George Turner - Father of Sarah Wagg and Jane Trickett

Update — June 2026: George Turner, Scarborough, John Tindall, Mary Ann/Jane, and the beginning of a new investigation

When I first wrote this post in May 2017, I described 16 May 1847 as the “highly likely” death date for George Turner. I wrote it deliberately on what appeared to be the 170th anniversary of his death, while also acknowledging that much of George’s story was still unfinished.

Nearly a decade later, the research has moved on. I now know that 16 May 1847 was indeed George Turner’s death date. I have also established, from New South Wales records, that George came from Scarborough in Yorkshire. Those same records point to a birth date of about 1805, although I have still not found a definite birth or baptismal record for him.

The most important new development is that George’s 1818 apprenticeship indenture can now be placed much more clearly in its Scarborough context. The original family-held indenture fragments showed that George was apprenticed from 3 September 1818 to John Tindall of Yorkshire to learn the occupation of shipwright. I have now established that this was John Tindall, born in Scarborough in 1785, a member of the well-known Scarborough shipbuilding family.

That changes the way I now read the document. George was not simply a boy from somewhere in Yorkshire who happened to be apprenticed to a shipwright. He appears to have been connected with one of Scarborough’s established maritime and shipbuilding networks. Scarborough itself was an important coastal and shipbuilding town, and the Tindall family were part of that world. The indenture therefore gives us more than George’s trade: it gives us a place, a community, and a possible route into understanding how a young Scarborough apprentice later became a ship carpenter in New South Wales.

There are still gaps, but the picture has become much stronger. Through a combination of documentary research and DNA evidence, I have now identified George’s parents as William Turner, bricklayer, and Sarah Turner, and I have also identified a number of George’s siblings. This has strengthened the case for George’s place within a Scarborough Turner family and has opened up new avenues for tracing the family through Scarborough and neighbouring parishes. However, I have still not found a definite baptism for George himself, and there is more work to do in fully documenting the wider family.

The family in New South Wales also now needs to be revisited. I have found a baptismal record for Mary Ann Turner, giving a birth date of 20 December 1834. This child is highly likely to be the daughter later known in the family as Jane Turner, who married John Trickett. If that identification is correct, it changes the way I now understand George and Mary Hand’s children. Rather than simply looking for a Jane Turner born about 1841, the evidence may point to a child baptised as Mary Ann in 1834 who later used, or was known by, the name Jane. That possibility will need to be tested carefully against later marriage, family, death and newspaper records.

I also need to separate the different generations of the Tindall family carefully, because the name John Tindall appears more than once in the Scarborough shipbuilding story. Public maritime sources show that the Tindall name was well established in Scarborough shipbuilding. A manuscript held by Royal Museums Greenwich refers to “Mr John Tindall’s, Ship Builder” at Scarborough in 1804, while Scarborough maritime histories describe the Tindalls as a long-standing shipbuilding family. This wider context makes George’s 1818 indenture even more valuable.

Rather than rewrite this original 2017 post as though I knew then what I know now, I have decided to leave it largely as it was. It remains a useful snapshot of the research at that time — written on the anniversary of George’s death, when the evidence was still incomplete but beginning to point in the right direction.

I will shortly begin a George Turner Investigation series, following the same approach as the William Webb Wagg Investigation. The series will revisit George’s Scarborough origins, the search for his birth or baptism around 1805, the 1818 apprenticeship to John Tindall, the Scarborough shipbuilding context, George’s arrival and life in New South Wales, his marriage to Mary Hand, the evidence for his daughters Sarah Wagg and Jane Trickett, the possible Mary Ann/Jane identification, and the difficult circumstances surrounding the end of his life.

As with the William Webb Wagg series, the aim will not be to force the evidence further than it can go, but to set out the documents, the clues, the uncertainties and the possibilities as clearly as possible. George’s death date is now confirmed. Scarborough gives us a much firmer place to begin. John Tindall’s signature on the indenture may prove to be one of the most important clues we have. And the Mary Ann Turner baptism may help reshape what we thought we knew about George and Mary’s family in New South Wales.

**************************************

Today seemed like a appropriate time to focus on George Turner, the father of Sarah and Jane as it's highly likely that George died on 16 May 1847 - 170 years ago today!

