![View near Woolwich in Kent shewing [sic] the employment of the convicts from the hulks, c1800 (State Library of NSW)](https://www.paulweaver.com/media/View near Woolwich in Kent shewing [sic] the employment of the convicts from the hulks, c1800 (State Library of NSW).jpg)
Isaac STOKES, mason's labourer of Churchill, aged 29, was found guilty of theft and sentenced to 14 years transportation in the spring of 1834. He appears on the Calendar of prisoners (post-trial) tried at the Lent Assizes in Oxfordshire dated 1 March 1834.
He had been charged with having stolen a pick-axe, value 2s the property of Thomas Joyner of Churchill; also a kibbeaux (possibly a kibble/bucket) and a trowel, value 3s, the property of Thomas Symms; and a hammer and an axe, value 5s the property of John Keen of Sarsden.
He was transferred from the Oxford County gaol to the hulk prison ship Justitia in early March 1834, before being transported to Australia on board the Lady Nugent, arriving in 1835. Perhaps the etching shows Isaac dress a stone in front of the Justicia.
At arrival he was recorded as being aged 29, with no education, single, 5' 4" in height, tried at the Oxford Assizes on 1 Mar 1834 and sentenced to 14 years transportation having had a former conviction of 3 months.
This was clearly a colourful character. His physical description was a follows: complexion ruddy, light brown hair, grey eyes, with
two slight scars on the right side of mouth, 2 moles above his right breast, figure of the devil & DEVIL, raised mole lower left arm, anchor seven dots, 1/2 moon TSIS & cross back of left hand mallet Door-post. A mans bust & sun WS lower right arm, woman MHDW & shut knife back of right hand.
The symbology of many of these marks is unknown, but the seven dots were a sign of gang membership. My guess is that TSIS near the male torso means Thomas Stokes Isaac Stokes and MHDW next to the woman may then have been his sweetheart and her mother.
There was another Isaac STOKES who arrived as a convict in 1835, aged 26, on the ship Mary Ann, so the Isaac STOKES who absconded from Argyle County on or about 25 Apr 1837, but was re-captured by 10 May2 may not be Isaac. That Argyle County was 300 miles north of Sydney, while Camden (where Isaac settled) was 40 miles SW suggests that this was not Isaac.
As a semi-skilled mason, Isaac may have been assigned to another mason for the period of his servitude. Skilled prisoners were called 'mechanics'. They would only receive accommodation and food for their assignment, but after hours they could farm a smallholding, or take on private work for improved living standards. With skills in heavy demand, masons might expect to be encouraged to start their own business. A convict 'indulgence' dated 30 May 1843 awarded to an Isaac STOKES may have been his release on license to pursue his own career1.
It's thought that Isaac was married several times. The first of these was likely shortly after his assumed 'indulgence' in 1843. An Edward W STOKES was born in 1848, to Isaac S and Caroline STOCKS. When Edward died in 1924 his parents were listed as Isaac and Catherine. Catherine would have been his step-mother from age 6.
In 1856 a James STOKES died in Camden, NSW, the son of Isaac and Martha STOKES, suggesting that Martha was a second wife. No records of the birth of any of Isaac and Martha's children have been found.
There is no record of Martha dying, but Isaac married Catherine DALY in Camden in 1856.
Catherine and Isaac went on to have 6 further children. They were living in Glenmore (6 miles west of Camden) in 1859 when a commission to build a church for the Moore family (descendents of a convict cotton weaver from Manchester) arrived. His work was completed in 1860.
Isaac died in nearby Campbelltown in 1877. His death was subject to an inquiry3.
