William John Speed (1761 - 1838)

Born 17 Jan 1761 in Westminster, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Sarah (Nelson) Speed — married 30 Jun 1785 in Westminster, Middlesex, England

Husband of Ann (Thorn) Speed — married 11 Nov 1799 in Petersham, Surrey, England

Husband of Elizabeth (Azire) Speed — married 12 Mar 1832 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 26 Apr 1838 at age 77 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: I. Speed [send private message]

Biography

William Speed was a convict after the Third Fleet transported to New South Wales

William John Speed, or Colonel Speed, was a British Army officer and early settler in Australia. He arrived in Sydney in 1810 after being convicted of bigamy and sentenced to 7 years' transportation.

Bigamy is the crime of having more than one spouse at the same time.^[1] Speed's crime—like the majority of bigamy offences—was the result of a failed marriage, which left both him and his wife unable to legally remarry.^[2] Until the reform of divorce laws in 1857, the only way to obtain a full divorce was through a private Act of Parliament—a very public and expensive process, and a step that Speed failed to take before marrying his second wife in 1799.

His crime is described in the 1825 edition of the Newgate Calendar.^[3]

Early life

William John Speed was born into a respectable London family on 17 January 1761 and baptised at St Margaret, Westminster, on 25 January 1761.^[4] His family lived a stone's throw from the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, where his father, John Speed, held a senior administrative position at the House of Commons.

His mother, Mary Ann, was the elder daughter of British Army officer, Lt-Col. William Ryan.

With the death of his father in 1776, young William Speed followed in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather and at age 17 joined the Marines. He obtained a commission as second lieutenant in 1778 and was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant in 1781 before being placed on half pay in 1783 at the end of the American War of Independence.

First marriage

As a young officer, William Speed mixed with the fashionable society of London and included amongst his friends the sisters, the Duchess of Devonshire and Countess of Bessborough—famous for their beauty, gambling and extra-marital affairs—and the baronet Sir Walter James.

He met Sarah Nelson, the grand-daughter of a former Lord Mayor of London, and after a period of courtship they were married by licence in 1785. He was aged 24 and she was 18.^[5]

His marriage to Sarah was not a happy one. The couple struggled financially, he was declared bankrupt,^[6] three of their children died in infancy, and there were suggestions of ‘impropriety of conduct’ on his part.^[7]

In 1792, after seven years of marriage, Sarah left him and sought refuge with her father. The estranged couple formally separated—signing a deed of separation—and from thereon lived apart.^[8]

It was a bitter separation, with disagreements about the care of their three young children and Speed badgering Sarah to return to him. His letters to her were returned unopened; she told his friends ‘that no power on earth should induce, or force, her to live with [him] again’; and when he confronted her face-to-face, he was arrested for breaching the peace. He then took legal action in an ecclesiastical court to either force her to return, or obtain an absolute separation, but this too was frustrated when she brought a suit against him in the Court of King’s Bench.^[9]

Military service in West Indies

Through the patronage of the Duke of Portland, in 1792 Speed was recommended to the Prince of Wales for a position as a page in the Royal Household.^[10] He was unsuccessful and, following the outbreak of war with France in 1793, was appointed lieutenant in the East Middlesex Militia, a local militia regiment engaged in homeland defence.^[11]

He was an active member of the Freemasons, belonging to both the Old King’s Arms Lodge and the Antiquity Lodge in London,^[12] and in 1794 was appointed one of the Grand Stewards of the Grand Lodge of England for the coming year.^[13]

In 1795, he transferred to the regular British Army and was dispatched to the West Indies, where he served as an ensign in the 9th Regiment of Foot^[14] and lieutenant in the 68th Regiment of Foot.^[15] In his absence, his eldest son, William, attended boarding school, while his mother cared for the second child, Henry, and sent the youngest— Jane, then aged 3—to his estranged wife.^[9]

Briefly returning to England in late 1796, he transferred to the 1st West India Regiment,^[16] a regiment of black troops garrisoned in St Lucia. However, before he could again sail for the West Indies, he was arrested for debt and held for four months in the Fleet debtors’ prison.^[17]

When he finally arrived in St Lucia, he took paid leave from his regiment and for more than a year lived on the neighbouring island of St Vincent where, in his words, he was Lieutenant-Colonel of the St Vincent Rangers and Aide-de-camp to Governor William Bentinck.^[18][19] The St Vincent Rangers were a local corps of slave soldiers at that time engaged in scouring the woods for rebel Caribs.^[20]

