, with 67 other sawyers, to New South Wales to provide labor in the penal colonies.

The first section is from a family history website with information on all the children of Isaac and Martha Sant (Abel was the fourth child).

The Children of Isaac and Martha Sant
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/fs.mclaren/isaacmartha.html

Abel Sant – born 1780 in Sproston, Cheshire
Abel’s Story – as passed on by him to his children:

Abel’s father Isaac was a sawyer and, as was tradition in those days, Abel and his brothers followed their father’s profession. He was soon a gang leader (of Sawyers) and was well respected for his hard work. [A sawyer saws wood into planks and boards.]

Abel seems to have committed his first crime when, at the age of 19, he married Margaret Bayley. The problem was that Abel was a staunch protestant and Margaret came from a devout catholic family. Her brothers just couldn’t accept their sister marrying a heretic and producing 8 children who also followed the heresy. They moved heaven and earth to break this man and his family.

Abel had been working in a saw mill with his son Tom when the Australian Government asked the crown for more sawyers to be sent over as there was a great shortage of skilled men who could work on building houses and workshops for the growing community. The English government sent a number of sawyers over on the same ship, with the same 7 year sentence. While these men had been at work, wheat and tools had been placed in some of their lunch pails – the authorities were waiting. It happened that young Tom’s pail was one of these and as soon as Abel realized it, he claimed it as his own, telling his son that is was him they wanted to get rid of so he would be the one to go.

Abel Sant was born in Sproston, Cheshire in the Autumn of 1780. He was christened at the church of St. Michael & All Angels in Middlewich on 22nd October 1780, one of 10 children born to his parents Isaac Sant and Martha Malam.

Abel married Margaret Bayley (sometimes recorded as Bailey) at St Michael and All Angels, Middlewich, Cheshire on 2nd October 1799. Margaret was the daughter of Peter Bayley & his wife Elizabeth (nee Dod).

Abel and Margaret had 8 children who survived to adulthood:

1) Thomas – born 1799 – who married Hannah Allcock at St Michael and All Angels, Middlewich, Cheshire. It was a second marriage for Hannah and they appear to have only had one child, Abel born in 1829

2) Hannah – born 1802 – who married James Coleclough at St Leonard, Warmingham, Cheshire. They had 5 children: James (1826) – Hannah (1831) – Abraham (1836) – Isaac (1838) – Ellen (1839)

3) Peter – born 1804 – who married Ann Grance at St Michael and All Angels, Middlewich, Cheshire. They had three children: Isabella (1828) – John (1831) – Ann (1833)

4) Elizabeth – born 1806

5) Esther – born 1809

6) John – born 1811 – who married Mary Shaw at St Michael and All Angels, Middlewich, Cheshire. They had 11 children: George (1833) – Hannah (1836) – John (1839) – Margaret (1844) – Jane (1846) – Betsy (1842) – Mary (1848) – William (1850) – Joseph (1853) – Eliza (1856) – Thomas (1860) – John, Mary & their family became Mormons and made the trek across the ocean and the wastes of the USA to a new home in Utah. Their journey will be covered at a later date.

7) Samuel – born 1813 – who married Sarah Wildsmith at St Michael and All Angels, Middlewich, Cheshire. They had 4 children: Margaret (1832 – 1838) – Mary (1833) – Margaret (1838) – Samuel (1841)

8) Jane – born 1819 – who may have married William Sant, her cousin.

Abel appeared at the Quarter Sessions at the Chester assizes on 9 January 1821, in front of a bench lead by one of the De Trafford family – the charge being that he had stolen a quantity of wheat. At the trial it was brought up that his brother Moses had been transported a year earlier for a number of thefts – therefore it was clearly a case of a “bad family”. Abel was sentenced to 7 years transportation. The Quarter Sessions records state the following:

“Case Number 7 January 1821

Abel Sant aged 39

Charge: Sealing a quantity of wheat
Sentence: Transported 7 years
How behaved in jail: Good
How behaved since trial: Good
Connextion and former course in life: Bad
Temper and disposition: Good
Character as far as known: Very bad
State of health: Good
Comments: A very bad character and connextions very bad, his brother MOSES was transported in May last year and put on board the “INSTITUTION”

Tried before Trafford de TRAFFORD Esquire and others”

It was customary for convicts to be sent to the hulks before they were allocated a ship and sent to Australia, they were usually held there for months, sometimes years and many died there. This did not happen with the sawyers. Transportation papers, signed by Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth, the Home Secretary – which authorised Abel (and others) to be sent to the hulk Justitia to await deportation, were sent to the High Sheriff of Chester on 16th January 1821.

One of 15 men from the Chester assizes, who were tried at the same time, Abel arrived at the hulks at Woolwich 16th January 1821 to be examined and listed as healthy enough to travel. He was placed aboard the Hulk Justitia and the receipt for his reception is still in existence, signed by Robert Smyth, the overseer of the Justitia, I have a copy of all the transportation papers and receipts.

Picture link: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/fs.mclaren/justitia.jpg

Aboard the Justitia (above) Abel would have worn the standard prison uniform nicknamed “Magpie Suits”. The only known surviving example is in the National Museum of Australia and is pictured below.

Magpie Suit with chains

Pic link: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/fs.mclaren/magpie_.jpg

He was certified as “Free from putrid and infectious disorders” and fit to be transported on 22nd January 1821.

Abel was taken from the Justitia and put on the “Adamant” (built in 1811), the Adamant set sail on 29 March 1821 and arrived in New South Wales on 8th September 1821 – 144 men set out, 142 arrived in Sidney, two men having died on the journey. I have a copy of the ships register listing every man on board, where they were tried, and the length of their sentences.

