By Irma Walter, 2024.
Richard McKew’s career of crime began at an early age. In 1848, Richard McKew, (14), and John Brown, (15), were committed at the Surrey Court Sessions for trial on 29 October 1848, for stealing cakes and tarts, the property of John Allen.[1] Richard’s previous record of being 17 times summarily arrested, 13 times imprisoned and seven times whipped, resulted in him being considered an incorrigable youth. He was convicted of larceny and sentenced to seven years’ transportation.[2] Due to their age, both boys were sent to Parkhurst Prison on 7 February, 1849.[3]
[Parkhurst Prison was opened in 1838 on the Isle of Wight, as a prison for young male offenders, with the intention of providing them with ‘a course of moral, religious and industrial training, together with corrective discipline, to prepare them for emigration (both as free emigrants and convicts.’[4]]
Unable to read or write on arrival, Richard’s conduct while at Parkhurst was ‘Very Bad’. How long he remained there is not known. He spent the remainder of his sentence at Millbank, where his conduct was ‘Indifferent’, and then at Portland, where his behaviour was ‘Very Good’. On 1 June 1854 he was discharged early, on License No. 948, after being recommended on account of being of very good character, and with an offer of employment by a Mr Riley, of the Surrey Gas and Coke Works, in White Street, St George Church Boro, London.[5]
Unfortunately his good conduct did not last. In 1856 he faced another charge –
Globe, 17 June 1856.
Richard spent time on the convict hulks then he was sent to Gibraltar on 7 December 1857 onboard the Lady McNaghten.[6] His record there describes him as a laborer, aged 20, single, able to read and write imperfectly, convicted on 16 June 1856 at Newington of larceny from the person, plus previous convictions. His father John McKew was recorded as residing at James Tce, Lambeth.
Richard’s previous record was listed as follows –
4 December 1848 – Stealing some tarts. Sentenced to transportation for seven years.
17 times summarily convicted and sentenced to imprisonment, and whipping in the House of Correction.
He spent time in several prisons before being sent to Gibraltar –
9 January 1856 – at Horsemonger Prison.
9 August 1856 – to Millbank.
15 September 1856 – to Pentonvillle.
20 May 1857 – to Portland Prison.
7 December 1857 – to Gibraltar.
He laboured there for almost five years before embarking for England on 11 June 1862.[7]
At the age of 26, Richard was committed at Southwark on 18 April 1863, this time for stealing a rug, and was sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment. By this stage he was described as aged 26, 5’6” tall, with brown hair, grey eyes, blind in his right eye, and a scar on his upper lip.[8] [It is not known whether the blindness in Richard’s right eye was an affliction from the time of his birth, or whether it resulted from an accident or an act of violence.]
A more comprehensive description of Richard’s prison record, under the name ‘McHugh otherwise McKew’, shows a considerable number of minor offences –
Surrey, Calendar of Prisoners for Richard McHugh (McKew), Newington, 1863 – 1867.
On 27 January 1865 he was on remand for stealing five scarves, the property of William Preston. A summary of his convictions appears in the Millbank Prison Records as follows –
Richard McKew, aged 29, able to read & write imperfectly, religion R.C., Protestant on reception, 6 February 1865. Father John McKew, Westminster Road.
Received at Portsmouth Prison from Horsemongers Lane on 15 December 1863.
His record up until that time –
Seven years’ transportation in December 1848. Conduct Indifferent.
Six years’ Penal Servitude in June 1856. (Stealing a silk handkerchief.[9])
A total of 25 times Summarily Convicted and sentenced to imprisonment.
Pages in Governor’s Misconduct Book H.8, 44,127,170.[10]
Transferred to Portsmouth Prison 27 November 1865.[11]
His life in Western Australia
On 6 February 1865 Richard McKew, aged 29, was convicted of larceny at Surrey. Due to previous convictions he was sentenced to 10 years’ transportation. He left for WA on 22 March, leaving on 4 April 1866 onboard the Belgravia.[12] He arrived at Fremantle, on 4 July 1866.
