Captain John Grono, Free Settler "HMS Buffalo" 1799

Captain John GRONO
Occupation: Sailor-Boatswain Mate Royal Navy, Ship's captain, ship owner, ship builder, farmer.

John was born c1767 Newport, Pembrokeshire, Wales

• On the 25/7/1790 he entered "HMS Royal William" as an AB
• On the 28/7/1790 he was transferred to "HMS Marlborough"
• On the 14/10/1790 while at Portsmouth he deserted from "HMS Marlborough".
• On the 7/2/1793 he entered "HMS Enterprise" as an AB7.
• On the 8/2/1793 he was transferred to "HMS Venus". By the 7/4/1793 he had been promoted to the rank of Boatswain Mate.
• On the 5/3/1794 he was discharged to hospital with a violent contusion on the left thigh.
• On leaving hospital he entered "HMS Diana" on the 7/7/1794.
• He was discharged from "HMS Diana" on the 18/12/1795 as unfit.
• On the 7/1/1798 he enters "HMS Buffalo" as an AB.
• On the 7/12/1798 he is promoted to Boatswain Mate.
• Arrived in Sydney Cove as Boatswain Mate in the "HMS Buffalo" 4/5/1799.
• On 31/7/1799 John Grono, on the orders of Governor Hunter, was transferred from the "HMS Buffalo" to the Colonial Vessel "Francis" where he served as First Officer.
• He had left the Colonial Vessels by June 1802 when he is farming in partership with James Ryan. John owned , captained and built a number of vessels.

John married Elisabeth BRISTOWE on 20/7/1790 in Surrey, England and they had the following children in England

• Elizabeth 1791
• John 1793 When John was sent to Australia as crew on "Buffalo" he brought his wife + daughter Elizabeth with him. Son James came to Australia in 1827.
• Frances 1798 was born on the voyage. John and Elizabeth had the following children in Australia
• Maria 1800
• Jane 1802
• Margaret 1804
• William 1805
• Ann 1806
• John Joel 1809
• James Alexander 1810
• Matilda 1815
• Thomas 1818

John died 4/5/1847 Pitt Town, Hawkesbury and was buried 6/5/1847 at the entrance to Ebenezer Church

• He is claimed to have built seven vessels. The following four vessels can definately be traced to Grono's yard:
  • "Elizabeth"(84 tons), "Industry"(87 tons),
  • "Australian"(270 tons) 1829, and
  • "Governor Bourke"(200 tons)1833.
• While building the "Australian" he had, at the same time, on the stocks a boat of 18 foot keel, a punt 30 foot long, and was repairing the "Minerva" a brig belonging to Daniel Cooper and Solomon Levey.
• Other vessels owned by John Grono include the "Speedwell", "Unity", "Governor Bligh" and "Branch".

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Grono
http://australianroyalty.net.au/individual.php?pid=I51806&ged=purne... http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gronofamily/index_files/hi...

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Nov 2 2017, 0:46:11 UTC
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Nov 2 2017, 0:53:51 UTC

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About
history
Captain John GRONO
Occupation: Sailor-Boatswain Mate Royal Navy, Ship's captain, ship owner, ship builder, farmer.
John was born c1767 Newport, Pembrokeshire, Wales
• On the 25/7/1790 he entered "HMS Royal William" as an AB
• On the 28/7/1790 he was transferred to "HMS Marlborough"
• On the 14/10/1790 while at Portsmouth he deserted from "HMS Marlborough".
• On the 7/2/1793 he entered "HMS Enterprise" as an AB7.
• On the 8/2/1793 he was transferred to "HMS Venus". By the 7/4/1793 he had been promoted to the rank of Boatswain Mate.
• On the 5/3/1794 he was discharged to hospital with a violent contusion on the left thigh.
• On leaving hospital he entered "HMS Diana" on the 7/7/1794.
• He was discharged from "HMS Diana" on the 18/12/1795 as unfit.
• On the 7/1/1798 he enters "HMS Buffalo" as an AB.
• On the 7/12/1798 he is promoted to Boatswain Mate.
• Arrived in Sydney Cove as Boatswain Mate in the "HMS Buffalo" 4/5/1799.
• On 31/7/1799 John Grono, on the orders of Governor Hunter, was transferred from the "HMS Buffalo" to the Colonial Vessel "Francis" where he served as First Officer.
• He had left the Colonial Vessels by June 1802 when he is farming in partership with James Ryan. John owned , captained and built a number of vessels.
• He is claimed to have built seven vessels. The following four vessels can definately be traced to Grono's yard:
• "Elizabeth"(84 tons), "Industry"(87 tons),
• "Australian"(270 tons) 1829, and
• "Governor Bourke"(200 tons)1833.
• While building the "Australian" he had, at the same time, on the stocks a boat of 18 foot keel, a punt 30 foot long, and was repairing the "Minerva" a brig belonging to Daniel Cooper and Solomon Levey.
• Other vessels owned by John Grono include the "Speedwell", "Unity", "Governor Bligh" and "Branch".
John married Elisabeth BRISTOWE on 20/7/1790 in Surrey, England and they had the following children in England
• Elizabeth 1791
• John 1793 When John was sent to Australia as crew on "Buffalo" he brought his wife + daughter Elizabeth with him. Son James came to Australia in 1827.
• Frances 1798 was born on the voyage. John and Elizabeth had the following children in Australia
• Maria 1800
• Jane 1802
• Margaret 1804
• William 1805
• Ann 1806
• John Joel 1809
• James Alexander 1810
• Matilda 1815
• Thomas 1818
John died 4/5/1847 Pitt Town, Hawkesbury and was buried 6/5/1847 at the entrance to Ebenezer Church
________________________________________

