Edward ROBINSON

Story

Edward ROBINSON was born about 1754, in England. At the age of 34, Edward was a servant to Tate WILKINSON, who operated the Theatre Royal in York. Edward lived in lodgings at the rear of the theatre, in what was called Mint Yard. It is assumed he lived alone, and it is not known if he was married prior to this time or whether he had any children.

It appears that Edward was an habitual thief, for in 1789, he was charged with 14 counts of stealing. Basically, Edward would visit various taverns in and around York, and make off with the silverware, or in one incident, books. He was apprehended, and several of the stolen items were found hidden in a box in his lodgings. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, but was convicted of all, except one.

On 25/7/1789, at the York Assizes, Edward was sentenced “to be hanged”, and these words were actually written on the court papers, but thankfully, the judge has then put a stroke of a pen through those words, and changed the sentence to Transportation for Life. In Janaury, 1790, he was received on the prison hulk, The Lion, at Portsmouth Harbour. On 27/3/1791, Edward sailed out of Portsmouth Harbour bound for the Colony of New South Wales aboard the 522 ton vessel, ‘Admiral Barrington’, mastered by Robert Abbon MARSH. In all, there were 300 convicts transported on this ship, however, due to overcrowding, there were 36 deaths during the voyage.This ship was part of the 3rd Fleet and arrived in Sydney on 16/10/1791.

Details of Edward’s early days in the Colony are not known, though it is known that in the first few years he made company with a female convict by the name of Mary HARRISON, who had arrived in Australia some 3 months before Edward. Although they did not marry, she bore him 7 children (see Mary’s history for full details of the children).

As both Edward and Mary were convicts, arriving in Sydney in 1791, and their first child, Elizabeth, was born in Toongabbile in 1795, it is presumed that both were part of the convict settlement at Toongabbie which originated in the early 1790’s, and was used to grow crops for the Colony.

Edward received a pardon on 12/12/1794, possibly due to Mary expecting the birth of Elizabeth. After the birth, they headed west to the new settlement, where another six children were born from 1797. He had been granted 30 acres of land on the river at Hawkesbury in the District of Mulgrove Place on 9/12/1794. On 15/9/1802, Edward was granted a further 100 acres at a lagoon nearby, which was called Robinson’s Lagoon. On 28/9/1809, he received a further grant to lease 1 and 3/4 acres 25 rods in Sydney Town. Edward also owned a tavern, ‘Sign of the York Roses’, for which he was granted beer and spirits licences from 1809 through to 1815. On 18/10/1809, Edward was also granted 80 acres at Upper Nelson. Edward ROBINSON was known in the Hawkesbury Settlement as a successful farmer and as a “steady, dependable, educated man”. By 1805, he had a flock of around 薘 big framed mutton producers”, and told Governor KING he would like to experiment with merino sheep . He was a first trustee of Phillip Common, and in 1806, made a special constable for flood relief following the Hawkesbury flood of March, 1806. The Sydney Gazette of 16 March, reported, “a valuable chaise and cart left by Mr Edward ROBINSON below Green Hill, on the day previous to the flood, were both carried away, supposed to be irrecoverably lost”. Later again, many of his assets were lost in the Hawkesbury floods of February, 1811, and for a while Edward was in financial straits.

Edward’s ‘wife’, Mary, died on 24/2/1810, leaving him to find someone else, which he did, another convict, Ann SHORTER, who was born in England in 1774. She had been sentenced to 7 years Transportation, Middlesex, England, on 8/12/1809. She had arrived in Australia on 10/10/1811, aboard the ship ‘Friends’. Ann had been assigned as a servant to Ellis BENT in Newcastle. On 12/11/1812, she was returned to Sydney, her sentence having expired early. She was granted permission to marry Edward ROBINSON on 18/2/1813, and they married two weeks later on 1 March, at the Parish of Hawksbury Chapel, Windsor.

In 1820, Edward was issued a hotel licence for premises on the Parramatta Road. Unfortunatley, at this time of his life, he was in poor health, and he died shortly after, on 6/6/1820, at the Halfway House, Parramatta Road. He was buried 5 days later in the Devonshire Street Cemetery, Sydney,

The vault was later moved to Botany when the cemetery was closed to make way for the construction of Central Railway in 1901. There were no children as a result of Edward’s marriage to Ann SHORTER. She died on 25 August, 1835, and was buried at St.Matthews Church of England, Windsor.

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