At Fremantle Prison, Richard was described as a laborer, single, aged 30, 5’5”, with light brown hair, hazel eyes, a long face, dark complexion and middling stout. Blind in right eye, pock-picketted.[13] While there, he requested an eye-shade, but this was rejected as ‘no necessity’.[14]
On 22 June 1872 Richard suffered a compound fracture of his right fibula, oozing blood from the wound to a considerable extent. Discharged well on 16 August 1872.[15] While there he received his Ticket of Leave on 3 July 1872. On 6 December 1878 he received his Certificate of Freedom.[16]
Admitted to Fremantle Prison in April 1882 and registered as Local Prisoner No.3646 (previously Convict No. 8939), Richard McKew, stonemason, aged 52, was gaoled for 14+14 days, for being drunk and disorderly, and assaulting and resisting police in the execution of their duty.[17]
A Sad Ending
At the end of a troublesome life, Richard McKew died in hospital on the 19 July 1882 at 2.45 a.m., a few hours after being crushed by a load of sandalwood falling over his chest.[18]
Richard McKew’s death at the age of 47 at the Fremantle Prison Hospital in 1882 was registered as number 11359.[19]
The following newspaper articles appear to be an account of the accident –
ON Tuesday afternoon about 4.30 o’clock a serious accident occurred at Fremantle. A horse belonging to Mr. Bateman attached to a cart laden with sandalwood, when standing at the Railway station, took fright at the sight of the engine and bolted. On its reaching Flindell’s Hotel, a man named MacCue stood out in the road and tried to stop it but the horse knocked him down and the wheels passed over the lower part of his ribs. The injured man was at once conveyed into Flindell’s Hotel, and Doctor Barnett was sent for who examined his injuries and directed his removal to the Perth Hospital by the 5.10 train.[20]
— I regret that I have to report the occurrence of a fatal accident which happened last Tuesday afternoon. At about four o’clock a horse and cart, under the charge of a man named Woods, were standing on the old green outside the railway reserve along side the line, when, the cart having been partly loaded with sandalwood, the horse took fright at the approaching locomotive and started off down Cliff Street at a walk. However, in a minute or two the animal increased his pace to a rapid trot, and then broke into a hard gallop. But when it was about the middle of Cliff Street, a man named McCue, who was in the employ of Mr. Horton Bateman, noticing that some children were playing in the road a little further down the street, courageously ran in front of the horse and endeavoured to either stop it or direct it from the course it was pursuing, when the terrified horse reared up on its hind legs and struck the unfortunate man full on the chest with his fore hoofs, knocked him down, and one of the wheels of the dray paused over his chest. McCue was at once removed to the Pier Hotel, and the Fremantle Colonial Surgeon was immediately in attendance. After examining the sufferer, Dr. Barnett ordered that he should be removed to the Perth hospital, but just as McCue was taken to the Railway Station Dr. Hope saw him, and directed him to be taken to the Prison Hospital, where the poor fellow died early the next morning, after intense suffering.
An inquest was held the same day and a verdict was returned of ‘accidental death’, but the jury severely censured the driver Woods for not having the horse under his control I have since heard that Woods has been summoned to appear at the Police Court for his alleged carelessness.[21]
The place of Richard McKew’s burial is not known.
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[1] Surrey, Newington, Calendar of Prisoners, 1848.
[2] England and Wales Court Records, Surrey, 1848.
[3] UK Prison Registers and Statistical Returns, Series HO24, Piece Nos. 4, 5. And 7.
[4] Parkhurst Prison – 19th Century Prison History, https://.www.prison history.org/prison/Parkhurst-prison
[5] Portland Prison Records, 1867-1868.
[6] Quarterly Returns of Prisoners in Hulk, December 1857.
[7] Gibraltar Prisonn, Register of Prisoners, Series PCOM2, Piece No. 12.
[8] Wandsworth Prison Register of Prisoners, PCOM2, Piece No. 241.
[9] Sussex Advertiser, 24 June 1856.
[10] Millbank Prison Registers, Register of Prisoners, Series PCOM2, Piece No. 49.
[11] Millbank Prison Registers, Male Prisoners, Vol.10, Series HO24, Piece No. 10.
[12] Convict Hulks, Quarterly Returns of Prisoners, Series HO8, Piece No. 167.
[13] WA Convict Records, Convict Department, Estimates and Conviction Lists (128/1-32).
[14] Convict Establishment, Fremantle Casual Sick Registers (Cs15-Cs16)
[15] Convict Establishment, Medical Registers of Admissions & Discharges (M32)
[16] Fremantle Prison Convict database.
[17] Fremantle Prison Correspondence Registers (F3-F4)
[18] Convict Estimates Medical, Registers by Patient (M9-M9a)
[19] W.A. Department of Justice, death records.
[20] Herald, Fremantle, 22 July 1882.
[21] Inquirer, 26 July 1882.