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Grono
http://australianroyalty.net.au/individual.php?pid=I51806&ged=purne... http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gronofamily/index...
________________________________________
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Nov 2 2017, 0:46:11 UTC
• Reference: FamilySearch Family Tree - SmartCopy: Nov 2 2017, 0:53:51 UTC

________________________________________________________________________________________

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Grono-13

Capt. John Grono
Born 1 Jan 1763 in Newport, Pembrokeshire, Walesmap
Son of Joel Grono and Jane (George) Grono
[sibling%28s%29 unknown]
Husband of Elizabeth (Bristow) Grono — married 27 Jul 1790 in St Mary, Rotherhithe Parish Church, London, Englandmap

DESCENDANTS descendants

Father of Elizabeth (Grono) Hartley, John J Grono, Frances Smith (Grono) Hall, Maria (Grono) Mills, Jane (Grono) Mitchell, Margaret Grono, William Grono, Ann Grono, Joel John Grono, James Alexander Grono, Matilda (Grono) Wilson, Margaret Grono and Thomas Grono

Died 4 May 1847 at age 84 in Grono Park, Pitt Town, New South Wales, Australiamap

Biography

John Grono came free to the Colony of New South Wales (1788-1900)
Captain Grono, Elizabeth his wife, and two daughters came as passengers on board the Buffalo, arriving in NSW in May 1799. As a capitalist Grono took up land along the Hawkesbury River where he and Elizabeth were to be neighbours and close friends of Governor Bligh and his family.

The good Captain's seafaring talents were soon put to use for the benefit of the local (and his own) economy as he embarked on a career as shipbuilder, whaler and sealer. His whaling and sealing exploits were undertaken in the boats he had built, vessels such as the Governor Bligh and the Elizabeth.
Whaling and sealing took Grono and his crew far into southern waters and the catch was immense, with thousands of seal skins being the harvest. He also captured other mammals.

On one trip he found two mariners marooned on a deserted island. Convinced they were escaped convicts, and despite their protests, he returned them to the mainland in chains. Finding then that they were indeed respectable citizens and not convicts after all, he was overcome with remorse, so one supposes, as he gave them employment on his property and one of his daughter’s married one of them, Alexander Books.

Back from seafaring Grono and his son William built and launched a new punt in 1828. It replaced the old one used for crossing the Hawkesbury from Pitt Town to Wilberforce.

In 1829 they launched another vessel, Binalong, which, at 272 tons was larger than any other ship built on the Hawkesbury by 100 tons. It was two years in the making. A few months after the launching it was renamed the Australian since all materials were of local origin.

Milford Sound South Island New Zealand-
In fact Captain Cook sailed past three times but it was a Welsh captain (John Grono) who whilst in a storm was blown towards the rocks and was sure they would sink. As they got closer he saw the opening and took refuge in the Sound. He named the bay Milford Haven after his homeport in Wales.

In 1809 Captain John Grono (from Sydney) was hunting seals in Fiordland, and he named Bligh Sound after Captain William Bligh F.R.S. (1754 to 1817). John Grono built the ˜Governor Bligh” for him. She was launched at Green Hills in March 1807, her 101 tonnes named after the new Governor, as she headed out bound for the sealing grounds of New Zealand. This began Grono’s long association with, and contribution to, Australia’s first staple industry as from 1818 to 1833 Grono built seven more large vessels at Pitt Town on Canning Reach, continuing to run his farm and undertake successful sealing voyages.

