| Name: | Mathias Maher |
| Aliases: | none |
| Gender: | - |
| Date of Birth: | 1798 |
| Occupation: | - |
| Date of Death: | 12th October, 1865 |
| Age: | 67 years |
Life Span
Median life span was 52 years*
* Median life span based on contributions
Sentence Severity
Sentenced to Life
| Crime: | Forgery |
| Convicted at: | Old Bailey |
| Sentence term: | Life |
| Ship: | Earl St Vincent |
| Departure date: | 6th April, 1820 |
| Arrival date: | 16th August, 1820 |
| Place of arrival | New South Wales |
| Passenger manifest | Travelled with 159 other convicts |
| Primary source: | Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/3, Page Number 287 (145) |
| Source description: | This record is one of the entries in the British convict transportation registers 1787-1867 database compiled by State Library of Queensland from British Home Office (HO) records which are available on microfilm as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project. |
Phil Hands on 4th September, 2017 wrote:
Mathias, an Acting Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, was tried and convicted twice at the Old Bailey, the first time on 6th May 1818, he was tried for forging a power of attorney, with intent to defraud 3 people, he was found ‘Insane’ by the jury, although there was no sentenced recorded, then on 15th September he was again tried at the Old Bailey, this time for forging, uttering, and publishing as true, a forged receipt for the sum of 12 pounds, knowing it to be forged, with intent to defraud Charles Cooke, he was sentenced to death, this was later commuted to transportation for life.
Left England on 12th April 1820.
Ship:- the ‘Earl St Vincent’ sailed with 160 male convoictys on board of witch 1 died during the voyage.
Arrived on 16th August 1820.
Mathias was a Constable in D’Arcy Wentworth’s police force at Parroquet Hill, where he figured in the apprehension of the Parramatta bushrangers.
Between 1823 and 1832 the New South Wales colonial government founded and maintained a remote convict settlement on the
lower Macquarie River at Wellington Valley in the central-west of New South Wales. It was a small and relatively insignificant settlement and its rôle in the colonial penal system was negligible, a circumstance which may account for its neglect by historians. During its formative stage between 1823 and 1826, before it assumed the rôle of the ‘Valley of Swells’ for which it became
notorious, the settlement operated as a government agricultural farm, accommodating around 80 men from the general pool of excess and unassignable convict labour retained in government employ. An Irish officer, Lt Percy Simpson, the first commandant, within a few months of arriving in New South Wales was administering the most remote sphere of public work west of Sydney, the Wellington Valley. There he constructed a village and agricultural operation with a workforce of discarded malcontents who deeply resented him and their circumstances.
Mathias became Simpson’s first constable, having served three years in D’Arcy Wentworth’s police force and distinguished himself by breaking up a gang which was plundering carts on the Parramatta road. But when called on to flog convicts at Wellington Valley, Mathias only complied through his ‘dread of being reported’ by Simpson. It was an ominous task even for the former scourger of the Parramatta bushrangers, “for by doing so my name is branded all up the country and I am pointed at and abused wherever I go”. When the settlement deteriorated to the point of general mutiny, Mathias refused to flog.
On 12th August 1823 he was involved in plan to overthrow settlement at Wellington Valley
On 14th October 1823 he was suspended from his position of constable at Wellington Valley
On 8th October 1824 he was transferred to Port Macquarie on the ‘Sally’, where he was appointed overseer of convicts at the Settlement by McLeay in his despatch of 8th November 1826 at a salary of 15pence per day.
Ticket of Leave: 29/280 issued on 15th June 1829 for the Parramatta area, which was granted because he had apprehended ten runaways, one of whom was a bushranger.
In 1839 he married Margaret Maher (origin not yet aquired) at Sydney, they had 3 children, Thomas b.1841, Nicholas b. 1845, & Mathias b. 1847.
Mathias had a Conditional Pardon: 43/150 approved on 6th December 1842 and it was issued on 9th June 1843.
Mathias died on 12th October 1865 at Breadalbane, Southern Tablelands, New South Wales aged 67.
1st Old Bailey Trial Transcription.
Reference Number: t18180506-36
774. MATHIAS MAHER was indicted for forging a power of attorney, with intent to defraud Christopher Cooke , James Halford , and James Halford, Jun.
The prisoner did not plead to the indictment.
Upon the evidence of W.H. Brown, Esq. keeper of Newgate; Mr. Elias Charles Bailey and William Hutchinson Box , Esq., surgeons; Sophia Watts , nurse; Dr. John Weir , physician and commissioner of the sick of the Victualling Board; Dr. Andrew Baird , inspector of naval hospitals; John Bishop , turnkey, and Dr. James Hatch . superintendant of the Naval Lunatic Asylum, the Jury found him
INSANE .
First Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Justice Bayley.
2nd Old Bailey Trial Transcription.
Reference Number: t18190915-1
1083. MATTHIAS MAHER was indicted for feloniously forging, uttering, and publishing as true, a forged receipt for the sum of 12 l., knowing it to be forged, with intent to defraud Charles Cooke .
SEVERAL OTHER COUNTS, stating the prisoner’s intent to be to defraud different persons.
The prisoner pleaded
(See May Sess. 1818.)
GUILTY. - DEATH . Aged 23.
Before Mr. Baron Graham .
Phil Hands on 4th September, 2017 made the following changes:
convicted at, date of birth: 1798 (prev. 0000), date of death: 12th October, 1865 (prev. 0000), crime
This record was discovered and printed on ConvictRecords.com.au
