Oxfordshire Lent Assize (held 6.3.1847)
'William Chaundy, a letter carrier, at Oxford, from the city gaol, stood charged with stealing a letter with two £10 notes in it, in the month of July last. When put to the bar his altered appearance evinced the mental agony he had probably undergone. He pleaded guilty.
Mr Whately Q.C. for the post office authorities, stated to the Court shorthly the circumstances of the case. A gentleman in July last directed to his daughter a letter containing two £10 notes, by mistake, to northern Hay place, Oxford, instead of Exeter; the gentleman two or three days afterwards remembering the mistake, applied to the post office ro have the letter forwarded to its destination, but it could not be found. In his office of letter carrier at Oxford the letter would probably come into the hands of the prisoner, and his plea showed it had, if there had been no other evidence. In August the prisoner employed a man named Shorter, whom he found in the street, to go into Mr Kimber's shop in Magdalen Street and buy tea and sugar and gave him a £10 note. Circumstances induced the shopkeeper to make enquiries, and the consequence was, the prisoner was taken into custody, and the money found upon him. He had been in the service of the post office 10 years. Many witnesses bore testimony to the character of the prisoner, among whom were Mr Thomas Rogers, at the County Hall, who had employed the prisoner to clean plate at Christchurch and would have no objection again to do so. Mr Henry Wood, an old Master, who described the prisoner as a man, when in his employ, as most trustworthy and would have no objection to employ him again. Mr Thomas Lucas, of the city police, who had frequently employed the prisoner to clean the City plate; Mr J J Faulkner, who deposed further that the prisoner, in the respectable situation of letter carrier, having three deliveries to make, had at first 12s a week; it was then raised to 14s and even latterly it was only 15s a week. He had a wife and three small children.
The Judge: 'It is a serious offence, I must consider on it; let the prisoner come up tomorrow.' The prisoner was brought up for judgement and the Judge addressed him to the following effect 'Prisoner, you have pleaded guilty to an offence of stealing a letter with money, you being at the time in the service of the Post Office, and the letter entrusted to you by virtue of your Office. A most serious offence indeed, an offence which renders you liable to be transported for the term of your natural life, and had you committed the offence two months sooner, I should have had no power to alter or mitigate it. The public security requires that people in the service of the post office are particularly bound, honestly and faithfully to perform their duties. It is for the poor rather than the rich that the conveniance of the post office, for people to remit money to their friends, should be maintained and protected. People who make great interest to obtain such situations must be taught, by you example, that they ought to fulfil their duties with fidelity and integrity. Considering what is due to your good character, and what is due to public justice, I have had a severe struggle in my own mind as to the sentence I ought to pronounce, and I doubt whether I have not given way too much to that weakness which every man in my position feels, when a prisoner heretofore of good character comes before him, and public justice demands a punishment. I have earnestly considered your offence, and I can come to no other conclusion but that it deserves a severe punishment. The sentence of the Court is, that you will be transported beyond the seas for a term of seven years'
The prisoner was dreadfully agitated when the Learned Judge pronounced the word transported, and in that state was removed.
William was transported to Melbourne, Australia in 1847 aboard the SS Eden. He and the other 190 prisoners onboard were pardoned and arrived as exiles at Geelong on 4th February 1849 i.e. they were free men, but they could not return to England before their sentences had been completed. William was initially employed as a waiter and general servant for 12 months, at 18 pounds per annum by Donald Cameron who ran the Portland Hotel.
On 15th February 1850, at a Court of Guardians hearing in Oxford, Rachel Chaundy and her eight surviving children were granted £30, towards the expenses of emigration. They sailed on the Ramilies on 12th March 1850 to Port Philip, N.S.W. [At that time Melbourne was in N.S.W. and Port Philip was the port for Melbourne], arriving on the 11th August 1850. Their referee was Rev. H. de Sausmarez of St. Aldates.
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