On completion of the largest of his ships, Grono later acknowledged how he received a large grant down river as a consideration for having built a vessel larger by 100 tons than any previously constructed in the colony. Contemporary commentator, the Presbyterian minister, Dr Lang praised Grono’s vessels as the largest built in New South Wales, making John Grono arguably the greatest ship builder in the colony.

Grono consolidated his shipbuilding industry expanding his farm and yards on allotments at Canning Reach and incorporating in 1831 the property of another early boat builder, John Kelly, with whom Grono had long worked. Grono’s son William and other relatives continued building large trading vessels at Pitt Town on Canning Reach until late in the nineteenth century, making Canning Reach an integral part of Pitt Town’s historical landscape.

Today the Reach is still rural and contains the archaeological remains of John Grono’s ship-building yards (Grono Park 1), the kitchen of William Grono’s house and possibly remains of William Grono’s boat building yards and slipway (Grono Park II and Thornton’s), early tree plantings and an extremely early slab building with a stone chimney which belonged to Grono relations (Welsted Farm).

From another source:
Old naval records show John Grono on and off a series of Royal naval vessels, beginning on the 25th of July 1790 when he enters the HMS Royal William as an able seaman. However, on the 14th of October1790 he deserted. Nothing more is known of him until the 7th of February 1793 where he is on HMS Venus. Here John has been promoted to the rank of Boatswain's Mate.

On the 5th of March 1794, John was discharged from the Venus to the Royal Hospital, at Haslar. He was discharged from Haslar on the 16th of June and then entered HSM Diana. The muster for November-December 1795 has John as discharged as "unservicable." Again, history is silent until 1798.

On the 7th of January 1798 John joined the HMS Buffalo as an able seaman. On the 7th of December John was again promoted to Boatswain's Mate. It is aboard this ship that John and his family travelled to NSW, Australia. They arrived on the 4th of May 1799. By that stage, John and his wife Elizabeth had three children: Elizabeth, John, and Frances. John Jrn did not travel to Australia in 1799, but remained in England with his grandparents. He later came to Australia in 1827.

On the 31st of July 1799, Governor Hunter ordered that John be transferred from the HMS Buffalo to the Colonial Vessel Francis. There John served as First Officer. By June 1801 he had left the Colonial Vessels and had started farming in partnership with James Ryan. After leaving the Colonial Vessels, John embarked upon a number of sea voyages. This included sealing in the New Zealand area. He is credited as being on of the first Europeans to enter the Canterbury Region of New Zealand, and also naming a number of places on the South-West coast of the South Island of New Zealand, including Milford Sound. John originally named it Milford Haven after his homeport in Wales, but the name was changed by a fellow Welshman.
The Sound has a concealed entrance which Captain Cook sailed passed three times. John had taken refuge in the Sound when a large storm broke out while they were sealing. The entrance was not spotted until the ship was blown towards the rocks. John also named Elizabeth Island, and Bligh Sound, among many other places.

John's farming enterprise also expanded over time. The 1800 - 1802 Muster and Lists for NSW and Norfolk Island states that he and James Ryan held 30 acres of land and 20 hogs. By the time of the 1828 Census, records show him as owning 610 acres (of which 185 acres were cleared and 118 under cultivation), 20 horses, 309 heads of cattle, and 205 sheep. A number of convicts were assigned to John to assist in his farming and ship building enterprises.

While John was at sea, often for long periods of time, Elizabeth his wife, would have been responsible for raising their large family. They are both recorded as being one of the families that assisted in establishing and building Ebenezer Church in 1809. Today there is a plaque at the church which recognises John and Elizabeth. Prior to the building of the church, John and Elizabeth would join with other settlers from the region (mainly those that arrived on the Coromandel in 1802) for worship. This often took place out in the open, under a tree. However, in 1808, the families formed a society which ultimately led to the building of the church and schoolhouse at Ebenezer.

