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Looking for relatives
I have written the following story on my great great great grandfather RICHARD WALKER in the hope that someone will read and relate it in someway to their family history.
The photograph below is of Henry Adolphus Walker, great grandson of Richard Walker.
If you think you could be related in any way to this Walker family, or know of someone who maybe looks like the photo no matter how remote, please email me. I would love to hear from you.
Please read on:
Henry Adolphus Walker 1904
The Convict Story
RICHARD WALKER was born c1768 in Worcester England. He was a clever man and took the profession of medicine becoming a Surgeon & Apothecarist (Chemist).
He was 5 feet 4 inches tall with a ruddy complexion, black greying hair and hazel eyes.
He was married to Dorothy Mary Martin, known as Mary, and they had 5 children, George, Henry, Eliza, Emma and Maria.
Unfortunately for Richard, on the 2nd June 1813, he was indicted for knowingly having in his possession a forged 2 pound bank note.
To this indictment he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 years. He was taken to Middlesex Goal where he began his sentence.
On 10 May 1814, with other convicted men he boarded the ship "Somersetshire" under the Captaincy of Master Alexander Scott, which set sail for Australia. They arrived in Sydney on the 15th October 1814.
On 25th October 1814, Richard was listed as a convict disembarked from the "Somersetshire" and forwarded to Windsor for distribution.
On 19th June 1815, Dorothy (Mary) Walker and the children arrived in Port Jackson Australia on the ship "Northampton". George was aged 20, Henry 14, Eliza (Elizabeth) 13, Emma 8 and Maria 5.
From 25 January 1819 to 24 June 1820 Richard was assigned as a Clerk in the Commissariat Department, listed on the returns of storekeepers and extra clerks.
On 4th December 1819 he petitioned for mitigation of his sentence.
On 8th September 1821, he was on the list of all persons victualled from H.M. Magazines, with his wife and 3 children.
Nothing is known of Richard and Mary's lives in England or Sydney and Mary died October 1823 aged 47 and buried in Sydney.
Richard obtained his Certificate of Freedom on 2nd June 1827. He was given a Conditional Pardon.
The 1828 New South Wales Census lists Richard aged 60 from the ship "Somersetshire", lodging in Pitt St Sydney. Another person listed with Richard was Samuel Evans (his son-in-law).
Richard died in June 1832. The following is taken from the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, June 30th 1832.
On Thursday an inquest was held at the "Black Dog" public house, Cambridge Street, The Rocks, on the body of Richard Walker, who, the preceding morning between 9 and 10 o'clock, fell to the earth in the yard at the back of the house in which he lived in the above Street. He was carried to bed speechless, and remained in that state until about 4 o'clock the same day. The jury returned a verdict of - "died by the visitation of God". In the course of the examination of witnesses, it appeared that a man of the name of Thomas Mosher, a poor cobbler living in the same house with deceased, went between two and three o'clock to the shop of Surgeon Hosking, and requested his attendance to the deceased, who had grown worse. Upon being informed that the applicant had no pecuniary means of remunerating him, Surgeon Hosking declined attending, alleging his "business would not permit him". At this conduct the jury, one and all, expressed their indignation in the severest terms language could convey, as it was their unanimous opinion, that had the assistance required been afforded to the individual now dead, in all probability he would have recovered; and this their opinion they requested the Coroner to present through the proper medium.
The correspondence from P M Hosking back to the Editor of the Sydney Gazette was as follows: Sir, -- I cannot allow the aspersion thrown out against my professional character in your report of the Coroner’s inquest, held on the body of Richard Walker, which appeared in your last Gazette, to pass without notice – especially as I consider no Coroner’s Jury have a right to call in question the motives of any medical man for not doing what they may consider to be his duty. In the first place, I have to state, that although the applicant had no pecuniary means of remunerating me, as stated at the inquest, had it been otherwise, I could not have gone at that time to visit the person, having but a few moments returned from a patient whom I could not have left for any length of time. Finding I was engaged, why could not the messenger have sought other medical assistance? And, moreover, it would have been useless had I gone, as I have heard since that the man was dead before he returned home. I cannot close these few remarks without saying that I consider the expressions made use of by the jury uncalled for, unjustifiable, and unwarrantable. I am, Sir Yours obediently P M Hosking George StSydney July 2nd 1832.
Richard's 2 sons, George and Henry were both hatters (according to my grandfather Henry Adolphus Walker).
I have not been able to verify this information regarding George, but Henry was definitely a hatter and was apprenticed to Mr Rueben Uther.
Henry married Frances Phillips in 1824 in Sydney and applied for a grant of land for agricultural pursuits to enable him to support his increasing family. They went on to have 10 children.
Elizabeth married John McMahon in 1821 in Sydney and had 11 children.
Emma married Samuel Evans in 1826 in Sydney and had 2 children.
Maria married Alfred Henry Austin in 1835 in Sydney and had 2 children.
William Peter Walker, 9th child of Henry and Frances Walker, and born in 1842 in Cumberland Sydney, at some stage of his teenage life made his way from NSW to Queensland.
He met and married Catherine (Kate) Kelly, a young lady of Irish decent. William and Kate had 4 children, William Henry Alfred born 1868, George Arnold born 1870, Henry Adolphus born 1872 and Frances born 1875.
William died on 12 September 1878 at the young age of 36. Kate married again to Dan Ellis.
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