On arriving in Sydney, New South Wales on 8th September 1821 his links with the judicial system did not end. However it was as a witness that this relationship with the law continued:

The Story of the Adamant

“Occasionally the prisoners might be starved, as happened in the Adamant in 1821. This ship reached Port Jackson from England on September 8th, but the convicts, so far as extant records reveal, had no complaints, although the surgeon-superintendent, James Hamilton, refused to sign the masters accounts until the latter agreed to credit the government with the value of medical comforts that were deficient. On October 24th 1821 when the ship had almost cleared Sidney harbour on her return voyage, police officers boarded her and seized 386 lb. of sugar, 752lbs of beef, 35lbs of soap, and varying quantities of wine, vinegar, pepper, ginger, chocolate, suet, oatmeal, bread, preserved meat and portable soup alleged to have been stolen from provisions and medical comforts supplied for the prisoners on the outward passage.

The seizure followed a quarrel between the Adamant’s Master, William Ebsworthy, and the ship’s steward, George Farris. The latter had sold some wine to a woman innkeeper and had collected payment, but Ebsworthy had insisted that the money should be paid to him and threatened to seize the wine. When a constable arrived Farris swore that he sold the wine on the masters instructions and it had been embezzled, along with other goods secreted in the ship, from the convicts provisions. “Just before we crossed the line” asserted Farris in sworn statement “The captain had a scuttle cut in the after hold for the purpose of adulterating the king’s stores, and by his order I drew off twelve or fourteen gallons from each puncheon and made up the deficiency with water”.

The evidence is contradictory as to whether Ebsworthy or Farris was the instigator, but there is no doubt that the prisoners received water and wine and that portions of rations were embezzled. Ebsworthy, when the matter came before the magistrates, refused to submit a written defence, and the evidence was forwarded to the Commissioners of the Navy without comment.”

From: The Convict Ships by Charles Bateson.

Abel was called to give evidence in this case, having been transported on the ship. He was also found in court records in Picton Court House in 1830 as a witness – 1832 as a witness – 1842 suing for non payment of wages – 1855 as surety for an Oliver Whiting – 10th August 1855 for a Slaughtering Licence – 1856 Leake v Sant for non payment of wages.

Release & Freedom:

Abel was granted a “Ticket of Leave” (number 27/41) on 21st March 1827 at Camden Bench. This meant Abel could actively seek work but he could not leave the area.
The system was an early form of early release on probation. This was followed by a “Certificate of Freedom” (number 28/329) on 22nd April 1828. The information on the certificate is as follows:

“Date: 22nd April 1828 – Name: Abel Sant – Ship: Adamant – Master: Ebsworthy – Year: 1821 – Native Place: Cheshire – Trade or Calling: Sawyer – Place of Trial: Chester Quarter Sessions – Date of Trial: 9th January 1821 – Sentence: Seven years – Year of Birth: 1780 – Height 5 feet 10 +1/2 inches – Complexion: Fair – Hair: Sandy – Eyes: Grey – General remarks: Had a ticket of leave 27/41 dated 21 March 1827, now turned in & cancelled.”

A New life:

Abel knew he would never return home, and his application to remarry was granted and he married Ellen Smith on 20th January 1841 at St John’s Cambeltown, Cumberland, New South Wales. He he was working there for a family called Antill.

Abel & Ellen had one son, Isaac in 1845.

The skill of Abel is reinforced by an article which appeared in the Camden News of October 1896 under the heading “Early days in Picton”:

“Two noted fencers of their day were Rozette and Abel Sant, father of the present Isaac Sant. His reputation in this respect has been maintained by his son. Part of a fence erected by them is still to be seen at Jarvisfield. It is 70 years old. Abel lived in a cottage opposite the present rifle range.”

His relationship with the Antill family seems to have remained throughout Abel’s life. When he died on 4th December 1858, from skinning a cow infected with the Cumberland Disease (Anthrax), it was an Antill who notified the death.

Abel was buried in the cemetery of St Marks, Picton, New South Wales.

Isaac, Abel’s son went on to become a much respected citizen and managed a silver mine called the Golden Gates, from which he made a very good living. There are still descendants in Australia today.

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Sandra Gale posted the following story on “All Things Ancestors” (Update: this site seems to be offline now, 5/29/2014). http://www.allthingsancestor.com/ancestors-of-sandra-gale/abel-sant

The story of Abel Sant remains a sad tale. He was born in England to Isaac Sant and Martha Malan. He was the fifth of ten children born to his parents. In order to develop its new colonies in New South Wales in Australia, England depended on convict labor. Those transported to the new colony were often not convicts, but ordinary people who were skilled at some labor and accused falsely in order to meet the transport quotas. Our ancestor Abel Sant was born in England. In 1799 he married Margaret Bayley. They became the parents of twelve children, including our direct ancestor John Sant. Able was accused of hiding a file in his lunch bucket, convicted and sent to Australia. The customary sentence made him a prisoner for three months, and a laborer for three years. After three years he was released but was not allowed to return to England until he had been in Australia for seven years. He was unable to afford the passage and so remained in Australia. He never saw his wife or his children again in life. His oldest son Thomas made the trip to Australia to find his father but could not.

In 1851, Abel married a woman named Ellen Smith who had been transported to Australia in the same way. The record in this summary sheds some light on the records of the convict transports.

Records:

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A History of the Sants Compiled by Donald J. Hepworth

A six-page PDF that summarizes Abel Sant’s history, then Abel’s son John and his family’s experience and journey to America. The text of this PDF document is posted here.

http://www.brianblack.net/genealogy/histories/A%20History%20of%20th...