In 1799, the St Vincent Rangers were disbanded^[21] and Speed returned to the 1st West India Regiment at his original rank of lieutenant. What happened next is not known, other than in July 1799 he was dismissed from the British Army.^[22]

Married again

Speed returned to England and in October 1799 took lodgings at the house of James Thorn, a market gardener in Surrey. Speed—aged 38 at the time—took a fancy to his landlord’s 18-year-old daughter, who in both looks and personality was ‘much favoured by nature’.^[23] He was, he told her, a lieutenant-colonel in the army with the best expectations, and after a short time she was persuaded to marry him.^[7]

He married Ann Thorn the following month at Petersham, Surrey. In doing so, he concealed from his bride and her family that he was already married, describing himself as a 'bachelor' in the marriage register, as well as dropping his middle name and changing his usual signature.^[24]

The newly-wedded couple lived together for five months before Speed left, or rather, fled England. Using the false name 'John Spraed', he had procured a commission as an ensign in the Loyal Surrey Rangers,^[25] a regiment bound for garrison service in Nova Scotia, and sailed from Portsmouth in June 1800.^[26]

Another woman

In August 1800, HMS America, and a convoy of armed transports carrying the Loyal Surrey Rangers anchored in Halifax, Nova Scotia.^[27]

Within months of arriving in Halifax, Speed had taken up with a young local girl named Eliza Russell.^[28] He later said, ‘he had met her at a brothel … when she was sixteen years old, and … she had lived with him ever since.’^[29]

In February 1801, six months after his arrival, he took leave of his regiment and, for reasons unknown, never returned. At about this time, he wrote to his second wife, Ann, telling her that she 'must not look to him for protection' as he was married to another woman. On learning this, she refused to have anything more to do with him, or to give up their their newborn son, and in an angry exchange of letters, she warned that 'she could hang him if she liked.'

Speed returned to England sometime later in 1801 or in early 1802, accompanied by Eliza Russell.

Debtors’ prison

Arriving in London, Speed was recognised by his creditors, arrested for debt, and found himself back at the Fleet debtors’ prison.^[30] No action, however, was taken against him for his unlawful marriage to Ann Thorn.

He remained in Fleet Prison for more than one year. The prison accommodated about 300 debtors and their families and operated on a fee-for-service basis. Prisoners paid for food and lodgings, or for an additional fee could live in a designated area outside the prison walls known as the ‘Rules of the Fleet’.

In March 1803, while still in the Fleet, Speed received an anonymous letter entreating him to go at once to a house in Westminster and ask about his daughter Jane. Recognising the postmark, he wrote to his first wife's sister in Wales and received a reply begging him, ‘For God's sake delay no longer’ and enclosing two letters describing Sarah’s abuse of their 11-year-old daughter—how she ‘prick'd her with pins, pluckt the hair off her head,’ and that Jane’s arms ‘from the shoulders to the elbow, are so bruised & pinch'd 'till black as a Coal.’

Taking an appropriate person with him to Sarah’s lodgings in Westminster, Speed forcibly took their daughter away ‘with [no] more of the child's clothes than she had on her back’ and sent her to live with her aunt in Wales.^[9]

Brief reunion with his first wife

Speed secured his release from the Fleet Prison in June 1803 and immediately took an appointment as Captain in the Flintshire Militia.^[31] With Eliza in tow, he joined his regiment in Portsmouth where it formed part of a garrison guarding against a feared French invasion. His and Eliza’s eldest son, Henry, was probably baptised at Portsmouth in May 1804.^[32]

The regiment marched from Portsmouth to Woolwich in July 1804 and, on his arrival, Speed learnt that his first wife, Sarah, was gravely unwell with ‘much affliction of mind.’ He hurried to see Sarah's mother in London and was shown two letters from Sarah expressing deep remorse for her treatment of him and her mother.^[9]

He took leave from his regiment^[33] and, together with Mrs Nelson, hurried to Lincolnshire, where Sarah had outstayed her welcome at the Marquess of Exeter's house in Stamford, ‘supposing … it was scarcely possible [they] could arrive in time to see [Sarah] before she died.’

Sarah soon recovered. Reunited with her husband after 12 years apart, she returned with him to Woolwich. It was then that he learnt from her lips how she had injured him by prevailing upon others to write to their friends in the West Indies ‘representing [him] as a man of infamous character.’^[9]

For four months, Sarah remained oblivious of her husband’s relationship with Eliza. Once more pregnant with his child, Sarah declared to him:

‘I hold myself dependent on my husband's guidance for the rest of my life, with true affection trusting our mutual interest is so combined that you would not be capable of leading to anything derogatory to the respectable opinion we in every point of view should wish to maintain in the World.’^[34]

With Sarah again under his control, he resigned his commission in the Flintshire Militia^[35] and told her he was to serve overseas in a British Army regiment of the line.^[36] This might have been true, or was perhaps just a ruse to get away from Sarah—for no record can be found of this military service.