Our cousin, Leonie, has led the "The Webb Wagg Family" research into George and his wife Mary Ann Hand with many hour spent pouring over microfiche at the NSW State Archives and the Society of Australian Genealogists.  What's written here is a mixture of fact and informed speculation!

We are confident that George Turner, our many times great-grandfather, was born in about 1805 in Yorkshire, England to William and Sarah Turner.

We have fragments of George's indenture paper that have been handed down through "The Williams" and provided by George's 3X great-granddaughter, Linda.

Fragment of George Turner's Indenture Paper

Understandably, this document is fragile at it's almost 200 years old!  George's indenture commenced on 3 September 1818 when George was about 13 years old!  Here are some working copies provided by Linda which show George's signature along with that of his mother, Sarah, and the mark of William Turner, his father.

Linda's mother, Shirley, has transcribed as much as possible which reveals that-

• George's parents were William, a bricklayer, and Sarah and they came from Yorkshire, England.
• George was apprenticed to John Tindall of Yorkshire for two years from 3 September 1818.
• George was to "learn" the occupation of a shipwright.

It seems that George learned his trade and, in 1828, arrived in Port Jackson as a free man on board "The Promise". 

George Turner and Mary Hand - 1831 Permission to Marry

On 12 October 1831, George Turner and Mary Hand were given permission to marry (shown in the middle of the right hand side of the page above).  George Turner, aged 26, who "came free" was given permission to marry Mary Hand, aged 25, who was transported for life and arrived on "The Forth" and was "bonded".  So Mary was still a convict at the time of her marriage to George but that's a story for another day.....

George Turner and Mary Hand married on 23 November 1831 in a Catholic ceremony at Parramatta.  The marriage was registered at St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney.

At this time, we only know of two daughter from the marriage - Sarah Wagg (nee Turner) was born on 21 October 1832 and Jane Trickett (nee Turner) was born in about 1841.  We're still trying to locate Jane's birth registration - elusive in spite of much searching!  Jane's birth date has been based on her death registration.  There may be more children of George and Mary...again an area of ongoing research!  We're even using the current fad, DNA testing, to see where this leads us.....

On 9 December 1832, Sarah was baptised at St Mary's Cathedral.  Her baptism registration shows her father as George Turner, a ship carpenter on the Brig Irvoine, but, sadly, there is no mother recorded - possibly as Mary was still a "bonded" convict.  The sponsors for Sarah's baptism were John Rowell, "Quarry Man, to be a Catholic" and Miss Ellen Downey.

The work of our cousin, Leonie, has been very exhaustive from this point on as George, the shipwright, doesn't seem to have been part of his daughter's lives.  George's name and occupation are on Sarah and Jane's marriage and death registrations but these details could have come from their birth registrations.

There's a slight possibility that George could have left the colony.  Sadly, George's most likely fate is that he found himself in Darlinghurst Goal in early 1847.  In early March 1847, the goal papers record that George was a "pauper and had no means of contributing to his own support" and that the visiting doctor was of the belief that he was "insane and recommend that he be sent to Asylum for Lunatics".  Sarah was 15 and Jane about 6.  We have no evidence that their mother, Mary Hand, was with them.  The bond that we've seen between Sarah and Jane and their families now becomes very understandable......

On this day 170 years ago, George Turner died.  His burial transcription records his ages as 42, occupation as "lunatic" with his residence as "lunatic asylum".  George's burial on 17 May 1847 is recorded in the Church of England Burials in the Parish of Hunters Hill.  

The story of "our George Turner" has not ended for us!  We're still looking at both ends of George's life and would dearly love to find his burial site......

***********************************

2026 note: At the time this post was written, George’s death date was still being treated cautiously. Further research has now confirmed that George Turner died on 16 May 1847. New South Wales records have also established that he came from Scarborough in Yorkshire and suggest that he was born about 1805. I have not yet found a definite birth or baptismal record for George himself.

The 1818 apprenticeship indenture has also become more significant. I have now established that the John Tindall who signed the indenture was John Tindall, born in Scarborough in 1785, from the Scarborough shipbuilding family. This connects George not just to Yorkshire in a general sense, but to Scarborough’s maritime and shipbuilding world.

I have also found a baptismal record for Mary Ann Turner, born 20 December 1834. This child is highly likely to be the daughter later known as Jane Turner, who married John Trickett. That possible Mary Ann/Jane identification will be one of the questions revisited in the forthcoming George Turner Investigation series.