Susannah Holmes

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iain Frazier on 25th August 2025

Family connections for Susannah (Holmes) are: HOLMES Susannah (Holmes) was born about 1755/65. While living at Surlingham she was tried for burglary, in November 1783, of clothing of Jabez (Taylor) of Thurlton at Thetford Norfolk Quarter Sessions on 19 3 1784, sentenced to death by hanging commuted to 14years in America, held at Norwich Castle Gaol where she met fellow prisoner Henry (Kable) whom she later married) & her son was born & hulk DUNKIRK at Portsmouth Harbour from 1786 (from here not knowing the fate of her partner, yet she may have been aware of a public subscription made on their behalf which was to be presented to them in the colony but stolen by the Captain of the ship ALEXANDER (later partly recovered) & arrived in NSW as convict with her son on 22 1 1788 after a voyage of 8months on First Fleet ship CHARLOTTE (although Smee shows her from FRIENDSHIP) where she unexpectedly reunited with her partner. She married Henry (Kable) on 10 2 1788 at St Phillips CofE Sydney & produced 11children. She was Free by Servitude by 1795. She died on 8 11 1825 age60/63 at Windsor, much respected, & was buried, as Susannah (Kable), at St Matthews CofE Windsor.( [Some details taken from this Website] Henry (Kable/Cable/Cabell) was born about 1763 at Laxfield Suffolk & became a labourer. He was tried for burglary, on 1 2 1783, as Henry (Cable) at Thetford Norfolk Quarter Sessions, sentenced to death commuted to 14years in America, held at Norwich Castle Gaol. He was separated from his partner & son (from here seemingly not knowing the fate of his partner, yet he may have been aware of a public subscription made on their behalf which was to be presented to them in the colony but stolen by the Captain of the ALEXANDER) when they were moved to hulk DUNKIRK at Portsmouth Harbour in 1786. He arrived in NSW as a convict 7years on 21 1 1788 after a voyage of 8months on First Fleet ship FRIENDSHIP; where he unexpectedly reunited with his partner. He successfully sued the Captain of the ALEXANDER, with help from the authorities, for restoration of part of the public subscription. He was Free by Servitude by 1795. He became an entrepreneur: in 1794 & 1795 he was granted farms at Petersham Hill & in 1795 bought 4near-by properties, opened the Ramping Horse hotel in 1798, running NSW first Stage Coach Line, operating a retail store & becoming a ship owner dealing in seal skins-much of this with Simeon (Lord ATLANTIC 1791) & James (Underwood ALEXANDER 1791); they also owned the convict ship SYDNEY COVE. He was appointed constable rising to Chief Constable, but was dismissed on 25 5 1802 for breaching Port Regulations. In 1807 he owned at least 4farms of about 170acres; in 1809 he held 5more farms at the Hawkesbury and 300acres at Cowpastures & real estate in Sydney including his comfortable house and extensive stores. He is recorded on 12 4 1809 as driver of a cart for Sarah (Woolley/Mason) & her daughter Elizabeth (Ryan) when Mrs (Mason) was killed when all fell from the tumbling cart at MacKellars Creek Pitt Town. In February 1810 his son Henry Junior had taken over management of all his Sydney affairs, partly to avoid debtors. He involved himself in benevolent/community causes also. In 1811 he moved to Windsor & operated a store and brewery. In about 1815 a future son in law John (Teale) was assigned to him. He died on 16 3 1846 age83 at Pitt Town near Windsor, much respected despite his dubious business practices, & was buried at St Matthews CofE Windsor. [Some details taken from this Website] References: 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. Family History Group of Bathurst Inc.'Bathurst Pioneers-Register of Pioneer Families Of Bathurst NSW And District <1900'

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Denis Pember on 22nd August 2020

Susannah, and her baby Henry, were NOT transported on the same vessel as her partner, Henry Cable. Henry (snr) was transported on Friendship.

