Australian Royalty: Genealogy of the colony of NSW

Ezekial Lock Leader, one of 200 convicts transported on the ship 'Indian', July 1810.
Alias(es): Thurston, Ezekial Lock
Sentence details: Convicted at Middlesex Gaol Delivery for a term of life on 12 April 1809.
Vessel: Indian.
Date of Departure: July 1810.
Place of Arrival: New South Wales.

EZEKIEL LOCKLEADER, alias LOCKTHURSTON, and ROBERT LOCKLEADER, alias LOCKTHURSTON, were indicted for feloniously stealing on the 6th of March, a mare, value 14 l. the property of John Ashby.
The case was stated by Mr. Alley.
STEPHEN NORTON . Q. Are you a servant of Mr. Ashby's - A. Yes, his name is John Ashby, he resides at Cuddome in Kent, it is about eighteen miles from town, and eight miles from Bromley.
Q. Your master is a quaker - A. Yes.
Q. On the night of the 5th of March had your master a mare - A. Yes; I attended her, I put her in the stable on the night of the 5th of March, about half past nine o'clock.
Q. Was that stable adjoining the premises of Mr. Richards, the millwright - A. Yes. On the next morning, between five and six o'clock, on the 6th of March, I went to the stable, I found the door open and the mare was gone; the lock was turned almost off the door; two collars, the harness and whip, were gone.
Q. Was there any straw gone - A. Not from our place.
COURT. What sort of a mare was she - A. A brown mare; she was ringed on both shoulders, the right shoulder rather more than the left; I know the mare very well. The mare is now in the yard.
Mr. Curwood. What trade is your master - A. A miller, he has no partner.
Q. There is no particular striking marks about this mare, no blaze in the forehead, is there - A. There is a small mark in the forehead.
COURT. Are there any marks on her legs - A. The off hind leg is white near the hock down towards the hoof, and the near fore leg is white a little way up.
Q. What height is she - A. I cannot tell the particular height, she is not quite fifteen hands, high I believe, somewhere thereabouts.
THOMAS EVANS . Q. You keep the turnpike gate in the parish of Caston, at Leave's green - A. Yes.
Q. How far is that from Cuddome - A. From Cuddome street it is about three miles.
Q. Do you remember on Sunday night the 5th of March any cart and mare coming to your gate - A. Yes, I had but one; it came about one o'clock or a little after.
COURT. That was Monday morning rather - A. Yes. It was a very moon shiney, star light morning.
Mr. Alley. How many persons were in that cart - A. I saw but one, and that was the person which drove it.
Q. Did you get any toll of him - A. Yes.
Q. Had you any conversation with him at the time the toll was paid - A. I had; he staid a little while three or four minutes.
Q. Do you recollect the person - have you ever seen him since - A. I have; I saw him at the magistrate's office, Hatton-garden.
Q. Now look round and tell me whether you see him here - A. This hither young man, Robert Lockleader.
Q. Are you sure that he was the man that you conversed with, and that paid you the toll - A. That was the man that paid me toll.
Q. Did you see whether there was any straw in the cart - A. A great deal of straw stuck up at the sides of the cart.
Q. Was any enquiry made to you about the road to London - A. They never asked for the road to London. We conversed a little while, when I asked them for the toll, he said he would pay me when he came back; I asked him who the cart belonged to; he told me the cart belonged to Mr. Dodd; then I said you shall not go through without paying me the toll; he said I must give him change - what is your change - a shilling; I told him to hand me over the money, I would give him the change; he gave me the shilling; I put my hand in my pocket and gave him sixpence, then I released him and away he went. His toll was sixpence.
Q. From your observations of him, do you know that he was the person that drove the cart - A. Yes; he told me the cart belonged to Mr. Dodd. It was harnessed up in an odd kind of manner; I can say that I can swear to the horse and cart; I have seen the horse and cart through my gate three times a week; that is the horse that was in the cart that is in the yard, I have seen it; it was harnessed in an odd way, with rope under and over the back. I stood by the harness while I was discoursing with him, and put my hand upon it.
Mr. Curwood. You have said you could not swear to the horse and cart - A. I can swear to the horse and cart; that was the horse and cart that went through my gate; I did not chuse to swear to it then.
COURT. Can you swear to the horse - are you certain that horse in the yard is the horse that went through your gate - A. I am sure that is the horse that went through the gate; I did not mind the marks; I know that it is the horse that went through my gate, seeing it so many times.
Mr. Curwood. You have but few horses come through your gate - A. Some nights none; I had just let a team through before, but not a horse and cart; only that horse and cart; I saw it next at Hatton-garden.
Q. How happened it that you did not know him again - A. I did know him.
Q. How happened it that you could not swear to it the first time - A. I did not choose to swear to it that time.
COURT. Why did you not choose to take your oath the first time - A. I did not like it.
Q. What reason had you for not liking it - A. I was loth to swear to him; I was sure he was the man.
Q. Why were you loth to swear to him when you saw him at the office - A. I never did take an oath before.
Q. No doubt of that - if you knew he was the man why were you loth to swear to him, when you were sworn to tell the truth - if you had no doubt of his being the man why did not you not swear that he was the man - A. I did not choose.
