From Convict to Pioneer

Charles Oates

The Story Of Charles Oates (1823 – 1916)

This is the remarkable story of a man from the parish of Arksey, who was transported to Australia for sheep stealing, but ended up becoming a pioneer in the Tasmania timber and apple growing industries.

Contents

• Early Life in Bentley-with-Arksey
• Work and Marriage
• Charles Oates - Convict
• Transportation to Tasmania
• A Second Marriage
• Move to the Huon Valley
• Life as a Free Man
• The Road to Prosperity
• Twilight Years
• No Ordinary Life

Early Life in Bentley-with-Arksey

Charles was baptised at Arksey All Saints Church on March 2^nd 1823. The son of John and Harriet Watts, the family were living in Almholme at the time. An agricultural labourer originally from Adwick-le-Street, John Watts was a widower when he married Brodsworth born Harriet Otley on the 24^th of January 1809, his first wife Ann having died in childbirth in 1806.

It is interesting to note that John is recorded as ‘John Watts’ in the Arksey parish records, but in the Brodsworth records he is noted as ‘John Oates of Arksea’. ‘Oates’ seems to have been a corruption of the name ‘Watts’ probably brought about by the Yorkshire pronunciation of ‘Watts’ being misheard as ‘Owtts’. Up to the 1840’s both surnames were used, but while Charles and some of his siblings adopted for the ‘Oates’ name, others in the family kept the ‘Watts’ name throughout their lives.

Following the wedding of John and Harriet in Brodsworth, they moved further east to the parish of Arksey; the reason for this move could have been because Harriet’s twin brother Thomas Otley was living in Arksey and working as a master cordwainer. Making the parish their home, their movements can be traced through the baptism records of their ten children. They seem to have flitted between Bentley and Almholme over the course of about twenty years. Their children and birth places are listed below:

1. Mary Watts 1810 – 1812 (Bentley)

2. Eliza Watts 1813 – 1844 (Bentley)

3. Hannah Watts 1815 – 1865 (Bentley)

4. John Watts 1817 – 1898 (Almholme)

5. Caroline Otley Watts 1819 – 1845 (Almholme)

6. Harriet Watts 1821 – 1849 (Almholme)

7. Charles Oates 1823 – 1916 (Almholme)

8. Mary Ann Watts 1825 – 1859 (Bentley)

9. George Oates 1827 – 1895 (Almholme)

10. Sarah Maria Oates – 1831 to 1856 (Bentley)

All the children survived to adulthood, except the first born, Mary, who died in infancy.

Charles’ brother John wrote the following piece of family history in a family register in 1867.

‘I, John Watts the owner of this book was born at Almholme 3 miles from Doncaster in the year March 20 1817 baptised April 20. I came to Sheffield in the early part of 1836 and became carter to Mr Benjamin Gregory builder for 3 years. Then I became a file striker and continued for 15 years then I became a file forger in the year 1853 and I am a file forger at the present August 25 1867 being 50 years of age last March. Previous to coming to Sheffield my occupation was that of a farmer and a line dresser. 

My father lived in Almholme and was a small farmer there on his own account. He also carried on the line business and at times had a few men employed. We left Almholme about the year 1825 and went to live at Bentley a mile from Doncaster. 

My father and mothers names were John and Harriet Watts. Father was born at Adwick Le Street about 3 miles from Doncaster. 

His father broke a blood vessel and died in the barn about the year 1783. Mother born at Brodsworth about 4½ miles from Doncaster. Maiden name was Harriet Otley.  Her ancestors were natives of Bolton a few miles from Brodsworth. They had 10 children 3 sons and 7 daughters - Mary, Eliza, Hannah, John, Caroline, Charles, Mary Ann, George, Harriet, Sarah Mariah. 

The grandfather of all the above that died in a barn was Mark Watts. His wife was left a widow with John Watts her child and became chargeable to the parish. After a little while the parish took her child from her as was the custom in those days and when about 10 years old he was put parish apprentice to a farmer.’ Signed John Watts file forger No 3 Corn Hill Sheffield.

