A Desperate Gang of Thieves
Heroes and Rebels in the Family Tree--A Desperate Gang of Thieves
In November 1835, the American writer and humorist, Mark Twain was born in Hannibal, Missouri. In February 1836, Halley's comet predictably returned to the night skies. By March 1836, Charles Dickens had just begun publishing his new work as a monthly serial, titled "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club". But the turn of the century didn't bring prosperity and hope to the world. Instead, it was a time of poverty, workhouses, poor sanitary conditions and a lack of good paying jobs. Crimes of burglary, theft and robbery were rampant. But England had a solution which would stave off the ordinary criminal. Instead of death by hanging for many felony crimes, the courts were allowed to sentence criminals to transportation for life to the newly established penal colony in Australia. New South Wales, a state in southeast Australia, was founded by the British as a penal colony in 1788. Over the next 80 years, more than 160,000 convicts were transported to Australia from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, in lieu of being given the death penalty. Once the prisoners arrived in Australia, many were pardoned after only a few years of imprisonment or hard labor under the condition that they never return to England.
Thomas Forster (1838-1888) was the son of Isaac Forster (1801-1890) who was the son of William Forster (1778-1854) who was the son of Samuel Forster (1740-1782) who was the son of Thomas Foster (1710- ).
Thomas Foster (1710- ) married Mary Press (1695- ) and they raised 7 children. One was Samuel Forster, from whose family line Thomas Forster was descended. Samuel Forster [only Samuel took on the name Forster while his siblings all kept the name from their father -- Foster] had a sister Elizabeth Foster who married a man named Ezra Cotton. Elizabeth and Ezra raised 6 children and the eldest son was named John Cotton. John Cotton (1766-1832) married Sarah Brown (1763-1834).
John Cotton and Sarah Brown had 8 children: Sarah (b. 1790), Elizabeth (b, 1792), Lydia (b. 1794), Catherine (b. 1796), John (b. 1798), James (b. 1801), Ezra (b. 1804) and William (b. 1809). Their father died in 1832 and their mother died two years later in 1834. The last three children grew up in such poverty, that they resorted to stealing to survive. By the time James, Ezra and William were caught stealing for the last time, they were all tried and found Guilty of their crimes. William was sentenced to 14 years transportation to the prison colony in New South Wales for a separate crime of theft and was not charged again with the theft he participated in with his brothers. The older brothers were given sentences of death by hanging, but both sentences were commuted to transportation to the penal colony in New South Wales.
James Cotton was a labourer out of Reydon, Suffolk, England and was married at the time of his conviction to Sarah Buckle. On the night of February 22, 1836, James, together with his wife Sarah and brothers Ezra Cotton and William Cotton, broke into the dwelling house of Mrs. Strickland and stole a number of items of silver-plate. James, Sarah and Ezra were later tried for their crimes and sentenced. Sarah Buckle was acquitted under a legal theory that the spouse was under the influence of her husband's orders and not liable on her own accord.
The jailer's report described James as, 'character very bad', but he was able to petition his death sentence and was granted clemency. The argument for clemency was that the crime was committed solely by his brother; he and his wife were completely ignorant of the offence until their apprehension and his brother testified to this on his examination and at trial; never before charged with any offence; previous good character. Both James and Ezra were sentenced to transportation for life and they were sent to the Leviathan convict hulk at Portsmouth, Hampshire, England to await transport to New South Wales. Prior to transport, Ezra died in Portsmouth on January 24, 1837.
William Cotton was the youngest of the three brothers. He wasn't married at the time of his arrest. He was held for trial at the Beccles Sessions for theft from Mr John Gayford, unrelated to the crime of burglary committed with his brothers. For this crime, he was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years transportation. The harsh sentence may have been due to a previous conviction for a felony of larceny for which he was jailed for 2 months in 1832.
The story of their crimes is told quite well in The Ipswich Journal and is reported below as it originally appeared in the newspaper at the time of their trials.
The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, Suffolk, England)
12 March 1836 -- Page 2
BECCLES SESSIONS.—At
the adjourned quarter sessions, held at Beccles, on Monday last, Sir T. S.
Gooch, Bart. In the chair, the following prisoners were convicted:
viz.----William Cotton, 25, convicted of stealing from a vessel in Southwold harbour,
a telescope, the property of John Gayford; he having been before convicted of a
felony, sentenced to 14 years transportation.
He is supposed to be one of a desperate gang of thieves who broke into
Mrs. Strickland’s house, in Reydon, a short time since, where they stole a
quantity of plate, and after drinking several bottles of wine, left two large
case knives on the table, and decamped with the property; others of this gang
are committed for trial at the ensuing Assizes.
The Ipswich Journal (Ipswich, Suffolk, England)
26 March 1836 -- Page 2
James
Cotton (34), Sarah Cotton (34), Ezra Cotton (31).
