Agricultural labourers transported to Australia after the 1830s rural riots

Pre-transportation History

398: SNOOK, William
Born:	about 1808	Died:	1852
Also known as:	SNOOKS
Family Relationships:
Group:	Wessex (Berks, Dorset, Hunts, Wilts)
Where tried :	Wiltshire County	Native Place:	Tisbury, Wiltshire
Occupation:	Farm labourer
Crime:	Machine breaking/ demolishing	Sentence:	7 years
Prior Offences:	1-Stealing	*Hulk:	1269
Order of Loading:	107	Transport:	Eliza, to Van Diemens Land

Post-transportation History

*Police Number:	S1325
Times charged:	0	Times punished:	0
Granted Ticket of Leave:	04 Jun 1835	Date of Pardon:	05 Feb 1836
Type of Pardon:	Free, absolute pardon
Post-sentence History:	Van Diemens Land resident
Marriages:	Van Diemens Land, 1840
Place of Death:	Tasmania
More Information:	See also Chapter 5

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Notes:

*Hulk Numbers
Four figure numbers refer to the York Hulk, others, the Leviathan.  No number means either unknown or not held in a hulk
*Police Number
This is shown when known.  In Van Diemens Land the initial letter was the first letter of the convicts surname.

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For many years, William was thought to be the William Snook who was baptised at Tisbury in June 1808. However, recent DNA testing has revealed conclusively that he was the William Snook baptised in August 1806 in the neighbouring parish of Sutton Mandeville, and who had moved to Tisbury with his family by 1813.  His parents were Stephen Snook (buried November 1836, Tisbury) and Ann Daniel (buried January 1867, Tisbury).

William married Louisa “Gillham” (surname variations include “Gillam”, the standard Tasmanian form, and “Gilham”, the common English one) at Longford in Tasmania in 1840.  Louisa was baptised in April 1824 at Aldington in Kent.  Her father, Thomas Gillam, was subsequently found guilty of various offences related to smuggling.  He was initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to transportation for life.  He arrived on the Governor Ready in 1827, and his wife Frances, nee Furner, and their children joined him here in 1829.

William and Louisa had four children. The births of all four were registered under the name “Snook”, but when Louisa’s untimely death at Westbury in 1848 was registered, her surname was recorded as “Snooks”.  The same variant was recorded when William’s death in July 1852 in the Westbury area was registered, with this form of the name becoming the standard version thereafter, except for a branch of the family who moved to New Zealand, where the "Snookes” spelling was adopted by some of William’s descendants.   

William and Louisa’s children were:

• William Snooks (b 1841, Longford; d 1921, Launceston; baptised as William Richard Snook, but he seemingly never used Richard as his middle name; m Esther Hodgetts, 1867, Ulverstone)
• James Snooks (b 1842, Longford; d 1914, Deloraine; sometimes known as James Richard Snooks; m Annie Wilson, 1868, Deloraine)
• Louisa Snooks (b 1844, Westbury; d 1847, Westbury; her death was not registered but her baptism and burial are recorded in the registers of the Anglican Church at Westbury)
• Thomas Snooks (b 1847, Westbury; d 1898, Zeehan; sometimes known as Thomas Edward Snooks; m Sarah Close, 1871, Port Sorell)

Louisa was just 23 when she succumbed to “Fever” in January 1848, leaving behind three children aged from six-and-a-half years to 12 months old.  It is not known who subsequently cared for them, but since William did not have any relatives in the colony, it’s likely that the Snooks boys were taken in by members of their mother’s family.  Their Gillam grandparents were certainly still alive, and Louisa also had several siblings and half-siblings (through her mother) living in Van Diemens Land.

William described himself as a farmer when he registered the births of his children in 1842 and 1847.  If he was indeed farming, it was probably on a rented property, as there is no evidence he ever owned land.  His wife’s brother-in-law described him as a labourer in 1844, and the same occupation was given by the undertaker when he registered William’s death in 1852, so his farming efforts may not have been particularly successful.  Louisa was also working as a servant at the time of her death, suggesting that William’s income, however it was generated, was not itself sufficient to support his family. 

William and Louisa had 16 known grandchildren, with ten born to James and six to Thomas.  The latter died as a result of injuries sustained in a mining accident.  The couple’s other son, William junior, had no known children, but achieved a degree of notoriety when he was convicted of bigamy in 1892.