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William
Hubbard
William
Hubbard
was born
about 1768. When
William was 15, he and William Boggis, a fisherman, were
Committed the 3d. Day of February 1783, by John Levy, Esq. charged
on the oaths of George Anderson and William
Potter, with having feloniously taken and stolen in the House
of the said George Anderson; One Sheet, of the value of Three
Shillings, the Property of the said George Anderson.
They were found guilty at the Surrey Quarter Sessions on 19
February and sentenced to transportation to America for 7 years.
At the time of the trial, he was a labourer of the parish
of St Olave in Surrey (in the area of Southwark, on the southern
bank of the Thames in London).
His occupation was later given as a plasterer.
William Hubbard was at the New Gaol at
Southwark, and transferred to the Censor hulk on 8 April
1785, then to the Justitia hulk.
Eventually, aged about 19, he embarked on the
Scarborough on 27th February 1787.
On the day that they arrived in Sydney
Cove, 27 January 1788, a large party of Scarborough men
began clearing the ground for tents in Sydney.
William Hubbard, like fellow Scarborough convicts
John Ramsay and Matthew Everingham whose names
were next to his in the convict indent of the Scarborough,
may have been involved in the timber felling and the saw pits.
His skill as a plasterer may have been utilised in some
of the buildings in the fledgling colony.
Hubbard’s name was on the original list
of convicts selected for the night-watch which was established
in August 1789 by Governor Phillip.
In February 1790 his seven year sentence was up and
William was now a free man.
He was still in the night-watch, and gave evidence on 12
April in the trial of Thomas Halford who stole some
potatoes from Lieutenant Frazer's farm, near Long Cove.
The trial notes have the following: William Hubbard
(one of the watch) being sworn deposes that the prisoner was
brought to the watch house about the half 8 o'clock last
Saturday evening.
That in the prisoner's pocket, there were some potatoes found,
about four pounds.
That he threw several in the fire, and the prisoners who were
there got some of them, which they afterwards roasted.
The prisoner was brought to the watch house of Cross
and Howell.
Halford was sentenced by Judge-Advocate David
Collins to receive two thousand lashes in the usual
manner, on his bare back with a cat of nine tails.
On 19 December 1790 he married Mary
Goulding at Rose Hill (Parramatta).
They were married by Reverend Richard Johnson;
and they marked the register with a cross.
Born about 1767, Mary was known as Mary Atkinson when she
was tried at the Old Bailey in January 1787 for stealing four
yards of printed cotton from a shop.
Her death sentence was commuted to 7 years
transportation, and she arrived at Sydney on the Lady
Juliana on 6 June 1790.
In the colony she used the name Goulding.
On the same day as their marriage, another Scarborough
convict, John Ramsay married convict Mary Leary.
Children in
William & Mary's family were:
1. Ann Hubbard born in 1791 however her birth
record has not been found.
She married William Nash in 1810 and died in
1879. 2. Thomas
Hubbard born 15 August 1796: probably William Hubbard’s son
who drowned in 1812.
3. Elizabeth Hubbard born 17 September 1800: married 1820
John
Crook
at Sydney.
4. Harriett Hubbard born 29 October 1802, married
1821 William Cook at Sydney.
5. Margaret Hubbard born about 1806, died 1 August
1820 in Sydney.
Ex-convicts who were ‘of good conduct and
disposition to industry’ were entitled to a land grant. Married
men with no children could receive 50 acres, and in July 1791
William and Mary were settled on a 50 acre land grant at The
Ponds. John Ramsay
and Matthew Everingham, fellow Scarborough convicts also
had grants at The Ponds.
Hubbard’s grant (in modern Telopea) has modern-day
Adderton Road on its west and north boundary, Kissing Point Road
near the southern boundary and Sturt Park is at the south-east
corner. Watkin
Tench visited this area in December, noting that Hubbard had
2¼ acres in cultivation, and wrote Hubbard’s farm, and
Kelly’s also, deserve regard, from being better managed than
most of the others.
The people here complain sadly of a disruptive grub which
destroys the young plants of maize.
Many of the settlers have been obliged to plant twice,
nay thrice on the same land, from the depredations of [the
grubs].
By 1800 William Hubbard was farming 100
acres at the Northern Boundary with 40 acres cleared, 6 acres in
wheat and 18 acres ‘to be in maize’.
The only livestock was 2 female hogs.
He, his wife and three children and one female servant
were off stores, not receiving government stores for food.
William
Hubbard was listed as a private in the Parramatta Loyal
Association in 1802. This
enlistment did not last long, because in 1803 the couple moved
to a grant on the Hawkesbury River at Sackville Reach near
Portland Reach. A
neighbour was another Scarborough convict, Matthew
Everingham, who like Hubbard had obtained a grant at the Ponds
and then at Sackville Reach.
In the 1806 muster Mary was described as
Mary Golderin, housekeeper to William Hubbard.
They had 70 acres, 13
sown with wheat, 2 with maize, ¼ of an acre of orchard and
garden, 5 acres in fallow, 3 pigs, and no grain in store.
