Prisoner No 501, Moreton Bay.
Henry Allen was a carpenter by trade, a native of Warwickshire, and was born around 1798. With the foolishness of youth, he tried his hand at burglary in 1817, which brought him before the Warwick Lenten Assizes in April 1817. He was found guilty (death recorded) and sentenced to 14 years’ gaol, which meant a one-way ticket to Sydney Town.
After a three month stay aboard the aptly named hulk Retribution, Henry Allen was transported to Australia on board the Larkins. In less than twelve months, he had gone from a jobbing carpenter in Warwick to a convict on a gang in Sydney.
Allen’s trade made him a useful man to have about Sydney Town, and found himself employed by the Government as a house carpenter in 1819.
Sydney Town.
In September 1819, Allen was working in a team on the Church Road, and he agreed to give a man named John Roberts a room for the night. Roberts was down on his luck, and seemed rather melancholy. Allen gave him shelter for a night in his skillion, a lean-to outside of the main house, unaware that Roberts was a runaway convict.
The following morning, Allen went to his work at dawn, telling Roberts he should go out to work too. Roberts said he would, and while Allen was out labouring, Roberts returned to the skillion, and hung himself from the ceiling.
The Coroner’s jury found a verdict of suicide, or, as they put it:
“Good and Lawful Men of Sidney (sic) aforesaid who being sworn and charged to enquire on the part of our said Lord the King, who, when how and after what manner the said John Roberts came to his Death, do say upon their oath he not having God before his Eyes, but being seduced and moved by the instigation of the Devil at Sidney aforesaid, in a certain house or skillion at Sydney aforesaid, standing and being, the said John Roberts being then and there alone with a certain hempen cord of the value of three pence, which he then and there had and held in is hands, and the end thereof, then and there put about his neck, and the other end thereof to the roof strong and secured – himself then and there, with the Lord aforesaid, voluntarily and feloniously of his Malice, forethought, hanged and suffocated and so the Jurors aforesaid upon their oath aforesaid say that the said John Roberts then and there in the manner aforesaid, as a felon of himself, feloniously, voluntarily, and of his malice forethought, himself killed, strangled and murdered against the Peace, being then in a state of Melancholy.”
And we despair of modern legal jargon.
I suspect that Henry Allen was a good deal more careful about his acts of charity from then on.
Parramatta.
In 1820, Allen found himself headed to Newcastle on the brig Henrietta, having copped 25 lashes and a year’s transportation for an unrecorded offence. Henry Allen did his time there, and was sent off to work at Parramatta.
In 1822, Henry popped over to Thomas Ashby’s place at Parramatta for a spot of cards. A few other government servants came over, and the card game went on into the night. The constables raided Ashby’s house, and the men found themselves facing a bench headed by the formidable Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur. Ticket of leave holders had their paperwork cancelled, and one player was given 100 lashes for obstructing the police. Henry Allen got away with 50 lashes.
Thinking that he might improve his chances of a ticket of leave by making himself useful, Allen volunteered to go to Wellington Plains to help set up the new settlement there.
Wellington Plains.
Henry Allen really hated Wellington Plains. Particularly the officious Percy Simpson[i], who had charge of him. Allen put up a house for Simpson. Simpson found it completely unsatisfactory.[ii] Perhaps Henry Allen did a slipshod job on the house on the house on purpose, because other reports of his work suggest that he was a skilled carpenter.
Unsurprisingly, having failed to live up to the expectations of Percy Simpson, Allen absconded with another convict worker, and a Female Factory servant named Rachel Smith, who would be his future partner.
Allen was advertised for, captured and was punished by Simpson, and was then forwarded to Sydney Gaol to be dealt with as the authorities saw fit. The authorities took their time deciding.
After spending months contemplating his options, Henry Allen swallowed his pride and wrote a petition to His Excellency the Governor in June 1824, asking to return to the Wellington Plains settlement. He would go back as a show of good faith, and promised not to run away again. Crickets.
In early August, Allen tried petitioning again. This time, he said, he would be willing to help establish the new Settlement in what he erroneously thought was the ‘nor-west coast’ of New South Wales[iii]. As for the running away business at Wellington Plains, that was due to the harsh treatment there. His petition sounded sincere enough, and there was indeed a new place to be set up.
This time, the Colonial Secretary decided to grant his wish, and noted Allen’s file “to Moreton Bay per Amity.”
Moreton Bay.
Henry Allen had an uneventful time at Moreton Bay. He laboured under Henry Miller, Peter Bishop and Patrick Logan, apparently without incurring the wrath of any of them. He was probably too busy.
The first attempt at the Moreton Bay settlement was made at a picturesque spot in the Bay, now known as Redcliffe. Buildings were hastily erected there for storage and accommodation, but the site was deemed unsuitable. Fresh water was difficult to obtain, sandflies tortured the inhabitants, supplies from Sydney were desperately needed, and there were indigenous people who understandably felt hostile towards these strange people bunging up buildings all over their country.
The settlement was dismantled and re-erected down the Brisbane River. In early 1826, there were only two working carpenters (including Allen) at the settlement, and a hospital and gaol had yet to be completed. Henry Allen was too preoccupied to get into trouble.
Life after crime in Sydney Town.
Allen earned his trip back to Sydney Town on 9 October 1826, and sensibly avoided returning to a life of crime, and thus avoided returning to Moreton Bay. In 1827, he earned a ticket of leave, and in 1828, Rachel gave birth to his son, Richard Benjamin Allen.
In 1831, Henry Allen received his Certificate of Freedom. His appearance was noted as 5 feet, 6 ¾ inches in height, with dark brown hair and chestnut-coloured eyes. His complexion had changed from “dark” (in 1817) to “yellow and pock marked.” Perhaps this yellowness was just an unkind description of the effects of the Australian sun, but it sounds like he had been ill.
In 1833, 36-year-old Allen applied to marry Rachael Herbert, aged 33. Both were free on bond, but Rachel was not free to marry, having a husband who had arrived on the Speke.
In 1836, however, they were free to marry (the existing husband presumably no longer existed), and Rev William Cowper did the honours at Sydney Town.
The last record we have of Henry Allen was the reissue of his certificate of freedom in April 1844 – his previous one had been damaged. Allen was 46 years old at the time.
[i] Here’s an example of Simpson’s curt style: “The stores you sent up by Wilson are arrived at Bathurst – small part came here and I hope W Johnson will soon send the remainder. All the men are much in want of Slops and I think it would be advisable that during the spring and summer months a large quantity should be sent up. The men last arrived here state that their slops were due before they left Sydney; they are much in want of them. Nor was there any list sent me for when they were due. Thomas Smith whom Chambers assured me had completed the term of his transportation was by some mistake at Sydney returned to Bathurst (he ran away from here once before) and singular to add, came down here the other day on duty in charge of Mr Lawson’s pack horses. No doubt putting in his and Chambers’ stratagem in having deceived me with a falsehood. I shall not be so imposed on again – would you have the goodness to order him to be sent here.”
[ii] “The evening before last Henry Allen (from the coal river) Thos Owen 3rd time for desertion and Rachel Smith a Factory woman deserted from here. Allen was the Carpenter that got up a weather boarded house for me but when ready to put the roof on, it was found to be falling to the ground owing to the unworkmanlike manner he put it together.”
[iii] New South Wales has no west coast.
Moreton Bay and More 