S2E3: Zachariah Shaw - Merchant to Forger; Banished for Life

This episode is about Zachariah Shaw who was the 4th great-grandfather of listener Shane Hopkinson who sent in his story. Zachariah was a hosier in Ireland when at the age of 62, he was arrested and convicted of stamp forgery. Sentenced to Transportation for Life from England and Ireland, he started fresh in the colony of Australia.

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Transcript

Welcome back my criminal genies to the Criminal Genealogist Podcast. I hope you are enjoying this season so far and would love your feedback. You can support the podcast by following us on social media (FB, Instagram, Twitter) and on your favorite podcast apps. Giving us a 5 star review on Apple podcasts would be pretty fabulous as well. If you are enjoying the content, let your friends know. And most importantly, if you have an ancestor who couldn’t behave, let us know! You can visit the website at www.thecriminalgenealogist.com and leave a voice message or use the contact form or email us at thecriminalgenealogist@gmail.com. All of the links are in the show notes. 
 
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Excited to be back to the podcast and bringing you another exciting episode. 
I was away in Pittsburgh, PA - well virtually. I attended a week-long institute with GRIP, the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh and took Fundamentals of Forensic Genealogy with Catherine Demarsis, Kelvin Meyers, Angie Bush, Michael Ramage and CeCe Moore. What a fabulous week learning about all of the areas under Forensic Genealogy - which are related to the law. A week well spent! 
 
Alright, let’s get started! Today’s episode was sent to me by Shane Hopkinson in Queensland, Australia! His 4th great-grandfather seems to have lived a quiet life until he was about 60 and then got in a bit of trouble. Zachariah Shaw was born about 1773 in Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland according to his criminal records.
 
Zachariah was a Quaker which is known as a group that played a significant part in the movement for peace. The Irish Quakers were called The Religious Society of Friends and founded in Ireland about 1654. Quakers were known for entrepreneurship, setting up many businesses in Ireland, with many families involved in milling, textiles, shipping, imports and exports, food and tobacco production, brewing, iron production and railway industries. As a hosier Zachariah ran a wholesale business selling hosiery, better known as socks, stockings, gloves, scarves and the like.
 
Not much is known about his early days, including who his parents were. Searching through records in Ireland in County Down, I did find a marriage in 1773 between Hans Shaw and Jane Heron. Hans was from Loughinisland and Jane from Drumgoolan which are Parishes within Seaford and both within miles from Hillsborough which is where Zachariah was allegedly born. Could these be his parents? I wasn’t able to find anything in my initial searches to find this couple after their marriage. So many records but I would have to go to the National Archives in Dublin to find them - anyone want to send me? 
 
One known brother was Jonas Shaw born about 1775, who died at the age of 23 in 1798. In the book The United Irishmen, their lives and times by Richard Robert Madden, there is mention of Zachariah and his brother Jonas. There is an extract of a letter from Miss Mary Ann McCracken on 22 August 1798 where she states “I was sorry to hear, by Mr. Zachariah Shaw, who called here a few weeks ago, that his brother Jonas was recovering very slowly.” It is noted that Jonas Shaw never recovered from the effects of being flogged, but lingered for months. He was a Quaker and remarkably mild. He was flogged at the prevot in Dublin Castle, by Lord Kingsborough’s orders.  It’s not clear what he did but looking at the history of the time, there was the 1798 Rebellion where “upon an information which had been received by Government, that the Provincial Committee of the United Irishmen of Leinster were to assemble there for the purpose of treason.” 
 
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organizing force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced by the ideas of the American and French revolutions: originally formed by Presbyterian radicals angry at being shut out of power by the Anglican establishment, they were joined by many from the majority Catholic population. It’s estimated that about 30,000 people died during the rebellion from May to October. The British ultimately were the victors. 
 
According to the book Robert Emmet and the Rebellion of 1798, there were two remarkable executions that took place. A young Dominican clergyman named Bush, and a Quaker named Shaw, were scourged, by the command and under the eyes of Lord Kingsborough, and with such severity that the latter is said to have died from the effects of his punishment. It is possible that Zachariah Shaw was also involved with the Rebellion and was mixing with the top tier Dublin City United Irishmen and viewed as one of its leaders. Perhaps he wasn’t living such a quiet life after all. Unfortunately no further details could be found online in my short research window. 
 
Moving forward, Zachariah married a much younger woman Julia Anne Kavanagh in 1820. He was 47 and she was 19.  They were married in Dublin, Ireland and quickly started a family. Their first child, Ellenora Shaw was baptized on 22 August 1821 at St. Audoen’s in Dublin City, Dublin, Ireland. While Zachariah was a Quaker, his wife was Catholic and the children were baptized Catholic. Another known daughter is Alicia who was baptized on 24 June 1825 in Dublin City. Later, we know that Zachariah has 7 children which I’ll discuss in a bit. 
 
In the early 1830s he got involved with father and son, Robert and Thomas Clayton and together they started forging wax stamps. They did not go without getting caught, obviously, and all three plead guilty in exchange for their freedom. Well kind of. 

According to the Dublin Morning Register in the 8 February 1834 issue, Zachariah was arrested in the Stephen’s-green on Monday by peace officers, Hartley and Roberts. “Mr. Zachariah Shaw, who once held rather a respectable situation as a mercantile man, has been committed for trial on a charge of being concerned in the distribution of forged stamps.” It states that he had in his possession 32 stamps of different values. 
Fourteen (14) 10s (shillings) stamps on vellum
Four (4) 1 pound stamps on vellum
Fourteen (14) 2s (shillings) stamps on paper

The area where he was arrested, St. Stephen’s-Green is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland at the present day. In 1814, control of St Stephen's Green passed to Commissioners for the local householders, who redesigned its layout and replaced the walls with railings. In the show notes I posted a link of a map of the area in 1832 which shows a garden/park in the middle and housing all around it. This is likely where Zachariah was living with his family which helps to search for further records from that area. Look for these little clues in your own research to narrow down where your ancestors might be located. Using that clue, Zachariah was found in the newspaper on 1 May 1830 - The Freeman’s Journal out of Dublin - posting was a notice requesting a meeting of the inhabitants of the St. Michan’s Parish. The meeting was to “Petition the Legislature against the oppressive and injurious measure proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the increase of Stamp Duties in this country.” 