Q. Tell us your reason for not choosing - A. I did not like to take an oath to him.
Q. Why did not you like to swear to him if you knew him - if you had a doubt you did right, but if you had not a doubt, why did not you swear to him - A. I did not choose.
Q. What reason had you for not choosing - why do not you answer me - A. Why to be sure I was rather afraid, being in the night.
Q. It being in the night when you saw him, you doubted whether he was the man - A. I have sworn to him.
COURT. Then you said I believe him to be the man, I do not swear to him.
JANE WERRY. Q. Where do you live - A. I live in Cuddome parish, close by the woodside, about half a mile from the prosecutor's house.
Q. Does your brother in Cuddome keep a cart - A. Yes, about two miles from me; he lives about half a mile from Mr. Ashby.
Q. Do you know your brother's cart very well - A. Yes, I know it by the rattle; I had the curiosity to get out of bed on the night of the 5th of March.
Q. Did any thing induce you to get out of bed - A. Yes; I was awoke between twelve and one on the night of the 5th of March; I heard the cart; I got out of bed; I knew the noise perfectly well, that induced me to get up.
COURT. What made you know the noise of the cart - A. I have been in the habit of using the cart.
Q. What sort of a noise has your brother's cart - has your brother's cart a different noise from other people's carts - A. It went lumping along, it made a great noise.
Q. Do not other carts make so much noise as your brother's - do you mean to swear that no other cart made so much noise as your brother's cart - A. I cannot swear that, but it made a lumping noise; I used it three or four times a week. I got up, I saw the cart, I had a great suspicion by the noise that it was my brother's cart; I saw two slimmish young men in the cart. It was moon-light, a; bright as day; I thought I knew it by the noise.
Q. Did you know it by looking at it - A. I thought I knew it by the noise; there were two slight young men in it, one of them seemed to lay back in the straw; they seemed to be as near the size of the prisoners, as nigh as I can tell.
Q. Is your house nearer Cuddome than the turnpike - A. Yes.
Q. Then before they get to Leave's green they pass your house - A. Yes.
Mr. Curwood. This is a comical cart, you thought you knew it by the noise - A. Yes; I thought I knew the cart.
Q. But you were not quite certain when you saw it. - A. No, I was certain of the noise.
JOHN HINCKLEY. I am a bone-boiler; I live at the bottom of Maiden-lane, St. Pancras.
Q. On Monday morning, the 6th of March, about six o'clock, or a little after, were you out - A. Yes; I was going to my horse up Maiden lane; I observed about half a mile up the lane, a cart drawed into the ditch and the horse of the other side, tied to a bush, grazing in Mr. Dennett's field.
Q. Was it a horse or a mare - A. I did not take notice. It was a dark brown horse, almost a black. The horse in the yard is the same horse. I saw the two prisoners about an hundred yards from the cart, they were looking into Mr. Dennett's field; they were standing by the bank side; the horse was tied to a bush in the field.
Q. Did you speak to them - A. I went on; I went up to my horse and fed and watered him; about half an hour afterwards I came down and looked in the cart and found a boy, I pulled the straw of one side, he appeared to me to be asleep.
COURT. How big a boy - A. A small boy, about ten or twelve years of age.
Mr. Alley. Was that the boy that saw at Hatton Garden office before the magistrate - A. No, I never saw him there, he was released before I came.
Q. Did you see either of the prisoners when you saw the boy - A. No; I did not; the horse's harness was in the cart with the boy.
Q. I think you said it was full of straw - A. Yes, it was full of straw. Near two o'clock in the day, I cannot tell exactly what time it was, it was very late in the day; I came down Maiden-lane to get some victuals; I saw that small boy bring the horse out of Mr. Dennett's field; he tied him to the wheel of the cart.
Q. Were either of the prisoners about the cart then - A. No; I never saw them any more till I saw them at Hatton Garden.
WILLIAM CARR. On the 6th of March Thomas Frost, my master (he lives in Maiden-lane, St. Pancras) sent me after his horses, between nine and ten in the morning; I went up the lane to bring the horses to go to work; I saw a boy and I saw a cart in a ditch in the lane, by the side of a bank, and the horse was in Mr. Dennett's field.
Q. Have you seen the horse today - A. Yes; it was the same horse that is in the yard; and I have seen the cart to day over the way. Between five and six in the evening my master ordered me to bring the horses again to work, after having turned them out; as I was coming down the lane I saw the little boy again and the two prisoners, they were all three together, they were going up the lane towards the cart and horse, the horse was then in the field; I asked them whether they would take the horse out of the field, or else they would get it pounded; they said (all three) we are going off at five o'clock.
COURT. Did all three speak - A. I did not take notice which of them said it; one of them said we are going off at five o'clock; I do not know which it was.
Mr. Alley. Are you sure the answer was we are going off at five o'clock - A. Yes.
Mr. Curwood. You say you did not take notice who gave you the answer - A. No.
Q. You say you saw the little boy - you are not quite certain who made the answer, it might be him - A. It might be.