The first and third prisoners are brothers, and the second is wife of
James Cotton. They were indicted for
breaking and entering into the dwelling-house of Mrs. Elizabeth Strickland, of
Reydon Hall, in the night time, and with having stolen therefrom a quantity of
silver articles, and other property. The
two male prisoners being arraigned pleaded Not Guilty to the charge: the woman pleaded Guilty, and was advised by
his lordship to retract her plea, and to take her chance of her trial. The prisoner retracted her plea. ----The girl
in the service of Mrs. Strickland was then called; she deposed that she lived
with the family, and that there was one other servant beside herself, a man-servant;
the other inmates were Mrs. Strickland and her family. On the night in question, she deposed that
she had left the doors and windows fast on going to bed; when she came down
about 1/2 -past 6 in the morning. She found the house had been broken into and
robbed; she called her fellow-servant and informed the family. -----Mis
Elizabeth Strickland called: deposed
that she went into the parlour, having first obtained the key from her mother,
the upper part of the shutter was shattered, and the sash slipped down; there
were matches and tinder on the store-room table. -----Jonathan Mills heard of
the robbery about ½-past 7 o’clock; he saw E Cotton and Wm. Cotton coming in
the direction from Mrs. Strickland’s house to Henham gravel pit; each of the
party had a bundle; it seemed to him that the contents of the bundle were some
hard substance, for different parts protruded; he presumed it might be iron; he
addressed the prisoners by name; he had before known them.-----Mr. Wm. M.
Simpson deposed that he is a silversmith, living at Yarmouth and on the evening
after the robbery, Ezra Cotton was at his shop, about a quarter before 6; he
brought a lot of silver plate in a cotton handkerchief. Prisoner asked him if he bought silver;
witness replied “Yes.” Prisoner said his
name was William Brame, and that he came from North Walsham, which is in
quite an opposite direction. Witness
said he would send for a person who was a better judge of these things than he
was, and sent for a constable. When the
constable arrived, witness gave the prisoner, and the silver he had brought
which was lying on the counter, into the constable’s custody. Witness had previously weighed the silver:
there was 29oz. 5dwts. -----Robert Carter apprehended the prisoner, Ezra
Cotton, and took the silver; he searched the prisoner and found about him a
pistol, which was loaded with moist sugar, and there was some moist sugar in
his pocket. Witness asked the prisoner
his name, he said Wm. Drane; next morning he again asked him his name,
when he replied, “his name was Revett, some persons called him Trevett.” [The
silver in a handkerchief was then produced.]-----Thoms Freeman is steward to
the Earl of Stradbroke, and between 11 and 12 went to Mrs. Strickland’s where
he saw tracks of the feet of 3 persons; the gravel path was too hard to receive
the impression, but under the window there was a flower bed, on which there
were footmarks; witness did not compare the marks on the place, but took the
exact length and breadth of them: the
first was 11-1/4 in. long, the second 10 in. long, and the third 11 in.; on comparing these sizes with the shoes worn
by the respective prisoners, they were found exactly to correspond.-----William
Chapman, constable, deposed, that he went with Freeman to Cotton’s hut, where
he found an old bunch of keys, also 6 pieces of soap, a small quantity of moist
sugar in a pot, and a Dutch cheese at the top of the house; he found also a
good many hoes and a centre-bit, he has not brought them; received from Bugg
and Winyard, two boys, certain silver articles which were here
produced.------Thomas Bugg and ---Wynard, two little boys who had searched
after the goods, deposed that they had pulled out of a rabbit’s burrow near to
Cotton’s house, about 200 yards, a bag which on examination was found to
contain a silver cream pot, and a variety of other valuable silver
articles. The latter boy on a subsequent
day found some other things in a hole about 20 or 21 yards from Cotton’s house: among them a pair of pincers and 5 pick-lock
keys. The keys produced by Chapman, are
the same keys he took from Ezra Cotton’s house.-----Ursula Watling, Mrs. Strickland’s
servant, was re-called, and identified the teapot, sugar-pot, and other
articles produced, as the property of her mistress; she would particularly swear
to the cream tub and sugar tongs which had been left in the sitting-room; in the
store-room there were three bunches of old keys hanging on a nail, so late as
the preceding night before the robbery; now there were but two bunches; witness
saw Miss Strickland take away a bunch of those keys; I cannot say whether the
keys produced are those keys, but they are very like them.-----Mis Elizabeth
Strickland deposed that the keys were her mother’s; that she had some time
previously taken the bunch of keys from the store-room, in order to see if
there was one among them which would unlock her desk and work-box, the key of which
had been mislaid. Witness could swear
that the bunch produced in Court, was the bunch she tied with her own hand, and
she identified particularly one little key.
She was quite sure that the silver property and the keys were her mother’s-----Mr.
Justice Parke then summed up the evidence, and the Jury returned against James
Cotton and Ezra Cotton, Guilty. Sentence
of Death was recorded against both. Sarah Cotton, the wife, was acquitted,
being with her husband during the robbery, and supposed by law to be acting
under his authority, and not responsible for anything which she did in her
husband’s presence, and with his presumed consent.
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