In his later years, John retired from the sea. Instead, he focused his attention on ship building and his farm. It was during this period that John built the largest ship that the Colony had produced to that date. John owned, captained, and built a number of vessels in his lifetime. He claimed to have built seven vessels. The following four can definitely be traced to John's yard: Elizabeth 1821, 84 tons; Industry 1826, 87 tons; Australian 1829, 270 tons; and Governor Bourke 1833, 200 tons. John also owned the Speedwell, Unity, Governor Bligh, and Branch

Here is a longer history: CAPTAIN JOHN GRONO Copied from the book Pioneers of Portland Head, written by R M Arndell in 1926.

Captain John Grono arrived in Port Jackson as boatswain mate on the “Buffalo” in 1799, with the intention of settling in NSW. His wife, Elizabeth Bristow, and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Frances, accompanied him. They left their son, John, with his grandmother in Bristol.

Though Captain John Grono became a landholder on the Hawkesbury and property owner in Sydney, he spent his life building and sailing the little ships which plied the Hawkesbury. He also ventured as far as New Zealand and Tasmania in search of whale oil and seal skins.

Shortly after his arrival he joined the crew of the “Francis”, which carried the grain and other produce from the Hawkesbury farms to Sydney, returning with merchandise for the settlers. Though the first road from the Hawkesbury to Sydney and Parramatta had been authorised by Lieutenant- Governor Grose prior to 31August 1794, it was only a bush track ten years later.

The Sydney Gazette reported that the ruts were so deep in the Windsor road that it was feared horses might break their legs, and it was not until 1817 that he stone paving of the road is mentioned. Consequently the Government store at Green Hills constructed under Col. Paterson’s instruction in 1794, and from which the settlers obtained their rations, was replenished by boats which sailed up the coast from Port Jackson to Broken Bay and thence up the Hawkesbury to Green Hills (Windsor).

Many a boat was lost between Port Jackson and Broken Bay, more often on the return voyage when, overladen with wheat or maize, one of the frequent southerly squalls would swamp the boat. Some of the less scrupulous boatmen wet the grain so that it would weigh, or measure, more on delivery at Sydney wharves. So numerous were the complaints of the settlers of short weights, that Governor Hunter ordered that all measures should be proved and stamped by the magistrates at both Sydney and Parramatta; and any not so stamped to be seized and the owners prosecuted. Minor pilfering too was rampant. For example a labourer who helped to spread the maize in the boats at Windsor wharf wore outsize boots, unlaced, and frequently made trips from the boat to his shack nearby, ostensibly to quench his thirst, but actually to empty the maize out of his boots and so replenish his store of fowl feed.

During his first year in the Colony Captain John Grono purchased a grant of 30 acres, which had been made to an emancipated convict, James Ryan, who arrived in the “Sugar Cane” in 1793. This grant was situated on the left of the Pitt Town Bottoms Road and bounded on the east by Bardenarang Creek. Ryan farmed this for the Captain for many years.

The first record of any grant to Captain John was in 1816 when Governor Macquarie promised him 100 acres. Later he was given the right to select another 200 acres on the Wollondilly River, but it is questionable whether he ever took these up. Perhaps he preferred to purchase land already cleared, and on which the grantee had resided and improved in accordance with the conditions of the grant.

In 1803 he purchased two, and perhaps four, 30-acre grants situated between Wiseman’s Ferry Road and the Hawkesbury River, with frontage to Canning Reach, two miles north of Pitt Town. These had been grants to John Kelly, Jonathon Wilkinson, Thomas Caldwell and Joshua Welstead, and they provided the captain with a good site for his future ship-building operations, and a handy home at which to tie up on his trips up and down the river.

Here he built his home “Grono Park”, which the local folk called “Grono’s Castle”, which has long since disappeared. Here his wife, Elizabeth, reared their large family while the captain roamed the seas.
By 1819 Captain Grono owned 305 acres, of which 150 were clear, comprised of Ryan’s farm, and the above grants and later purchases. His crops at this time consisted of 100 acres of wheat, 20 of maize, five of barley, five of oats, four of peas, and one of potatoes The stored wheat was ground as the family required flour, and maize likewise for their porridge meal, their main breakfast food.

At this time, 1819, the captain was fully engaged in the seal trade, so that he must have had a good team of workmen besides Ryan, who remained in his service all his life. There is mention of only two other convicts being assigned to him, Daniel Kelly and Harry Steer. The latter was always boasting of his deftness in his profession as a pickpocket, the reason of course for his trip to Botany Bay.

