Joseph Fidden

74

iain Frazier on 20th April 2024

Possible family connections for Joseph (Fidden) are: Some amendments added Jul 2025. FIDDEN Joseph (Fidden) was born about 1778 in Birmingham Warwickshire. He was tried for theft of paint etc at Maidstone Kent Assizes in July 1799, sentenced to death reprieved to 7years & arrived in NSW as a convict on 12 6 1801 after a voyage of 10.5months on EARL CORNWALLIS. He leased property at Parramatta where he farmed wheat & maize & would have met his future wife at Parramatta, perhaps by selection at the Female Factory. He married Mary (Clarke) on 13 4 1807 at St Johns CofE Parramatta & lived at Ryde. He was Free by Servitude by 1808. In about 1814 he moved to Lane Cove (Kur-ing-gai). On 5 4 1821 he was granted 40acres at Killara (Fiddens Wharf Rd) & became a sawyer & timber getter & boatman during the 1820s-50s. He was hard working & industrious, rowing the boat loaded with timber from Fiddens Wharf to Market Wharf Darling Harbour. He moved to 156 Kent St Sydney in 1850s, where he died on 17 4 1856 age about77 & was buried at St Stephens cemetery Camperdown Newtown. [Some details taken from this Website] Mary (Clark/e) was born about 1780. She may have married. She was servant to David (Sydie) at Goodmans Fields London when she stole table cloth etc from him on 28 3 1805. She was tried at Old Bailey on 10 7 1805 & sentenced to 12months in house of correction. She was tried again on the same day for stealing hat etc, on 29 6 1805, of John (Messenger) of Whitechapel & found guilty. She was tried a third time on the same day for stealing bag etc, on 26 6 1805, of Mary (Gray) of Whitechapel, sentenced to 7years, held at Middlesex Gaol Delivery & arrived in NSW as a convict on 12 7 1806 after a voyage of 6.5months on ALEXANDER; she was perhaps sent to Womens Factory Parramatta. She was Free by Servitude by 1813. She died on 5 2 1860 age80. [Some details taken from this Website] Joseph (Fidden/Figgan) & Mary (Clark/e) produced 4children: mostly girls 1.Sarah (Fidden) was born on 13 3 1808 at Kissing Point Parramatta River & baptised on 31 5 1810 age14m w/James at St Johns CofE Parramatta. She married at age15 (recorded age18) with permission Charles (Pinkstone) miller on 4 8 1823 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. She died in 1886 at 2 Thomas St Macdonaldtown & was buried at Rookwood Necropolis general cemetery Haslems Creek Sydney. ..Charles (Pinkston/e) was born about 1796 & became a bakers apprentice. He was servant/apprentice for baker John (Barton) of Holloway when he was tried for embezzling/stealing money owed to his master from Mr (Williamson) at a delivery, on 5 2 1820, & not returning to work-at Old Bayley on 17 5 1820, sentenced to 7years, held at Middlesex Gaol Delivery & arrived in NSW as a convict on 12 2 1821 after a voyage of 4months on PRINCE OF ORANGE. He was a miller in 1823. He was assigned to his wife on 5 3 1824. He was issued his Ticket of Leave/Certificate of Freedom no.27/544 on 31 5 1827. He became a miller, publican & compositor. In January 1847 he was working for Mr (Nicholson) miller of Sydney when robbed of money & hat at Morpeth by John (Howell). He was a miller for Mr (Holmes) from 1857 & called on as witness to fire in 1860 at the mill where he was working which spread to neighbouring theatre killing 2men. On July 1870 he was subject to robbery under arms at his bakery at Grenfell. He died on 26 12 1871 age74 at 1264 Kent St Sydney. ..[Some details taken from this Website] ..Sarah (Fidden) & Charles (Pinkston/e) produced many children: mainly boys ..1.Mary Ann (Pinkstone) was born on 17 2 1825 & baptised on 13 3 1825 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. ..2.Charles (Pinkstone) was born on 25 4 1827 & baptised on 20 5 1827 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. He may have married a ??? (Howell). He died on 4 5 1900 age73+. ..3.Sarah (Pinkstone) was born on 20 1 1830 & baptised on 23 5 1830 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. She died on 3 9 1875 age45. ..4.Joseph (Pinkstone) was alive in 1886. ..5.Thomas (Pinkstone) was alive in 1886. ..6.Samuel (Pinkstone) ..7.Frances (Pinkstone) possibly lived at Kent St Sydney when she married Archibald Henry (Davis) on 26 4 1870 at CofE. ....Archibald Henry (Davis) was from Newcastle upon Tyne. ..8.male? (Pinkstone) ..9.Frederick (Pinkstone) was living at Kiama when he married Henrietta (Wolstencroft) perhaps of Sydney on 22 4 1871 at Riley St Surrey Hills Protestant ceremony. ....Henrietta (Wolstencroft) was daughter of William (Wolstencroft) of Sydney from Bolton England. ....Details of Henrietta (Wolstencroft)s possible family are given in entry for John (Wolstencroft AURORA 1835) on this Website. .. ....One of these boys became senior partner of Cootamundra Herald/Kiama Independent. .. ....Mr C (Howell) is gds. who was born at Kissing Point Parramatta River & alive in 1886. .. 2.James (Fidden) was born on 30 12 1809 at Parramatta & baptised, as (Tidden), on 31 5 1810 w/Sarah at St Johns CofE Parramatta. He was a miller when he married Sarah (Holford age15) on 18 8 1828 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. He died on 2 9 1880 age70. ..Sarah (Holford) was born on 3 9 1813 & baptised on 3 10 1813 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. She died on 26 11 1894 age81. ..Details of Sarah (Holford)s family are given in entry for James (Shears SCARBOROUGH 1788) on this Website. 3.Mary Ann (Fidden) was born on 1 2 1813 at Parramatta or Lane Cove & baptised on 1 1 1814 at St Johns CofE Parramatta. 4.Marie/a (Fidden/Figgan) was born on 10 12 1816 at Lane Cove & baptised on 12 5 1816 at St Phillips CofE Sydney. She died on 4 8 1881 age64. Reference: Craig James Smee 'Births and Baptisms Marriages and Defacto Relationships Deaths and Burials New South Wales 1788-1830' ..a complete listing from church & other records in the early colony.

