The meaning of the surname Fitch is unknown, but it originates in Essex, England, and it has been claimed that most people with the name are descended from Richard Fitch of Steeple Bumpstead, Essex, who died in 1494. Tasmania became home to a surprising number of people with the name, but the focus here is on Samuel Fitch, transported to Tasmania in 1850. He had been born on 11  July 1822 at Colchester, one of Essex’s most important cities, with ancient Briton and Roman origins.  His father was John Fitch and his mother Sarah Cole, and he is known to have had at least 3 siblings : John, Sarah and Mary Ann. Their parents were apparently themselves natives of Colchester, and around 1820 they lived in the parish of St Giles, located in a southern suburb outside the original walls of the city, and it was at the 12th century parish church that the children were baptised. Thirty years later, we can trace most of the family in the 1851 census and still living in Colchester : Mary Ann with her parents, and son John with a wife Sarah and 2 children. Much later, the 1881 census records Mary Ann as a spinster and needlewoman lodging in Colchester, and her brother John  was visiting friends in Suffolk at the time.

We know virtually nothing of Samuel’s youth, but several tattooes he had, described in 1850 as “2 stars sloop E. F.” and  “Sloop 1844” suggest involvement in some maritime activity. The next documented reference to him is on 29 July 1845, when he was convicted of larceny at  Middlesex Quarter Sessions, held at Clerkenwell, London, and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.  Eighteen months after completing this term, he was in trouble again. Accompanied by a “Charles Edward Fitch”, aged 16 years (presumably a cousin?), Samuel broke into his father’s house through the ‘curtilage’, an area attached to the house e.g. a court yard. He later told Tasmanian authorities that he stole “clothes for money”, and one can only wonder what had gone on within the family to create such a situation. On 18 May 1847, Samuel and Charles faced the judges at Chelmsford Quarter Sessions and both pled guilty to the charges. Because of his former conviction, Samuel felt the full force of the law and was sentenced to 10 years transportation. The young Charles, still a teenager with no prior offences, was dealt with more leniently, and received one lash followed by 4 months hard labour in Colchester House of Correction.

Samuel was probably held in a local gaol for several months, and during the period Oct – Dec 1847, he was transferred to the hulk York, moored at Gosport, near Portsmouth. Here he spent almost 3 years, during which time his behaviour was good (and on two occasions “indfferent”). There was actually some trouble on the York at this time involving convict rioting and protest, and a guard was even killed, but there is no evidence that Samuel was involved. On 24 June 1850, he was sent from here to be part of a consignment of some 300 prisoners bound for Tasmania on board the Nile. The ship had left London on 17 June and travelled around the coast, finally departing from Portland Harbour (Dorset) on 5 July.  The long journey to the other side of the earth then began, and it was not until 3 Oct 1850 that the ship put in at Hobart. Upon arrival, various detailed documents were collated and drawn up by the Tasmanian authorities, and it is thanks to these that we have a record of Samuel’s origins, life, and physical description. He was 5’ 2” tall, with a fresh complexion, dark brown hair, hazel eyes, small nose, and a medium-sized head, mouth and chin. He was also a Protestant and could read a little.

By 1850, transportation to Tasmania was in its last days. The increased number of free residents disliked being a dumping ground for criminals, and the system itself no longer functioned properly. The economic situation was such that convicts could no longer be so readily  farmed out to private employers and the government could not afford to maintain them in public works. Samuel and his fellow convicts on the Nile were handled as many transportees were at this date : within  9 days of arriving, they were granted tickets of leave en masse. While still under sentence and required to attend church and musters, convicts with tickets of leave were able to find their own work, live where they chose (subject to notifying local police), and own property. Later, as a reward for continued good behaviour over time, many convicts received conditional or absolute pardons – but alas this was not Samuel’s fate!  He seems to have gone north, spending time in Westbury, Launceston, Carrick, and Ross. His record is clean until 1852, but after this he got into trouble half a dozen times for being drunk and disorderly, which resulted in hard labour and fines. His last offence was in 1856, in Westbury, where he was drunk (again), and he was fined a whopping £ 1. The following year saw the end of his 10 year sentence.