The captain, a man of scrupulous honesty, decried his boasting. But one day when Steer and the others were pulling maize, the captain went to lend them a hand wearing his gold watch on a chain around his neck. When they reached the end of the row, Steer asked the captain the time, a most unusual request from convict to master, and the captain looking at Steer, saw his watch dangling from the latter’s neck. The captain was speechless, and quietly accepted the return of his property. Possibly Steer’s profession was the cause of his untimely death, for he was shortly after murdered on the river bank.

In November 1816 Governor Hunter liberalised the hours convicts had to work: from daylight to 8 a.m., then one hours’ rest, work again from 9 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., then rest to 1p.m., and then work until sunset. For this the settler had to provide clothing and lodging. Though these were harsh conditions of labour, many convicts remained with former masters after their terms of transportation had expired.

After 1800 Governor King fixed the following rates of pay for task (contract) work: 10/- an acre for clearing, and a man was expected to clear an acre a week; burning off £1/15, and breaking new ground £1/4; in each case half an acre had to be completed each week; nine hours of work to be done on each of five days, and five on Saturday; overtime to be paid at the rate of 10d. per day.

Though many settlers complained that wages were too high and the price of wheat too low, the captain seems to have had no trouble amassing considerable wealth, mainly from seal skins. He invested his wealth in ship-building, and a hotel in Sydney.

In 1819 he would have been one of the largest stockowners on the Hawkesbury, with three horses, 80 cattle, 650 sheep, and 7 hogs. His cattle would have run on Nelson Common of which he was a trustee, and which was only across the road from his home.

Sheep might be run there during the day, but not without a shepherd, and they had to be yarded at night, otherwise the numerous packs of dingoes would soon wipe them out. Many of these dingoes were still being shot as late as 1880. In the 1825 stock return, the captain had 100 head of stock running on the Common and his stock brand was AG/G.

There is no record of the captain’s home or crops being robbed by blacks, but a white woman was charged with stealing some of his wheat in 1803, the same year in which he lost 500 bushels of wheat in a stack (i.e., still in the sheaves not yet thrashed). At this period the sheaves of wheat were usually stacked in a corner of the paddock in which it grew, because it had to be carried by the men to the stack site.

Very few settlers had a hay dray or any other suitable vehicle to transport the sheaves to a hayshed, which, in any case, few settlers had either the means or the time to build so large a structure. Later when the stubble was dry it was burnt to clear the ground for the next crop. When the captain’s men did this the fire got away from them and burnt his stack. So often did this occur that the settlers were warned to take special precautions to protect their stacks.

Having built his home and established his farms, the captain accepted service with Andrew Thompson on his boat the “Speedwell” trading between the Hawkesbury and Sydney, the round trip taking about three weeks. At first he served under Captain Morley, but soon took charge of the vessel himself. The following report appeared in the Sydney Gazette in 1804: “the probable loss of the “Speedwell” on Mount Elliot, belonging to Captain Grono.” (Mount Elliot was later renamed Lion Island.)

It would appear that the captain had purchased the boat from Thompson, who either bought it back or repossessed it, since it is referred to as Thompson’s property after he had successfully refloated it. A further report in the Sydney Gazette about the salvaging of the “Speedwell” clearly shows that the blacks were not always the wretched humans most settlers believed them to be.

“The very humane, friendly, and precautionary conduct of an ancient native . . . known generally to our coasters by the name of Grewin, perceiving that the Edwin’s people were preparing instantly to render service to the little wreck (the “Speedwell”) imparted to them his apprehension that she might contain a banditti of fugitive desperadoes. Volunteering to ascertain . . . he hastened to the vessel . . . and gave an appointed signal that there were no banditti on board; his friendship to the boatmen infpired him with sentiments of indignation against any that should presume to menace their property or fafety.”

Shortly afterwards the “Speedwell” was again reported wrecked about 40 miles north of Broken Bay, and the crew supposed to have perished. Frequently these little sailing boats, caught in a southerly squall after leaving Port Jackson, were unable to enter Broken Bay and were driven at times as far north as Port Stephens. This report of the “Speedwell” was incorrect as Thompson sent her sealing in Bass Strait and to New Zealand for some years after 1804.

It would appear that the wreck of the “Speedwell” caused the captain considerable financial loss, as the Provost Marshall advertised that his effects were to be sold on 28 January 1805, unless the claims against him were settled before that date. His effects were not sold, so the captain weathered that storm.

On 21 June 1805 the captain was ready to sail to the south in search of seal skins and whale oil. The name of the ship is not stated, but it was most likely one of Thompson’s whalers. It could not have been the “Ferret”, as some writers claim, because she was undergoing repairs, and later left for England, 28 July 1805, still under the command of Captain Shelton, though she had to return to Sydney for further repairs, and finally left on the long voyage toward the end of the year.

