A last living Convict
Imagine the surprise at being given a ticket of leave on arrival in New South Wales instead of serving five more years in prison.
Henry Harrison was born in Warwickshire, England in 1816 and died at the age of 97 in Wellingrove, New South Wales. He arrived in Sydney on 24 December 1849 on the Adelaide, a 300 men convict transport. There had been much discussion about this voyage in the local newspapers in regard to a local movement determined to stop convict transportation to Australia. The Adelaide had first stopped in Van Diemen’s Land, where 40 prisoners disembarked. It then made it’s way to Melbourne, where there was a local furore at the possibility of convicts disembarking there. The outcome was that the Adelaide continue on to Sydney, and if the convicts behaved well, they would be issued a ticket of leave on arrival.
Henry did receive a ticket of leave for the District of Scone when he landed in New South Wales.
On 23 February 1847, Henry and Leonard Harrison along with Eliza Warner stole three spades and two shovels from a William Tyrrall at Warwick. The two brothers were tried and convicted on 25 March 1847 and sentenced to seven years transportation. Eliza was fortunate to be defended by a Mr O’Brien which resulted in her acquittal. Henry, who had previously been tried and acquitted was still in gaol at Warwick until November 19, when he was then moved to The Warrior, a prison hulk.
The prison hulk was moored at Woolwich, where Henry served the first two years his sentence. The Warrior had been a Napoleonic war ship from 1781 until 1815 when it was no longer deemed as seaworthy. After being moored and used as a receiving and quarantine ship at Chatham, it was converted to a prison ship in 1840 and moored at Woolwich.
In Sydney in the1830s, a movement had started which opposed convict transportation. Liberal views in Britain started challenging the penal code, and in 1837 the Molesworth Committee recommended that transportation stop as soon as possible. Generally after 1830, only hardened convicts along with political prisoners, were being transported which caused friction between the people of Sydney.
The working and immigrant classes opposed transportation, whilst the wealthy squatters and landowners still wanted convicts to arrive for access to cheap labour.
In 1840 convict transportation was stopped to NSW but it was resumed within 10 years, as wealthy landowners convinced the NSW legislative council that labour was needed in country areas, as immigrants preferred not to move to remote areas. Transportation continued until 1868 in W.A. for the same reason.
A letter from the Principal Superintendent of Convicts to the Colonial Secretary on 30 May 1949, listed landowners and districts in need of convict labour, in response to an enquiry by the Colonial Secretary. The explorer, barrister and landowner, William Charles Wentworth requested 12 exiles along with districts such as Armidale needing 150, Bathurst 350 and King’s Plains needing 15.
Without knowing where Henry went as soon as he arrived in Sydney, his ticket of leave did state Scone as the district he was to go to. A notice in the New South Wales Government Gazette on 21 December, 1949, requested that all ticket of leave holders were to report to the office of the district of Scone between January 1st and 14th. This ‘Muster’ requested that ticket of leave holders report their name, residence, the name of their master or employer, their trade or means of support which could all be reported personally or in writing.
Henry Harrison may have ended up working at King’s Plains, near Glen Innes, NSW, as it is very close to Wellingrove where he spent his life. On 25 August 1854, the Governor General announced that all ticket of leave holders who arrived in the colony in 1849 or 1850 no longer had to repay the money for their passage, which qualified them to apply for a conditional pardon, effective immediately.
Henry ran a sawmill in Wellingrove for most of his working life as documented by his family. He had seven children to possibly two or three Aboriginal women with Lena being his main partner.
Henry died in 1913 at the age of 96. He was a much loved, religious and hard working man who lived amongst his Aboriginal community for around 60 years. When his wife Lena died, 35 years before him, Henry vowed to bring up his family as respectably as possible.
In November 2015, the Inverell Reconciliation Group completed a project to restore Henry’s grave and headstone in Wellingrove Cemetery, NSW. Over 150 people attended to celebrate Henry’s life and legacy. Henry’s plaque mentions that he was ‘reputedly the last surviving convict to be transported to NSW’. His family were also listed on the plaque and states that ‘he was much respected by Europeans and greatly loved by his extended Indigenous family’. What an amazing man and a great legacy.
With respect to Henry Harrison’s descendants, the Cutmore, Green, Munro, Daley, Connors and Landsbough families.