Having just received some very interesting messages from Tasmania about the Aldington Gang, I thought that another page where I can include this kind of information would provide a valuable addition. It also adds more background details and also saves me research and typing too!! I would be pleased to receive any other material about Kent smugglers and what became of them.
PART I:
Several weeks ago I attended a birthday celebration here in Hobart, Tasmania, with about a dozen other people. To our surprise, in this small group, we discovered there were three of us associated with the ALDINGTON GANG of smugglers. One was a descendant of George Ransley, another was descended from James Quested and my association was with Thomas Gillham. George Ransley was transported to Van Diemen's Land on the Governor Ready with a number of other gang members, including Thomas Gillham and James Hogben. According to the convict description list, CON 23/3, at the Tasmanian Archives, he was 5 feet 6 & three quarter inches tall. He seems to have led a fairly blameless life here, since his convict record shows only one offence - 30 January 1833 - when he was admonished for disorderly conduct while assigned to his wife. He was granted a Conditional Pardon on 22 June 1838.
Thomas Gillham married my great great great grandmother Frances Furner in Bilsington in 1823. Her daughter Delia, known as Gillham, was born about 1815, and I have not yet identified her father. Frances Gillham arrived here to join her husband [with her 6 children] in 1829, and a further 6/7 children were born to them in Van Diemen's Land. Their daughter Frances married a 25 year old James Hogben in 1845! I believe he may have been a son of James Hogben, Aldington Gang member, but I still need to verify this.
The three convicts connected with this story were George Ransley, James Quested and Thomas Gillham.
The Tasmanian Archives file on Ransley has several photo-copied articles from books about smugglers in Kent, including one titled THE KENT COAST BLOCKADE by R. Finn. Published by W.E. White, Thanet Printing works, Church Hill, Ramsgate, Kent. This article mentioned 14 gang members who were transported to Van Diemen's Land. Other names mentioned were James Wilson, Charles Giles, Richard and William Wyor, James Hogben, John and Samuel Bailey, Thomas Denard, Paul Pierce, Richard Higgins and James Smeed. Two other men were also mentioned - Edward Pantry, who was allowed to turn King's evidence; and a Thomas Wheeler; but no mention was made of their having been transported.
The book shown to me at the recent party was THE GIFT OF THE SEA - ROMNEY MARSH, by Ann Roper. This book also mentioned quite a few of the gang members.
The Tasmanian convict records are very comprehensive, and I suspect the height given for George Ransley would be fairly reliable. He may have lost some height with age of course, being about 45 years old when he was transported. His record states that his brother-in-law Samuel Bailey was on board the same convict transport - the Governor Ready - as were Gillham and Hogben. The Kent blockade book mentions different ships but there must have been changes to the original plans! The ship arrived in Hobart in August 1827. George Ransley appears to have died from the effects of "yellow jaundice" according to his death certificate. James Hogben does not appear to have been quite as well behaved here as Ransley and Gillham, although he restricted himself to minor offences on the whole.
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