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John Pascoe Fawkner
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John Pascoe Fawkner
John Pascoe Fawkner (20 October 1792 – 4 September 1869) was an early Australian pioneer, businessman and politician of Melbourne, Australia. In 1835 he financed a party of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land (now called Tasmania), to sail to the mainland in his ship, Enterprize. Fawkner's party sailed to Port Phillip and up the Yarra River to found a settlement which became the city of Melbourne.
John Pascoe Fawkner was born near Cripplegate London in 1792 to John Fawkner (a metal refiner) and his wife Hannah née Pascoe, whose parents were Cornish. As a 10-year-old, he accompanied his convict father, who had been sentenced to fourteen years gaol for receiving stolen goods, being transported on HMS Calcutta, alongside his mother and younger sister Elizabeth, as part of a two ship fleet to establish a new British colony in Bass Strait in 1803. His reminiscences describe the time leading up to departure, the voyage and their arrival at Sullivan Bay, near modern-day Sorrento, the day before Fawkner turned 11. For several months the colony struggled to survive. There were some 27 convict escape attempts, including that of William Buckley:
Wm Buckley, Charles Shore and two other prisoners, attempted to leave the Camp at Sullivans Bay on Christmas eve. The Police laid in wait for them, and as they Attempted to pass and refused to halt when called upon three of the Police men fired. Charles Shore fell shot in the Groin the Other three escaped, And William Buckley was found alive in August 1835 nearly 32 years after his escape. He had fallen almost into the condition of the Aborigines, he did not teach them anything but adopted their ways and manners.
Lack of wood and fresh water eventually persuaded Lieutenant-Governor David Collins to abandon the colony in 1804 with the settlers and convicts departing for the new town of Hobart in Van Diemen's Land.
In 1806 the family obtained a farm, upon which he worked without horses, without capital, and with scarcely any other appliances than a spade and a hoe. At eighteen years of age he apprenticed himself to a builder and a sawyer, and laboured for some years in a saw-pit. In Hobart the young Fawkner assisted his father (who had obtained a conditional pardon) in his bakery, timber business and brewery, taking charge of the bakery in Macquarie Street.
In 1814 he fell into trouble, "aiding and abetting", in an attempted escape from Van Diemen's Land to South America, seven transported convicts; Antonio Martinio, Forteso De Santo, Patrick McCabe, Vissanso Boucherie, Antonio Janio, Montrose Johnson and William Green. The group secretly went to Recherche Bay to fell trees with which they built a lugger. When the lugger was completed, Fawkner was put ashore and made his way back to his farm. After sailing some distance out into the open ocean, the remaining men on the lugger returned to Van Diemen's Land because of leaks in the water tanks. The vessel was sighted at the entrance to the Derwent by a government ship, and taken in charge because of her 'singular appearance'. Fawkner and Santos were the only ones of the group tried and in August 1814 were each sentenced to 500 lashes and three years hard labour. In a letter dated 19 October 1814 from Lieut.-governor Davey to Lieutenant Jeffreys instructs him that he is to receive on board John Fawkner:
one of those persons who lately absconded from the settlements after committing some most atrocious robberys and depredations, and is under sentence of transportation for five years; he proceeds to Sydney for the purpose of being sent to the Coal river during the period of his sentence, and also to break the chain of a very dangerous connection he has formed in this settlement
Fawkner's account of this incident was that "a party of prisoners, determined to escape, sought his assistance and that in a moment of foolish sympathy he undertook to help them". He wrote the following account of the incident later in life:
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John Pascoe Fawkner
John Pascoe Fawkner (20 October 1792 – 4 September 1869) was an early Australian pioneer, businessman and politician of Melbourne, Australia. In 1835 he financed a party of free settlers from Van Diemen's Land (now called Tasmania), to sail to the mainland in his ship, Enterprize. Fawkner's party sailed to Port Phillip and up the Yarra River to found a settlement which became the city of Melbourne.
John Pascoe Fawkner was born near Cripplegate London in 1792 to John Fawkner (a metal refiner) and his wife Hannah née Pascoe, whose parents were Cornish. As a 10-year-old, he accompanied his convict father, who had been sentenced to fourteen years gaol for receiving stolen goods, being transported on HMS Calcutta, alongside his mother and younger sister Elizabeth, as part of a two ship fleet to establish a new British colony in Bass Strait in 1803. His reminiscences describe the time leading up to departure, the voyage and their arrival at Sullivan Bay, near modern-day Sorrento, the day before Fawkner turned 11. For several months the colony struggled to survive. There were some 27 convict escape attempts, including that of William Buckley:
Wm Buckley, Charles Shore and two other prisoners, attempted to leave the Camp at Sullivans Bay on Christmas eve. The Police laid in wait for them, and as they Attempted to pass and refused to halt when called upon three of the Police men fired. Charles Shore fell shot in the Groin the Other three escaped, And William Buckley was found alive in August 1835 nearly 32 years after his escape. He had fallen almost into the condition of the Aborigines, he did not teach them anything but adopted their ways and manners.
Lack of wood and fresh water eventually persuaded Lieutenant-Governor David Collins to abandon the colony in 1804 with the settlers and convicts departing for the new town of Hobart in Van Diemen's Land.
In 1806 the family obtained a farm, upon which he worked without horses, without capital, and with scarcely any other appliances than a spade and a hoe. At eighteen years of age he apprenticed himself to a builder and a sawyer, and laboured for some years in a saw-pit. In Hobart the young Fawkner assisted his father (who had obtained a conditional pardon) in his bakery, timber business and brewery, taking charge of the bakery in Macquarie Street.
In 1814 he fell into trouble, "aiding and abetting", in an attempted escape from Van Diemen's Land to South America, seven transported convicts; Antonio Martinio, Forteso De Santo, Patrick McCabe, Vissanso Boucherie, Antonio Janio, Montrose Johnson and William Green. The group secretly went to Recherche Bay to fell trees with which they built a lugger. When the lugger was completed, Fawkner was put ashore and made his way back to his farm. After sailing some distance out into the open ocean, the remaining men on the lugger returned to Van Diemen's Land because of leaks in the water tanks. The vessel was sighted at the entrance to the Derwent by a government ship, and taken in charge because of her 'singular appearance'. Fawkner and Santos were the only ones of the group tried and in August 1814 were each sentenced to 500 lashes and three years hard labour. In a letter dated 19 October 1814 from Lieut.-governor Davey to Lieutenant Jeffreys instructs him that he is to receive on board John Fawkner:
one of those persons who lately absconded from the settlements after committing some most atrocious robberys and depredations, and is under sentence of transportation for five years; he proceeds to Sydney for the purpose of being sent to the Coal river during the period of his sentence, and also to break the chain of a very dangerous connection he has formed in this settlement
Fawkner's account of this incident was that "a party of prisoners, determined to escape, sought his assistance and that in a moment of foolish sympathy he undertook to help them". He wrote the following account of the incident later in life:
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