John Mayo

54

Phil Hands on 27th December 2017

Tried and convicted at the Gloucester Assizes on 31st August 1818 for the theft of a plated urn, he was sentenced to transportation for 7 years. Left England on 1st January 1819. Ship:- the 'Baring' sailed with 300 male convicts on board of which 5 died during the voyage. Arrived on 26th June 1819. On 25th November 1820 John, along with Jeremiah Simmons and James Tyler sentenced to 14 yrs to Newcastle Settlement for robbing Mary Coppinger. On 29th May 1826 John married convict Elizabeth Benson ('Brothers' 1824) at Newcastle, NSW, they had 8 children between 1828-1841. On arrival Elizabeth had been assigned as a servant to Thomas and Christiana Blomfield, landowners of Maitland, NSW who had two small boys. In March 1826 Elizabeth gave birth to an illegitimate child fathered by John Blaxland, the son of a neighbouring landholder. Her employer took her before a magistrate and she was ordered back to the Female Factory. The sentence was remitted when John offered to marry her. On 24th April 1826 John and Elizabeth were granted permission to marry: John Mayo 20 Baring (2) fourteen years [a sentence obtained in Sydney], bond, Rev. G. A. Middleton, Newcastle Elizabeth Benson, 21, Brothers (1), seven years, bond. By 1828 he was listed as 'free by servitude' John became a shoemaker, barber and later a publican. John and Elizabeth established a shop and in 1832 moved to East Maitland. Elizabeth played an active roll in the business and continued running when her husband was ordered to road gangs in 1829, 1831 and 1833 for various offences. From 1830 when her sentence expired, Elizabeth took a more prominent roll (John's sentence did not expire until late 1834). She was allowed an assigned female convict servant and made a spirited challenge to a magistrate's action in withdrawing the servant in April 1833. From 1838 she assisted her husband in running the 'Maitland Wine Vaults' later known as the 'Hunter River Hotel' and had attained a high degree of affluence and respectability for an ex convict by the time of her death. On 10th September 1833 John received his Ticket of Leave for the district of Maitland. On 19th April 1845 he was granted a Publican's licence for a Public House. On 6th December 1845 he was charged with selling liquor on a Sunday. 22nd April 1846 obtained a Publican's licence for the Hunter River Hotel, which was renewed in 1847, ,48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 26th May 1847 he was fined for letting the lamp at his Inn go out. On 15th April 1848 he conditioned the public not to buy horses from his son Richard without authority. On 8th June 1853 he was fined 5 shillings for allowing his pigs to stray. Elizabeth died on 18th March 1853 at Newcastle age 48 John died on 24th June 1860 at East Maitland age 64.