Introduction
The exact origins of the Woodbury family are unclear. The family seems to have been in England since the end of the 14th century at least, principally in the southwest. There is a village named Woodbury in East Devon close to Woodbury Castle, an iron-age earthen fort on Woodbury Common, about 8 miles from Exeter, UK [i].
A “Wodeberie” from Devonshire appears in the Domesday Survey of 1086 (the Domesday Book). James “Woodbarye” was named in the Lay Subsidy [ii] of Burlescombe in Devon in 1523.
The Beginning
Richard Woodbury was the first Woodbury to come to Australia. It seems likely that he was born in Holcombe Rogus in Devon in 1777 (see "Richards birth date" on this site) [iii] however by the time he was in his mid-twenties he lived in Current Lane, off Prince Street in Bristol.
On 24 October 1803, he stood in the dock at the Quarter Sessions in Bristol to answer a charge of stealing 6 gallons of brandy, the property of George Taylor, a victualler, from Bristol. Unfortunately, records of the trial are not available [iv] but a witness statement has been found which gives a sense of the nature of Richard's offence (see "Richard's offence" on this site ). Richard Giles (a work colleague) and George Taylor (Richard's employer) accused Richard of drawing off 6 gallons of brandy from a cask in George Taylor's cellar and selling it to various people for his own profit.
In those days, proceedings of this nature in the Bristol Quarter Sessions were short and perfunctory. Richard was sentenced to seven years imprisonment and transportation to New South Wales on the charge of larceny (stealing). He was 26 years of age at the time of his sentence.
Richard spent about 2 and a half years in prison awaiting transportation to New South Wales; the first year of which (including pre-trial time) was served in Newgate prison in Bristol. Records show that Richard was put aboard the prison hulk “Laurel”, moored at Portsmouth, on 4 August 1804 (see "Prison hulk" in sidebar [v]. He spent 17 months there prior to his journey to Australia.
On 28 January 1806, Richard left from Spithead bound for Sydney on board the Fortune (see "Fortune 1806" in sidebar), a ship of 622 tons under the command of Captain Henry Moore (Lt, RN). On board were 260 [vi] male convicts, a ship’s company of 49 and a military guard of 30 from the Royal Veterans Battalion).
Fortune sailed with the Alexander as part of a small fleet of ships that included the Lady Madeleine Sinclair carrying Captain William Bligh [vii] to Sydney to take up his appointment as the Governor of New South Wales. Fortune separated from the fleet during the journey after stopping in Rio de Janeiro for 19 days.
Convicts transported to Australia were housed behind bars below decks. They received a daily ration of food that included salt meat and flour with small quantities of line juice to guard against scurvy. Prisoners were organized into messes for distributing and cooking food and for going on deck for exercise and fresh air, usually for 2 hours spells each day.
Fortune arrived at Sydney Cove on 12 July 1806 after a journey lasting only 165 days. Three of Richard’s fellow convicts died en route, along with a member of the military guard. By the standard of the times, this was a better than expected outcome given the often poor health of the convicts before departure and the fact that Fortune sailed without a surgeon[viii].
Arrival in New South Wales
When Richard arrived in New South Wales the colony was only 18 years old and it was just becoming self-sufficient after earlier facing desperate food shortages and starvation. By the end of 1806, over 11,000 acres were under crops in New South Wales and industries were becoming established in sealing and whaling, shipbuilding, timber and coal mining. The colony was also trading with India, China, North America, Europe and the Pacific Islands (Cathcart, 1996).
The Colonial Muster of August 1806 was held in the colony within a few weeks of Richard’s arrival. He was listed as working on the Government Farm at Castle Hill, which at that time was given over to growing crops of wheat, barley, oats and maize. At the time of the Muster, Richard still had a little more than four years of his sentence to serve.
Fortunately, Richard probably spent less than a year at the government farm because his brewing skills were needed in the growing colony. Governor King had encouraged beer brewing as a way of weaning the colonists off hard spirits, and in 1806 he provided land to an emancipist, Andrew Thompson,[ix] to establish a brewery at South Creek, Windsor (known then as Green Hills).
Richard probably worked as an assigned man in Andrew Thompson’s brewery from about 1807 onwards. Valerie Ross suggests that when Andrew Thompson went to the government farm in 1807 to select men for Governor Bligh’s model farm he probably selected Richard for work in his own brewery, to relieve some of the pressure of his extensive business and community interests (Ross, 1980).
Thompson’s health was in serious decline by 1809 and he leased the brewery where Richard worked to a fellow expiree named Henry Kable [x] in February 1810. Andrew Thompson died from tuberculosis only eight months later at the age of 37. Richard Woodbury and his father in law (to be), Matthew Everingham, followed the hearse at Thompson’s funeral in Windsor.
Marriage
Richard’s sentence expired on 24 October 1810 [xi] and just a few months later, on 17 December 1810, he married Sarah Everingham at St Matthew’s Church [xii] in Windsor. Sarah was 17 years old at the time, the freeborn eldest daughter of Matthew Everingham and Elizabeth Rimes, who came to New South Wales as convicts on the First and Second Fleet respectively.
