Was Richard
Woolford motivated by criminal intent or poverty when he picked up his gun and
headed off for Lord Bolingbroke’s land one winter’s night in 1834?
Records show that
Richard was charged with ‘having in the night together with a great number of
other persons armed with guns, and other unlawful weapons entered a certain
coppice belonging to the right honourable Lord Viscount Bolingbroke for the
purpose of destroying game at Lydiard Tregoze.’
At the time of Richard’s arrest, Robert Hiscocks was the
gamekeeper at the Lydiard Park estate, a position subsequently filled by his
son Harry who worked alongside him in the second half of the 19th century. Sporting rights across the estate were protected in the farm
leases and the duties of the Lydiard Park gamekeeper included the rearing of
his lordships pheasants. Victorian
gamekeepers were known to shoot at anything that threatened the birds under
their protection.
Richard, a 21 year
old labourer and stonemason, was married with two young sons and on that
December night in 1834 his purpose was more likely to provide his young family
with a meal.
But perhaps things
turned nasty in the coppice on his lordships estate. According to the Night Poaching Act of
1828 ‘such Offender shall assault or
offer any Violence with any Gun, Crossbow, Fire Arms, Bludgeon, Stick, Club, or
any other offensive Weapon whatsoever, towards an person hereby authorized to
seize and apprehend him, he shall, whether it be his First, Second, or any
other Offence, be guilt of a Misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof, shall be
liable, at the Discretion of the Court, to be transported beyond Seas for Seven
Years, or to be imprisoned and kept to hard Labour in the Common Gaol or House
of Correction for any Term not exceeding Two Years.’ Despite having no previous
convictions Richard was transported to Australia. Three hundred men were transported for poaching offences between 1788 and 1868.
Richard sailed out
of Portsmouth on July 29, 1835 on board the Royal Sovereign along with 169
other convicts bound for Sydney. He was
described as being 5ft 9½ins tall with a dark sallow complexion, dark brown
hair and hazel eyes. Identifying marks
included scarring above his left eye and left eyebrow and that the nail of the
third finger on his left hand was split.
In February 1840
Richard was given a ticket of leave, a document granting him parole on the
condition that he remained in the employment of John Terry Hughes of
Sydney. However a year later he was
found stealing lead and his ticket was cancelled.
This did not
appear to prevent him from starting up in business and trade directories of
1839-40 list him as a tombmaker.
Richard was
eventually freed on November 28, 1842 and continued to work as a sculptor and
mason. In 1855 he was sufficiently
prosperous to be able to pay for the passage of his sister Mary and her family
to join him in Sydney.
On December 3,
1867 the Sydney Morning Herald printed the announcement of Richard’s
death. ‘On the 2nd instant,
at his residence, Monumental Works, 81 Church hill, Mr Richard Woolford, in the
54th year of his age. Much
respected by a large circle of friends.’
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| Gamekeeper Henry Hiscocks |
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