On this day in Oxfordshire...

ON 26 FEBRUARY 1830 at the Lent Assizes for Berkshire ploughman and shepherd Richard Rider, 34, was convicted of stealing ”an ewe sheep” from Letcombe Bassett. He was sentenced to fourteen years’ transportation to Van Dieman’s land.

After he had served three years – with only one minor offence committed along the way – Rider was allowed to bring out his wife Elizabeth and children. With a favourable climate, plentiful work, housing and food, life was often better for families Down Under than it would have been back in Blighty.

[Pictured: White’s Farm]