1832: William Kennedy
1832: William Kennedy
William Kennedy, 19, was tried for murder at the Old Bailey on 6 September 1832, together with William Brown, also 19. While on the Thames on the night of 17 July, close to Vauxhall Bridge, Kennedy and Brown approached William Wilkinson’s boat and stole both Wilkinson’s coat and that of his friend, Mr Bodkin. In an attempt to retrieve the coats, Wilkinson fell into the river and, according to Bodkin, was hit several times on the head by Kennedy’s and Brown’s oars.
Despite five witnesses defending Kennedy’s good character, he and Brown were both condemned to death. These convictions were later commuted to transportation for life. Kennedy sailed for Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) on the Surrey on 19 November 1832, arriving in Australia on 7 April 1833.
This token appears to be engraved by the same hand as the tokens for J Riley and T King, who were convicted in London at the same time.
Diameter: 35mm, thickness: 2mm
Token engraved with nine lines of stippled cursive text:
When
this you see
remember me and
bear me in your
mind. let all the wo
rld say what they
will speak of
+ me as you +
+ find +
Token engraved with stippled text and designs. It is decorated with two birds, a star, a decorative heart, leaves and two swirls. Around the top of the token and on either side of the heart is the text:
September 6th
William Kennedy
Within the heart is the word:
love
and beneath the heart is the date:
1832
More tokens to discover
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Lynette El Sherif
15th Feb 2019
Yes I agree with the similarities of text wording and font type. Very interesting I did not know about these tokens, until now (2019). I believe sailors also gave tokens to there loved ones before they set sail. The tokens to me are so sad and final, often the giver was really young.
April
12th May 2018
So interesting to see this style of token replicated on J Riley and T King! There definitely seems to be a pattern of similar tokens that were clearly engraved by the same hand? And of course the fact that they were all convicted at the same time, really adds strength to this.! reading this, has certainly helped clarify my suspicions of my own convict token.