The reunion came to an abrupt end in November 1804 when Sarah ran away from him ‘leaving the greater part of her Clothes & Books behind.’^[9] He, of course, never explained why she left, although it is not hard to guess—she had finally discovered there was another woman.

Sarah went into hiding, avoiding all contact with her estranged husband and concealing from him the birth of their son in May 1805.^[9]

Speed all but disappeared too. Nothing is known of his movements for almost the next four years.

Conviction for bigamy

It was not until 1808 that Speed re-surfaced, now calling himself ‘Danvers Walter Henry Speed’ (which was also his son's name), and holding a commission as ensign in the Berkshire Militia.^[37] His relationship with Eliza had yielded four children (two dying in infancy) and she now masqueraded as his wife.^[38]

And it was now that his troubles with his first wife came to a head. In September 1808, he says, he discovered that Sarah was ‘in the habit of going to the house of a Mrs. Ward, who keeps a School at Clapham … adducing [his] second marriage as an act of villainy.’ ^[9]

He wrote to Sarah proposing an ‘amicable adjustment,’ together with a thinly veiled threat that ‘a public trial must be a disgrace for [their] children, whether father, or mother, should be proved guilty of misconduct’^[9]. Her response was to have him arrested and taken before a Bow Street magistrate, who ordered him to stand trial for bigamy.^[39] For seven months he was held in gaol awaiting trial, first in Newgate Prison and later Horsemonger Lane Prison in Surrey.

Speed was tried before judge and jury at the Surrey Assizes in March 1809 for the felony of bigamy—for marrying Ann Thorn in 1799 while his first wife was still alive.^[40] He pleaded not guilty, claiming that he had believed his separation from his first wife allowed him to re-marry. The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to transportation for 7 years. His trial was widely reported, with detailed accounts in the London newspapers.^[41]

Before being transported, Speed was held in miserable conditions on board the convict hulk Retribution, a 'floating dungeon' at Woolwich.^[42] While there, he petitioned the Secretary of State seeking clemency. In his petition, Speed maintained that his transgression was an innocent mistake, accusing his first wife of child abuse and alleging he was a victim of a conspiracy by his wife, her friends and his lawyer.^[9] When this petition failed, he launched a vitriolic attack on John Capper of the Secretary of State’s office, accusing him of attempting to seduce Eliza, who he now openly claimed to be his wife.^[43] Speed’s surviving letters portray him as bitter, paranoid and unwilling to accept responsibility for his own actions.

Convict life in New South Wales

Speed was transported to New South Wales aboard the convict ship Anne, arriving in Sydney in February 1810.^[44] He was accompanied by Eliza and their two children, Henry and Isabella.^[45]

By now considered to be an ‘elderly man’,^[23] he was exempted from the demands of physical labour as a convict and allowed to employ himself as he wished.^[46] After an initial few months in Sydney, he was given permission to go upriver to the Hawkesbury district, granted a ticket-of-leave,^[46] and employed as the first clerk of the magistrates court at Windsor.

He received a conditional pardon in January 1813,^[47] following some prompting of the authorities by Vice-Admiral John Hunter, a former governor of New South Wales who had served alongside Speed as a junior officer.^[48] The conditional pardon excused Speed from serving out the remainder of his sentence on the condition that he remained in the colony.

By this time, Speed had returned to Sydney where he set up business as a wine and spirit merchant in George Street, offering ‘spirituous liquors of the best quality and flavor … and at the most reduced price.’^[49] He claimed the returns of the business exceeded £4,000 per year.^[50]

In 1815 he put the business and premises in George Street up for sale together with a 100 acre property he owned near Parramatta, as part of plans to return to England.^[51] The path was cleared for his return in January 1816 when he was granted an absolute pardon.^[52]

He was, however, prevented from sailing to England until he repaid £140 in outstanding debts.^[53] In the meantime, he opened a school in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, offering instruction in ‘English, French, Latin, and Greek languages, writing, arithmetic, and geography, with every other useful and polite branch of education.’^[54] He finally departed Sydney on the ship David Shaw in May 1918, arriving at Dover in November 1819. His family remained in Sydney where Eliza struggled to support herself and their six children by running a small school for young ladies.^[55]

Free settler in Tasmania

Speed returned to Australia in the ship Skelton in July 1820, accompanied by his daughter Jane (aged 28) from his first marriage. He brought a cargo of wine, rum, hardware, cutlery and cloth, valued at £1138. After a brief stay in Hobart, he arrived in Sydney as a free settler in January 1821 and was re-united with his wife Eliza and children.

