Thomas Huxley

19

Leigh Ryan on 3rd June 2014

Thomas Huxley, convict Place of Burial: St Peters Church of England Graveyard, Richmond, NSW, Australia Birth: July 31, 1768 London, Middlesex, England Death: July 4, 1854 (85) Richmond, NSW, Australia Immediate Family: Son of Uriah HUXLEY and Mary HUXLEY Husband of Ann FORBES, convict Father of Jane Forbes Huxley ARNDELL; Charlotte Ellem; Thomas James Huxley; Ann Wall; James HUXLEY; Samuel HUXLEY; John Richard HUXLEY; Esther Huxley; Sophia HUXLEY; Sarah "Ann" Huxley; Ann Huxley and A A Huxley There is an old story that has been in the family for as long as anyone can remember....this story cant be validated so its authenticity is questionable but still worth telling i think....It was said that some years after being freed Thomas Huxley owned a parcel of land in Botany Bay...The local Aboriginal people had a hard time pronouncing his surname Huxley .... It sounded like 'ugly'....And since that time , Thomas Huxleys parcel of land is known as Tom Ugly's Point.....Google map it!! -------------------- Birth and DeathThomas Huxley (AKA Huckles, Huxley, Uxley, Oxley, Jones): He was born in 1769 in Middlesex, London to parents Uriah and Mary Huckles or Huxley. He died on 4 July1854 and is buried at St Peters Church of England, Richmond. The headstone of Thomas' grave was restored in 1973 and stands today as a memorial to a Hawkesbury pioneer. Trial, Conviction, Transportation, Arrival, On the 25th February 1789 (Reference: Old Bailey Proceedings Number 17890225) as part of the Gaol Delivery for the County of Middlesex, held at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey case number 217, Thomas Huckles AKA Thomas Jones was indicted for stealing a live pig valued at 9/- from the property of Thomas Ireland on the 6th of February 1789. Thomas had helped the owner to drive two pigs then drove one away later selling it to a Mr. Bowtell at Islington for 12/6. Thomas, in his own defence, stated that Mr. Ireland had employed him to drive the two pigs to Hyde Park Corner where he lost one as it was dark. He took the other pig home to his lodging but the landlady would not let it stay and he sold it to Mr. Bowtell with the intention of seeing Mr. Ireland the next market day to pay him the money. Thomas was found guilty and sentenced to transportation for seven years. He departed at Plymouth, England on 27 March 1791 on the “Salamander” as part of the Third Fleet arriving at Port Jackson 21 August 1791 after 147 days at sea. 160 male prisoners embarked with five dying en route. Upon arrival Thomas was directly sent by the same ship to Norfolk Island where he may have become acquainted with Ann Forbes. The Dring family returned on the "Daedelus" in late 1794, while Thomas did not to return until 28 May 1796, some eighteen months later on the "Marquis Cornwallis". Around this time the association between Ann and Dring ends, for a little later, Jane, is born to Ann Forbes and Thomas Jones but with the birth recorded in the New South Wales Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages as Jane Dring. It is now known that Jones was a recognised alias of Thomas Huckles as referenced in records both in the Lands Titles Office and the Musters of 1806, 1814 - 1820 and 1825. Partner and Children: Thomas formed a de facto relationship with Ann Forbes around 1798. Thomas and Ann had ten children: six sons and four daughters. Occupation and Land Grants: F armer of Windsor and Richmond , New South Wales. On 4 January 1798 Thomas was granted 30 acres at Mulgrave Place, Hawkesbury , New South Wales with 70 more acres granted by Governor King on 4 June 1804 at Paradise Point, Mulgrave Place, New South Wales. In 1810 he acquired 90 acres of land on Paradise Point from James Bull and in 1813 an additional 90 acres was acquired in the Botany Bay area.In 1820 Thomas, at the age of 51, deeded a gift of 35 Acres of the Paradise Point land to son Thomas. By 1822 Thomas Senior was well established in farming and had started a wheat grinding mill providing a milling service to local farmers and transporting flour between the river and Sydney by his own trading vessel. He was also known to employ convicts and ex-convicts. In Thomas’s son James' obituary, published in the Windsor and Richmond Gazette on 18 August 1894, reference is made to the origin of the naming of Tom Ugly’s Point. It is stated therein that the strip of land belonged to Thomas Huxley and that local Aborigines pronounced ‘Huxley’ as ‘Ugly”. “Tom Ugly’s” is still the name that is applied to this place e.g. Tom Ugly’s Bridge. Years after his arrival when Thomas Huxley put his name to a land transaction it was learnt that for an unknown number of years and reasons, he had used the alias of Thomas Jones. It is established that Thomas Jones and Thomas Huxley were the same person when an original mortgage document (found by a family descendant) for Jones Farm at Paradise Point on which Thomas signs himself as “Thomas Huxley Otherwise Thomas Jones”. In the 1828 Census Ann and Thomas Huxley, cite themselves both to be 55 years old, and that Thomas is a farmer with 100 acres, 40 cleared, at Lower Portland. Another reference shows Huxley at some time owned "Peacocks Farm", which he subsequently sold to John Smith when he left the river to "seek fresh fields and pastures new". Peacocks Farm then became a store and Pub and later a parsonage. Other Interesting DetailsA verified reference indicates that there was a Thomas Huxley who was a cabin boy for Captain James Cook on one of his voyages. Thomas would have been the right age if born 1769. In the 1806 muster Thomas Jones is listed as Freed by Servitude with Ann Forbes listed as housekeeper with five children. Planning is well underway for the 2010 Windsor Bicentenary Celebrations. 140 trees have been planted in the Hawkesbury region in preparation for the celebrations; one each for the early convicts including Thomas and Ann.