Richard was 33 years old at the time of his marriage. The marriage register shows that Richard signed with his signature but Sarah signed with her mark (a cross) [xiii]. It appears Sarah could not read or write at the time of her marriage.
Early Days
Richard and Sarah probably lived in the house attached to the brewery on South Creek in Windsor immediately following their wedding. By about 1811, Richard was in a partnership arrangement in the brewery with Henry Kable [xiv]. Kable had extensive farming interests and other interests in shops, stagecoach transport, shipping, whaling and sealing so it is likely that Richard was the main operator at the brewery in that period. However, as well as running the brewery, it seems that Richard was also undertaking some small-scale farming on the South Creek property or somewhere nearby.
In February 1811, Richard attended an auction sale of Andrew Thompson’s goods, held on behalf of the executors of his will. Some 613 lots were auctioned over the 7 days of the sale grossing an astonishing £3,827. Richard’s father in law, Matthew Everingham, and Richard’s business partner, Henry Kable, bought goods at the auction, as did many other farmers and business owners in the district at the time (Reel 6040: ML C197 pp.3-18). The auction sale shows that the economy in Windsor was robust, and also that Richard had ready cash available at that stage.
Richard spent £17-3-6 on a range of goods such as bootlegs, saddles, bridles, casks and a fowling piece (rifle) but he also bought material that was clearly intended for farming. In addition to the general goods, he bought 24 hundredweight (about 1220 kg) of brimstone (sulphur), which was used at the time as fertilizer, insecticide and a fungicide on crops and pasture.
In 1811, Governor Macquarie established a scheme to loan stock from government herds to help establish a pastoral industry in the colony. Richard’s father-in-law, Matthew Everingham, borrowed one cow, two oxen and four sheep. Richard borrowed a cow (possibly with calf). However, Richard wasn’t able to collect the cow due to an injury he suffered at the brewery. In a letter to the Colonial Secretary Richard wrote:
Windsor, 3 June 1811
Sir,
In consequence of a very severe wound I met with in Mr Kable’s brewery at Windsor I am at present prevented from attending His Excellency’s order for receiving the Cows which are promised me and the enclosed certificate from James (illegible) Esquire will I hope be satisfactory on that score.
Mr Kable who will be in Sydney is ready to sign the necessary Bond on my behalf and as soon as I am able will come to Sydney to undersign the same which circumstances I hope Sir you will have the goodness to represent to His Excellency the Governor whose Benevolence I trust will not let my accident deprive me of the indulgence.
I am, Sir
with all possible respect
your very obedient humble servant
Richard Woodbury
(Reel 6043: 4/1726 p.231)
The first baby for Richard and Sarah arrived nine months after their wedding. Richard (the younger) was born at South Creek, Windsor on 21 September 1811. The baby was baptized at St Matthew’s on 13 October 1811, at the same service as that for his (aunt) Maria, the youngest daughter of Sarah’s parents, Matthew and Elizabeth Everingham.
A daughter, Elizabeth, was born to Richard and Sarah the following year on 3 December 1812. A fortnight later Richard bought a house in George Street, Windsor, from Andrew Thompson’s executors.
Despite brewing excellent beer, the South Creek brewery closed in 1813. The reasons for the closure are unclear but lack of profitability for Richard doesn’t seem to have been a factor – evidenced by his increasing affluence at the time.
In about 1814, the growing Woodbury family moved from the property in South Creek to a new lease in Macquarie Street, one of the main streets of Windsor. The house was described in the Sydney Gazette some time later as “a substantial Dwelling House and extensive Brewery … commodious granary and outhouses, the whole of brick; also a good well and all other appurtenances advantageous to an extensive scale of Brewery as well as Trade in General, being well situated opposite the new Market place at Windsor” [Sydney Gazette, 16 February 1816]. Richard continued brewing on the new site.
William Woodbury was born at Macquarie Street on 24 October 1814. Once again, the baby William and his newborn uncle John (the last son of Matthew and Elizabeth Everingham) were both baptised together seven months later on 21 May 1815.
At a census taken in October/November 1814, Richard and his family are listed along with at least one convict servant, Morris Quinlan, who was “off stores” (that is, supported by Richard). This appears to be a period of growing prosperity for Richard and his family, for in 1814 Richard purchased two properties on the Hawkesbury River, one in partnership with John Bolton at Cambridge Reach (near present day Dargle) and another at Leet’s Vale. Richard also bought the Macquarie Street property from James Richards in April 1816, with the sale witnessed by his father in law, Matthew Everingham (Ross, 1981).
Farming on the Hawkesbury River
During major floods that engulfed the Hawkesbury River in 1816 an unknown artist sketched views of Windsor showing the location of houses and properties at the time. A sketch has been reproduced in Valerie Ross’ book Matthew Everingham: A First Fleeter and his Times (Ross, 1980, p 125). The diagram shows the location of “Woodbury’s” in Macquarie Street and the location of the original South Creek brewery.
In February 1816, the brewery in Macquarie Street was advertised for auction. The reasons for the sale are unclear. Perhaps Richard had over-committed himself financially or he merely decided to concentrate on farming rather than brewing. Whatever the reason, this appears to be a time of declining fortunes for Richard. Perhaps the Woodbury family moved to the George Street property after the sale.