43

Darryl Buley on 12th May 2022

Married Mary Clark at St John's Parramatta 13 Apr 1807. THE PEOPLE IN THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LACHLAN AND ELIZABETH MACQUARIE Joseph Fidden Born: c1778 at Birmingham, England. Arrived Sydney: 10th June 1801. Vessel: Earl Cornwallis. Status: Convict. Married: Mary Clarke on the13th April 1807 at St John’s Church,Parramatta, N.S.W. Died: 17th April 1856 at 156 Kent Street, Sydney, N.S.W. Buried: 20th April 1856 at Camperdown Cemetery (St Stephen’s), Newtown, N.S.W. Profile: Joseph Fidden was an Englishman who arrived in the early Colony of New South Wales, not from his own choice – he came as a convict. Despite this unfortunate beginning he was to become one of the prominent pioneers of Ku-ring-gai’s early history. In July 1799 Joseph was convicted at the Kent Assizes in Maidstone on charges of stealing paint, two pots and two loaves of bread. The value of these goods was 3 shillings and 10 pence. His original sentence of death by hanging was commuted to transportation for seven years. He arrived in Sydney in June 1801, via the transport Earl Cornwallis. On 13 April 1807, Joseph married another convict, Mary Clarke, in St John’s Church of England, Parramatta. They lived in a region known today as Ryde. In about 1814, the Fiddens moved into an area that was known then as “Lane Cove” (today we know this area as Ku-ring-gai). This couple had four children. On 5 April 1821, Governor Lachlan Macquarie issued five crown grants of land, of decreasing size, in the area that now comprises Killara, including 40 acres to Joseph Fidden. Grantees were not to resell within five years and in that time, 20 acres of each grant were to be cultivated, but these conditions were never enforced. Over the next two decades, the land was exploited for timber, mostly blackbutt and ironbark, stringy bark and blue gum, the last two species considered by Macquarie as ?the best and fittest for Buildings and Floorings. Joseph's grant was located on the southern side of what is now Fiddens Wharf Road, and fronted the present Pacific Highway, Killara. However, he never took formal possession of this land. Instead, for the next thirty years he lived in a hut by the banks of the Lane Cove River, at the foot of Fiddens Wharf Road in present day West Killara. During the early 1800s, modern-day Ku-ring-gai had the trees that could provide the timber that was so urgently required to develop and build the growing township of Sydney. To fulfil this need, Joseph worked long and hard as both a boatman and a timber-getter. Throughout the 1820s, 1830s and 1840s he gathered the timber and transported it, on his boat, to Sydney Town. Day-by-day he would cut down timber, load it onto his boat, and row this cargo down the Lane Cove River some eighteen or more kilometres to the Market Wharf in Darling Harbour. Joseph operated from a wharf near his hut. This was the original Government Wharf that had been used previously by the convicts in a Government Sawing Camp. The wharf soon acquired the name of “Fidden’s Wharf”. The road near his hut – which was the road down which the fallen trees were hauled before being sawn into smaller pieces and loaded onto his boat – soon acquired the name of “Fidden’s Wharf Road”. Joseph was an incredibly strong man who worked long and hard for many years. He helped enormously in providing the fundamental building blocks for Sydney’s development whilst, at the same time, he assisted greatly in the opening up of the North Shore area. It wasn’t until the early 1850s that he and his wife Mary finally left their hut by the Lane Cove River and went to live in Kent Street, Sydney. Joseph died in 1856, and Mary died in 1860. Joseph Fidden’s legacy remains. His name is now remembered in “Fiddens Wharf”, “Fiddens Wharf Road”, “Fiddens Wharf Reserve” and “Fiddens Wharf Oval”. The city of Sydney stands today as testament to the hard work of pioneers like Joseph and Mary Fidden.