The family began a new life in Tasmania in April 1821, where Speed had been granted 600 acres of land and assigned three convict labourers. Soon after their arrival, he and Eliza were appointed schoolmaster and schoolmistress of the Rosevale Boarding School, a government school at Clarence Plains, across the Derwent River from Hobart. While initially successful in attracting students, within two years the parents were withdrawing their children from the school as ‘they had not derived any instruction’ and Speed was threatened with dismissal.

His youngest child, Walter, was born at Clarence Plains in November 1823. when Speed was aged 62.^[56] He had 12 children with Eliza—six sons and six daughters—although only six survived to adulthood.

Once again, Speed found himself in financial difficulties, which was by now a recurring theme in his life. Unable to pay his debts, he was imprisoned in Hobart in 1824, replaced as schoolmaster at Clarence Plains and the family moved to Hobart, where Eliza was ‘long confined by severe illness.'

Gaoler at Richmond

In February 1826 Speed was appointed keeper of the newly constructed gaol at Richmond, a growing agricultural district on the Coal River, north-east of Hobart.^[57] He lived with his family in Richmond for the next four years, and whilst there also held the government positions of pound keeper,^[58] assistant storekeeper and acting clerk of courts.

Frequently involved in disagreements with the local police establishment, he developed a reputation for being mischievous, rude and of bad temper.^[59] He was incapable of working amicably with the police constables^[60] and his repeated requests for firearms to protect the gaol from bushrangers were rejected.^[61] As acting clerk of courts, he meddled in cases that were undergoing inquiry by the magistrates, leading to his removal for that position.^[62]

He suffered a public embarrassment in January 1829 when he was brought before the local magistrates’ court and convicted of illegally circulating a four dollar Spanish banknote. He was fined £5 for the offence, although the Lieut.-Governor subsequently remitted the penalty because the offence was not intentional.^[63]

He had troubles at home too. By 1830 Eliza was suffering from ‘a great distress of mind’, occasioned by the death of their eldest son Henry in July 1827, who ‘had been for some years entirely abandoned by his father’. Speed was without compassion for Eliza, ‘turned her away from the house, and refused to give her any assistance'. When the colonial chaplain intervened, Speed denied that he ever married Eliza or that he was responsible for her care.^[29] He accused her of abandoning her children (one of whom was severely disabled) and ‘prostituting herself with the [convict] men.'

Meanwhile, questions were beginning to be asked about Speed’s treatment of the prisoners in the Richmond Gaol. A prisoner had complained that he was never given any soap, there was not enough firewood to keep the prisoners warm or to cook their food, and about the poor quality of the vegetables. The police magistrate could ‘hardly believe’ the complaints were true until he enquired further and found that Speed had directed that the roots of the cabbages were weighed out to the prisoners, so that less than half of their allowance was edible.^[64]

When the police magistrate and colonial chaplain confronted Speed about the prison complaint and his treatment of his wife, he behaved so violently and rudely that the two men were obliged to leave the room.^[64] His conduct was reported to the Lieut-Governor who directed that Speed be removed from the position of keeper of the gaol, as he was ‘a very improper person to have charge’.^[29] He was replaced in July 1830.

Left with only the position of pound keeper at Richmond, Speed could barely make ends meet. He resigned as pound keeper in September 1830,^[65] and decided to return to Sydney.

Final marriage

He arrived in Sydney in December 1830 with his youngest son, Walter, then aged seven.^[66] He initially set up a business in George Street ‘where he receive[d] property of every description for sale on commission’, ^[67] and then later established an ‘agency for assigned servants.’^[68]

He was married for the final time at St James's Church, Sydney, on 12 March 1832. His new wife, Elizabeth Raine, a widow who had been the first matron of the Female Factory at Parramatta.^[69]

The marriage was a failure from the outset, and within five months the couple separated.^[70] Speed wrote, ‘I very soon discovered she was a very different woman from that which she was prior to our marriage and that so far from having gained a friend and protector for my child I had created an enemy. I also found there were heavy debts which it was not in my power to pay a part of ...’.^[71] The debts included more than two years of unpaid rent, amounting to £139.^[72]

Poverty

With his agency business declining, Speed was in a state of ‘extreme poverty’ by September 1832.^[71] Someone had secretly taken all of his furniture and things of value from his estranged wife’s house,^[73] and then his clothes were detained by a landlord when he could not pay the £6 bill for his lodgings. Only through the kindness of others could he pay for food and somewhere to sleep, and keep himself out of debtors’ prison.^[71]

By this time in his early seventies, Speed offered his services to Captain John Piper of Bathurst,^[71] and to James Busby, the British Resident of New Zealand,^[74] but was unsuccessful in finding a position.