The great floods of June 1816 created financial hardship for many on the Hawkesbury River, and Richard was not spared. On 28 June 1816, the farm at Cambridge Reach was put up for sale to satisfy a debt, along with a quantity of corn, pigs, a steel mill and household furniture from the property at Leet’s Vale. We know that Sarah (perhaps accompanied by Richard) was in Sydney about this time for Jeremiah was born there on 8 August 1816.
Calamity struck Sarah’s father, Mathew Everingham, the following year. Matthew was District Constable at Portland Head in the Hawkesbury River at the time. On Christmas day, 25 December 1817, Matthew went aboard the Anna Maria, which was anchored at Lower Portland and under suspicion for “rum running”; that is, selling liquor to the local population without a licence. In the course of his investigations Matthew fell overboard and drowned. Richard attended the Coroner’s inquest for his father-in-law held the following day, which returned a verdict of Accidental Death. There was speculation in later years that foul play had been involved in the drowning although no evidence of this was advanced at the inquest (Ross, 1981).
Shortly after the inquest Richard moved his family to Leet’s Vale (about 5 miles up-river from Wisemans Ferry) and he devoted his energies to farming the 80-acre property. Sarah (the younger) was born at Leet’s Vale on 3 March 1819 and she was baptised the following year. Unfortunately three great floods, one in 1817 and two in 1819 ruined Richard’s efforts along with those of many other farmers on the Hawkesbury River. Richard lost the Leet’s Vale property and the house in George Street, Windsor in a writ to recover outstanding debts.
Starting over again in early 1820, the Woodbury’s moved to an isolated land grant of 80 acres near Laughtondale, about 9 miles down river from their former home at Leet’s Vale. There was no road access to this property and all communication was by river. The nearest town was Windsor, a 45-mile boat trip away.
Sarah and the children must have felt very isolated and vulnerable on their new land. The area was subject to attacks by “natives”[xv] and bushrangers, and Sarah must have also carried some of the mental scars from her experience as a 10 year old girl in May 1804 when local aborigines wounded her father and mother in a surprise attack while they were harvesting corn [xvi]. A neighbor at the new farm, Thomas Dillon, had been forced to flee with his eight children from persistent attacks around the time the Woodburys moved to the farm at Laughtondale. Sarah was expecting her sixth child at the time of the move.
District Constable
In May 1820, Richard was appointed First District Constable and Pound Keeper for the Lower Hawkesbury. The pound was up-river from Richard’s farm close to present day Wiseman’s Ferry but as District Constable he was responsible for maintaining law and order on all of the lower reaches of the river. This was defined in later years as being between First Branch (the Macdonald River near Wisemans Ferry) and Long Island, at present day Brooklyn (Reel 3302; 4/7419.1 p.18). This is a distance by river of about 40 miles (including Mangrove Creek) and much of the travel in the district would have been by boat. Initially Richard received payment for his duties in stores, but from 1824 onwards he received a salary of £10 per annum, paid quarterly.
Apart from maintaining law and order, Richard was also required to inspect the properties of new settlers on the lower reaches of the river to certify that the owners had met the conditions of their grant; specifically that they had built permanent houses and cleared and cultivated land. Title deeds would only be issued if these conditions were met [xvii]. Richard was also required to attend the Court House in Windsor, for cases where he was required to give evidence.
In the same month (May 1820) Richard and four others were appointed to the Portland Head branch of the Bible Committee, the main role of which was to ensure poor families had access to a copy of the bible. His official duties and his role in the church must have kept him away from home often and for extended periods. A daughter, Rebecca was born at Laughtondale on 20 December 1820.
But Sarah was not completely alone on the Laughtondale farm. The Magistrate’s Population List for Wilberforce in 1822 shows that Richard had three assigned convicts to help with the farming; two “lifers“ (Robert Atkins and Patrick Russell) and Jacob Adder, serving 14 years.
Apprehending Runaways
As First District Constable, Richard took his responsibility for law and order seriously. In August 1822, nine convicts in Port Macquarie (home to the most hardened and recalcitrant prisoners) overpowered their guards and stole a whaleboat and provisions to make their escape. They set to sea making south towards the remote parts of Tasmania where they believed they were less likely to be found. However, on their first night at sea they got caught in a storm and all their provisions were lost. By early September they had reached Broken Bay nearly starving. One of the gang knew settlers in the Hawkesbury River and they all agreed to go there for provisions. On the night of 4 September three of the group burst in at the house of Adam Clink, a settler who owned land adjoining Richard Woodbury’s. They assaulted Clink and made off with salt pork, meal, sugar, tea, clothing, knives, a compass and the shoes off Clink’s feet.
District Constable Woodbury was alerted and he left home early the next morning in pursuit. Unfortunately, another neighbour, George Mollison, gave him false information and he spent three days searching down-river while the fugitives were hiding less than a mile from Richard’s farm. Richard confronted Mollison, who seeing the error of his deception delivered the ringleader, Daniel Clarke, into custody at the Woodbury farm. Clarke remained there while Richard went in pursuit of the others. Search parties eventually captured all the runaways and they were tried in the Criminal Court in Sydney for robbery of Clink’s property and theft of the whaleboat. They were found guilty of the theft of the whaleboat and sentenced to death (but only one of the group was subsequently hung). Mollison was sentenced to 14 years at Port Macquarie.
