Jane Jones/Stilwell/Webster

Story

JANE JONES STILWELL WEBSTER

1795 -1868

Jane Jones grew up in the Soho district of London, the daughter of William Jones a glassmaker. She was 4\’10 _’ tall, of fair complexion with black hair and hazel eyes. On 16th May 1812 aged 17 she and her friend Ann Rogers aged 15, robbed a public house of 4 loaves of bread, 1lb butter, 5 eggs, 1 fowl, a cheese, silver cutlery, plates, basin, tinder box and the entire till holding 140 pennies, 2,124 halfpennies & 463 farthings. A Beadle and Constable caught them coming home and they were locked up in the Watchhouse. Two months later in the Old Bailey they were found guilty and sentenced to death, but because of their young age the sentence was commuted to transportation to the colonies for life.

On 12th November 1812 together with 38 other women convicts, some with children, they left England aboard a small ill-fated brig ‘Emu\’ bound for Sydney. In the Bay of Biscay they were hijacked by government supported American pirates, who at that time were harassing English shipping. The ‘Emu\’s compliment were dumped at Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands many weeks later in January 1813 and the ship taken to New York for sale. A rescue ship was months away. They returned to Portsmouth harbour in October 1813 where the convict women were made stay aboard because their clothes were in such a dilapidated state they were nearly naked.

Another larger ship the ‘Broxbornebury\’ with fresh supplies was made ready for their next journey which included another 85 women convicts and 28 free families. This ship sailed on 22nd February 1814 stopping only at La Corunna Island and Funchal, Madeira Islands for supplies before arriving in Port Jackson on 28th July 1814. It had taken twenty months after first embarking on the ‘Emu\’ for Jane and her friend Ann to reach the colony.

On board, a relationship had apparently flourished between Jane and John Stilwell, who was steward to Sir John Jamison, also passengers. This liaison kept Jane from being sent to the Female Factory at Parramatta. She was assigned to Sir John Jamison as housekeeper in one of his properties, the Westmoreland Arms, with John Stilwell installed there as Publican and Manager.

Jane and John had 5 children in Sydney; John 1817; Lucy b/d 1818; Thomas 1919; Jane Margaret 1821; and William 1822. They were married at St. Philips Church in 1819 and Jane received an Absolute Pardon from Governor Macquarie in 1820 giving her the opportunity to return to England if she wished. However, it was John Stilwell who left the Colony in 1825 owing money to several people after getting his business into severe financial difficulty; he abandoned Jane and his children.

Now aged 30, Jane became housekeeper to John Nehemiah Webster, an ex-convict who had received his pardon also from Governor Macquarie in 1821. John was a carver and gilder who employed two convict shoemakers in his business in Castlereagh Street. The household was quite large with Jane\’s surviving children residing there as well until her eldest son became employed at Kissing Point further up the Parramatta River. In 1829 two other of her children were admitted to the Orphan School for a time as she could not afford to support them as a washerwomen and needleworker. She and John Webster had become partners quite quickly but did not marry for seven years after Mr. Stilwell\’s departure, until March 1832 in Scots Church, Sydney. They produced four sons in Sydney Ð Joseph Nehemiah 1826; John 1828; Leonard 1829; Jeremiah Godfrey 1831; and later two daughters in Goulburn Ð Sarah 1832; and Rebecca 1834.

With all their children, the family moved to Goulburn in 1832, only 4 years after the town had been dedicated, probably to get out of Sydney town\’s squalid conditions. They lived in what is now called North Goulburn where the township was first established with the population at the time being only a few hundred. On the journey Jane must have been heavily pregnant with Sarah. To support them all, John Webster became a butcher and purchased land, part of which is covered by the Sydney road today.

Jane and John never became wealthy, but together they did raise a lot of children Ð currency lads and lasses, from whom there are many descendants. John died on 28th February 1842 aged 44 years. Jane died of ‘old age\’ in her house in Auburn Street, Goulburn on 24th April 1868 aged 74 years. It is believed they are both buried in the Presbyterian section of the original burial ground, Mortis Road Cemetery.

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