John Colley

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Heather Stevens on 27th September 2021

At the Old Bailey Sessions of 27 February 1788 in London, John Colley was sentenced to 7 years transportation with John Hayes and James Hunt. They were convicted for the theft of lead lining from the roofs of four adjacent houses in Farmer Street Shadwell.  On 12 August Colley was sent from Newgate Gaol to the Ceres hulk at Portsmouth, age given as 19. He was embarked on the Surprise, part of the Second Fleet on 30 November 1789. This convict ship had an extremely high death rate, and his colleagues in crime, John Hayes and James Hunt died weeks after landing in Sydney. John Colley's sentence expired in 1795, and by 1797 he was employed at the public mill house in Sydney. However he was again sentenced to 7 years transportation at the Sydney Criminal Court on 24 October 1797, when he and two other employees in the mill house were convicted of perjury. They were also sentenced to stand with their ears nailed to the pillory for an hour. Colley was sent to Norfolk Island. At Norfolk Island, at the expiration of his sentence in 1804, he was employed as a constable, and by 1808 he held a 65 acre farm, half of it cleared. However in 1808 the settlement at Norfolk island was closed down, and the settlers had to leave. They were promised land at Van Diemen's Land, but had to start again from scratch. In September 1808 he sailed on the City of Edinburgh to Van Diemen's Land (later known as Tasmania), with a wife and no children. The wife was Elizabeth Chaffey, daughter of Second Fleeters Thomas Chaffey and Maria Israel. They married soon after arriving at Hobart, on 24 October 1808, registered as "John Colly" and "Elizabeth Chaffee". John Colley received a land grant in the Queensborough (Sandy Bay) area on the Derwent River, near Hobart. In the 1809 muster he was there with a woman and one child, on 100 acres, 4 acres sown in wheat and barley, with 17 sheep and 2 goats.  Sadly his wife Elizabeth died in 1809, buried 12 September 1809 at St David's, Hobart, age 25.  On 14 August 1810 John Colley, widower, married Mary Smith, single woman, at Hobart. By 1817 he was living opposite the Court House in Liverpool Street when he advertised his land for sale. However he did not sell the land at this time. In the 1819 muster he was living in Hobart, employed as an assistant at the government store, with his wife and two children, his land was described as "all in pasture". and he owned 3 cattle. He was described as a bricklayer in 1826, when his wife Mary died at Hobart Town, burial 22 December 1826, age 47 years. The Hobart Town Gazette reported on Saturday 30 December 1826: We were in error last week stating that Mrs Colley of Liverpool-street died on Monday morning. She was found dead in bed on Tuesday morning, and it did not appear that she was at all intoxicated the previous day. The verdict of the Coroner's jury was that "she died a natural death by the visitation of God" She was a useful member of society, and by the number and respectability of those who attended her funeral, her death must have been very generally regretted. A year later, John Colley married his third wife, who was also named Mary Smith, a widow, on 12 December 1827 at Hobart. Mary Colley died in 1833 in Hobart Town, age 58, burial 26 Dec 1833, and described as a "House keeper's wife" in her burial record. John Colley married his fourth wife, Esther Rutledge, spinster, by license, on 25 Dec 1834 at Hobart. John and Esther had children:  Sophia born 23 Nov 1834 John b.1836, d.1837  Thomas b.1837  Jane b.1839, d.1840  John Colley who died in February 1841 aged 2 months. Colley was described as a farmer in the birth record of his daughter Sophia in 1834. He was apparently relying on income on leases on his farm and possibly property he had in Hobart, as well as doing bricklaying work, as he was described both as a "gentleman" and a bricklayer in some of the birth and death records of his other children. In 1834 the Collector of Internal Revenue announced that arrears in quit rents were to be collected. John Colley owed £1.10s for his 100 acres. In 1836 John Windsor Cartwright successfully applied to the Caveat Board for this title. Although he no longer had his farm, Colley applied for grants of land in Hobart: 14½ perches in 1838, 10 perches in 1839. Soon after giving birth to her fifth child, Colley's wife Esther was diagnosed with mania and was admitted in December 1840 to the New Norfolk Colonial Hospital.   In December 1843 John Colley's property in Liverpool Street was advertised for sale. John Colley died on 28 May 1844, by suicide by hanging in the house where he was living in Argyle Street. The inquest on 29 May 1844 found he was "of unsound mind and lunatic". His 9 year old daughter Sophia was one of the witnesses. He was a heavy drinker, had made a previous suicide attempt, was in debt and had no money. "Died of hanging and being of unsound mind", age "70", labourer, is in his death registration. Thomas Smith (friend) of Argyle Street was the informant. John Colley's wife Esther Colley died on 1 June 1877, age 66, pauper, cause of death Disease of Brain and liver, informant  G F Huston, Superintendent and Medical Officer of the New Norfolk Hospital for the Insane. John Colley's daughter Sophia married John Ikin on 25 January 1855 at Hobart. Sources: Old Bailey trial: https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t17880227-63-defend690&div=t17880227-63#highlight Flynn, Michael, The Second Fleet : Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790, Library of Australian History, 1993. pp.210-211. Lord, Gwenda, "Initial Location Orders" in Chapter Two of the book Taroona 1808-1986: Farm Lands to a Garden Suburb, 1988, Taroona Historical Group. https://taroona.tas.au/assets/document/1353497145-initial_location_orders_reduced.pdf Cobley, John. Sydney Cove. v. 5. 1795-1800. Sydney, Angus & Robertson,1986. p.177. Tasmanian Names Index of the Tasmanian Archives, on the Libraries Tasmania website https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/?  Trove newspaper search.