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Phil Hands on 20th March 2017

In November 1783 Susannah was committed to Norwich Castle Gaol accused of stealing clothing, silver teaspoons and linen, value £2.00, from the home of her employer Jabez Taylor at Thurlton nine miles away. On the 19th March 1784 at Thetford Assizes Mr. Justice Nares donned his black cap and sentenced Susannah to be 'hanged by the neck until she was dead'. But her life was later spared and the sentence was commuted to 14 years transportation to the plantations of America. Susannah Holmes would never see her Surlingham village and its round-towered church again. In the claustrophobic squalor of Norwich Castle cells she met another young convict, Henry Kable, also sentenced to death at Thetford Assizes and later commuted to transportation. Conditions in the county gaol at Norwich Castle were unsanitary, over-crowded and disease-ridden, stifling in summer, ice-cold in winter with cells often under water. But according to the prison reformer John Howard who visited the prison at this time, the gaoler George Glynne was a humane man. Although prisoners were shackled they were also allowed to mix. So it was that Henry Kable and Susannah Holmes first met and fell in love, Their incarceration lasted three years. The American War of Independence had halted transportation to the New World and plans were being made to send convicts to Australia instead. In 1786 Susannah gave birth in her Castle cell to a baby boy. They called him Henry Jnr. That same year mother and baby were sent on the long journey to the stinking prison hulk 'Dunkirk' moored at Plymouth to await transportation. They went alone. Agonisingly, the order from London forbade father Henry from going with them. He must have thought he would never see his family again. They were eventually re-united and they, along with their child boarded their transport vessl. Left England on 13th May 1877. Ship:- the 'Friendship' sailed with 76 male and 21 female convicts on board of which 1 male died during the voyage. Arrived on 26th January 1788. On 10th February 1788 Susannah and Henry were married in Sydney in a group wedding, the first European wedding ceremony in the new colony, they went on to have a further 10 children between 1788-1806. Before the young couple left England, they attracted the attention of Lady Cadogan, wife of Charles,1st Earl Cadogan who organised a public subscription which yielded the substantial sum of £20 to buy them a parcel of goods which Rev. Richard Johnson was to give them on their arrival in the penal colony. The gift was plundered on the voyage, but Kable won damages of £15 against the captain (Duncan Sinclair) of the Alexander (1783), in the first civil suit heard in New South Wales. Convicts in Britain who had been sentenced to death were regarded as dead in law, and thus had no right to sue, and Sinclair had boasted that he could not be sued by them. Probably from advice the place where a writ would usually describe the plaintiffs' occupation, the words, "New Settlers of this place" had been crossed out and nothing had been substituted. To have described them as convicts would have been fatal to their case. The fact that Henry and Susannah were convicts and the legal consequences of that fact would have been obvious to all of those concerned; maybe the description "New Settlers" was too close to a fabrication, and hence this part of the writ was altered in order to maintain a discreet silence. When the court met and Sinclair challenged the prosecution on the ground that the Kable's were felons, the court required him to prove it. As all the convict records had been left behind in England, he could not do so, and the court ordered the captain to make restitution. Susannha died on 6th November 1825. Sydney Gazette, 10 November 1825, p 4 On the 6th instant, in the 62d year of her age, after a short but severe illness, at her residence in Windsor, Mrs. Susannah Kable, wife of Mr. Henry Kable. Mrs. Kable was one of the oldest inhabitants of this Colony, having arrived with her husband in the first fleet. From Governor Phillips, as well as the Officers collectively, but more particularly from the Rev. Mr. Johnstone and Lady, Mrs. Kable and family received much friendly attention. Her memory will be long cherished by her friends, as she was very generally and deservedly respected.

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Eric Harry Daly on 12th January 2013

Susannah Holmes was tried at Thetford, Norfolk on 19 March 1784 for burglary with a value of 53 shillings. She was sentenced to transportation for 14 years having been originally sentenced to death, and left England on the Friendship aged about 22 at that time (May 1787), she died in 1825. Married Henry Kable on 10 February 1788. They had met in gaol and she had born his child there in 1786.