AYLOT, Hertford Assize, 1842

September, 2003

Merv Hunt (herbie @t q-net.net.au) of Glen Forest, Perth, Australia asks: Would you advise on how I can obtain a record of William Aylot. I have some of his records as a convict in Tasmania and the ship of arrival. What I am after is his case in court at the time.  The information I have records that William Aylot, No 5688, was convicted 1-3-1842 Hertford Assize of Highway Robbery in company. He was sentenced to 14 years PS He later married a daughter of a Waterloo Veteran and Pensioner Guard  in Hobart in 1849. He changed his name to Elliott and died in 1870 in Hobart. 

The book Transported beyond the Sea records that William Aylott was convicted of robbing from William Edwards a watch worth 10 shillings, a sovereign, a half sovereign, 3 shillings and a sixpence. Mr Edwards was a vet of Puckeridge, and the robbery happened at Bulls Mill Lane, Hertford. William Aylott was 20 years old at the time. He was transported to Van Diemen's Land in the Susan, with 8 other prisoners from Hertfordshire, under Captain Henry Neatby. They sailed on 24th April 1842 and arrived on 25th July. The detailed court records (if they survive) should be at HALS, and you will need to contact them for details.

Robbery was a high profile crime - and there is a reasonable chance that the case was mentioned in the weekly local paper, the Hertfordshire Mercury (available on microfilm at HALS). If it was a particularly notorious case it might have been mentioned in The Times. It is possible that there are microfilms of The Times in Perth, together with the Palmer Index (not very good by today's standards) on CD or in printed form.

The problem is that the key records are not likely to be available in Perth and you will either have to pay HALS to do the research, to come to England to do it yourself, or get someone else who is interested to help.

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