Thomas Arment the younger's petitions
Criminals may not have been able to speak in their own defence in court in 1849 but they didn't resign themselves to their fate quietly. They wrote petitions. Lots of petitions, filled with details giving clues to their lives and crimes. Young Thomas Arment seems to have been desperate for clemency; he wrote four petitions.
The first of his petitions was received June 8, 1849. In that petition,Thomas asked for a change in his sentence as his young wife and "aged mother" had no means of support because his father was in the "same situation as himself". He implied that if he were to be transported his wife and mother would be destitute. Although he admitted the crime, he begged not to be transported as it was the first time he had been incarcerated and he had only played a minor part in the crime. On top of that, he said he had received very little for his part unlike Chester and Abraham Greaves Fane, who was involved although set free. Thomas also said that a friend would support his wife and mother until he had served his sentence.
Before I read this petition, I had no idea that the younger Thomas Arment was married. Looks like I have more to follow up on there. I wonder who the helpful friend was?
By his second petition, young Thomas changed his tune. The rest of his petitions echoed this. He now said that he was not aware that the goods he was selling on behalf of his father were stolen. He had only taken the blame as his father asked him to take it on himself because the elder Thomas had been under the mistaken impression he might be released.
Ah ha, another clue; young Thomas was now willing to blame his father for his part in the crime. What had changed? Maybe the elder Thomas had died.
It was time to look for a death certificate for the elder Thomas. What I found made me sad and mad. The death certificate I found was for Thomas Armant who had died in the county of Southampton. What was this London man doing there? He died on 19 October, 1849 while on the convict ship Defence which was in Portsmouth Harbour. At that time, it was common for decommissioned ships, or hulks, as they were called, to be used to house prisoners. Unseaworthy ships could not have made the most humane of environments. Sure enough, the 68 year old Thomas died of bronchitis which he suffered for 13 days.
So, of the three men convicted in the case of Druce and Co.'s missing damask, two died and only one remained. Not very good odds especially considering that so many crimes were no longer capitol offences. But perhaps that was only to be expected in the prisons of the time, although I have my suspicions about Henry Samuel Chester's death. As for the death of the elder Arment, what happened to him seems to have been a case of wishful neglect. Why else would young Thomas have been sent from one land-based prison to another while the elder Thomas was placed directly on an old hulk in the harbour after the trial? The result was one less prisoner to transport and a healthier and younger human cargo for the convict colony in Australia.
An example of a convict ship, the Discovery
To be continued
Sources:
19 October, 1849 2.15 am “Defence” Convict Ship Portsmouth Harbour for Thomas Armant
The National Archives (UK), reference HO 8/212 petitions of Thomas Arment 1849 – 1851
Images:
Photo of petitions of Thomas Arment
The forbidding form of the beached convict ship, Discovery, at Deptford. Launched as a 10 gun sloop at Rotherhithe, in 1789, the ship served as a convict hulk from 18-18-34. Date 19th century By Unknown -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Discovery_at_Deptford.jpg
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10050203
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