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| Parramatta Female Penitentiary or Factory (Picture via Trove). |
By Garry Norman Smith
Robert Bayley (aka Bailey) and Mary Bayley (formerly Piper, nee Hogan) lived for many years at Chain of Ponds where Robert farmed and built up a significant flock of sheep. While he and his family were resident in the area, Robert was pretty much a model local citizen.
That was not always how Robert lived his early years in the colony. A convict stain was left behind in Van Diemen’s Land when Robert Bayley, Mary Hogan (Piper) and their collective children, sailed aboard the Eudora from Hobart Town, departing on 30 July 1837 bound for Sydney. Robert and Mary brought with them their own five offspring and an adult son and his wife from one of Mary’s previous relationships.
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| Robert Bailey’s [Bayley] entry in the Conduct Register of Convicts Living in Northern Tasmania 1822-1844. TAHO: CON31/1/1 Image 210/page 112 (With the permission of Archives Office of Tasmania 2006). |
Robert Bayley was born in Aston Juxta, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England on 11 April 1801, the son of Thomas Bayley (1761-1838) and Sarah Baker (1773-1850). Robert came up against the law at the age of 20 years. On 31 March 1821 he was tried at the Warwick Assizes for felony burglary. Originally sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted to a mere seven years transportation.
From the County Gaol to the prison hulk Justica and then put aboard the convict ship Claudine, Robert sailed to Sydney, one of 160 male convicts. His conduct record reflects some rather “unsettled” behaviour in his youth and unlawful behaviour in the penal settlement. Insolence and neglect of duties brought him 25 lashes in 1823; he was gaoled for harbouring another criminal in 1828 and was later charged with drunkenness, assault and threatening behaviour.
Robert made the newspapers for the wrong reasons and spent time in gaol and under sureties of the peace, whereby he had to produce money and promise to be of good behaviour. This did not always happen.
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| Colonial Times (Hobart), Tuesday 3 February 1835, page 8 (via Trove). |
The major reason for the move to New South Wales was a Supreme Court case over the ownership of a Sydney property involving Mary’s son John Piper. Emancipated convict, Robert Bayley had accrued property, including working bullocks, other livestock, farming equipment and a boat; these possessions were sold and set up the family financially for their next stage in life at Chain of Ponds.
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| Robert Bayley’s land purchases (not shown) in 1851 were on Jerrawa Creek at Chain of Ponds in the Parish of Mundoonen [bottom right corner] (via NSW Historical Land Records Viewer). |
Mary Hogan and Robert Bayley eventually decided to marry. They travelled to Yass and were married by banns at the temporary Anglican church on 2 March 1846 by the Reverend Charles Ferdinand Brigstocke. St Clements Church was not started until the laying of the foundation stone on 26 November 1847.
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| Marriage Record for Robert Bayley and Mary Hogan, Yass, 2 March 1846 (Parish records of St Clements Church, Yass). |
Mary Hogan (1796-1862) was born in the Parramatta Female Factory on 1 May 1796 and baptised at St Johns Church of England, Parramatta on 24 March 1799 by the Reverend Samuel Marsden. Mary’s mother was Ann Ryan, an Irish convict, who probably became pregnant while on board the convict ship Marquis Cornwallis; Ann Ryan gave her daughter the surname of the ship’s captain – Michael Hogan.
Ann Ryan, Mary’s mother died in 1805; Mary and her younger sister were placed into the Female Orphan School. By the time she was 18 years old Mary Hogan was married to John Piper (c1793-1825), shipwright; she left John Piper when they lived in Sydney. She was effectively widowed when John Piper sailed overseas in 1818 and was never seen again. Mary had two children with John: George Piper (1815-1816) and John Piper (1816-1901). Mary and her son, John Piper, left Sydney and went to Van Diemen’s Land, perhaps to escape debt.
It was in Hobart Town that Mary Piper met Henry Hately (c1785-1853), son of a convict, also a convict and stable hand. They had three children: Henry Hately (c1819-c1838), Mary Hately (1822-1853) and James Hately (1824-1857). The children were born in Hobart Town where Mary Piper, daughter Mary and son James were “abandoned” by Henry Hately and his son Henry; they went to New South Wales in 1828.
Prior to Henry Hately’s move to New South Wales Mary Piper had met Robert Bayley; they had five children together in Hobart Town: William Bayley (1827-1910), Bridget Bayley (1828-1864), Maria Bayley (1829-1864), Robert Bayley (1832-1865) and Thomas Bayley (1834-1885). The move to New South Wales resulted in Robert Bayley becoming a successful sheep farmer at Chain of Ponds.
Mary Bayley (formerly Piper, nee Hogan) died at Chain of Ponds on 28 December 1862, aged 65 years. Robert Bayley remarried on 27 January 1864 to Mary Ellen Faulkes; they had one child that same year: Ada Maria Ann Bayley (1864-1866). Robert died in that same year at Chain of Ponds, on 11 March 1864; he was 63 years old.
Robert Bayley, emancipated convict and sheep farmer from Chain of Ponds, left a considerable estate. His flock of over 4,000 sheep was sold by order of the executors of his will, James Grovenor of Yass, William Reynolds Junior of Gunning and William Grovenor of Gunning. His estate of £3,000 and land went to his sons and daughter Maria Alchin (nee Bayley) with a legacy to his granddaughter Maria Elizabeth Grovenor.
Robert Bayley and Mary Bayley were my 3x great grandparents.
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