Robert Higgins

Level 347

Maureen Withey on 19th January 2026

Robert's Court Martial. Register of Courts Marital. Private Robt. Higgins, 95th Regt. Tried at Walcheron, 6 Sept 1809, Proceedings laid before the King, 4 Oct 1809, For a Burglary & stealing sundry articles. The court first sentenced Higgins to 1000 Lashes & that Brown be transported for Life; but on being ordered to Revise the Proceedings, they were both sent to be Hung. -Circumstances having changed in the service at Walcheren, H.M. remitted the Capital punishment and ordered Higgins to be transported for Life & Brown for 7 years. Private Benjamin Brown, 2 Foot Regt. Tried at Walcheron, 6 Sept 1809, Proceedings laid before the King, 4 Oct 1809, for stealing a quantity of stockings & for having them in his possession.

Level 45

Margaret Weston on 1st December 2021

Robert Higgins was from Nottinghamshire, England, and according to the official records of his “Ticket Of Freedom”, was 163cm tall, had a dark complexion, black hair and hazel coloured eyes. He was a soldier in the 95th Regiment of Foot, 2nd Battalion. He travelled to far flung places of the world in his short lifetime. He visited Ireland, then shipped to Colonia in Uruguay where the British had an offensive on the River Plate. Then later was involved in the war with Napoleon at Walcheren (part of Holland). According to research details : “Forty thousand men landed at Walcheren intending to destroy Napoleon’s new fleet. But the British sailed with barely a day’s supply of quinine and no hospital ships. In a master stroke of ecological warfare, Napoleon breached the Dutch dykes creating breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Soon thousands of invaders fell sick and a hundred a week died. The force ignominiously withdrew”. Robert was court martialled at Walcheren for stealing a watch from a dutch local and was transported. Robert Higgins was involved in the Battle of the River Plate in Uruguay. As Spain was a french ally and it was a combined Spanish-French fleet that Nelson attacked off Cape Trafalgar in 1805, Great Britain apparently decided that one way of hitting back was to attack the Spanish colonies in South America. The main aim was to gain control of River Plate by conquering the dominant city, Buenos Aires. I think the British occupation lasted six months. Forty thousand men landed at Walcheren intending to destroy Napoleon’s new fleet. But the British sailed with barely a day’s supply of quinine and no hospital ships. In a master stroke of ecological warfare, Napoleon breached the Dutch dykes creating breeding ground for mosquitoes. The British lost one hundred soldiers a week to malaria. The is also an account referred to as the Recollections of Rifleman Harris (1848) regarding the Walcheren Expedition which is available on the net. Higgins was court martialled on September 6, 1809. He came to Australia on the Admiral Gambier II in 1811. He initially worked for Rowland Hassall, an English born Presbyterian preacher and landholder who had considerable land holdings in the Camden and Nepean areas, before being made superintendent of government stock in 1814, thus acquiring management of the huge Cowpastures run. He married convict Ann Owen on November 19, 1814 at St. John’s Parramatta. Ann, who was probably born in 1791 had come to Australia on the Wanstead, along with her illegitimate daughter, Elizabeth. Robert Higgins prisoner age 36 of the parish of St John Parramatta by the Gambier and Ann Owens prisoner age 29 by the Wansted were married in this church by me Benjamin Vale this 19th day of November 1814 Robert and Ann signed the register in the presence of William Weatherell and John Eyre who both signed the register