Joseph Wyatt

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Diana Gray on 17th September 2017

Joseph Wyatt married Rachael Dobson on 23 October 1813 at St Mary's Whitechapel London. On 1st January 1815, Rachel Dobson/Wyatt departed from Portsmouth as a free passenger on board the 'Northampton'. Within days of her arrival in Sydney, Rachael Dobson/Wyatt was petitioning Governor Lachlan Macquarie for a Ticket of Leave on behalf of her husband Joseph. Rachel set up business as a haberdasher. By 1822 Joseph was in business in Pitt St and in April 1823 Joseph and Rachael Wyatt returned to England on board the 'Venerable' - eight years after he had been sentenced at the Old Bailey to transportation for life! In early 1828 Joseph Wyatt (aged 40) and Rachael Dobson/Wyatt (aged 30) returned to the colony in as 'free immigrants' on board the 'Alexander Henry'. Later that year Joseph had again established himself in business this time with a haberdashery shop at 16 Pitt Street and later that year moved to No. 42 Pitt Street. He continued in this business until 1833 when he sold out to 'Olwen and Smart'. Joseph seems to have then turned his focus to property development and investment. In the next stage of his life Joseph Wyatt turned his interests towards other entrepreneurial pursuits in particular the development of theatre in the colony. His earlier life in the colony as a convict seems to have disappeared completely and he was recognised as both wealthy and influential. The entry for Joseph Wyatt in the Australian Dictionary of Biography provides detail of the last twenty five years of his life and makes no mention of his earlier convict days.... "……His first theatrical venture began in April 1835 when he was one of the six lessees who took over Barnett Levey's Theatre Royal. In May 1836 when Levey resumed nominal ownership Wyatt became the sole lessee, paying him the total amount of £30 a week, which previously had been paid by the group of six lessees. Two months later it became known that Wyatt had begun planning his own larger theatre; he was given the assurance that the governor 'will be very glad to see a more commodious theatre erected in Sydney'. Yet when the Victoria Theatre opened in March 1838 its size, a capacity of 2000, proved rather a disadvantage Sydney's audience potential was too small to allow the building up of a proper repertoire; there was need for constant change of programme which led to badly rehearsed and shoddily produced performances. When opening the Victoria Theatre Wyatt had purchased the lease of the old Theatre Royal from Levey's widow and in years to come he fought every attempt which threatened his monopoly of the theatre in Sydney." It seems that Joseph's financial circumstances in the last years of his life continued to decline. In February 1858 there was a sequestration (insolvency) order against Joseph Wyatt (Innkeeper of Castlereagh St) and the discharge certificate was issued in June 1858. Again in June 1860 there was another sequestration order against Joseph Wyatt (Licensed Victualler of Castlereagh St). The discharge certificate was issued in December 1860 several months after his death from influenza at the age 72 years.