In this muster, Mary and
William Hubbard had 4 children listed, 3 girls and 1 boy.
The children are probably
Ann (about 15), Thomas (10), Elizabeth (6) and Harriett (4).
However, the disastrous flood of 1806
would have caused damage to his farm and it appears that William
briefly tried sealing or whaling for more income.
In the Sydney Gazette
8 September 1810, there is an article which lists people who
were soon to leave Sydney on the ship Aurora, an American
whaler. William Hubbard
and James Ruse are in this list of names.
This apparently was
short-lived and he was back on his farm, as newspaper reports in
1812 and 1814 show him producing wheat and beef.
In 1812 his son Thomas died in a tragic
accident. The Sydney
Gazette reported on 1 August 1812: The Boyd, a small
colonial vessel, whose bottom was originally the long-boat of
the ship Boyd, which was captured at New Zealand, was last week
unfortunately lost with a full freight of wheat from Hawkesbury,
on a beach between Hunter's River and Port Stevens, commonly
called the Sand-Hills, two persons drowned, and one saved.
The sufferers were,
James Wallis, who belonged to the vessel, and Hubbard, son
of a Mr. Hubbard, settler on the River-Hawkesbury, whose
intention of coming round was to take care of a quantity of
wheat belonging to his father, and which of course was perished
with the vessel.
William Hubbard supplied 2000 lbs of
fresh meat to the NSW Commissariat Department on 21 August 1814.
However, soon after this, he changed his
occupation; in 1816 when he contributed to the Waterloo fund, he
was listed as a baker in the Windsor area.
In the musters he was a
baker from 1816 to 1819.
By 1820 the family had moved to Sydney,
where William was employed as a constable.
In 1820 he was recorded
as a constable at District Number 2 in Sydney, and was stationed
at Cumberland Street, at the Rocks.
Hubbard was still a
constable in 1825.
However, both his daughter Margaret and
his wife Mary died in 1820. Margaret
died 1 August 1820, and his wife was probably Mary Ann Hubbard
who died 4 September 1820, in St Phillips burial register,
described as ‘free’, aged 66 (but she was nearer 52 according to
age on embarkation), and was buried 7 September at Sydney.
In the 1822 muster he was still listed as
a constable and was living with Hannah Whitelock.
Hannah Whitelock nee
Sheerwood had been convicted at London's Old Bailey in 1810 for
stealing roofing lead from the building where she and her
husband had been living and she had arrived as a convict on the
Friends in 1811. In
the 1822 muster Hannah and her four children were with William
at the Rocks. He appears
to have adopted them because the four children had the surnames
Hubbard: Mary born about 1815, John about 1817, James
about 1819, and William about 1820.
In the 1825 muster there
were two children, John aged 7 and William aged 5.
By 1828 William had changed his
occupation to waterman. Watermen
or boatmen provided transport by boat for passengers and goods.
They used watermen’s
skiffs. In the 1828
census, William Hubbard (recorded as Hubbert), aged 57, was
working as a waterman in Sydney and was employing a labourer.
Also in the household was
Hannah Whitlock alias Hubbert ... wife of William Hubbert.
They were living at
Harrington Street, The Rocks with Hannah’s nine-year-old son
William, and William Hubbard’s daughter Elizabeth Crooke (28)
and her three small children.
In
the Regatta on 2 August 1832, the licensed watermen's boats
competed in the fourth race, around Pinchgut Island and back,
and Hubbard's boat, the Mary Ann came 5th out of 8 boats.
By 1833 there appeared to be a breakdown
in the regulations regarding watermen’s licences, and they were
being issued to virtually anyone.
William Hubbard was one of six watermen who signed a
memorial or petition complaining about this to the Governor on 9
August 1833.
William’s de facto wife Hannah Hubbard
died in April 1836 at the Benevolent Asylum and her burial
record in the St James register has burial 5 April, age 64
years, which is probably older than she actually was.
When he was about 74, William Hubbard was
admitted into the Sydney Benevolent Asylum on 21 May 1841, on
the recommendation of Doctor McKellar.
He left with permission
on 1 June 1841 and was readmitted on 30 June 1841.
During the next two years
he left occasionally for a few hours at a time, eight times over
the two years.
On 29 January 1842 the Sydney Gazette
reported that the Government was to award a life pension of 1
shilling a day to the last three surviving members of the first
fleet: The number of these really ‘old hands’ is now reduced
to three, of whom, two are now in the Benevolent Asylum.
William Hubbard died 18 May 1843 at the
Sydney Benevolent Asylum and was buried 22 May 1843, at the
Devonshire Street (Sandhills) Cemetery.
The burial register of
the parish of Christ Church St Lawrence has his age 76, and
‘Free by Servitude pr Scarborough’.
#Friend
194, Heather Stevens.
Sources
can be seen at: WikiTree contributors,
"William Hubbard (abt. 1768 - 1843)", manager Heather Stevens,
WikiTree,
https://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Hubbard-1395&public=1
Note: This
story is
replacing one compiled by the late Ronald Francis Cohen #6479
Descendant
of FF William Hubbard Convict
Scarborough and
originally published on this site
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