IT is not every day that you find one of your ancestors was a convict, transported to Australia for theft in the 19th Century.

So when Will Swales discovered that his great, great uncle, Ward Swale, met precisely that fate, he was a little shocked.

Yesterday, he visited the courthouse in Ripon, North Yorkshire, where Ward was sentenced and stood in the dock where he would have appeared 157 years ago.

He was then invited to re-open the building, now a museum, for the new season. It has been redecorated in the original colours used when the court opened in 1830.

Mr Swales, from York, found out about Ward while researching his family history. His story now features in an exhibition at the Courthouse Museum, called One Way to Botany Bay.

Mr Swales said: "I would never have imagined when I started researching that I would find a convict in the family.

"I knew of this character called Ward who apparently just disappeared off the face of the Earth. I put his name into a search on the Internet and up popped his details. It is exactly what I wanted to discover."

Ward was born in September 1828, near Smelthouses, in Nidderdale. On January 8, 1848 at Ripon Court of Quarter Sessions, Ward, a 19-year-old farm labourer, pleaded guilty to breaking into a house and stealing a watch and other small items, valued at two shillings and four pence. This was his second offence in a year and, because he was classified as a repeat offender, he was sentenced to seven years' transportation.

He spent nearly three years on a prison ship, before sailing to the River Colony in Western Australia. He was freed on October 14, 1851, the day he landed in Freemantle. He died in 1887 at the age of 58.

Mr Swales said: "When he appeared at the court, he was a most dishonourable prisoner. He was brought in chains, convicted and sentenced.

"And yet, because of that, I get to be here today as a very honoured and privileged guest. If his spirit is looking down on us now, I hope the irony of this situation is giving him a laugh.