RESEARCHED BY PETER KILLACKEY
IKEY SOLOMONS - JAVELIN MAN AT RICHMOND GAOL.

Convict Stories: the 'Fagin' of London
Isaac (Ikey) Solomons

Born, possibly in 1785, as one of a family of nine children, Isaac Solomons married Ann Julian 1n 1807.
Solomon used a jeweller's shop which he opened in Bell Lane, London, as a receiving place for stolen goods. In 1810 he was arrested for picking pockets and was sent to the hulk "Zealand" under a sentence of transportation for life.
Given a free pardon on October 16th 1816, he continued his business as a 'fence', and achieved such notoriety that exaggerated accounts of his criminal activitues were published in pamphlet form. Reputable scholars suppose him to have been the original of Dickens'character, Fagin, in Oliver Twist.
Arrested on April 23rd, 1827 on charges of theft and receiving, Ikey was committed to Newgate, for trial at the old bailey. On May 25th Ikey escaped (after a detour through Petticoat Lane, when the guards were overpowered at a prearranged place) and managed to flee the country. On September 23rd, 1827 his wife was sentenced to 14 years transportation on a charge of receiving stolen goods, and sailed on the "Mermaid" on February 14th, 182
The "Mermaid" reached Hobart Town on 27th June, while on the 16th July, Isaac Solomon (under the name Slowman) sailed from Rio De Janiero to arrive in Hobart early in October 1828. His arrival was reported to the Colonial Office by Lieutenant Governor Arthur, who also allowed Ann Solomons to be assigned to her husband. Warrants sent from England for Ikey's arrest proved faulty, and the Governor provoked a storm of contoversy by issuing a warrant in his own name against Solomons, who was sent back to England early in 1830.
Sentenced at the Old Bailey to 14 years transportation, he arrived back in Hobart Town on Noveber 1st 1831, and later that month became a javelin man at Richmond Gaol. While at the Gaol, Ikey met with further charges and punishment, before being sent to work in the office aty Port Arthur Penal Settlement in July 1834.
Granted a ticket-of-leave, Ikey met with family problems which soured the granting of a conditional pardon in May 1840, and his certificate of freedom obtained in 1844.
Isaac Solomons was buried in Hobart Town on 3rd September 1850.