Samuel Thorpe

Samuel was transported to Van Diemans Land aboard the 'Layton' in 1835 after being convicted for stealing a silver spoon. He was 19 years old at the time. His convict records says that Samuel was married with two children at the time of his conviction and that his wife died while he was on the hulk.

Samuel married Jane Duff in Ipswich in 1850. Jane arrived on the 'Earl Grey' as an assisted migrant at the age of 15 in 1848. The Electoral List for the Town and Borough of Ipswich, Colony of New South Wales, 21 December 1855 lists Samuel Thorpe as residing in a dwelling house in Ellenborough Street.

Samuel and Jane Thorpe's names appeared in local newspapers numerous times and they were well known in Ipswich.

In April 1857 Samuel was charged with violently assaulting his wife and threatening to take her life. His sentence was 'to be bound over to keep the peace for six months, himself in £10, and two sureties in £10 each.  On 1 February 1859 he appeared before the Police Magistrate and Dr. Challinor 'having executed sureties of the peace' (a person guarantees that a defendant will not commit future offense or will abide by bail conditions). Samuel agreed to take his wife and children home and the order for their maintenance was rescinded.

In March 1859 Samuel summoned his wife Jane for assault but the case was dismissed as the couple did not appear in court.  In 1860 Samuel appeared before the Court for using threatening language and in the same month was charged for violently assaulting his wife. He was sentenced to three months' hard labour. In June of 1860 Samuel posted a notice in The North Australian informing Storekeepers and the Public that they should not give Credit to his wife Jane because she left her home 'without reasonable excuse'.

The following article appeared in The Courier in January 1862: Reported Murder - It was currently reported in town yesterday that Samuel Thorp, a man well known in Ipswich, had murdered his wife at Dalby. The particulars, so far as we have been able to glean them, are that an altercation having taken place between the two, the woman laid her head on a block, and desired her husband to cut it off, and that an axe being handy, he struck her one blow which left her lifeless.

Luckily for Jane The Courier reported that this was a Hoax:

Your contemporary the North Australian has evidently been hoaxed with reference to the paragraph which appeared in that paper setting forth that a man named Samuel Thorpe had decapitated his wife in Dalby. Nothing of this kind has occurred here, and I sincerely hope never will. With all our faults, we are not quite so bad as we are represented to be in the columns of the North Australian.