Richard, together with Thomas Walsh and William Gray, a native youth aged 17, received recognition for their role in apprehending the band of “notorious runaways and pirates”. Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane approved a reward to be shared amongst the men. The Colonial Secretary wrote: “The police order for sixty dollars that accompanies this letter I am directed by the Governor to enclose for the purpose of being divided in such shares as you may think proper among the 3 constables who distinguished themselves in the apprehension of certain runaways who had effected until they reached the Hawkesbury their escape in a boat from Port Macquarie.” (Reel 6053; 4/1756 pp. 105-105c) [xviii].
This incident gives some insight into Richard and Sarah’s life on the river. To capture desperate and hardened criminals is an achievement in itself, but Richard’s role and the remoteness of the farm left the family in some danger. Sarah most likely had to make arrangements for the security of the runaway Clarke, probably with the help of the three assigned convicts on the farm. Her oldest boy, Richard junior was then only 11 and would have been of limited assistance. Sarah was also heavily pregnant at the time and only about eight weeks after the runaways first arrived at the Hawkesbury she gave birth to her seventh child, John (born 5 November 1822 and baptised on 9 March 1823).
Trouble with the Law
In June 1824, Richard ended up on the other side of the law, albeit briefly. Richard and John Hunter were charged with assault on the Provost Marshal’s bailiff from Windsor who arrived on Hunter’s property to levy maize for a debt to Solomon Wiseman, mistaking it for another property close by. By Richard’s own admission he and Solomon Wiseman were “enemies”.
Richard was called in by Hunter to adjudicate but the bailiff would not budge. According to the court papers, a scuffle broke out. Hunter hit the bailiff with a “brush hook” and Richard knocked down one or both of the bailiff’s men and moved the bailiff off the farm forcibly. Richard and Hunter were each bailed for £50. The Sydney Gazette reported Richard and Hunter’s subsequent acquittal on the grounds that the bailiff had been at the wrong property and “no unnecessary violence was used in repelling the invasion” [Sydney Gazette, 2 December 1824].
Devil Devil
In October 1824, an aborigine know to his clan as “Devil Devil”, due to his aggressiveness and a deformity in one of his feet, came to the Hawkesbury after leaving a trail of murder and assault in the area around Newcastle. In the Lower Hawkesbury he stole food and clothing from a young lad after clubbing him and leaving him senseless. He then bartered a gun in his possession for food, a gun that was thought to be the property of another man that Devil Devil had murdered.
Local aborigines told District Constable Woodbury about the murder weapon and Richard took possession of it. Richard then managed to track down and apprehend Devil Devil and then lodged him in Windsor gaol where he was “charged with murdering a servant of Mr. Dickson’s in the bush by severing the poor man’s head from his body with a tomahawk” [Sydney Gazette, 11 November 1824]. This incident gives some further clues to Richard the man. To track and capture an aboriginal man in a bush environment is a significant feat. As Valerie Ross also points out, horses were few in the Hawkesbury at the time and Richard didn’t own one, so he must have stalked Devil Devil on foot and then rowed the prisoner to the lock-up at Windsor (Ross, 1981).
Trouble Again
Trouble struck again in June 1824. Because of floods and other financial difficulties, Richard’s Laughtondale property had to be sold to meet debts. Richard applied for and was granted another 50-acre property at the head of Mangrove Creek but perhaps because the property was too remote for his duties as District Constable he did not move to the land. There is some evidence that Richard junior was occupying the land by 1829 (by then aged 18 years).
With the Laughtondale property sold, the Woodbury family moved across the river and rented a property at present day Gunderman from Chief Constable, John Howe [xix]. Three further children were born at the new property. Anne was born on 15 October 1824 and Jane on 11 July 1926. Matthew was born on 15 July 1828. During this period Richard and Sarah seemed to embrace the then-new Wesleyan Church, which began as a reformist movement out of the established Church of England. Ann was baptised in the Established Church. However, Jane and Matthew were baptised according to Wesleyan rites; but their names were also entered into the Parish Register. Richard’s property eventually became a fixture in the Wesleyan preaching circuit. Much later, in 1855, the Lower Hawkesbury Wesleyan Chapel, which still stands, was built on what had been the Woodbury farm at Gunderman.
On 23 January 1827, the son of Thomas Green, a neighbouring farmer, set fire to wheat stubble on the Green’s property. Unfortunately the wind came up and the surrounding drought-affected grasses exploded into flame. The Sydney Gazette reported that “the grass was burning in all directions for more than a mile in circumference” [Sydney Gazette, 31 January 1827]. The fire raced across onto Richard Woodbury’s property and Richard’s house and three corn stacks were burnt to the ground. Apart from a few pigs, the family lost everything they owned.
