Rev.Richard Vines 1600-1656
“Dictionary Of National Biography”, Oxford University Press. 1917. Volume XX, pp 369-371 

During the 1640s a convention of leading theologians (Westminster Assembly of Divines) met in the Jerusalem Chamber of the Westminster Parliament to determine the acceptable creed and governance of the Church of England (Westminster Confession). It is of interest to note that the Rev. Richard Vines was a prominent member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines.
 

Richard Vines of Maine and Barbados
From http://famousamericans.net/richardvines/

VINES, Richard, colonist, born near Bideford, Devonshire, England, about 1585; died on the island of Barbadoes 19 April, 1651. He was educated as a physician, and was sent, with others, to Maine in 1609, to explore the country and effect a settlement, by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who appointed him his confidential agent and steward-general of the province. The settlement was established at Winter Harbor, near the mouth of Saco river, in 1616-'17. In 1629 Vines and John Oldham received a patent of lands, that are now occupied by the town of Biddeford, Maine, from the council of Plymouth, England. He was the principal superintendent of the plantation until the arrival in 1635 of William Gorges, who appointed him a councillor, and left the government in his hands once more on returning to England in 1643. In 1645 the general court, not having heard from the proprietor for more than a year, constituted a provisional government, making Vines deputy-governor, with authority to take possession of the property of Gorges and to pay his debts. The rival claims to the proprietorship of the province raised by Alexander Rigby, a lawyer from England, who belonged to the party of parliament, caused Vines such trouble that before the close of 1645 he resigned his office and returned to England. Soon afterward he settled in Barbadoes, where he became a planter and practised his profession.
 

Ann Vines Ward

Daughter of David Vines 1760-1830 who incurred her fathers displeasure when she married and
migrated to Ohio 1830.
 

Dr Edward Prince Vines 1850-1899
Speared by Aborigines in NW of Australia

Traffic Accident 1841
Fatal Accident of Daniel Vines – from the Cambrian newspaper dated 12 June 1841.
An inquest was held at the Angel Inn, Cardiff on Tuesday last on Daniel Vines, aged 50, who was accidentally run over by a horse and cart the preceding day. Daniel Vines was riding on the front of the cart, the horse "shied" at a stone, Daniel jumped down and endeavoured to stop the animal; he retained his hold of the horse’s head for some distance but was thrown down and the wheel of the cart passed over him. He died later that day at Cardiff Infirmary of his injuries. 
 

Death notice  for Jacob Vines  from The Cambrian(newspaper dated 3 August 1844). 
On the 30th ult. At Porthcawl, Glamorgan where he had been staying for the benefit of his health Jacob Vines, solicitor of Reading, Berks.
Jacob1787 was the son of James1758 Vines and brother of Benjamin1792 the tallow chandler of Bristol. Porthcawl is a Welsh seaside village about 5 miles from Bridgend where Benjamins daughter Cecilia and family (Hollyer) lived. 
 

George Robert Vine (1825–1893)
Amateur Naturalist
One of our participants Arthur (Bill) Vine in the Vines DNA project discovered that he had the Y chromosome DNA signature of the Nth Wiltshire, England family of farmers dating from the mid 1600s. He is descended from a Charles Vine who as a 17 year old joined the Marines in 1806. His recent news was an exciting find. 

 I came across a family history gold nugget just recently - a son of Chas the Marine had his biography published by the International Bryozoology Association - and only in 2002.   George Robert Vine 1825-1893, Sheffield based stay maker and amateur naturalist who specialised in the study of fossil bryozoans and Coal measure plants.   It said he was principally remembered today as the author of the Order Cryptostomata. 
Apparently, although from the 'working classes' he was funded to some extent by such organisations as the Royal Geological Society, British Association etc, but because of his lowly background, it is intimated that he was never asked to become a member of these august bodies.   Well, that's life for the lower orders!   On the other hand, it appears he was a staunch republican, a strict Methodist and a Sunday School teacher (looks like that's where he got his early learning as a boy in Portsea) fought for workers' rights in the 1840s, (Chartist Movement), journalist, poet, taught himself Greek and Latin, and gave lectures on Martin Luther - quite a guy! 

