William Blue

Free by servitude 1803; Sydney's first water policeman; had ferry business Sydney Harbour; Lachlan Macquarie granted Blue 80 acres on North Shore, now suburb of Blue's Point, Sydney. Burial certificate (ref. V18341950 18/)states age 99 when died. Married convict Elizabeth Williams 27 April 1805; 7 children recorded.

Although Billy Blue’s place and date of birth are uncertain, convict records suggest he was born in Jamaica around 1767. By 1796 he was living at Deptford, London, and working as a chocolate-maker and also labouring on ships on the Thames. On October 4 1796 he was convicted, at Maidstone, in Kent, of stealing raw sugar and sentenced to seven years transportation. After serving over four years in the convict hulks (ships used for housing criminals), he was transported to Botany Bay, Australia, in the convict ship Minorca. He was described in the ship’s records as 'a Jamaican Negro sailor', aged 29 in 1796. He arrived in Sydney in 1801 and served out the remaining part of his sentence. In 1804, records show him living in ‘the Rocks’, then a very tough part of the city. There he met Elizabeth Williams, a 30-year-old convict from Hampshire, England, who had arrived in June 1804. On 27th April 1805, they were married at the old St. Phillip’s Anglican church in Sydney, where 5 of their 6 children were later christened. For the next few years Billy Blue made his living around Sydney Harbour; he transported passengers in his ‘tight and clean boat’, and traded oysters and other commodities to provide food for his growing family. In 1808 Billy Blue was among those who supported the removal of Captain Bligh, of ‘Bounty’ and breadfruit fame, as Governor of the colony, and he soon came to the notice of the new Governor, Macquarie, who used Blue’s services in getting himself and his family around the Harbour. In 1811 Macquarie designated Blue as 'Watchman of the Heaving Down Place' where ships were careened, ‘Constable' and 'Water Bailiff', thus giving him wide powers of supervision over ships and traffic in the Harbour. The jobs were not well paid, but he was provided with a small hexagonal house standing in what today are the grounds of Government House, and this allowed him to move his family out of ‘The Rocks’. In 1817, the Governor, in appreciation of his work, gave a grant of 80 acres of land to William Blue and his heirs, for ever. The property, previously known as Murdering Point, was renamed Northampton Farm and the family were soon living there in a newly built house. The headland on the property became known as Blue’s Point and proved an excellent base for extending his ferry operations. When his ‘fleet’ increased from one boat to eleven, Macquarie is supposed to have said "Why, Billy, you have a regular fleet. I'll have to name you Commodore", and ever after he was known as the "Old Commodore" Part of Billy Blue’s responsibilities was to keep an eye out for smugglers; Macquarie specifically set him to do so, allegedly saying jokingly "You watch them, Billy, and I'll watch you". Unfortunately in 1818 he was caught with two large casks of rum lashed to his boat; though he claimed he found them floating in the harbour and was taking them back to shore, he was given a year in a prison and was dismissed from his official positions. Billy Blue continued to operate his farm and his ferry business after his release from prison, with the help of his family, especially his eldest son, William, until the time of his death. His wife Elizabeth died in 1824, and his behaviour became increasingly eccentric. He had to stave off attempts by neighbouring landowners to get him off his land and out of business, by claiming that he was a smuggler and harboured criminals.