However, by the time of the NSW Census in 1828 [xx], Richard Woodbury and his family had rebuilt. Richard farmed 70 acres at Gunderman of which 60 was cleared and cultivated and he owned 15 head of cattle. His farm operated a small store and supported an assigned servant, John Harman, married in 1827 to Sarah’s sister Elizabeth ("Betsy"), as well as a female servant, three labourers, a blacksmith and a stonemason. Also, in April 1828 a small part-time school opened in Nelsons Reach directly opposite the Woodbury farm and it is likely that some of the Woodbury children rowed across to attend when it was in session.
Number Three Iron Gang
In October 1828, four escapees from Number Three Iron Gang who were working on the construction of the Great North Road just over the hills burst in and attacked the Woodbury farm. During the attack, young William Woodbury, then aged 14 (or perhaps his younger brother Jeremiah aged 12) shot at the leader, Richard Peacock. The forefinger of Richard’s right hand was broken in the assault and many pieces of glass were taken from Richard’s head over the following week. The incident was reported in the Sydney newspaper in October 1828:
A desperate attack was made a fortnight ago, on the house of Richard Woodbury, district constable of the Lower Branch, by four men, armed with formidable bludgeons. Without ceremony, they began to beat him in the most furious manner, and would have doubtless very soon have deprived him of his life, had it not been for the the heroic conduct of his little son. The boy seeing his father's danger, slily entered the bed-room, took down a gun loaded with slugs, and though it was almost beyond his strength even to lift it, the little fellow contrived to discharge its contents into the neck of one of the villains. They immediately decamped, carrying with them, their wounded accomplice. One of the gang was apprehended two days after, and confessed the whole truth, in consequence of which, the other three have since been lodged in custody. [The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser , Friday 31 October 1828].
During his convalescence, Sarah probably persuaded Richard to resign his position as District Constable and on 23 January 1829, a fortnight after the Iron Gang escapee’s trial, Richard officially resigned. He had served nearly nine years under very difficult circumstances. He was 52 at the time.
Free from his policing duties, Richard moved his family from Gunderman down-river to Mangrove Creek. According to a submission written by Richard junior in 1831, his father and mother moved to a 70-acre farm at Popran Creek and Richard senior then bought another 30-acre property opposite Sugee Bag Creek, about 5 miles further upstream. Richard Senior also bought the property at Gunderman, which he then on-sold the following year. In the same submission, Richard junior stated that he was renting 10 of his father’s 70 acres at Popran, had built a house and had 10 head of cattle and a wheat crop.
Farming in Mangrove Creek must have been successful because in the early part of 1830, Richard was briefly under contract to the Commissary Department to supply victuals to Number Nine Iron Gang working on the Great North Road around present-day Gibba Gunya. According to the Superintendent, Richard gave satisfactory service[xxi]. Around this time, the family moved to the 30-acre property near Sugee Bag Creek and it was here that Elizabeth Woodbury (then 18) met a neighbouring landholder’s son, William Hibbs. William and Elizabeth were married on 19 January 1830.
In the same year, Richard senior renewed his application of two years earlier to rent 100 acres of church reserve land at Mangrove Creek. In support of his application James Chandler, the Church of England catechist, referred to Richard’s recent service as District Constable and the fact that Richard supported nine children (excluding the married, Elizabeth), all of whom attended school and divine service. In his own application the following year, Richard stated that he had £600 in land and cattle at his disposal. He was granted a grazing lease initially, but eventually was able to purchase most of the land.
The last of Richard and Sarah’s children, George, was born at Mangrove Creek on 19 December 1831. At the birth of George, Sarah Woodbury became the mother of 11 children born over a 20-year time span. She was 38 years old.
A large flood occurred in Mangrove Creek in 1832, following which Richard made application for a grant of 12 acres of elevated land above the tide and flood level. This was granted and Richard built a stone or brick house on this site, overlooking the entrance to Sugee Bag Creek. Many of the older Woodbury children followed Elizabeth’s lead and married during this period; Sarah in 1834, both William and Jeremiah in 1835 and then both Richard junior and Rebecca in 1837.
By about 1838, Richard sold his 50-acre grant at the head of Mangrove Creek. He bought 10 acres of land at Cumberland Reach, Sackville (present day Sackville North) from his brother-in-law, Matthew Everingham the younger.
Richard and Sarah were living in the new flood-proof house near Sugee Bag Creek when a list of Hawkesbury householders was compiled in 1841. The youngest children, John (19), Jane (15), and George (10) were still at home. Sadly Matthew, born in 1828 had passed away in 1835. The married Woodbury children all lived nearby. Elizabeth and William Hibbs, Rebecca and William Craft, Richard junior and Jane (Neal), William and Mary Anne (Donovan) and Sarah and Joseph Bridge all lived within the Mangrove Creek catchment.
It is likely that all the Woodbury children were experienced boat people, having lived most of their life on the river. In later years Jeremiah owned a small cutter-rigged packet called the John and Herbert that traded regularly along the river to Windsor. William owned the William and Mary that traded between the Hawkesbury region and Sydney. (See The Sailing Woodburys on this site).