Bryozoa are tiny aquatic organisms sometimes called "moss animals". They live in colonies and are often found in coral environments, sometimes confused with seaweeds. Some live on underwater surfaces such as rocks, shells, piles and the bottom of ships. They are found in fossilised form in coal and limestone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryozoa

George Robert Vine was in on the ground floor of the science of Geology, a pioneer of his day. This was a strange pastime for a stay maker but from his other activities he was obviously a thinking man.
An abstract of "Bryozoans and corsetry: the palaeontological work of George Robert Vine (1825–1893) of Sheffield."
George Robert Vine was a Sheffield-based stay- (corset-) maker and amateur naturalist who also specialized in the study of bryozoans. He was born near Portsmouth into a poor family and received a limited school education. He was largely self-taught and spent a period in his youth engaged in various trades, as well as being active in the movement for social reform. In the 1850s he moved to Ireland to take up employment as a manager of a corset factory, married and had one daughter. He subsequently returned to Britain, where he had further children. He finally settled in Sheffield when he established a business as a stay-maker. His interest in fossils dated from his Irish sojourn and, in the late 1870s, he developed a fascination with Carboniferous foraminifera and bryozoans in particular. He published about 75 papers on bryozoans between 1877 and 1893. In particular, an ambitious series of British Association for the Advancement of Science reports on British fossil and Recent faunas are his most valuable contribution to bryozoological research, and he is principally remembered today as the author of the Order Cryptostomata. With his son, he sold micropalaeontological specimens from his home in order to augment his income. Vine's specimens are distinctive and many are now housed in several museums in the United Kingdom.
 

Sydney Howard Vines, Prof. of Botany, Oxford
http://www.headington.org.uk/history/buildings/vineyard_pollock.htm
Sydney Howard Vines (1850-1934) was a grandson of Benjamin1792 the tallow chandler of Bristol.
His elder son Walter Sherard Vines 1890-1974 was an English poet and writer.
His youngest son Howard William Copland1894 was an eminent pathologist between the world wars. 

Samuel Vines , British Consul of Azores and Children
 

Richard Vines of Bristol
The Riots of Bristol 1831 and an "idiot" boy
The French Revolution against the aristocracy and the prevailing living standards attracted much attention among the English people, who could see parallels in their own country. The UK came very close to revolution as the economic consequences of the Napoleonic Wars and industrialisation became felt. Efforts to extend the voting franchise were at first unsuccessful leading to unrest, and a riot broke out in Bristol in October 1831. The Army was ordered to fire on the rebellious crowds but was disinclined without written orders. These were not forthcoming and eventually the troops charged with swords as the crowds stormed the prisons and set fire to various city buildings and officials houses. Reportedly hundreds were killed. 
After the trial of people arrested four were hanged and the youngest, Richard Vines, was sentenced to transportation* for life "on the grounds that he was an idiot".
The convict records show
*Vines Richard    Arr 18 Jul 1832 Ship "England" Dep 05 Apr 1832 London  72408
 

Convicts to Australia
From Wiltshire, indent description on arrival at Sydney 
1
William Vines arrived "Planter", 15 Oct 1832, No. 2241/172 Standing No. 40/2719 
Aged 47, could not read or write, Protestant, married with two children (thought to be both female from another source.) 
Occupation: Ploughman & Milks 
Native Place: Wiltshire 

Crime: Burglary 
Trial: Salisbury, 3 March, 1832 
Sentence: LIFE [no previous convictions] 

Description: 5' 8"; complexion dark ruddy; hair brown with grey; eyes hazel; lost a front tooth left side upper jaw; 4th & little finger of right hand contracted [accident to  his hand?] 

 There was no record  of William's wife and children in Australia [possibly adults at time of sentencing]. Not named in the lists of families who came as assisted migrants to join their loved ones, no evidence of  applying to marry in the Colony. 
This is typical of the brutality of treatment of many convicts: separation from family for life for desparate attempts to obtain the necessities of living. The 1820s and 1830s were particularly hard times, in the wake of economic problems  following the Napoleonic Wars, and the bad epidemics at that time.
Certificate of Freedom: 49/652 15 Feb, 1849
He apparently left for Melbourne in 1852 and probably the goldfields in 1852. 
Vines William  Steerage Ship"Yarra Yarra" 20 Aug 1852 Launceston Melbourne Georgiana Free by servitude  POL220/2 p111

There are two possible deaths for William Vines on the NSW BDM; one in 1860, with no mention of his parents, and one in 1858 at Bathurst, son of William and Sena. On IGI, there is a William christened 4 May, 1783 in Bremhill, son of Daniel and Elizabeth who may fit the bill as this William would have been born around that time. 

2  Peter Vines arrived "Aurora", 3 Nov.,1833, No.2906/278

Aged 20, reads and writes, Protestant, single 
Occupation:Baker, Labourer & Carter 
Native Place: Wiltshire 

Crime: Pig Stealing 
Trial: Wiltshire, 2 March, 1833 
Sentence: 7 years [Previous convictions - 2 months] 

Description:5' 5 3/4"; complexion brown & freckled; hair brown; eyes brown; front upper teeth projecting: scar top of forehead; raised scar inside top of little finger of left hand. 