For a time, he lived in Maitland in the Hunter Valley. ‘I am sorry to say I am almost living on charity,’ he wrote from Maitland in 1836, ‘having only my board & lodging for teaching the children of the person with whom I live who keeps the Albion Hotel in this town.’^[75]

Death

By 1838 Speed was back in Sydney and living at the Benevolent Asylum. He died there on 26 April 1838,^[76] aged 77, and was buried at Sandhills Cemetery, Sydney, on 28 April 1838.^[77][78]

The disgrace of Speed's transportation for bigamy was never spoken about by his children. His son William, who died in Victoria in 1890, apparently told his family 'his father ... was a colonel in the Army, being located [in Sydney] with his regiment in charge of convicts. He afterwards went with his regiment to Tasmania, where he settled, Mrs Colonel Speed opening the first Ladies' College in that colony.'^[79] It was not until the 1970s that his descendants rediscovered his convict past.^[80]

Sources

1. ↑ Under English law, the Bigamy Act 1604 provided ‘that if any person, being married, do afterwards marry again, the former husband or wife being alive, it is a felony ...’ Bigamy is a crime against morality with origins in the canon law of the church.
2. ↑ J. Turner et al (ed), A comparison of the history of crime and criminal justice. Policy Press, 2017, p. 11-12.
3. ↑ A. Knapp & W. Baldwin, The Newgate Calendar, London, 1825, vol. 3, p. 493-4.
4. ↑ City of Westminster Archives Centre, baptisms, St Margaret, Westminster. "25 [Jan 1761] William John Speed S. of John by Mary Ann 17 [Jan 1761]." Available on findmypast.
5. ↑ There were two marriage ceremonies. The first on 30 June 1785 at St John the Evangelist, Smith Square, Westminster (source: City of Westminster Archive Centre, marriages, St John the Evangelist, Smith Square; available on findmypast ). The second was on 14 Sept 1785 at Furneux Pelham, Hertford (source: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, online index; available on findmypast ).
6. ↑ London Gazette, 16 Jan 1787, p23. "... a Commission of Bankrupt is awarded and issued forth against William Speed, now or late of Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Coal-merchant, Dealer and Chapman, and he being declared a Bankrupt ..." London Gazette, 20 Jan 1787, p31, clarifies that this "Advertisement of a Commission of Bankrupt against William Speed, [should] read William John Speed."
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} See, e.g., 'Surry Assizes', The Times (London), 25 Mar 1809, p4.
8. ↑ This was not a ‘divorce’ in the modern sense, as at that time an Act of Parliament was needed for a person to re-marry.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9} National Archives (UK), HO 47/41/50, fol.376-387. Case of William John Speed Lieutenant Colonel late St Vincent Rangers.
10. ↑ Letter from Duke of Portland to Capt J W Payne[?], 8 June 1792 in Aspinall (ed), The correspondence of George, Prince of Wales: 1770-1812 (London, 1963-71), vol 2, p252.
11. ↑ List of the Officers of the Fencible Cavalry and Infantry, Mililta, Gentlemen and Yeomanry and Volunteer Infantry, War Office (1795), p82. His commission was dated 30 May 1793.
12. ↑ United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751-1921 (available on Ancestry).
13. ↑ The Freemasons’ Magazine, 1794, vol 2, p393, describing the Grand Feast on 7 May 1794, at which W. J. Speed was one of 12 brethren presented to the Grand Master, the Prince of Wales, for his approbation as Grand Stewards for the year 1795. See, also, Free-Masons Calendar for the year 1795, p31.
14. ↑ London Gazette, 11 July 1795, p717. “War-Office, July 11. … 9th Regiment of Foot, Lieutenant W. J. Speed, from the East Middlesex Militia, to be Ensign, without Purchase ...”
15. ↑ London Gazette, 9 Jan 1796, p40. “War-Office, January 9. … 68th Regiment of Foot, To be Lieutenants, … Ensign W. J. Speed, from the 9th Foot, vice White, deceased.”
