The Hindmarsh Family

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Anecdotes

In this section it is intended to include items of general interest - past and present - concerning the Hindmarsh families. As in most events in life one is occasionally cast in the role of the key player and at other times as supporting cast. One may be the villain or an innocent, a witness or a bystander. The "anecdotes" will highlight events involving the families - some minor incidents others with greater significance - that serve to situate the person either in time or place and thereby help us, the descendants, to find some empathy with our forbearers. The items are listed randomly without regard to chronology at this stage.
Murder on the High Seas
George Hindmarsh - Slave Trader and Mariner, "late of London" born circa 1760, died 6 Jul 1792.

"Newgate Prison in th 18th Century" On 28 Oct 1790, George Hindmarsh was a mariner on the sloop "Eolus", a tender to the slave ship "Fly". Also on the sloop were Andrew Spears and his distant cousin, the Chief Mate, Samuel Burn Cowie. The "Eolus" was then about one league from Annamaboe on the West Coast of Africa. When the Chief Mate returned to the sloop "in liquor" George Hindmarsh struck him with a piece of wood or shot him with a pistol and then threw him overboard. Several days later, when the "Eolus" discharged her cargo of slaves to her parent ship "Fly", George Hindmarsh was placed in irons for suspected murder and Andrew Spears confined "for want of sureties" to give evidence. Weeks later, when the "Fly" returned to England, George Hindmarsh was transferred to Newgate Gaol,
London. After nearly two years in confinement he was indicted for wilful murder on the High Seas within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England. His case was heard on the 8 Jun 1792 at the Admiralty Sessions at the Old Bailey. George Hindmarsh had nothing to say at his trial and the jury returned with a verdict of "Guilty". Sir James Marriott passed sentence as follows: "George Hindmarsh, prisoner at the bar, you have, after a very fair, and a very impartial trial, been convicted of the crime, for which you have been indicted. You have been found, after due deliberation, by the jury guilty of murder. It is my painful duty on this occasion, to pronounce to you the voice of the law, which is no less than this: that you, having been found guilty of taking away the life of another being, are to be doomed to lose your own; therefore, the consequence must follow, that you are to be taken from hence to the prison from whence you came; that you be removed, unless the execution of the sentence is respited by the court, on Monday next, the 11th of this instant June, to the usual place of execution, and there to be hanged by the neck until you are dead; your body afterwards, to be dissected and anatomised, according to the statute - and God have mercy on your soul."
George Hindmarsh's Death Warrant is dated 30 Jun 1792. The place of execution to be before "the Bank called Wapping" on the Gallows set and placed in the public stream in the river of Thames within the flux of the sea and water on Friday the 6 Jul 1792.
The London Times No.2354 dated Monday, 9 Jul 1992: "Friday a little before nine o'clock, the following pirates, viz. George Hindmarsh, Charles Berry and John Slack were conveyed from Newgate to Execution Dock. They arrived at the fatal spot about ten o'clock and, after half an hour spent in prayer with two clergymen, the dreadful sentence waws excecuted. One was conveyed to Surgeons Hall - the other two were put in a boat, and carried to an Iron Wharf, near Queen Hythe. After the chains are affixed, they will be taken to Blackwell Reach, and hung upon a gibbet."

George Hindmarsh was the youngest brother of Gunner John Hindmarsh and the Uncle of Sir John Hindmarsh

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