The 1841 census does not specify which part of the parish the Watts family were residing in, but by that time only three of their children were still living at home – Mary Ann, Sarah and George. John died in June 1842 and was buried in All Saints Arksey churchyard.

In 1851 Widow Harriet Watts was head of the household in Bentley where she lived with her daughter Sarah, her husband John Jackson and child Jane Jackson. Also living there were Harriet’s daughter Mary Ann Pogmore and her child Harriet Pogmore.

Harriet ended her days at the Union Workhouse in Doncaster in February 1862. All her daughters except Hannah had predeceased her and Harriet was buried in Arksey churchyard later that month.

Work and Marriage

Charles would have attended the Endowed School in Arksey when the family lived in Almholme and maybe even when in Bentley, although there was a National School in Bentley at that time.

He left school at the age of fifteen and followed his father into farming, working as a farm labourer, shepherd and butcher.

The 1841 census shows Charles living in Marsh Gate, Doncaster and working as a servant, probably for a butcher in view of evidence given at his trial a couple of years later.

Charles married Elizabeth Vasion (or Vason) on the 18^th of August 1842 at St George’s Church, Doncaster. Born in 1816, Elizabeth was the daughter of William Vasion, a shoemaker of Cartwright Street in the town.

Less than two weeks after the wedding Charles was arrested and so effectively the marriage ended.

Charles Oates – Convict

On the first of September 1842 Charles Oates was arrested for stealing seven sheep belonging to William Firth of Hooton Roberts, a village out to the west of Conisbrough.

Section of the trial report of 10th March 1843, Nottingham and Lincoln Gazette

The trial took place at Bradford Assizes on the 4th of March 1843. A newspaper report from the Doncaster, Nottingham and Lincoln Gazette of the 10th of March gives a full report of the trial. Using the evidence given, this is what was alleged to have happened on the night of the 1st of September 1843.

At about 9pm that night, William Bolton, a labourer of Denby (probably Denaby) was returning from Hill Top near Conisbrough. He passed over Haystack Close at Hooton Roberts and found five sheep laid down with their legs tied together. He turned back to go to Mr Firth’s along Crooked Lane where he met a man with a horse and cart (Charles Oates) who asked if it was the road to Doncaster. Bolton said it wasn’t, so they walked along together until they came to the high road from Rotherham to Doncaster. Oates took the road in the direction of Doncaster, while Mr Bolton returned to Mr Firth’s.

William Bolton, William Firth and three others, William Waterhouse, Joseph Firth and Charles Fletcher went to the field where Mr Bolton had seen the sheep. When they arrived, they saw the sheep, still with legs tied, and heard the rattle of a cart in the same field. Charles Oates was riding the horse as he approached with the cart and Mr Waterhouse struck out at him with a stick. Oates fell from the horse and tried to run away but the men went after him and caught him. William Bolton asked Oates if he was the man he had met in the lane earlier, and he answered in the affirmative.

William Waterhouse explained at the trial how the sheep had been tied – with two forefeet and one hind foot tied together and the left hind leg loose at the top – ‘just as a butcher would tie them,’ he explained.

Charles Fletcher, a servant of William Firth’s, returned to the Haystack Close next morning and found two more sheep with their legs tied about 40 or 50 yards away from the others.

Charles Oates was given over to Constable Hill of Conisbrough who asked him what he had to say about the charge. Charles did not answer, and when asked about the sheep’s legs being tied, he denied doing it. He said he had been to meet his brother at Mexborough station and had lost his way back to Doncaster. Constable Hill handcuffed him and Oates ‘fretted and talked about cutting his throat’. Constable Hill searched Oates and found a knife smeared with tar band, and in a pocket, some ruddle and tar band*.

Charles Oates was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years transportation to Van Diemen’s Land (modern day Tasmania), where he would serve his time in a penal colony. Charles would never see England, his family or his wife again. Just what became of Elizabeth after Charles was taken away is not yet known.

