TAYLOR, Thomas (Abraham MOSES) (Martin MOSS)
b. Stepney, 1800
Lotus, 1833; Convict; Sentenced to 7 years, Middlesex, 1832.
Cressy, 1843; Convict; Sentenced to 7 years, Central Criminal Court, 1843.
Married; Labourer and whaler; Height: 173 cm; 6 children (in England).
Fresh complexion, large head, black hair, black bushy whiskers, rather long face, hazel eyes, long thin nose, broad chin. Tattoo S. M. on inside left arm, small scars on both hands and wrists. Jew. Can read and write. Surgeon's report: ‘Very useful on board … gave great satisfaction’.
Abraham Moses was transported to Australia twice. The first time he arrived in Van Diemen's Land, he bore the name Martin Moss, and he came on the Lotus to Hobart Town on 16 May 1833. Moses, or Moss (and eventually Taylor), had been convicted at Middlesex on 29 November 1832 and sentenced to seven years transportation for having stolen two coats from the back of a cart guarded only by ‘a boy’.
On 7 November 1835 (after his initial period of probation) Moss, an assigned servant to a Mr Tucker in Perth, was convicted for being drunk and for neglecting his work, and was returned to the service of the Crown. On 8 September 1836 he was sent to the cells for ten days for having been found gambling in the Colonial Hospital. On 21 September a further month's hard labour in chains was decreed. By 11 January 1837 he was once again working as an assigned convict servant when he was convicted of being drunk. On 8 August Martin Moss was convicted for misconduct, having been found in possession of a pencil case for which he could not account. He was given six months hard labour and sent to the Snake Banks Road Party at the discretion of the Lieutenant Governor. On 2 July 1838 he was found to have ‘various articles in his possession for which he cannot satisfactorily account’. He was returned to government service and it was noted that he was not to be assigned again. However, by 4 November 1838, he had been assigned to Mr McDowell and was found to be drunk. He received seven days solitary confinement on bread and water. Martin Moss received his certificate of freedom in 1839 and returned to England.
He arrived back in Hobart Town on 20 August 1843, as a prisoner, with the new name ‘Thomas Taylor’. By this time he was forty-three years old and reported that he had six children. He said that he had been transported for stealing meat valued at five shillings from a Public House on the Twyford Road. His previous conviction was for ‘cart robbery’:
I served at Hobart Town and arrived by the Lotus in May 1833 in the name of ‘Martin Moss’ which is my proper name. I was in the service of Mr Dawson in Launceston. I obtained my freedom in 1839. I had been convicted [in Van Diemen's Land] for assault. I had separated from my wife and stated I am single at Gaol and went home as cook for Lieutenant Governor George Arthur in February 1841.
His wife's name was Sarah. His father, David, lived in Aldgate and was a ‘corn doctor’. Taylor was sent to Port Arthur on 24 October 1843.
OBSP 29 November 1832, case 165. CON 33/40, no. 9750; CON 39/2, p. 112; CON 14/22, no. 4751; CON 18/37; CF 805.
TIETZNER, Wolff (TIEBZNER)
b. Courland, Prussia (Poland), 1811
Palmyra, 1846; Convict; Sentenced to 7 years, Central Criminal Court, 1845.
Single; Provision merchant; Height: 173 cm.
Fresh complexion, brown hair, black bushy whiskers, dark brown eyes, large nose. Jew. Can read and write German. Wolff Tielzner stole two casks of butter, biscuits, cheese and flour from a general dealer in provisions at Tower Hill. In “broken English” he had persuaded the store keeper to supply the captain of a fictitious ship with supplies.
No colonial offences were recorded against Tietzner. He was assigned to Moses Moses (q.v.) in Launceston in 1847. A ticket of leave was issued on 23 April 1850 and a conditional pardon on 23 July 1850.
OBSP 24 November 1845 case 123. CON 33/81, no. 18951; CON 14/36; CON 18/47.
TOLANO, Raphael
b. London, 1819–1896
Charles Kerr, 1837; Convict; Sentenced to 14 years, Central Criminal Court, 1836.
Single; Labourer; Height: 160 cm; 12 children.
Dark sallow complexion, black hair, hazel eyes. Small scar on left cheek. Could read and write. ‘Hebrew’. The son of Joseph Tolano and Rebecca (née Romanel), Raphael Tolano was transported for picking pockets. He stole a handkerchief, valued at two shillings, in Newgate Street. He had served a previous sentence of six months, and was sentenced on 19 September 1836.
Raphael Tolano arrived in New South Wales on 9 October 1837 and was mustered at the Hyde Park Barracks the following week. At the end of that year the General Return of Convicts in New South Wales listed Tolano as a convict servant assigned to James R. Keay of Bathurst. A ticket of leave for the district of Bathurst was issued on 12 December 1843. Raphael Tolano ‘of Bathurst’ married Elizabeth Crabb (almost illiterate), the daughter of Emanuel Crabb (q.v.) at the Sydney Synagogue on 9 August 1848. On 1 October 1848 he received a conditional pardon.
When Joseph Simmons (q.v.) left his stores at Bathurst and Carcoar in order to return to Sydney in 1850, ‘Ralph’ Tolano was left in charge. When the gold rush began, Tolano took over the Beehive Store in ‘the land of Ophir’ and advertised that he would buy gold dust in exchange for goods. It was reported that he had quickly accumulated £500 worth of gold. He bought wool, sheepskins, hides, tallow and produce in exchange for goods.
In 1851 Tolano followed the gold rush to Turon and in September 1852 he gave evidence at a trial involving gold stolen from the Sydney Mail. He returned to Sydney and was listed in the 1855 Waugh and Cox Directory of Sydney at 391 George Street. On 32 May 1856 Tolano was granted a publican's licence for the Edinburgh Castle Hotel in Pitt Street and in April 1858 he received a licence for Skinner's Hotel.
By 1862 Tolano was the manager of the Royal Victorian Theatre and, later, the Prince of Wales Theatre, in Sydney. Joseph Jefferson, an itinerant American actor has left us a description of Tolano on stage:
He was an under-sized, round shouldered little cockney, named Rolamo. Where he got this remarkably Italian appellation I cannot say, but if his ancestors belonged to the ‘land of song’ they must have strayed into the heart of Whitechapel just previous to the birth of their son and heir, as his dialect was strongly impregnated with the drawling twang of that locality. It is recorded of him that he never was known to put an h in the right place, and his talent for reversing the w and v almost amounted to genius. He had originally been lamplighter in the theatre, but by his industry and intelligence he rose to be its manager, and he was in the zenith of his fame when I arrived in Australia.
The children of Raphael and Elizabeth Tolano were Joseph, born at Bathurst (1849–1930), Moses Saul (1852), Rebecca (1856–1926), Phillip (1856–1923), Abraham (1857–1858), Rachel (1858, who died in infancy), Lewis Samuel (1859), Miriam (1862–1930), Sarah (1864), Catherine (1866), Rosetta, born in Brisbane (1869–1874), and Emanuel (1871), also born in Brisbane.
Raphael Tolano died on 2 November 1896 and was buried in the Jewish section of Rookwood Cemetery. Elizabeth died, aged eighty-two, on 19 May 1910.
Charles Kerr Printed Indent 9 October 1837, p. 161; OBSP, 1836, case 2038, p. 775; Pardon Register, 4/4182; TL 43/2792; CP 48/1896; M. Z. Forbes, ‘The Jews of New South Wales and the Gold Rushes’, AJJHS, vol. 12, no. 2 (1994), p. 291f; Kim Phillips, One Family's Story, Sydney, 1997.