The colony fell on hard times in the 1840’s and in 1844 Richard was forced to sell his house and both properties near Sugee bag Creek to meet debts. He also lost the 10-acre farm at Sackville. Fortunately in the same year, Richard was granted 60 acres of land at Bathurst Reach back on the upper Hawkesbury, about 2 miles up-river from Wiseman’s Ferry. Here Richard and Sarah were to start all over again, at the age of 67 and 51 respectively. Richard built a house on that property also.
A few years later, in 1850, Richard sold the property to his son William but he remained there with his wife Sarah until his death 17 years later. His youngest son, George [xxii], lived there with his parents also. George married Sarah Charter at the Woodbury home at Bathurst Reach on 10 June 1855.
Final Page
Richard died on 4 June 1867 at Windsor at the age of 90 and was buried at Wisemans Ferry Cemetery (Laughtondale) in the Lower Hawkesbury. His son, George, signed the death notification with his mark.
George and his wife probably lived at Bathurst Reach with his mother for some time after Richard died but Sarah seems to have moved back with the rest of her family at Mangrove Creek in later years. She lived with her daughter Rebecca Craft at some stage and Rebecca and her husband built a small house for her on their property. Sarah Woodbury died in 1874 at Mangrove Creek, aged 81. She was given a “river funeral” where her body was rowed to Laughtondale cemetery to be buried alongside Richard.
Summing Up Richard
No photographs of Richard Woodbury have been found although photographs of three of his children (William, John and Rebecca) are included in Valerie Ross’ A Hawkesbury Story. Perhaps these pictures give a sense of him. Richard’s granddaughter, Caroline Love (daughter of youngest son, George), writing many years later in 1929, described her grandfather as a “very tall old man”.
Richard seems to have been blessed with a strong constitution. He survived over two years in prison in England (including 17 months in a prison hulk at Portsmouth) and nearly six months further on a prison ship coming to Australia, seemingly without ill effect. And he was not short of industry and business smarts. Within 5 years of him arriving in the colony he had amassed sufficient cash to spend over £17 at Andrew Thompson’s auction sale; more than a year’s wages at the time. In all, he purchased, leased or was granted about one dozen properties over his lifetime and only three of these had existing housing. He was required to build from the ground up on most of them.
As a man trained as a brewer he became a very successful farmer. Perhaps a few short months on the Government Farm at Castle Hill helped here. But he grew crops and raised livestock successfully. Most of his financial pressures on the farm seemed to come when crops were wiped out by natural disasters such as fires and the very regular floods on the Hawkesbury River. Both Richard and Sarah showed remarkable determination and resilience to rebuild after every setback.
Together, Richard and Sarah (whom he called “Sally”) were very capable parents. They raised 11 children, all but one of whom survived to adulthood to become the nucleus of this branch of the Woodbury clan in Australia today. Sarah Woodbury deserves high praise in her own right. She bore 11 children over 20 years, and raised them successfully often in very isolated places under primitive conditions, and often on her own when her husband was away for extended periods attending to farm, church or police business.
As a person, we know that Richard was honest and dependable (his original offence notwithstanding). He served nearly nine years without blemish as District Constable in the Lower Hawkesbury. In fact, he served with some distinction. The Sydney Gazette carried the story of the fire that destroyed the farm at Gunderman in January 1827, and noted that former District Constable Woodbury “is more esteemed than many persons holding similar situations in life” [Sydney Gazette, 31 January 1827].
Richard did not seem to have any qualms, however, about being forceful when necessary. Somehow he managed (with others) to bring a band of desperate runaways from Port Macquarie to justice in 1822 and not long after to capture Devil Devil on foot and then to probably row the captive over 40 miles up-river to Windsor. This suggests that he had courage, perseverance and strength in large measure. That he was strong and fit for most of his life probably goes without saying. As District Constable most of his travel over the 40 miles of river that was his beat, would have been on foot or by boat and probably mostly by rowing.
Good fortune followed him also – not the least of which was the fact that he was transported from England when it was in the grip of the worst effects of the Industrial Revolution, to a new colony crying out for self-sufficient people. Also that, at least in earlier years, the colonial government was always willing to give land grants to people prepared to stand on their own two feet. Settlers often received multiple grants of land in Richard’s day but this was a feature of the times – floods, fires and other misfortunes were common and people regrouped and started again.
Lastly, Richard and Sarah seemed to have a genuine affection for the church – firstly for the Established Church (Church of England) and then the Wesleyans (methodists) in later life. Caroline Love recorded in 1929 that “Grandfather and Grandmother opened their house to religious service as long as I can remember and the Wesleyan local preachers used to have services there every Sunday … people came for miles in boats to the services” (Ross, 1981).
Acknowledgements
Others have written extensively about the early Hawkesbury River settlers – none better perhaps than Valerie Ross who wrote seminal works such as Matthew Everingham: A First Fleeter and his Times (1980) and A Hawkesbury Story (1981). I have relied on Valerie Ross’s research for much of this account, particularly regarding land grants to Richard (see "Land holdings" in sidebar). I acknowledge all Valerie Ross’s good work, and that of the others that I’ve referenced, in this account. I also got valuable advice from Allen Maunder (www.everymaunder.com) and Ian Woodbury. Genealogist, Peter Bennett from Hampshire UK, helped with copy of a witness statement relating to Richard's trial and records from the hulk, Laurel. Genealogist, John Campbell from West County Ancestors provided valuable assistance with work on Richard's family in England and Richard's wider family tree.