*Ruddle - a red dye for marking sheep. Tar band, probably a tar product they used to use as a kind of antiseptic on sheep.

Transportation to Tasmania

Charles Oates was taken to Plymouth where he was put aboard the convict vessel ‘HMS Anson’. The ship, built in 1812 at Paull, near Hull, was originally a 74 gun frigate, but was converted to a convict ship in 1843. She set sail on the 1^st of October 1843 with 499 convicts on board – the largest number of convicts ever to leave England on one ship.

HMS Anson

HMS Anson arrived in Hobart on the 4^th of February 1844, just over four months after departure. The ship Anson was then fitted out as a probation station for women convicts, and towed to moorings on the Derwent River at New Town (just north of Hobart) where she remained until 1851, when she was dismantled.

Charles Oates spent the first eighteen months of his sentence stationed at Jericho where he was a sawyer with a work gang working on the Jericho Road. In August 1845 Charles was granted the first stage of his probation and was assigned to Thomas Jackson at Brown’s River (now Kingston, a suburb of Hobart). He worked as a sawyer and farm labourer.

Yorkshire man Thomas Jackson had also arrived in Tasmania as a convict in 1824, his crime – receiving four pieces of stolen linen, for which he was transported for fourteen years. His wife Sarah had applied to follow Thomas, and she arrived in Hobart, with her son John, in 1828. Thomas and Sarah subsequently had two daughters – Sarah Heley in 1833, and Anne Eliza in 1834.

A Second Marriage

Charles married Thomas Jackson’s youngest daughter, fifteen year old Anne Eliza on the 13^th of December 1849 at Brown’s River church. He was twenty six.

The marriage to Anne Eliza was not bigamous even though Charles had a wife back in England. At that time British law provided that a marriage was excluded from bigamy where either party had been abroad for a continuous period of seven years or more. Charles had to apply for permission to marry as he was still a convict, and this was subsequently granted.

Ann Eliza

Move to the Huon Valley

By 1851 Charles had passed through the first part of his probation and received his Ticket of Leave (a parole document) in January of that year. He could now live and work on his own property as long as the conditions of his Ticket were met. He remained in Brown’s River where he had a wooden dwelling and two farm labourers.

Charles and Eliza’s first son, Thomas was born in July 1851. He was the first of twelve children, seven boys and five girls born between 1851 and 1879. All survived into adulthood and went on to have children of their own:

Charles and Eliza’s children:

1. Thomas Oates 1851 – 1890

2. Charles Oates 1853 – 1924

3. William John Oates 1856 – 1922

4. George Oates 1858 – 1914

5. Sarah Ann Oates 1861 – 1943

6. Rose Emma Oates 1863 – 1919

7. Albert Oates 1866 – 1949

8. Henry Oates 1868 – 1948

9. Ernest Oates 1871 – 1942

10. Harriett Eliza Oates 1873 – 1922

11. Amy Charlotte (Emma) Oates 1876 – 1955

12. Elsie Marion Oates 1879 – 1948

It was around 1852 that Charles was allowed to take free land in the Huon Valley, virgin land populated by huge trees. Charles built his own sawmill and established a farm called ‘Valleyfield’. He planted orchards, kept a dairy herd and ran both the sawmill and the farm.

     

Life as a Free Man

In 1853 Charles received his Conditional Pardon; he was now free from his sentence on condition he did not return to England. 1853 was also the year that saw the cessation of transportation to Van Diemen’s Land. The name was changed to Tasmania in 1855 when it also became a self-governing colony of the British Empire.

In the late 1850’s Charles built a large stone house on his property for his family at Valleyfield. Georgian in style and built with the assistance of convict labour; the house consisted of nine rooms with adjoining buildings, and became known as ‘The Stone House’. Still standing today, the house was fully restored in the late 1980’s and remains a private residence.

