Marriage Colgrave Watkins

Isabella Watkins is my 3x great grandmother. She was a convict transported for stealing 2 shawls. She was convicted at Surrey assizes on 29 March 1841. Just 3 months later she was put on the ship Garland Grove and left London on 23 June 1841. Isabella wasn’t mentioned by the ship’s surgeon as having been ill on the trip. On 10 October 1841 the ship arrived in Hobart Town with 179 female convicts and 13 children.

Just one year after arrival, Isabella Watkins(on) was asking permission to marry Francis Col(d)grave who was by this time a free person.  Convicts, still serving their sentence, needed to get permission to marry from the government. Their application was first sent to the muster master on 7 October 1842, who then passed it on to the secretary who received it about the 18th. In the final column of the marriage permission says App?

Permission to marry for Coldgrave and Watkinson

From reading other permissions to marry (PTM), it looks like the woman has to have been in the colony for at least 12 months before being given permission to marry someone.

The couple didn’t waste time. On 14 November 1842 they were married in the district of Avoca at the newly consecrated Anglican church. They were the 85th marriage in the church. They were married by Rev. William Richardson who was a Colonial Chaplain and was made the incumbent in October 1841.

Readers: Did you have an ancestor who had to get permission to marry from the government or a parent?

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