Beauty Smith...
This article in Genealogists' Magazine was the first fruit of my investigation into the Red Barn murder, and charts the criminal career of Beauty Smith, a petty thief and known associate of William Corder, who was suspected of involvement in the murder.
Once more though, my abysmal inability to spell has let me down. One of the Australian repositories for convicts was Tasmania, called in the 19th century Van Diemen's Land, after Anthony Van Diemen, governor of the Dutch East Indies, the man who had despatched Abel Tasman on his voyage of discovery. In the article I consistently spelled it 'Van Dieman's Land...' The nuns at my school always told me my inability to spell would cause me problems in later life. It's aggravating to admit that they were right... Actually I have some small excuse for the error; there is a road in Chelmsford called Van Dieman's Land.
Note added August 2021: quite by accident I have discovered that Tasmania was referred to in the British press and sundry publications of the period as both "Van Dieman's Land" and "Van Diemen's Land". There is therefore, some justification for my error, which was compounded by reading contemporary documentation.
Click on the icon to download the file, © 2015, Society of Genealogists and the author, in pdf format.
This article in Genealogists' Magazine was the first fruit of my investigation into the Red Barn murder, and charts the criminal career of Beauty Smith, a petty thief and known associate of William Corder, who was suspected of involvement in the murder.
Once more though, my abysmal inability to spell has let me down. One of the Australian repositories for convicts was Tasmania, called in the 19th century Van Diemen's Land, after Anthony Van Diemen, governor of the Dutch East Indies, the man who had despatched Abel Tasman on his voyage of discovery. In the article I consistently spelled it 'Van Dieman's Land...' The nuns at my school always told me my inability to spell would cause me problems in later life. It's aggravating to admit that they were right... Actually I have some small excuse for the error; there is a road in Chelmsford called Van Dieman's Land.
Note added August 2021: quite by accident I have discovered that Tasmania was referred to in the British press and sundry publications of the period as both "Van Dieman's Land" and "Van Diemen's Land". There is therefore, some justification for my error, which was compounded by reading contemporary documentation.
Click on the icon to download the file, © 2015, Society of Genealogists and the author, in pdf format.
| beauty-smith.pdf |