Robert Palin
convict
Robert Thomas Palin (c. 1835 – 6 July 1861) was a convict transported to Western Australia. His execution in 1861 was the only time in the convict era of Western Australia that Ordinance 17 Victoria Number 7 was used to secure the capital punishment of a convict for a crime not normally punishable by death.
Born around 1835, nothing is known of Robert Palin's early life except his criminal record. In 1851, he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for housebreaking; in 1853, he was tried but acquitted of murder; and in March 1856, he was convicted of "burglary from the person" and sentenced to penal servitude for life. At the time of his sentencing, he was described as a shoemaker by trade.
Palin was transported to Western Australia on Nile, arriving in January 1860. His behaviour was good both during and after the voyage. In April 1860, he was appointed a probationary constable and received his ticket of leave in January 1861. At that time he had a house in Fremantle from which he worked as a shoemaker and took in lodgers.
On 29 May 1861, Palin was charged with having broken into the home of Samuel and Susan Harding.
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This entry incorporates text from “Robert Palin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.