A LANCASHIRE weaver who was banished to Australia for taking part in the struggle for workers' rights is to have his life recreated on the internet.

Thomas Holden, a loom weaver from Westhoughton, lost his livelihood when the growth of big mills crushed the home textile trade.

He joined the fledgling workers' union movement and was sent to trial at Lancaster Castle in May 1812, where he was found guilty of forcing a a colleague to take a secret oath on Bolton Moor.

He was sentenced to a "living death" - transportation to Australia for seven years - and no one knows what became of him.

Now his life and mysterious fate are to be recreated on Lancaster Castle's new http://www.lancastercastle.com/ website in a bid to trace his descendants.

Christine Goodier, archivist at the castle, said: "We want to re-enact his life on screen, from the time of the trial and in the cells, to his terrible journey on the prison ship across to Australia.

"But there's no way of knowing if he ever came back to Bolton."

Thomas, who probably belonged to the Luddite group that used violence to fight the new mill technology, wrote heart-rending letters to his wife after he was conicted. One read: "It's with sorrow that I acquaint you that I this day receiv'd my Tryal and has received the hard sentence of seven years transportation beyond the seas.

"To part with my dear wife and child, parents and friends, to be no more, cut off in the bloom of my youth without doing the least wrong . . . oh my hard fate, may God have mercy on me."

But Thomas's prayers went unanswered, and he was taken from the cells in Lancaster to the rotting prison ship where he was kept in shackles.

He was surrounded on the ship by men from Bolton, but instead of sticking together the townsfolk split into gangs that taunted each other.

Thomas's wife made many applications to move to Australia, but she was always refused because of her husband's political connections..

Anyone with information on Mr Holden is asked to email lancaster.castle@mus.lancscc.gov.uk