Some of the most interesting discoveries I have made in my family history research have been accidental.
This week, I solved a long-standing question about when and how William Ward came to Sydney. We have solid evidence that he arrived in NSW as a convict aboard the Almorah (1817) and was immediately transferred to another vessel, the Pilot and sent to Tasmania. He served out his 7-year sentence on public works at Georgetown before being released in February 1824. The next we hear of him he is running shingles to Sydney from Brisbane Water in 1825.
This week I was searching for a document about another ancestor and stumbled on the answer to that puzzle. When looking at scanned images of old land records, I flicked backwards few pages just to see if there was anything related or interesting. In this case I found William Ward's original application for the purchase of a property at current-day Killcare.
It all seemed as I would expect, except that his surname is spelled 'Whard'. The description of the land seems right for the land that William and his family called home. It reveals that William had engaged an agent to do the application, a man named Samuel Jones at Market Wharf. That makes sense because William was illiterate.
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| Land purchase application by William Ward in 1835 |
The 'Ship' was crossed out and 'Cutter Lord Liverpool, from London in 1824' was entered! That does not match our William at all! What was going on! So I did some more digging.
The Lord Liverpool was a cutter that was purchased in London by a wealthy merchant who wanted to emigrate to a warmer climate. She sailed from London in 1822 with 16 people on board, crew and passengers. No Ward or Whard listed, although there were two unnamed apprentice blacksmiths (unlikely to be William because he was not a blacksmith). The vessel arrived at Georgetown in February 1823. She was sold in Launceston in September 1824 and soon afterwards sailed to Sydney where she arrived on 27 October. She was carrying a cargo of wheat and sundries. She carried five passengers including the new owners and some businessmen. There were also three of their servants who are not named. Apart from the Master, the crew are also not named. The cutter had sailed from London with a crew of seven, including the master and a carpenter, so it is safe to assume there was a crew of at lease four or five for the short voyage from Launceston.
The Lord Liverpool went onto regular service to Newcastle which she continued until wrecked at the entrance to Newcastle Harbour in 1830.
It seems perfectly logical that a recently freed convict would take on a job as temporary crewman as a way of getting to the main part of the Colony, which at that time was Sydney.
I am satisfied that this document is evidence that William Ward arrived in Sydney aboard the Lord Liverpool on 27 October 1824, travelling not from London, but from Launceston. He could argue that he did come from London, and he did arrive in Sydney on the Lord Liverpool. The fact that he left London six years before the cutter is just an untidy detail.
I don't think this was a subterfuge to increase his chances of getting the land. A convict past was not a barrier to purchasing land from the Colonial Government. More likely it was because of the intermediary, his agent, getting William's story slightly awry.