16. ↑ London Gazette, 14 Jan 1797, p31. “War-Office, January 14, 1797. … Major-General Whyte’s Regiment, Lieutenant William John Speed, from 68th Foot, to be Lieutenant, vice Cassidy, who exchanges.”
17. ↑ National Archives (UK), PRIS 10/52 fol.123. Available on Ancestry.
18. ↑ See, e.g., National Archives (UK), CO 201/96 fol.331-333). Letter from W J Speed to Earl Bathurst, 11 Sept 1819.
19. ↑ Governor William Bentinck was a cousin of the Duke Portland. He arrived in St Vincent in February 1798 and replaced James Seton as governor. Governor Seton had up until then also been Lieut-Colonel commanding the St Vincent Rangers: see Historical Account of the Island of St Vincent, C Shephard (London, 1831) p85, 176.
20. ↑ Historical Account of the Island of St Vincent, C Shephard (London, 1831) p84, 175. The St Vincent Rangers were formed by arming a proportion of the slaves from each plantation throughout the island. Although they were paid by the British government, the corps did not appear in any Army List and its appointments and promotions were not published in the London Gazette: see History of the First West India Regiment, A B Ellis (London, 1885) p78.
21. ↑ Historical Account of the Island of St Vincent, C Shephard (London, 1831) p175.
22. ↑ The Annual Army Lists for 1800, 1801 and 1802 record W J Speed as a lieutenant in the 1st West India Regiment, however, a handwritten note in the margin of the 1802 Army List (WO 65/52 p353) says "Dismissed [1?] July 99." The regimental pay lists and muster rolls in WO 12/11240 confirm that W J Speed's name was removed from the list of officers in June 1799, The reason for his dismissal, and whether it followed a court martial, is not known.
23. ↑ ^{23.0 23.1} National Archives (UK), HO 47/41/50, fol.368-370. Report from Lord Chief Baron Archibald McDonald to Lord Liverpool, 20 May 1809.
24. ↑ Surrey History Centre, Anglican Parish Registers. Available on Ancestry. "William Speed of this Parish a Bachelor and Ann Thorn of this same Parish a Spinster were Married in this Church by Banns this Eleventh Day of November in the Year One Thousand seven Hundred and ninety nine By me Thos. C. S. Young AM. Asst Min[?]. This Marriage was solemized between Us, W. Speed, Ann Thorn In the Presence of Martha Thorn, Jas. Messenger, Clerk."
25. ↑ This regiment was also known as Colonel Pollen's Fencible Infantry. Variants of his surname were Spread and perhaps Spræd, but there is little doubt it was an alias of W J Speed. A letter to him from Henry Torrens, a former major of the regiment, referred to 'serving with you in the Surry Rangers in America' and Speed later described Torrens as 'an old friend and brother Officer in the same Regiment in America.' No person by the name of Speed served as an officer of the regiment, and an analysis of the service records indicates that John Spraed is the only commissioned officer with dates of service consistent with the known movements of W J Speed. A sample of John Spraed's handwriting in the regimental pay lists (WO 12 11096) is remarkably like that of W J Speed.
26. ↑ Morning Chronicle, 21 Jun 1800, p2.
27. ↑ Royal Gazette, 19 August 1800, p3.
28. ↑ Speed wrote in July 1809 that they had then lived together for 9 years, indicating the relationship began sometime in 1800. See Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, W1/4944. Petition from W J Speed to Samuel Whitbread MP, 11 July 1809.
29. ↑ ^{29.0 29.1 29.2} Tasmanian Archives, CSO1/1/456 10171. Letter from Rev William Bedford to Lieut-Gov George Arthur, 25 May 1830.
30. ↑ National Archives (UK), PRIS 10/52 fol.316. Available on Ancestry.
31. ↑ London Gazette, 23 Aug 1803, p1096. “Commissions in the Flintshire Militia, signed by the Lord Lieutenant. … William Speed, Esq: to be Captain. Dated June 20, 1803. …" His eldest son, William John Speed, was appointed second lieutenant in the same regiment on 29 July 1803.
32. ↑ England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, database, Familysearch. Baptism, St Mary, Portsea, Portsmouth. “[May 11] William Henry S. of William and Eliza Russell.”