Version
This document is subject to revision. This version is Version 12 (September 2024).
REFERENCE NOTES
[i] The name Woodbury is said to derive from Old English “wudu” (wood) and “byrig” or “burh” meaning “fortified place” (Ancestry.com).
[ii] Lay Subsidies were a record of taxes to be imposed on lay (non-clerical) landholders based on the estimated value of their estates (wiki.familysearch.org). Burlescombe is a town and civil parish in Devon, about 15 miles north east of Exeter.
[iii] Richard’s birthdate and place is often quoted as “about 1781 in Bristol”, perhaps because he is listed in the New South Wales Census of 1828 as 47 years old. Valerie Ross (1981) notes that a search of the parish register in St Nicholas in Bristol from 1776-1782 found no trace of a Woodbury birth. However, records exist of the baptism of a Richard Woodbury on 18 October 1777 in Holcombe Rogus, Devon, and this seems the best evidence of his birth at present. Richard’s father is probably Jeremiah Woodbury, born about 1755 in Bristol; his mother Elizabeth (Stone).
At the time Richard was transferred to the prison hulk Laurel in Portsmouth harbour in August 1804, he was listed as 27 years of age. This suggests that the christening record at Holcombe Rogus on 18 October 1777 is probably correct. It also suggests that alternative christening dates for 1773 and for 1781 (most commonly used for his birth year in Australia) are likely to be incorrect.
[iv] In A Hawkesbury Story (1981) Valerie Ross notes that archivists in Bristol searched newspapers and Quarter Session records for the years 1797 to 1805 for mention of Richard’s trial but were unable to find any reference. However, Richard's conviction was noted, along with others at the October Quarter Sessions, in Felix Farley's Bristol Journal of October 1803 (p.3, col 5).
[v] The “Laurel” was the Dutch ship “Sirene” captured in South Africa in 1796, which was stripped and fitted out for use as a prison hulk in Portsmouth in 1798. In 1806, 101 male convicts were taken onboard Fortune from hulks at Woolwich (Thames River) and Portsmouth (Home Office Class 13 Piece 17 pps 118-120, AJCP Reel 422). Conditions on the hulks were often described as “appalling” and mortality rates were often high, but conditions at the Laurel were good by comparison, even to having a large vegetable garden on land nearby which supplied a healthy diet to the prisoners (see Prison hulk on this site).
[vi] The number of convicts on board Fortune varies on different records; perhaps because numbers embarked on Fortune and Alexander were not differentiated initially. Fortune’s log lists 260 convicts onboard at Spithead and three convicts died on the voyage out. The Sydney Gazette (13 July 1806), which recorded the arrival of Fortune, notes 242 male convicts on board on arrival. The discrepancy is probably explained by the fact that, five days out of Spithead, 12 convicts from the Fortune were transferred to the escort ship, Porpoise, to help with working the rigging during the trip. It's possible that a few others may have also transferred when Fortune and Alexander joined up in Rio De Janerio.
[vii] The Lady Madeleine Sinclair carrying Governor Bligh arrived on 6 August 1806. However, Bligh’s term ended only 18 months later in January 1808 when he was overthrown in the “Rum Rebellion”.
[viii] Convict ships arriving between 1799 and 1800 suffered an average mortality rate of more than 15 percent (Society of Australian genealogists: Basics of Ships and Voyages). This improved markedly in later trips when contractors were only paid according to the number of convicts disembarked in good health.
[ix] Andrew Thomson was transported in 1792 but became Chief Constable at Toongabbie and then Constable at Windsor in 1796. He developed multiple businesses in the region and by about 1800 was one of the richest businessmen in NSW. Governor Macquarie made him a Magistrate in the Hawkesbury district in 1802. He died of tuberculosis in 1810, which some say was bought about by exposure and exertion when rescuing victims during the Hawkesbury floods in 1806 and 1809.
[x] Henry Kable was transported in 1783. He developed major farming interests on the Hawkesbury River and other businesses in brewing, stores, transport, shipping, whaling and sealing.
[xi] Richard’s sentence expired on 24 October 1810 and his Certificate of Emancipation was granted on 30 October 1810 (4/4427; COD18, Reel 601 pp. 516-17).
[xii] The original St Matthews Anglican Church where Richard and Sarah were married was located in the old part of town but is no longer standing. Governor Macquarie laid the foundation stone for the new (current) St Matthews in Moses Street, in 1817. The Reverend Samuel Marsden conducted the first service in September 1821.
[xiii] The first school in Green Hills (Windsor) opened in Bridge Street in 1806 following a government grant of land, but that school was a fee-paying school and open only to boys. It appears that some of Richard and Sarah’s children were not schooled. Valerie Ross (1981) notes that Richard junior and William could write well and Jeremiah, Sarah and Rebecca could write a little. Elizabeth, John and George could not write. Ross believes that most of the children may have been able to read at least passably.