Certificate of Freedom: ? 41/561, no date given -not sure of this. 
Peter must have completed his sentence a couple of years before he married Catherine Riley, daughter of Edward Riley and Rosan, on the 19th Dec, 1842 at St. Andrews in Sydney. I think he died in 1887 at Grenfell [probably living with one of his children, as Catherine had died in 1876 in Dubbo]. Peter's parents were given as Thomas and Sophia. 

Peter was typical of many of the younger convicts, uneducated, unemployed and irresponsible with time on their hands, with a generation-gap attitude to direction by their elders. It is thought that Peters mother died when he was young and that he was passed between his elder siblings. 

Peter & Catherine had at least six children: 
Sophia R.[? Rosan], b. abt 1844, d.1902 at Forbes. She married John Byrne at Bathurst in 1864. 
William b. 1846 d. ?1860 
Edward Joseph b. 1848, d. 1915 at Granville. He married Susannah Sherman at Bathurst in 1872. This family seems to have stayed in the Granville/Parramatta area. 
Peter b 1851 d ?  . He married Mary Ellen Carmody at Bathurst in 1873. They had most of their children in St. Leonards, Sydney. I have more to do on this family, but so far I have found one son's death in Qld 
Robert b. 1854 d. 1915 Parramatta. He married Mary Jane Morris in St. Leonards, Sydney in 1886. Some of their children were born in Waterloo Sydney and one son married in St. Peters in 1920, so I presume the family stayed in the Sydney area.
(Thanks to Jenny Vines)

Standing No.36/1172 
Aged 20, reads & writes, Protestant, single 
Occupation: Waterman 
Native Place: Norfolk 

Crime: Stealing Cloth 
Trial: Central Criminal Court, 11 Sept,1835 
Sentence: 14 years [no previous convictions] 

Description: 5' 6"; complexion dark ruddy, pockpitted & freckled; hair dark brown; eyes grey; nose thick & short; three brown moles on breast; mermaid inside lower right arm; small wart back of middle finger. 

Benjamin got his Ticket of Leave [No. 44/1514] before 21 Jan, 1846, when he married another convict, Judith Sheahan, who came on the "Margaret". He was 29 and "free" and she was 27 when they were married by the Rev. Woodward at St. Thomas' Church of England, Port Macquarie. 
I can't find any children for them so far. 
Benjamin died at Sofala, aged 54 in 1869, but the names of his parents were not mentioned. 

Being from Norfolk Benjamin was very probably unrelated to the Wiltshire Vines. 
The sentence of 14 years exile was certainly a rigourous punishment on a child. He was a fairly big kid at 5ft 6in, so perhaps was also cheeky. Sounds like he answered the judge back and had the sentence doubled!
 
 

Entombed in a submarine
 Robert Stanley Vines was a descendant of Peter Vines (born 1724 son of Benjamin Vines of Vines Farm Grittenham). He perished with the crew of the T class submarine Tigris in the Mediterranean Sea on or about 10th March 1943. 
   The Tigris was built at the naval dockyard Chatham. It was launched on 31 October 1939 and commissioned on 20 June 1940. It operated in  the Bay of Biscay during 1940 and 1941 where it sunk several small French and German vessels. On 5 July 1941 it sank the Italian submarine Michele Bianchi near Bordeaux, France. The following month the Tigris moved to the North Sea where it operated against enemy merchant and naval ships off Norway.
   On 6 Dec, 1942 off Annaba, Algeria it torpedoed the Italian submarine Porfido and on 21 January it sank the Italian merchant ship Citta di Genova (5413 BRT) in the Adriatic Sea.
    HMS Tigris (Lt.Cdr. G.R. Colvin, DSC, RN) left Malta on 18 February 1943 to patrol SW of Naples. She failed to return to Algiers on 10 March 1943 and was declared overdue on that date. Tigris was most likely sunk on 27 February by the German submarine chaser UJ-2210. 
   Each year there is an annual Remembrance Service for the submarine and the crew lost at St Nicolas Church, Newbury, Berks, England on the Sunday nearest the 27 February. The submarine was adopted by Newbury during World War II.
Uriah and Joseph Vines, sons of Jacob Vines (1756) of Castle Combe were prominent business men in Newbury in the early 1800s.

Nicholas Vines, composer

Nicholas is the son of Paul Bernard Vines and Jenny Kirby of Sydney. He is descended from John(c1660-1713) and Christian through their son Benjamin and his son Charles1722-1797.  He is currently undertaking a PhD in Composition at Harvard University, having been awarded the Robert Gordon Menzies Scholarship for 2001-2002.
 A DNA test on Nicholas's father confirmed that the family came from the Grittenham line.