SLY, John (1768?-1829) — London
Engraver & publisher. Published A new puzzle map of the present state of England and Wales 1794.
Born about 1768. Son of the bookseller John Sly of Witham, Essex, apprenticed (Clothworkers) to the engraver William Stadden Blake (see BME 2011) 12 Mar 1783. He married (1) Sarah Thornton (1760?-1807) at St. Botolph Aldgate 21 Nov 1790. On 21 Sep 1807 he was convicted at Middlesex Sessions of forging counterfeit theatre tickets for a benefit performance and sentenced to six months in the House of Correction (General Evening Post, 22 Sep 1807). On 1 Nov 1809 at the Old Bailey, he was “indicted for that he on the 9th of September, in the 49th year of his Majesty’s reign, feloniously and without any authority in writing for the purpose from the Governor of the Bank of England, did engrave and cut and knowingly aiding and assisting in engraving and cutting in and upon a certain plate of copper, a certain note purporting to be a banknote for the payment of one pound”. Having entered a plea of guilty, he was sentenced to transportation for seven years, while his co-accused, Elizabeth Flamston (1785-1853) (named as Eliza Hempstead in some press reports), was given fourteen years for the possession of multiple notes from the forged plate. He subsequently, as a widower, married Elizabeth Flamston at St. Sepulchre 10 Feb 1810. After some time on the prison-hulk Retribution at Woolwich, he arrived at Sydney on the Admiral Gambier 29 Sep 1811. The Sydney Gazette 7 Oct 1815 reported Sly’s wife being questioned over some forged ten-shilling notes, although no further action appears to have been taken. He and his wife had several children in Australia and in 1824 he was granted an allotment to build a residence for his family. He was subsequently hanged there for the forgery of Waterloo Company promissory pound-notes 28 Dec 1829 aged sixty-two. A “numerously and respectably signed” petition for clemency (Sydney Gazette, 8 Dec 1829) had been ignored by the Governor. He was buried at Devonshire Street Cemetery, Sydney. “Though an excellent engraver, Sly was an incorrigible drunkard, and felt quite contented on an average to work two days in the week only out of the six … He is said to have executed a counterfeit plate of the Bank of England so admirably, as almost, to defy detection … He was a spare dark man, and seemed to be either very near or very dim sighted … Thus died John Sly, engraver. However, his life may have been regulated, yet, in the closing scene of existence, he displayed a fortitude which would have become a philosopher” (The Australian, 31 Dec 1829).
3 Sun Court, Aldgate — 1794
10 Worship Street — 1807
Goulburn Street, Sydney — 1822
Upper Pitt Street, Sydney — 1829
BNA. Clothworkers. Fincham. LHD. OB. Tooley. Trove.