She returned the next year and continued in the seal trade under the command of Captain Shelton. So it can be assumed that Grono was not captain of the “Ferret” at this time, nor does he appear as such at any later date.

Despite his misfortune in the “Speedwell”, in June 1807, Thompson gave Captain Grono command of his new ship the “Governor Bligh”, which had been launched at Green Hills on 24 March that year.

No doubt Thompson recognised Grono’s skill in negotiating the tortuous Hawkesbury, often against the tides and contrary winds, and his resource in an emergency. Once in that narrow part of Portland Reach, beneath the great bluff of Portland Head, when blacks threw spears at his boat from the cliff above, he ordered the cannon fired. The ball struck the cliff top and the blacks promptly disappeared. “Old hands” claimed that the shot-hole could be seen for many years.

The captain had spent the years 1806-7 supervising the construction of the “Governor Bligh” for Thompson, and promoting his farming interests. Then on 19 July 1807 The “Governor Bligh” is reported lying “at Broken Bay, Captain Grono master, ready to sail to the fishery”.

Many convicts attempted to escape from their confinement at Botany Bay on boats leaving Port Jackson or the Hawkesbury, and some succeeded. Thus port regulations were issued which required strict observance by any captain leaving port. All claims against the captain or any of his crew had to be settled before the ship was allowed to sail.

A vessel would not be victualled without the Governor’s consent. Owners were responsible for all clearances, certificates, and port duties, and were subject to heavy fines if any convict was, with or without their knowledge, on board their vessel leaving port. On the vessel’s return, her cargo had to be declared, and discharged only at Port Jackson. Any infringement of these orders meant seizure and confiscation.

Should the captain bring into port any South Sea Islander, he was responsible for his maintenance. The master or any member of the crew of a vessel in Newcastle Harbour was forbidden to sleep ashore.

The “Governor Bligh” was not cleared to sail till April 1808. The Sydney Gazette records her return on 17 July 1808 after being out three months “with a number of green turtle and about a ton of beche-de-mer.” This was no doubt her shaking-down cruise, for on the 2 March 1809 she returned to Port Jackson, with Grono as master, and 10,000 seal skins.

The large salted seal skins realised 18/- to 25/- each on the London market, inferior skins being worth from 5/- to 12/- each. No wonder fortunes were quickly acquired, and the seals almost exterminated. Most of these skins were obtained in New Zealand waters. In the six months between September 1808 and March 1809 two ships, the “Governor Bligh” and the “Fox”, returned to Port Jackson with 20,000 skins, and at the same time two more vessels, the “Pegasis” and the “Antipode” were operating in the same strait between the South Island of New Zealand and Stewart Island. This strait Grono is believed to have named Faveaux Strait. He estimated it to be from 36 to 40 miles wide, and very dangerous from the “numerous rocks, shoals, and small islands with which it is crowded”. Both the “Governor Bligh” and the “Pegasis” struck rocks in this strait, but did not suffer any serious damage.

But many of the little sealers did meet with disaster, and many seamen lost their lives, for it was a hazardous crossing of the hundreds of miles of ocean, at the mercy of fickle winds and violent storms, to the rockbound coast of South Island, where the seamen clambered about the slippery rocks, clubbing and then skinning the clumsy and unsuspecting animals. The “Unity” was struck by lightning during a storm off Thompson’s Sound when five of the crew were knocked senseless, and three days later the same vessel was rocked by an earthquake.

On his first voyage out Captain Grono had “succoured” the “Fox” which was desperately short of water, and had lost her anchor and cables in a storm. During the next two years Grono made two more trips in the “Governor Bligh”and one in the “Unity” to the sealing grounds. Then in 1811 he captained the “Governor Bligh” on a voyage to Macquarie Island, almost a thousand miles south of Port Jackson, which, according to a report in the Sydney Gazette in 1812 almost ended in disaster:

“Arrived from Macquarie Island the colonial schooner “Governor Bligh”, Mr Grono master, with a few tons of oil. She went from here on 20 November 1811, and made the island in a month, where she continued beating off and on, and occasionally reaching the shore as the weather permitted till the 24 February when she was blown out with only three men on board exclusive of the master, and was unable to regain the island from the strength of the adverse winds. On the 20th day she got into Port Stephens in a languishing condition from want of water, having none for the pace of five weeks, but what occasionally fell from the heavens, … she remained ten days waiting for a wind for this port.” (Port Jackson).