[xiv] In September 1811, Richard and Kable advertised beer on credit in the Sydney Gazette. “Mr Henry Kable and Mr Richard Woodbury beg leave to acquaint Settlers … that they continue to carry on the Brewing Business on the same Terms as heretofore: and as it may be an accommodation to many of the former to be occasionally supplied with Proportions of from Five to Twenty Gallons from time to time, on credit till January next, Messrs Kable and Woodbury undertake to furnish such Quantity upon their Notes of Hand payable at that period” [Sydney Gazette, 28 September 1811].
[xv] The relationship between the Aborigines and the new settlers in New South Wales, while amicable at first, degenerated quickly as the aborigines were progressively denied access to their traditional food sources and living places. An outbreak of smallpox decimated the aboriginal population around the colony in 1789.
The Hawkesbury River, home to the Dhurag (or Darug) people and the Darkinjung further north near Gosford, was a fertile food-gathering area for the aborigines and an equally vital farming area for new colony that had once faced starvation. The Hawkesbury River area was described as being in a state of open warfare in the ten years between 1795 and 1805. Governor King agreed to allow the local aborigines exclusive access to the Lower Hawkesbury River in 1804 but this agreement collapsed in the face of continuing land grants to new settlers by succeeding Governors.
By 1820, raids on settler’s properties on the Hawkesbury River were less common but frequent and violent enough for some of the settlers to flee to the safety of the towns. Escaped convicts, known as “bolters” were a common threat as were bushrangers in later years. Bold Jack Donahue (immortalised as the “Wild Colonial Boy”) began holding up travellers on the road from Sydney to Windsor in about 1827.
[xvi] Local aborigines burned and looted Matthew Everingham’s homestead, outbuildings and storage shed in an attack in May 1804 on his isolated 50-acre grant at Sackville Reach. Matthew, his wife Elizabeth, and a servant (Lawrence Byrne) were speared in the attack, but not seriously wounded (Hardy, 1985).
[xvii] Records show that between August and October 1825 Richard certified to the conditions of occupation of land grants in the Lower Hawkesbury to Aron Waters, Roger Shea, Robert Thompson, Sylvester Butler, Sophia Warners and John Bailey.
[xviii] The reward to the group was "60 dollars". In 1812, 40,000 Spanish dollars were brought to New South Wales for use as currency in the colony (at that time, England, Spain and Portugal were joint adversaries in the Napoleonic War). Governor Macquarie directed William Henshall, a convicted forger, to punch each coin so that it consisted of an outer ring (known as the "holey dollar") and the remaining slug (known as the "dump"). The holey dollar had a value of 5 shillings, and the dump, 15 pence. The currency minted from the Spanish dollar was circulated in the colony from 1814 until it was recalled, starting from 1822, to be replaced with sterling. The holey dollar and dump were demonetised in 1829. Very few remain in museums and private collections as most were melted down.
William Gray, the young native man involved in the apprehension of the runaways, also received another reward from Governor Brisbane. The letter notes “As to the native youth William Gray who proved himself upon that occasion as zealous as the rest the enclosure directed to Mr Johnston contains the authority of the Governor for delivery into the hands of this young man a cow and a calf as the reward of his dawning merit”.
[xix] John Howe arrived in Australia as a free settler in 1802. At Windsor, he was a bridge-builder, ferry keeper, storekeeper and auctioneer. He later became Chief Constable and Coroner. In 1819-20 he led exploration parties to the Upper Hunter and Patrick Plains.
[xx] In the 1828 Census, Richard is listed as aged 47 and his wife, aged 30. We know this is not an accurate age for Sarah because, based on baptism records, she was 35 at the time. The quoted age may be inaccurate for Richard also if we accept his birthdate is October 1777 (whereby he would be 51 at the time of the Census). The reason for this inaccuracy has not been determined. See Richard's birth date in sidebar.
[xxi] Superintendent Percy Simpson reported that Richard adhered to the conditions of supply and “by delivering the same at the huts of the Gang by which arrangement much of the prisoners time was saved to the public. Supplies have been regular and of satisfactory quality” [Percy Simpson’s Reports for January and March 1830, 2/3197 A.O.N.S.W].
[xxii] George James Woodbury, the youngest of the Woodbury children was 25 when he married Sarah Charter (aged 18) on 10 June 1855. George was recorded as living at “Bathurst Reach” which is at the junction of Webb’s Creek – close to Wiseman’s Ferry. Sarah lived at Webb’s Creek prior to her marriage. George and Sarah went on to have a family of 11 children.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnard, M. (1961) Macquarie’s World. Melbourne University Press.
Cathcart, M (1996) Manning Clark’s History of Australia. Abridged from six volumes. Penguin.
Hardy, B. (1985) Early Hawkesbury Settlers. Kangaroo Press.
Hawkings, D (1987) Bound for Australia. Phillimore & Co.
Ross, V. (1980) Matthew Everingham: A First Fleeter and his Times. Sydney. Library of Australian History.
Ross, V. (1981) A Hawkesbury Story. Sydney. Library of Australian History.
Toohey, J. (1998) Captain Bligh's Portable Nightmare. Duffy & Snellgrove. Potts Point NSW.
Page created on 15 January 2012.