Stone House

The Road to Prosperity

Charles continued to prosper and acquired substantial landholdings in The Grove and Mountain River area of the Huon Valley. He managed to acquire some 1000 acres by purchasing blocks of land granted to immigrants who had no intention of farming it for themselves. He built a modern steam sawmill and for many years became South Tasmania’s principal sawn timber supplier.

Throughout the 1870’s and 1880’s Charles’s mill supplied timber for making telegraph poles, jetties, and culverts etc. Charles took advantage of an expanding market and by the end of his life he had managed to clear around 2000 acres, providing the orchard growers with open land to set up their operations. Such was the vastness of Charles’s timber cutting that the pile of sawdust left behind extended over two acres.

Charles (3rd from left) with sons, grandsons and employees, tree felling

Charles built several miles of tramway to help transport the timber to the Huon River, where he had a ketch, the ‘Sarah Ann’ to carry it to Hobart. The Sarah Ann was lost with all hands at sea in April 1893.

Apart from sawmilling and farming, Charles took on road contracts and was a member of the Huonville and Victoria Road Trust for over 36 years.

Charles’s eldest son Thomas was accidentally killed in 1890 at the age of 39, when his cart hit a log in the road and turned over causing Thomas to break his neck.

The following year Charles became a Justice of the Peace, and three years later, with most of their family grown up and married, Charles and Ann left The Stone House at Valleyfield for a smaller property, Olive Cottage in Huonville. Their son Henry moved into the Stone House with his wife and family. Henry was to become one of the pioneer fruit growers in the Huon Valley.

In 1897 the Sawmill was destroyed in a bushfire, along with a cottage, a blacksmith’s shop, a large cow shed, a stable, and around 100 fully laden apple trees as well as a mile and a half of tramway and fencing.

Twilight Years

Ann Eliza passed away on the 27^th of July 1906, at the age of 72. Just seven years earlier Charles and Eliza had celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary, a rare achievement at that time.

Newspaper notice

Following Ann’s death Charles stayed on at Olive Cottage and in 1912 he was guest of honour at the opening of a new iron bridge. The bridge, replacing an earlier wooden one spans the Mountain River. As Charles was the oldest resident in the Huon, he was chosen to cut the ribbon and was then the first person to be driven over the bridge. The bridge is still there today and is named ‘Oates Bridge’.

The opening of Oates Bridge, Charles sits on the right in the car, 1912

At the age of 91 Charles was almost injured in a buggy accident when he encouraged his son-in-law William Smith to race an approaching car. The car won but the buggy lost a rear wheel and slid before being brought to a halt. Luckily no-one was injured.

Charles Oates died on the 9^th of February 1916, of pneumonia at almost 94 years of age leaving a legacy of thousands of acres of land in the vicinity of the Grove, through Mountain River and up to the grazing lands around the Sleeping Beauty mountain range. There were also a number of properties, some occupied by his sons, and an orchard.

Death notice

No Ordinary Life

Charles Oates led an extraordinary life and one wonders what his life might have been like had he not been caught stealing sheep in a Yorkshire field that night in 1842. That one act changed the course of his life forever and probably for the better. Faced with making life in a new country without the option for returning to his own, Charles’ sheer hard work and determination coupled with the ability to seize opportunities as they came along meant that he was able to build a life and legacy that his family and the wider community could benefit from.

From petty thief to pioneer, Charles Oates was certainly a convict who succeeded.

Painting of Charles Oates, 1887

__________

Photos From the Oates' Family Archive

George Oates (1827 - 1895), brother of Charles

Coloured photo of Charles Oates c1890

Coloured photo of Ann Eliza (Charles' wife) c1890

Oates Bridge today

Sleeping Beauty from the Huon Road

The Sleeping Beauty mountain ranges, Huon Valley

Oates Bros Sawmill 1907

Oates family wedding 1909

__________

Many thanks to Michael Oates for providing a biography and photos of Charles Oates and his family.


Alison Vainlo

First written 2016, updated 2020