At this point he disappears from sight for almost 20 years, but he probably lived in Westbury and eked out a living as a labourer.  From 1875, we are able to trace him again : on 9 Feb he married 18 year old Sarah Brown at Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, Westbury, at which time he grossly understated his age as 38 when we know he was really 52 years old!

Sarah was born in Campbell Town on 18 Dec 1856 and was the daughter of Thomas Brown and Ellen Jane Heritage (or Eritage?), and the Catholicism she brought into the Fitch family has continued through several generations. It has not yet proved possible to learm much more of Sarah's origins : given the nature of the population in Campbell Town, her father may have been a convict and her mother may have been an  'Irish charity girl' brought out for domestic service. Thomas's death has not been identified but it seems probable that Ellen died on 30 Oct 1893, in Launceston. Sarah had 2 sisters : Ellen (1855-1931) and Emily (1859-?). Ellen was married 3 times (the first apparently at the age of 15 years and 4 months) and bore 13 children, ensuring a plentiful supply of cousins for her sisters' children. Emily married Charles Day in 1883 and moved to Launceston.

Sarah went to live in Westbury and had 7 children over the period 1877-1890 : James, Peter Paul, Mary Jane, Henry Patrick, Elsie May, George, and Ada Mary. In 1884, tragedy struck : it was Saturday morning, 26 April, and at about 10 am Sarah briefly went out to get some wood. Samuel was not home and the children were in the house by themselves. When Sarah returned,  she found 2 ½ year old Mary Jane lying near the well, very badly burnt. The doctor was sent for but little could be done, and the poor girl clung to life until 4 am that night. An inquest was held on Monday, and it emerged that Mary Jane had strayed too close to the fire and her clothes caught alight.  Sarah was in fact 12 weeks pregnant at this time with her next child, Elsie May, who was born in December. Two years later, however, they lost another child, newly-born George, who died of “convulsions” when 6 days old.

Further details of Samuel and Sarah’s life are sketchy. There is a reference to Samuel as a labourer living in Westbury in the 1890/91 post office directory. He is also listed in some assessment rolls published in the Tasmanian Government Gazette for municipal tax purposes : in 1899-1901, he was leasing a cottage with land near the Main Rd in Westbury (less than 1 acre) from Denis Shanahan, and the rolls for 1902-03 record a lease on a similar cottage in King St, Westbury, leased from Miss Kate O’Brien.  Electoral rolls for the new Federation of Australia then confirm the presence of Samuel and Sarah in Westbury until 1905. In 1906-08, however, they must have moved up to Devonport. Son James may have been there already (at least in 1900 when his daughter was born there), but certainly Henry and Ada moved to Devonport with their parents. Here it was that old Samuel had the pleasure of seeing his youngest child get married in 1908 to John Floyd, whose family had come from Burnie in 1898 and was descended from convict William Floyd. Two years later, Samuel finally died, aged 88. His convict origins might have been kept quiet at this time, but what a story he could have told! Born during the reign of George IV, incarcerated in the infamous hulks, and sent to Tasmania in the last years of transportation, one wonders how many of his fellow convicts were still alive by the 20th century. Samuel was possibly buried at the Devonport General  Cemetery (where his wife was interred years later).

The widowed Sarah Jane continued to live in Devonport. The assessment rolls list her at a dwelling  in William St in Nov 1908, and in Madden St in 1911-12. Over the years, Sarah often lived with her daughter Ada, but by 1916 she had leased a house in Nicholls St, which was her home for the remaining 19 years of her life. Her younger sister Ellen, after being widowed 3 times, moved from Campbell Town to Devonport before World War I. Their other sister Emily possibly moved from Launceston to Adelaide. Ellen died at the Devon Hospital, Latrobe, on 22 Feb 1931, and was interred at Latrobe Cemetery on 24 Feb. Four years later, on 23 April 1935, Sarah died at her Nicholls St home. On 25 April, she was buried at Devonport General Cemetery. (No monument is erected on her grave.)

Children of Samuel & Sarah Fitch

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