Edward (convict) Miles

  General Notes:

edward to dylan 1.ged where it is noted:
EDWARD MILES AND SUSANNAH SMITH.

Edward is thought to have been, born around 1761 at Launceston in Cornwell England. All early records show his name as Moyle and this is the listing until his arrival in Sydney Subsequent records are in the name of Miles.

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In 1785, he was tried at Launceston for the theft of two cloth waistcoats and other goods from a dwelling house and sentenced to seven years transportation. For two years he languished in the hulks in London before leaving England on the "Scarborough", a vessel of the First Fleet, on 13th May 1787. He was accused in 1790 of stealing vegetables from the garden of Captain Johnson, but discharged for lack of evidence.

On 1st May 1797 Edward was granted thirty acres of land by Governor Hunter at Prospect Hill, this was followed by seventy acres in the same Parish in 1809. By 1814 he was a landholder at Macquarie Field, Minto, and in that year's muster had a convict servant, Alexander McDonald, working for him. He was apparently not a very successful farmer, and in the 1828 Census he was separated from his family, listed under the name Myers, and living with a Mrs. Ryan at Illawarra while working as a carpenter.

Edward married Susannah Smith at St. Johns Parramatta on 31st October 1803. Susannah Smith, then aged seventeen years appeared before Mr. Recorder at the Old Bailey in the Third Session 1802, and was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 22d of January, a sheet, value 7s. And a blanket, value 4s. The property of Thomas Brereton. A witness, Elizabeth Young made the following statement: -

I lodge in Mr. Brereton's house: On Friday, 22d of January, I met the prisoner about half past five in the afternoon, in Shoe-lane, I was going home: she had been in fits, and asked me to be so kind as to give her a drop of water; I took her to the door she was so faint, she could not stand, and followed me up the stairs, and said, nothing would bring her too, unless it was A raw pickled herring, or cucumber; I told her I was a stranger, and did not know where to find them and I gave her some porter that stood on the table; then she said nothing would do but cold water; I told her I had none in the house, I would go down in the kitchen and get her some; when I got down stairs, I perceived her running out at the street door; I had some mistrust, and I ran out after her, and stopped her, then she d---d me, called me a b---h, and said, if I did not leave her alone, she would murder me; then I called out for assistance, and Catharina Rowley came up, and took the sheet and blanket from her.

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For this little escapade, which has some indications of being the result of sheer desperation, Susannah received a seven-year sentence, and arrived in Port Jackson on the "HMS Glatton" in 1803. Very shortly after, she married Edward Miles and up until around 1825 they are though to have worked their land at Prospect Hill and later at Cowpasture. She was recorded in the 1828 Census as working as a servant to Robert Aull at Evan (now Penrith). Edward and Susannah produced three children: Susannah born 1804: Martha 1807 and Elizabeth (who married William Alderson) in 1810.

Edward and Susannah were finally and permanently re-united in the burial ground of St. Matthews Windsor. Edward died on 19th August 1838. Susannah died shortly after on 4th December 1838 and is buried together with her husband and grandson Edward Alderson. The inscription on their headstone reads:
-Their lives being ended their trials are o 're
The thorns of temptation can hurt them no more
Their path has been rough but the day of release
Has dawned on their sorrows and left them in peace
Their journey is over the desert gone through
They have crossed over Jordon with Canaan in view
No one can disturb them no foes can molest
For their spirits are now forever at rest.



Sources.

The research of Peter Keith Morris and Lois Hollister.

Unpublished manuscript written by Peter Keith Morris 1989.

Edward married Susannah (convict) Smith on 31 Oct 1803 in St Johns, Parramatta, Sydney, NSW Australia. (Susannah (convict) Smith was born in 1778,⁸³¹ died on 4 Dec 1838 and was buried in St Matthews R C, Windsor, NSW Australia.)