Aha - now it makes sense why he chose to get involved with forging stamps. He is listed as one of the churchwardens of the St. Michan’s Parish. Apparently he was not happy about the increase but it isn’t clear how he met father and son Robert and Thomas Clayton or who hatched the idea. A census record for 1831 would have been a great help to see if they were neighbors, but the majority of the census returns were destroyed in 1922. Land or tax records are also a great way to determine where someone is located or at least where they have land. There were some tax records in the late 1820s but only listed with the last name Shaw - I would need to see the originals to determine if this was our Shaw. Since I am 4000+ miles away from Dublin, I guess I will have to wonder. 

I spoke earlier about how they pleaded guilty in exchange for their “freedom” - let me clarify. They all plead guilty and were sentenced to transportation for LIFE! They were never allowed to come back to Ireland or England, but once they arrived in the colony aka Australia, they would be freed and given money. Zachariah’s wife and seven children were all transported as well. 
He arrived in New South Wales, Port Jackson on 22 January 1835 on the Royal Admiral at the age of 62 after a 117 day journey with a total of 203 men; 2 not surviving the trip. Robert and Thomas were also on this ship and ironically would go on to design the first postage stamps for the colony. 

The Belfast News Letter reported on 26 September 1834 - “About 200 convicts were shipped on Saturday from the Essex Hulk in Kingstown Harbour, on board the Royal Admiral, transport ship, preparatory to their sailing for New South Wales. Zachariah Shaw, Robert Clayton and Thomas Clayton who had been convicted of forging stamps, were also brought on board the same vessel from the prison of Newgate (Ireland).”

Newgate Prison was initially located at Cornmarket, near Christ Church Cathedral, on the south side of Dublin. In 1781 the prison was moved to a new purpose built building on Green Street on the north side of the city. The prison finally closed in 1863 and the building was demolished in 1893. Ironically, the site is now home to the St. Michan’s Park - remember, the church that Zachariah was a churchwarden mentioned in the meeting request to discuss the increase in stamps? 

For some unknown reason, on the Convict Indents record book Zachariah is listed under the Surnames for “W” but luckily it was indexed for me to find him. It provides a description for Zachariah - he was a short man by today’s standards at 5’ 71/2” but compared to the other convicts he was one of the taller men. This ruddy complexion came with a missing lower front tooth, brown hair that was graying, and hazel eyes. The annotated printed indent book provides more information, confirming some of what we already knew. He was a literate quaker of the age 62, married with seven children, 3 sons and 4 daughters. His native place was Hillsborough in County Down and he was a hosier. He committed the crime of forging stamps and was Tried in Dublin in February 1834. One column of interest is the one about whether the convict has any previous crimes; Zachariah along with the Clayton men all said the same thing. None. 

For his descendants that is a sigh of relief I presume; to know that he wasn’t a bad guy. He made a bad decision because of his frustration and it cost him dearly. During the research, there was a letter documented in the book “Historical Records of Australia“ which was from Hon. T. Spring Rice to Governor Bourke. It is dated September 29th 1834. 




So what happened to Zachariah and his family after they arrived on the long journey to New South Wales? His descendant who provided this story, Shane, stated that he was given a job as a Constable at the House of Corrections! That seems interesting considering his crimes that got him there. According to Jordan Gregory’s research, Zachariah went on to become an Overseer of Convicts Appointed Constable, being paid about 5/6 pence per day, possibly at the Carters Barracks. He held the position of Constable at the House of Corrections Sydney for over 10 years. I wasn’t able to find any official government documentation showing this role, but there were two things to corroborate this. 

Firstly is a marriage notice for Zachariah and Julia’s 3rd daughter, Mary Ann Shaw to Mr. Peter Roach of West Maitland. They were married at the Scots Church on the 9th of December 1846. The notice says “...Mary Ann the third daughter of Mr. Zachariah Shaw, of the Carters Barrack Establishment.”


Secondly, there is a letter from Zachariah pleading to keep his job after being dismissed from the position 10 years after he started despite his “zeal, steadfast & fidelity”. In January 1846, he sent a petition to Governor Gipps begging to keep his position as he was an old man and had no other skills. This fell on deaf ears however and Zachariah was dismissed. The letter to the Governor is attached to the Ancestry tree so check out the show notes if you want to read it. Did you notice that the letter was dated January 1846 but the marriage notice was from December 1846, so Zachariah would no longer have that position at the barracks. Perhaps the family was still living there however. 
Not much is known after this about Zachariah and his wife. Julia died 22 June 1847, a year and a half after Zachariah was dismissed from his job. She would have been in her 40s at the time of her death. Zachariah appears in 1852 as a witness in a trial of his daughter Julie Ann’s husband, Henry Breasley. He is not found after this so we don’t know when he died. I suspect if one were to find the burial site for Julia, his wife, we would find some answers. 

Thank you Shane for this great ancestor! I learned so much about the history in Ireland and Australia during this time. It is one of the best parts of doing this podcast - I get to learn for free and expand my knowledge base plus improve my research skills. But the biggest and best part of this podcast is giving families more information about their Ancestors! 

Until next time my criminal genies, remember the records don’t lie, but your ancestors might.