Cyprus mutiny Cyprus mutiny The "Cyprus" mutiny took place in 1829 off the British penal settlement of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania, Australia). Convicts seized the brig and sailed her to Canton, China, where they scuttled her and claimed to be castaways from another vessel. On the way, "Cyprus" visited Japan during the height of the period of severe Japanese restrictions on the entry of foreigners, the first Australian ship to do so. The mutineers were eventually captured. Two of them, George James Davis and William Watts, were hanged at Execution Dock, London on 16 December 1830, the last men hanged for
William Winterbourne pleaded for Winterbourne’s life, but to no avail. Unusually for hanged men his body was returned to Kintbury and buried in the churchyard. A ceremony was held there in 2013 to remember him. It included a descendant of William Winterbourne. William Winterbourne William Winterbourne, also known as William Smith, was the very first of the "Victims of Whiggery" to be hanged at Reading Gaol on 11 January 1831 for his part in the Swing Riots of 1830. He was born in Kintbury in 1798. The riots involved agricultural labourers and others from the south and east of England whose livelihoods