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Gentleman John Smith was an English man who was convicted and imprisoned for theft before being transported to Australia as a convict, twice. [1] In Australia he later became a police official, serving as chief constable of Newcastle in New South Wales. [1]
He was born in Manchester in 1787. [2] At 20, he was arrested for stealing stocking and sentenced to seven years transportation. [2] In 1809 he took the name John Sidebottom. [2]
He was sent to prison hulks at Portsmouth on 18 December 1809. [2] He traveled on the ship Indian which arrived in Port Jackson on 16 December 1810. [2] On 16 December 1811 he was reported as absconding from Eber Bunker at Georges River. [2] He stole and then sold tobacco from a warehouse, but was found not guilty on the lesser charge of stealing from a warehouse. [2] In 1861, he was accused of lighting a fire to defraud Liverpool and London Fire and Life Insurance Company. [3]
He went to Newcastle for penal settlement. [2] He was sent on the Lady Nelson from Parramatta on 8 July 1815. In 1817 he was appointed Chief Constable of Newcastle. [2]
In 1818 he was one of the first convicts to occupy a farm at Wallis Plains (East Maitland). [3] He owned various properties including a stream flour mill and the Black Horse Inn there. [3]
On 11 July 1814 he married Mary Furber. [2] He became a father to Mary's three-year-old, George, [3] and together they had seven more children: James (1815), Sophia (1816), Eliza (1817), Mary Ann (1818), John Thomas (1819), Matilda (1820) and William Henry (1821). [4]
In 1838 he purchased 28 acres of land in the Fullerton Cove called Stanley Park to fulfill a contract from the military to supply beef. [5]
Smith died in 1870 and is buried in Christ Church burial ground. [2]
Maitland is a city in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia and the seat of Maitland City Council, situated on the Hunter River approximately 166 kilometres (103 mi) by road north of Sydney and 35 km (22 mi) north-west of Newcastle. It is on the New England Highway approximately 17 km (11 mi) from its origin at Hexham.
Frederick Wordsworth Ward, better known by the self-styled pseudonym of Captain Thunderbolt, was an Australian bushranger renowned for escaping from Cockatoo Island, and also for his reputation as the "gentleman bushranger" and his lengthy survival, being the longest-roaming bushranger in Australian history.
Paterson is a small township in the lower Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. Located within Dungog Shire and City of Maitland, it is situated on the Paterson River. It is in the middle of what was once dairy, timber and citrus country and is now more significantly a feeder town for the nearby mining industry in the Upper Hunter and the city of Newcastle. It was named after one of the first known Europeans in the area was Colonel William Paterson in 1801 surveyed the area beside the river.
James Hannell was an auctioneer, publican, and Australian politician elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, the first mayor of Newcastle, and the first mayor of Wickham.
Joseph Lycett was a portrait and miniature painter, active in Australia. Transported to Australia for forging banknotes, Lycett found work in the colony as a painter specialised in topographical views of the major towns of Australia, and some of its more dramatic landscapes.
HMS Vengeur was a 74-gun third-rate Vengeur-class ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 19 June 1810 at Harwich. She had an uneventful career, having participated in no battles or engagements.
HMS Hecate was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by John King at Upnor and launched in 1809. After serving in the British Navy, essentially entirely in the East Indies, she served in the Chilean Navy as Galvarino from 1818 until she was broken up in 1828.
Richard Browne was an artist and illustrator who was transported from his native Ireland to what was then the colony of New South Wales, Australia. After his sentence was completed in Newcastle in 1817 he lived in Sydney selling watercolour illustrations of natural history subjects — particularly birds — and of Indigenous Australians.
John Howe (1774–1852) was a free settler and explorer of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He became a successful building contractor, and also served as a chief constable and coroner. It is believed that he was born at Redbourn, Hertfordshire, England, the son of John How and his spouse Mary Roberts.
HMS Podargus was a Crocus-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She participated in one major battle during the Gunboat War between Britain and Denmark. After the war she served at Saint Helena for five or six years. On her return to Britain in 1820 she was laid up; she was finally sold in 1833.
HMS Porpoise was the former mercantile quarter-decked sloop Lord Melville, which the Royal Navy purchased in 1804 to use as a store-ship.
Sir Richard Digby Neave, 3rd Baronet (1793–1868), usually known as Digby Neave, was an English artist and author.
Richard Plunkett (1788–1832) was a Parish Officer of the Law, variously described as a headborough, beadle or night-constable, in Whitechapel, in the East End of London, between 1817 and 1826. His duties were centred upon the Whitechapel watch-house, from which he and his watchmen had to deal with nocturnal criminality in an area of rapidly increasing population, crowded conditions with poor sanitation, and much urban poverty and squalor. Plunkett's term of office just preceded the Metropolitan Police Act 1829, by which a new system of policing was introduced. Plunkett was often called upon to give evidence at the Old Bailey, the cases being scheduled for hearings two or three times a year. His testimony and that of his officers in these more serious cases show his relations with the population at large, his investigations, pursuits and arrests, often based on personal knowledge of the offenders. The majority of these cases resulted in convictions leading to penal transportation. His work illustrates the real activities of the parish police of Whitechapel just over a decade before the writing of Oliver Twist.
Smith's Flour Mill is a heritage-listed former flour mill and now retail store at 91 Newcastle Road, East Maitland, City of Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1844 by John Smith. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Englefield is a heritage-listed former inn and now residence at 49 Newcastle Street, East Maitland, City of Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. It was built in 1837. It operated as the Black Horse Inn from 1845 to 1878. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 30 April 2008.
Molly Morgan was an English landowner, farmer, and convict. She was born as Mary Jones in Ludlow, Shropshire, England, and stayed there throughout her childhood and early adulthood, marrying William Morgan on 25 June 1785 and having two children with him. In 1789, hempen yarn stolen from a factory was discovered at the Morgans' house, resulting in the couple being sentenced to penal transportation. Although William was able to escape initially, Molly was transported to New South Wales as a convict with the Second Fleet on the Neptune, and William was eventually caught and transported as well. After working together for a while in Australia, William left Molly due to her flirting with other men. In 1794, Molly Morgan was able to escape back to England aboard the Resolution by becoming Captain John Locke's mistress. Once back in England, she recovered her children and became a dressmaker in Plymouth, marrying Thomas Mears in 1797. However, she was transported back to Australia on the Experiment, after she was accused of burning her husband's house down in 1803.
Major James Wallis was an Anglo-Irish military officer who served in the 46th Regiment of Foot. Wallis saw service in Dominica, New South Wales, and India. During his deployment in New South Wales, he commanded a detachment of grenadiers which committed the Appin Massacre of 1816, and was later promoted to the post of Commandant at the convict settlement of Newcastle from 1816 to 1818. Wallis is also noted for producing a number of historically significant sketches and paintings during his colonial military career.
George Augustus Middleton (1791–1848) was an English-Australian pastor and farmer who spent his time in Australia between Parramatta and the Hunter Valley.