3rd January 1816: The remaining Halifax 'Twisters' are given Free Pardons

On Wednesday 3rd January 1816, the prisoners William Blakeborough, George Duckworth & Charles Milnes were all given a Free Pardon & set free from the Prison Hulks at Portsmouth.

The three men had all been convicted of administering an illegal oath to an undercover agent in Halifax during the height of the Luddite disturbances in West Yorkshire in 1812. At their trial in early 1813, they and two others had been found guilty and sentenced to transportation, but the sentences were not carried out, and they had remained aboard the prison hulks. During that time, two of the prisoners - John Baines the elder and John Baines the junior - had died in captivity.

Little is known about the circumstances surrounding the Pardons, as any relevant paperwork does not appear in the Home Office documents for this period, other than a note recording the date of the pardon applied to all three men in the Prison Hulk Register.

21st December 1814: The death of the prisoner John Baines the elder

'Hulks in Portsmouth Harbour' by Thomas Christopher Hofland, c.1830. The Halifax prisoners were held in ships similar to these at the adjoining harbour at Langstone, immediately to the east of Portsmouth

On Wednesday 21st December 1814, John Baines the elder, one of the 5 men from from Halifax found guilty at the York Special Commission of administering illegal oaths, died on board a prison hulk in Langstone harbour, Portsmouth.

Baines was the third prisoner of the 7 who were sentenced to transportation at York to die since arriving on the south coast. John Lumb had died in an accident within 6 weeks of arrival, and Baines' own son, also called John, had died earlier in the year, in March 1814.

Like with his son, the prison hulk register is the only source of information about Baines' fate, and the cause of death is not recorded there. He would have been aged around 67-68 at the time. Given his age, Baines had done well to survive for almost 2 years - his son was aged only about 35 when he died, and the prison hulks were notorious for their poor conditions.

At this time point, none of the prisoners sentenced to transportation at the York Special Commission had actually been deported.

It is not known where Baines' remains are buried.

13th March 1814: The death of the prisoner John Baines the younger

A detail from 'Portsmouth Harbour with Prison Hulks' by Louis Garneray, c.1820. The Halifax prisoners were held in ships similar to these at the adjoining harbour at Langstone, immediately to the east of Portsmouth

On Sunday 13th March 1814, John Baines the younger, one of the five men from Halifax found guilty at the York Special Commission of being involved in administering illegal oaths, died on board a prison hulk in Langstone harbour, near Portsmouth.

Baines was the second man to die of the 7 prisoners sentenced to transportation at the York Special Commission. Only 6 weeks after they were sentenced, another of the convicted men, John Lumb, had been run over by a cart which killed him.

Little is known about the cause of Baines death & how he died. The only record is amongst a list of prisoners held on the HMS Portland, where his fate is recorded. Baines would have been around 35 years of age, and his elderly father, also called John (and who was by then about 67), was still alive aboard the same hulk, as were the other prisoners from Halifax. At this stage, none of them had been transported abroad, as per their sentence.

Conditions aboard these prison ships were notoriously poor, to the extent that even those in reasonable health stood a good chance of falling ill from disease. Baines' sentence at York had essentially been a death sentence, only a cruel, slow and lingering one.

11th March 1813: The Luddite convict, John Lumb, is killed in an accident at Portsmouth

The 7 prisoners convicted and sentenced to transportation at the York Special Commission had left York for the Prison Hulk HMS Portland, moored at Langstone Harbour, Portsmouth on Monday 1st February 1813. But within 6 weeks, one of them was already dead.

John Lumb had cheated the hangman by being reprieved of his death sentence, the reprieve meaning he faced transportation to the colonies for life. But on Thursday 11th March 1813, in what we can only imagine was some kind of accident, he was 'killed by a cart running over him' according to the Prison Hulk register. No other details are available.

12th October 1812: The prisoner, Thomas Holden, writes from the prison hulk, HMS Portland at Portsmouth

On Monday 12th October 1812, the convicted Luddite prisoner Thomas Holden wrote to his family from aboard the prison hulk HMS Portland, at Langstone near Portsmouth:

An opportunity at last offers itself of sending you a faint description of the place I am in.

In the first place we are ironed on both legs, which irons we must wear for five or six years, and then we will have a lighter iron on one leg until our time is out.

As to our living, it is very bad. We have nothing but oatmeal and barley boiled for our breakfast and supper night and morning for our whole time; and we have about half a pound of very bad beef and a pound and a quarter of brown bread four days a week for dinner, and the other three days we have the same bread and seven ounces of very bad cheese. This is our living. I can buy an allowance of bread for three-halfpence from a fellow prisoner, but we are not allowed the least communication with free people.

14th July 1812: The prisoner, Thomas Holden, writes from the HMS Portland at Langstone

On Tuesday 14th July 1812, the prisoner Thomas Holden wrote to his family from the Prison Hulk HMS Portland at Langstone, near Portsmouth. Tomlinson (1967, pp.104-105) has a long passage quoting parts of this letter:

The Portland had been a ship of 50 guns, completed at Sheerness in 1770, fitted as a convict ship in 1802 and sold in 1817. Holden's early opinion was that he had

the good luck to be at the very best place of this kind that there is and Captain and officers are all verry good to the prisoners under their charge we go on shore at 7 o'clock in the morning and leave off work at 5 in the afternoon.

There appeared to be some elementary welfare work on the part of the officers for Holding told his mother and father on 14 July

you are to understand that any money that is sent to any of the prisoners on Board this ship the Captain keeps it in his hand and let us have 3 shillings per week which supplies us with what Necessarys we want and that Means the Money is kept safe.

He acknowledged the receipt of 'one pound safe for which I Return you the Most heart felt thanks' and reported that he had not recovered the money which had been stolen. Finance and food were still continuing concerns for there was 'not the smallest way of making one penny here & the ship allowance is too scanty to supply Nature'. He hoped that those at home would remember him for 'We are not debared from having any necessary food if we have a little money to provide it'. He went on to say that everything was

extreamly dear. We pay ten pence for a Quart of flower and that only weighs one pound & about eleven ounces & everything is proportional to that.

Holden though that 'all the officers over us seem to be very humane men' and strove for good reports

for every three Months there is Return made of all the Mens Characters on Board & the Captain was pleased to speak favourable of us even for the little time we have been here (The Characters is laid before the secretary of state in London).

28th June 1812: The convict Thomas Holden arrives at the Prison Hulk, HMS Portland

Thomas Holden arrived at Langstone Harbour, Hampshire on Sunday 28th June 1812, 9 days after leaving Lancaster. He would be held there on the Prison Hulk, HMS Portland, until the time of his transportation. An extract of the letter he wrote to his wife is below:

I have had a misfortune for I have lost my [          ] and money I hope you will send me some more as quick as possible you can ... our Journey has been verry whett and uncomfortable and I have been eight day and nights without having my cloaths of my back.

Direct for me on board
HMS The Portland
Lying in Langstone Harbour, Nr. Portsmouth, Hants.