33. ↑ National Archives (UK), WO13/762. The pay lists for the Flintshire Regiment of Militia record that he was on 'Commander-in-Chief's Leave' in August and September 1804.
34. ↑ National Archives (UK), HO 47/41/50, fol.385v-386r. Case of William John Speed, attachment 10: Letter from Sarah Speed to W J Speed, 19 Nov 1804.
35. ↑ National Archives (UK), WO13/762. The pay lists for the Flintshire Regiment of Militia record that he resigned on 24 October 1804.
36. ↑ This is evident from National Archives (UK), HO 47/41/50, fol.385r-386r. Case of William John Speed, attachments 8 & 10: Letters from Sarah Speed to W J Speed, 12 Aug 1804 and 17 Nov 1804.
37. ↑ London Gazette, 1 Nov 1808, p1473. “Commissions signed by the Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire. … Militia … Danvers Walter Henry Speed, Gent. to be ditto. [Ensign] Dated February 18, 1808.” Several factors strongly suggest this was W. J. Speed and not his son, including (1) his son left England in 1808, (2) this person was born circa 1760, (3) W. J. Speed later said he was an officer of this regiment, (4) the pay books of the regiment show D.W.H. Speed was absent without leave and his pay stopped from 25 Sept 1808—the same day W. J. Speed was ordered to stand trial for bigamy. He never returned to the regiment and his name was removed from the list of officers on 5 April 1809.
38. ↑ Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, W1/4944. Petition from W J Speed to Samuel Whitbread MP, 11 July 1809. This refers to Eliza as "his last wife (with whom he had lived nine years & had four children by two of which are now living),"
39. ↑ Morning Post, 26 Sept 1808, p3. 'Bigamy'.
40. ↑ National Archives (UK): ASSI 94/1633. Indictment against W J Speed for bigamy; ASSI 31/21 fol.20-31. Minutes of proceedings at Surrey Lent Assizes 1809 at Kingston upon Thames.
41. ↑ See The Times, 25 Mar 1809, p4; Morning Chronicle, 25 Mar 1809, p3[?]; Morning Post, 25 Mar 1809, p3; Morning Advertiser, 25 Mar 1809, p3; London Courier, 25 Mar 1809. p4; Bell's Weekly Messenger, 26 Mar 1809, p1.
42. ↑ See Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux, J H Vaux (London, 1819) vol.2 p108-113, for a graphic description of conditions on the hulk Retribution in 1809.
43. ↑ Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service, W1/4944. Petition from W J Speed to Samuel Whitbread MP, 11 July 1809. This describes a 'black and iniquitous [plan] ... to effect the satisfying of [Capper's] brutal lust ... by seducing a virtuous amiable woman to prostitution ... and Mr. Speed ... sent out of the Country, that he might be robbed of the power of calling the villain to a just account ...'
44. ↑ NSW State Archives & Records, NRS 1155. reel 2417 p125. Muster of the convict ship Ann II (1810). Available on Ancestry.
45. ↑ The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (1970) vol.8 p7, quoting the Sydney Gazette dated 10 Mar 1810. "In addition to the passengers arrived per the ship Ann, we omitted in the Gazette of last week to mention Mrs. Speed and family.”
46. ↑ ^{46.0 46.1} Letter from J T Campbell to W J Speed, 7 Aug 1810.
47. ↑ NSW State Archives & Records, 4/4427 COD18 reel 601 p206; 4/4430 reel 774 p065. Available on Ancestry. His conditional pardon was number 232, dated 31 Jan 1813.
48. ↑ NSW State Archives & Records, Colonial Secretary's Papers 1788-1825, reel 6042 4/1725 p68-70. Copy of letter from Vice-Admiral John Hunter to Under Secretary Robert Peel, 8 May 1812. Available on Ancestry.
49. ↑ See, e.g., Sydney Gazette, 29 Oct 1814, p2.
50. ↑ See, e.g., Sydney Gazette, 6 May 1815, p1.
51. ↑ See, e.g., Sydney Gazette, 6 May 1815, p1; Sydney Gazette,18 Nov 1815, p1.
52. ↑ NSW State Archives & Records, 4/4486 reel 800 p052; 4/4427 COD18 reel 601 p90. Available on Ancestry. He is described in the register of pardon as 5 feet 6½ inches tall, with a fair ruddy complexion, silvery grey hair and blue eyes.