JAMES PETERS. I live in Maiden-lane, about a mile up. On the 6th of March, about six o'clock in the evening, I saw a cart and a dark brown coloured horse, almost a black. I saw the cart to day, and the horse I saw yesterday in the yard. The cart was standing on the road side, with one wheel drawed in the ditch against the bank; the horse stood of the opposite side of the lane, grazing in the lane, almost opposite of the cart; I took notice of the cart; my little boy was with me; I saw these two prisoners and a small boy in the lane, they were apparently to me playing at marbles about an hundred yards from the cart. I went towards the bottom of the lane, I met two men, I assisted in taking the prisoners.
JAMES HANCOCK. I am an officer belonging to Hatton Garden office. In consequence of information I apprehended the prisoner on the 6th of March, a little before seven in the evening, in Maiden-lane; I was in company with Davies, from whom I received the information; I came to the cart, one wheel of which stood in the ditch on the left hand side of the lane, it was pretty well full of loose straw; I felt in the cart and I felt these two prisoners legs, and a boy there was.
Q. You felt the legs of three persons - A. I did, and it turned out to be the two prisoners, they were covered with straw; I first felt them and called out to know who was there; I said who have you got there; they jumped up and shewed their heads; I whistled for Davies; and the boy belonging to these prisoners attempted to get out of the cart; I made them get out of the cart, and I secured them; the horse was then in the field on one side of the cart, just a little over the bank, which the horse might get up, as there were very few bushes; I secured them; being dark I put some knives that I took from them in my pocket; I found a dollar and a few shillings on Ezekiel. After their examination they wished to have their knives; Robert owns one knife, and Ezekiel the other. They have asked me several times for the knives; yesterday I was down below in the yard where the prisoners were, I shewed them both the knives; Robert said the old knife was his, and Ezekiel owned the new one.
Q. When you apprehended them did you ask them who they were and where they lived - A. I did; they told me that they lived at Mrs. Norris's, Porter's-buildings, Twister's-alley, Bunhill-row; and that they laid down in the cart for half an hour; I enquired according to that direction, I was not able to discover that they lived there; I went to the house that they directed me to; the people of the house told me that they did not know them. I searched the house there were only two rooms.
Mr. Curwood. It was a very cold night - A. It was coolish and very dark.
GEORGE WERRY. I live at Cuddome, I am a labourer, and keep a cart and two horses; I go to work with them.
Q. Have you seen a cart near this court - A. Yes, that cart belongs to me.
Q. When did you lose that cart - A. I missed it on Monday morning the 6th of March; it was the last thing I saw on Sunday night when I went to bed.
Hancock. I shewed him the cart, and he owned it.
JOHN RICHARDS . I am a millwright. I live at Cuddome.
Q. Now look at that knife, that is the old knife described by Hancock to be claimed by Robert - A. That is my knife.
Q. When did you lose it - A. I am not able to say in what week it was.
Q. How soon after the 5th of March did you miss that knife - A. A week after; I used that knife on Sunday the 5th of March.
Q. Had you ever given it or lent it to any body - A. I have never given it to any body or lent it to any body. I am quite sure it is mine.
Mr. Curwood. Do you know when you lost that knife - A. I know I had that knife on that day; I never saw it after; I make no doubt the knife was taken when my tools were taken; the cart was gone from my house that night as I used the knife in the day; I lost the tools in the night, and the knife at the same time, I make no doubt; I am not able to say whether the knife was left in the same place as the tools or not; I believe it was; I used it on the 5th in picking the dirt from under the heels of my boots; I used it in my own house part, and part where my tools are.
COURT. Where did you first begin to use the knife to pick the dirt out of your boots - A. In my house.
Q. to Hancock. When you apprehended the prisoners what did you do with the horse and cart - A. We took the horse and cart the same night.
Q. Is the same horse now in the yard - A. Yes.
Q. They call it a horse, I see in the indictment they call it a mare - A. It is a mare.
Q. Was the horse in the yard yesterday - A. It was, I caused it to be brought in the yard from the stable over the way.
Q. Do you know whether Peters saw it yesterday - A. I have no doubt but he did. The cart had chalked upon it
"Thomas Simmonds , 794" the board, it appears had been taken off.
Q. to Peters. Go out and look at the horse now - A. That is the same mare, I have seen the mare now.
Esckiel Lockleader's Defence. We were walking up the lane in the morning to meet my sister, she was gone up to Highgate, and we walked by the cart; I said to my brother we may as well sit down on the cart till my sister comes up; we sat down in the cart; it was very cold, we laid down in the cart, and throwed the straw over us, thinking we should hear her come by. My brother's knife was a round pointed knife; when Mr. Hancock shewed it us, I told him it was too far off, I could not tell.
Robert Lockleader 's Defence. When Mr. Hancock was coming down the lane, he told three children he would give them ten guineas if they would swear what he wanted them and when he shewed the knives to us, I told him it was too far off, I could not tell.
The prisoner called one witness, who gave him a good character.
E. LOCKLEADER - GUILTY, DEATH, aged 17.
R. LOCKLEADER - GUILTY, DEATH, aged 15.
The prisoners were recommended to his Majesty's mercy by the jury on account of their youth.
Second Middlesex jury, before Mr. justice Lawrence.