Those left behind on Macquarie Island were soon rescued by another sealer. They were more fortunate than those left by the “Active” on an island off the coast of South Island, New Zealand, who were marooned for four years before Captain Grono rescued them on his 1812 -1813 trip to Faveaux Strait. Occasionally a sealer would leave part of her crew to continue amassing skins while she returned to Port Jackson to discharge her full holds and get fresh supplies of food.

Such was the intention of the “Active”’s captain, but after sailing for home the little vessel disappeared without a trace. The men left behind subsisted on seal meat while the seals remained on the coast, and at times on a species of fern, part of which they roasted or boiled.

While the provisions lasted they collected 11,000 seal skins, and then set out for the mainland n a whaleboat, which, though rotten and falling apart, floated long enough for them to reach shore. Here they discovered another boat which Grono had left on a previous voyage and decided to try to reach Faveaux Strait, where they would have a better chance of being rescued, that being the area most of the sealers frequented. The story is then taken up by the Sydney Gazette:

“Out of the usual season they now and then found a solitary straggler (seal) when they were so reduced by famines to be scarcely capable of securing those which providence threw in their way.”

A hurricane then completely destroyed both the old whaleboat and the one Grono left, so again they were marooned, now on South Island. They Sydney Gazette then reports that: “With an axe, an adze, and a drawing knife they afterwards built a small boat, but with intense labour, as without saws, they could only cut one board out of each tree. The hoops upon their provision casks were beaten into nails, and by the same patient and laborious process they were engaged in building a small vessel, and had eighty half-inch boards cut for that purpose, all in the way described, when Captain Grono in the “Governor Bligh” hove in sight.”

Ten men were rescued. They had been left on the island on the 16 February 1809, and were picked up by Captain Grono in November 1813. Two of those rescued, Alexander Books, and Robert McKenzie, married two of the Captain’s daughters.

Captain Grono continued sealing in the “Governor Bligh” till 1818, when Captain Dawson took over, and he in turn, was succeeded by Captain John Davison, who, in 1824, together with four of his crew were eaten by the Maoris on South Island.

After relinquishing command of the "Governor Bligh”, Captain Grono settled down to ship-building, launching his famous boats from a slipway he built on the river bank below his farm.

The first boat, named the “Elizabeth” after his wife, took nearly two years to build. Ashe was launched on 3 December1821, a fine brig of 130 tons, the largest so far launched on the Hawkesbury. Grono took her on her maiden voyage to New Zealand, but returned with only1,500 skins. There followed two more trips to the sealing grounds in 1823, and on the last Alexander Books was the Captain’s first officer. He later commanded his own vessel.

Now sixty years of age, Captain Grono finally retired from the sea, and built the ships “Industry”, “Australian”, and “Governor Burke”, which secured him an honoured place in the annals of ship-building in Australia.
Though the captain seems to have handled his ships, with the exception of the Speedwell, without mishap, yet, the Sydney Gazette gives a quaint account of a mishap on the Sydney Road in August 1826: “It appears that this old Hawkesbury worthy (Captain Grono) was homeward bound in a gig, and had made all sail as far as midway between Sydney and Parramatta, when a huge Dutch vessel hove in sight, namely the stage coach. As the gig approached the coach the captain tried to keep to leeward, but his steed was so full of blood that he would keep the centre of the road. The coachman tried to avoid the threatened contact, supposing the gig would give way, but the captain’s ship would not answer the helm, and before those in the gig knew where they were, they were whirled into the air and the poor chaise literally demolished. The coach stopped, the castaway mariners were picked up, and we are glad to say escaped serious injury. No fault is attributed to the coachman; it all lies with the captain’s horse, who was content to be run down rather than yield an inch. In all his voyages Captain Grono says that he never met with such a shipwreck.”

The punt which the Rev. McGarvie had purchased from James Davison Jnr. was too small for the traffic using it, and by 1828 the planks were badly eaten away, so Rev. McGarvie ordered a new punt from Captain Grono. This was launched on 27 August 1828, “32 ells long and 12 broad” and “of a very superior construction.” Recognising the urgent need for this punt, Governor Darling granted Captain Grono the services of “two mechanics for four months” to assist in its speedy completion. Without it the settlers below Wilberforce on the left bank of the river had to detour via the punt at Windsor, which added some twelve miles to their journey to Sydney.