53. ↑ NSW State Archives & Records, Colonial Secretary's Papers 1788-1825, reel 6005 4/3496 p108-9. Letter from Judge Advocate to Colonial Secretary, 5 April 1817, and reply of same date.. Available on Ancestry.
54. ↑ Sydney Gazette, 31 May 1817, p2.
55. ↑ NSW State Archives & Records, Colonial Secretary's Papers 1788-1825, reel 6047 4/1741 p278-9. Letter from Eliza Speed to Governor Macquarie, 7 July [1818]. An advertisement in the Sydney Gazette (17 Jan 1818, p2) describes her school as a 'seminary ... where young Ladies continue to be instructed in every useful Branch of Needle work, the English and French Languages, Writing, Arithmetic, and Geography.'
56. ↑ Hobart Town Gazette, 15 Nov 1823, p2. "BIRTH.—On the 10th instant, Mrs. Speed, of Rose Vale Boarding School, Clarence Plains, of a son."
57. ↑ Hobart Town Gazette, 11 Feb 1826, p1. 'Government Notice',
58. ↑ Hobart Town Gazette, 11 Nov 1826, p1. 'Government Notice',
59. ↑ See, e.g., Tasmanian Archives, CSO1/223 5412, in which Richmond magistrate G W Gunning writes (to John Lee Archer on 18 Dec 1827) that '... I have no hesitation in saying that Mr Speed (who I believe to be a mischievous and a bad man) has misinformed you ...'
60. ↑ Tasmanian Archives, CSO 1/1/384 8695. See also LC440: Examination William Jarritt, 3 Feb 1830, describing an 'angry altercation' between W J Speed and Chief Constable Gilbert Robertson, during which 'the words black scoundrel and convicted rascal were used unsparingly.'
61. ↑ Tasmanian Archives, CSO1/1/140 3481.
62. ↑ Tasmanian Archives, CSO1/223 5412. Letter from G W Gunning to CSO, 23 Jan 1828.
63. ↑ Tasmanian Archives, CSO1/1/228 5589. See also Hobart Town Courier, 26 Jan 1828, p3; Hobart Town Courier, 2 Feb 1828, p3.
64. ↑ ^{64.0 64.1} Tasmanian Archives, CSO1/1/456 10171. Letter from James Gordon to John Burnett, 8 May 1830.
65. ↑ Tasmanian Archives, CSO1/1/198 4724. Letter from W J Speed to Colonial Secretary, 12 Sept 1830.
66. ↑ Sydney Gazette, 21 Dec 1830, p2. 'Shipping Intelligence',
67. ↑ Sydney Gazette, 17 January 1832, p4.
68. ↑ Sydney Gazette, 3 Apr 1832, p3. 'Agency for assigned servants'.
69. ↑ Sydney Gazette, 13 Mar 1832, p3. "Married. Yesterday, at St. James's Church, by the Rev. RIchard Hill, WIlliam John Speed, Esq., Lieutenant Colonel Commandant of the late St. Vincent Rangers, and late an Officer in the Commissariat at Van Diemen's Land, widower, to Mrs. Elizabeth Raine, widow."
70. ↑ Sydney Gazette, 7 Aug 1832, p1. 'Notice'.
71. ↑ ^{71.0 71.1 71.2 71.3} Letter from W J Speed to Capt John Piper, 7 Sept 1832 (Mitchell Library, Sydney), Piper papers, pp134-135).
72. ↑ Sydney Gazette, 25 Aug 1832, p2. 'Claims and Demands',
73. ↑ Sydney Herald, 27 Aug 1832, p3. 'Claims and Demands',
74. ↑ Busby of Waitangi: H. M.'s Resident at New Zealand, 1833-40, Eric Ramsden (1942) p53.
75. ↑ Letter from W J Speed to his son William Speed, 20 July 1836.
76. ↑ Sydney Gazette, 3 May 1838, p2. "A person named Speed, formerly a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, died in the Benevolent Asylum, on the 26th ultimo, a painful example of the mutability of all human prospects."
77. ↑ Burial register, No. 2148 Vol. 22, Name: Wm. John Speed, Abode: Sydney Asylum, When buried: 28th April, 1838, Age: 77 years, By whom ceremony was performed: William Cowper.
78. ↑ Sydney Monitor, 9 May 1838, p2. "On Saturday last, the remains of Mr. Speed, formerly a colonel in the British service, were interred in the burial ground at the Sand Hills. The deceased had, for some time past, been an inmate of the Benevolent Asylum, and was buried at the cost of that institution"; Colonial Times, 12 June 1838, p6. "Colonel Speed, whom many of our Fellow-Colonists may recollect as keeper of the gaol at Richmond, died recently, at the Benevolent Asylum, in great and distressing destitution."
79. ↑ McIvor Times, 1 May 1890, p2.
80. ↑ 'The Trials and Tribulations of William John Speed', H Eggleston, in The Genealogist, Dec 1997, p538-541.