Ezekiel was the superintendent of his brother Robert's farm at Evan and by 1825 had his own land grant.

Simpson, Jane S. came free, Minstrel, wife of D. Thurston Sydney
Thurston, Daniel, conditional pardon, Anne 2, life, Principal Clerk, Muster Office, Sydney
Thurston, Robert, F, 2 and a half, born in the colony, child of Robert Thurston, Sydney
Thurston, Betsey, G, 6, born in the colony, child of Robert Thurston, Sydney
Thurston, Dixon, convict, Ocean, 7 years, government servant to Will Thurston Sydney
THURSTON, EDWARD [EZEKIAL?], CONDITIONAL PARDON, INDIAN, LIFE, LODGER, WITH WILLIAM THURSTON, SYDNEY
Thurston, Mary A., came free, daughter of J. Thurston, dec'd., Sydney
Thurston, Sophia, Orphan School Parramatta
Thurston, William, conditonal pardon, lAnn, life, dealer, Sydney
Thurston, Mary, came free, Northampton, wife
Thurston, John, 7, born in the colony, son of R. Thurston, Sydney
Thurston, Dixon, 8, son of John Thurston, dec'd., Sydney

Thurston, John, ticket of leave, Admiral Gambier, 1811, life, landholder, Evan
Thurston, Susan, came free, Providence, 1822, wife of John Thurston, Evan
Thurston, Mary, came free, Providence, 1822, grand daughter of John Thurston, Evan
THURSTON, EZEKIAL, CONDITONAL PARDON, INDIAN, 1810, LIFE, LANDHOLDER, SYDNEY
Thurston, Daniel, conditional pardon, Ann, 1010, life, Schoolmaster, Parramatta
Thurston, William, conditional pardon, Ann, 1810, life, landholder, Evan
Thurston, Mary, came free, Northampton, 1815, wife of Wm. Thurston, Evan
Thurston, Dixon, 11, born in the colony, nephew of above
Thurston, Robert, ticket of leave, Indian, 1810, life, landholder, Evan
Thurston, Mary born in the colony, wife of R. Thurston, Evan
Thurston, Mary Ann, 10, born in the colony, daughter of R. Thurston, Evan
Thurston, John, 12, born in the colony, son of R. Thurston, Evan
Thurston, Elizabeth, 8, born in the colony, daughter of R. Thurston, Evan
Thurston, Robert, 6, born in the colony, son of R. Thurston, Evan
Thurston, Sophia, 3, born in the colony, daughter of R. Thurston, Evan
Thurston, John, 14, born in the colony, Orphan School, Liverpool
Thurston, Sophia, 11, born in the colony, Orphan School, Parramatta
Thurston, William, free by servitude, Ocean, 1816, 7 years, Employed by Wm. Thurston, Evan

Edward Thurston, 35, conditional pardon, Indian, 1810, residence Kearn's Retreat, farmer, Protestant
Catherine Paxman, 21, born in the colony, housekeeper

V1830343 14/1830 THURSTON EZEKIEL E DOUGLAS MARGARET CE
V18304780 3B/1830 THURSTON EZEKIEL E DOUGLAS MARGARET CE
V1830532 157/1830 THURSTON EZEKIEL E DOUGLAS MARGARET CE
(Church of England, Richmond)