There are two controversies about Billy Blue: his age and his place of birth. Billy Blue’s age: often written in his biographies as born about 1767. This is based on his entry in the convict indent (age 29). He is listed in the returns for the hulk 'Prudentia' at Woolwich from October 1797 to 1801, always with age '29'. However other records have him as a much older man: his petition to the Governor 1823 (age 89), 1828 census (age 80), report in Sydney Gazette 1832 (age 85 or 86), burial register 1834 (age 99), family bible (age 100). Cassandra Pybus in her book ‘Black Founders’ estimates his year of birth as 1738. Billy Blue’s place of birth: many biographies have ‘a Jamaican Negro sailor’, supposedly from the convict ship’s records. However he was NOT described in the ship’s records as ‘a Jamaican Negro sailor’. Unfortunately this misunderstanding, which is often quoted in biographies about Billy Blue, originally comes from the book ‘Billy Blue, The Old Commodore’ by Meg Swords, pub. North Shore Historical Society 1979. Meg Swords wrote ‘Billy Blue, The Old Commodore’ in 1979. She was limited in her sources because at that time researchers had difficulty accessing primary records. Meg Swords acknowledged this in the Foreword of her book: ‘Perhaps somewhere, at some time, somebody will find the missing pieces of the jigsaw and put together a complete picture of Billy Blue.’ Unfortunately Meg Swords mistakenly thought she was quoting the convict indent when she wrote that Billy Blue was a ‘Jamaican negro sailor’ when it was actually from a publication ’History and Description of Sydney Harbour’ by P. R. Stephensen. [Swords, p.10, addendum] There is nothing about him being a ‘Jamaican negro sailor’ in the indent. Many of the ‘missing pieces’ mentioned in the Introduction and Addendum of Meg Swords’s book have been found by Cassandra Pybus in her book ‘Black Founders, The unknown story of Australia’s first black settlers’ (published UNSW Press 2006). This is a summary of his background on page 183 of Black Founders: “William Blue was probably from a free black family in New York. Most likely he was recruited into the British navy and served as an infantryman at the battle of Quebec in 1759 and then went to England where he enlisted as a Marine. He was involved in the invasion of Belle Isle in 1762 and with a Pioneer corps in Portugal and Minorca. He must have returned to America with the British army in 1776 and was evacuated in 1783, to be discharged in England around 1784 or 1785. Later he worked for the receiving ship HMS Enterprise at Tower Hill, which earned him the title of ‘the Commodore’.” Pybus’s argument for the above is given in detail throughout her book: Two sources are: • a petition in 1823 to Governor Brisbane (AONSW Reel 6056; 4/1765 p.215) • His evidence in the trial Martin v. Munn, Supreme Court of NSW 22 Oct 1832 reported in the Sydney Gazette 25 Oct 1832 In the petition in 1823 to Governor Brisbane, he states he ‘is now 89 years of Age was in the service of his Majesty King George the third at the time he was crowned And went as a Marreen on the first Expedition after his Crownation to Germany, Pet’r was at Queabeck with General Wolf when he was killed, also with Major Andrews when he was taken, And with Lord Cornwallace at Little york at Virginea as a Spie or Guide for his Army, and was also for a considerable time, a Serj’t of Pineneers on the continent. Pet’r was his whole Lifetime in his Majestys Service until Pet’r came to this Colony.’ In the Sydney Gazette 25 Oct 1832: ‘I was with General Wolfe in the American war, and with Lord Howe ; I got the name of the old Commodore for being in charge of the old Enterprise at Tower-hill; I do not want more than fourteen or fifteen years of being a hundred years old’ This implies that Blue was in charge of the press gang that operated in and around Deptford for the HMS 'Enterprise' which was a receiving ship for impressed sailors. [Pybus p.150] He was also a lumper (employed in unloading merchant ships in the Thames) and a chocolate-maker. Lumping was low paid employment supplemented by pilfering of the cargo, with merchants allowing up to 2 per cent to disappear as 'spillage'. Pybus writes: Doubtless Blue was employed at both jobs in September 1796, given that lumping was casual, seasonal work and since the beginning of 1796 there was a sharp drop in returns from the Impressment Service.' [Pybus p.151] A newspaper report has the following: ‘Charged of stealing 20 lb weight of raw sugar from on board the Lady Jane Halliday, West Indiaman, the property of Sir Richard Neve, William Blue, a lumper, was ordered by the court to be transported to Botany Bay for seven years.’ [Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser, October 11, 1796, quoted in ‘The History and Story of William Blue of Blue’s Point’ by Evelyn Earnshaw, North Shore Historical Society Journal Vol 1, No 4, July 1960]

His birthplace is New York according to his granddaughter Susannah Anne Scholfield in a statement published in the newspaper 'The Australian Star' 6 October 1908, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article229114216 : "I, Susannah Anne Scholfield, nee Lavender, the only child of the late George John and Susan Lavender, nee Blue, eldest daughter of the late William Blue, known as "the old Commodore," and formerly first harbormaster of the port, a native of New York, and who had a grant of 80 acres on Blue's Point, North Shore, now North Sydney, and also property at Miller's Point, from Macnamara's Wharf around the point towards the old Market Wharf, but which he never claimed during his life, and the family never troubled about it after his death. ... "