Orphan Number: | 3388 |
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Orphan: | William MALLETT |
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Mother: | MALLETT, Jane |
Father: | MALLET, William |
Mother's ship: | Pilot |
Father's ship: | |
Age when admitted: | 7yrs |
Date admitted: | 30 Apr 1838 |
Date discharged: | 15 Jun 1839 |
Institution(s): | Queens Orphan School |
Discharged to: | died |
Remarks: | |
References: | SWD28 |
William Mallett was the son of convicts William Mallett and Jane Brickhill who had married at Launceston in 1828. He was baptised at Longford in 1830 with two of his siblings. The family had settled in Launceston by the time his father was reconvicted in 1837 and sentenced to two years at Port Arthur. It is thought that young William may have been the son reported in the local paper as having been involved in the crime. After his time at the orphanage he changed his name to William Woolcott when he relocated to Circular Head as an adult. He worked there as a splitter and married Ada Sarah Johnson. They had three children. After his wife died in 1878 at Brickmakers Bay, he appears to have moved to Victoria like two of his brothers had in the 1840s and reverted to the surname ‘Mallett’. He remarried Jane Butcher in 1889 and they had a daughter together. He settled finally at Bullarto and was buried in the local cemetery there in 1902. The names and ages of his children native to Tasmania are listed on his death certificate exactly match the ‘Woolcott’ family (including the name and year of his wife’s death) His only son William James Woolcott/Mallett was born at Black River, Horton (now Circular Head District) in 1862 and it is through his son William Thomas Mallett (1883-1956) that my family traces its ancestry.