The captain spent the next seven months completing the “Benelong”, having had during 1828 to March 1829 three boats under construction at his shipyard – the punt, a small river boat of 18 feet, and the “Benelong”. The last-named was launched on 21 March 1829, and was a gala occasion for the Hawkesbury folk, who had watched the largest vessel ever built on the Hawkesbury taking shape. She “was of the order of 270 tons, her keel was 81 feet 4 inches, and beam 226 feet, with two decks, her upper deck being 100 feet long.” How the old captain’s chest must have swelled with pride as he heard the acclamation of the crowd, many having made the journey the day before from Sydney and Parramatta, and as “his gallant ship swept across the river in gallant style, and was brought up and moored in safety.”

Shortly after her launching the “Benelong” was renamed the “Australian”, and under Captain Wiles sailed the southern seas until the 1850s, engaged mainly in the whale fishery.

The following is quoted from the Sydney Gazette 1829 to show the problems confronting the captain in building those vessels. His sweating craftsmen leaving home before daylight, walked miles to the little flats along the Colo River, and with primitive tools chopped and sawed the solid planks from the century-old blue gums, in farming, sealing, and ship-building, the captain still took a keen interest in which towered upward in an endeavour to reach the sunlight streaming down the steep gorges between the maze of sandstone ridges.
“The “Benelong” has been named the “Australian” from the fact that, not only are her timbers of colonial growth, but her cordage and ironwork are of Australian manufacture. The outer planking is two inches thick, each plank being from 12 to 14 inches wide. The masts and yards are of black butted gum, and the whole of the material from stem to stern, and from keel to truck, consisted of blue gum, black butted gum, ironbark, and apple tree.”

The masts, checks, and windlass bits were procured at Cattai Creek. The knees and timbers are of ironbark, and the top-timbers of apple tree, most of which were procured from Pitt Town Common. The outside planks were mostly from the Second Branch (Colo River), nine miles above where water carriage terminates. They were carved on the pot, and, as they could not be bought down by land, they were drawn down by human strength, the men wading for that long distance before the planks could be towed by boats.

“The cordage is made of New Zealand flax brought from the island by the “Elizabeth”, Captain Wiseman. The main cable is 12 inches in circumference, consisting of three immense strands made by Mr.Wyers of Sydney. This fine vessel is the sole property of Cooper, Levy, and Grono, and is to be employed in the Australian trade. She is to take on a cargo of blue gum planks at mangrove Creek, and then proceed to Sydney for measurement and registry.”

Now aged 68 Captain Grono commenced the construction of his last and twelfth vessel the “Governor Burke” of 200 tons, which was built on the slipway vacated by the “Australian”, and of the same materials as the latter. The first issue of the Sydney Morning Herald of 18 February 1831 states that: “great part of the timber is obtained on that large and beautiful grant of 2,500 acres given by His Excellency the Governor to Mr. Grono for his indefatigable exertions in the building of the “Australian”.”

This grant has not been located. It could have been promised around “Broadwater”, Cattai, where many of the Gronos have had property, but not gazetted in his name. But it is possible that the Herald writer confused it with Grono’s right to secure some of his timber for his vessels from the Nelson Common, and assumed that Grono owned that large area.

Two years later on 19 June 1833 the Monitor reported that the “Governor Burke” commanded by his (Grono’s) son-in-law, Mr. Powell, came down the river on Monday last.” She continued under Powell’s command for many years in the thriving coastal trade.

Though so fully occupied from his arrival in 1799 in farming, sealing and ship-building, the captain still took a keen interest in the erection and support of Ebenezer Church and school, though his children were evidently beyond school age when the school opened in 1810, as only two of his daughters were able to sign the marriage register.

The captain was also one of the trustees of the Nelson Column, often referred to as the Pitt Town Common, and he was a grand juror at Windsor.

He acquired a hotel known as the “King’s Arms) situated at the corner at No. 1 Bligh Street, Sydney, which he sold to William Roberts on 3 January 1818 for £2,000. This money no doubt launched the captain on his ship-building programme the same year, with the construction of the “Elizabeth”.

Because Captain Grono’s name appears among a list of subscribers at a public meeting on 5 December 1816, contained in the Bank of New South Wales Minute Book No. 1, it is assumed that he was one of the first to hold one or more of the £50 shares when it was formed. But there is no record of any share certificate being issued to him, and no record of his name in the first list of subscribers dated 31 December 1817 in the bank’s first ledger, nor does he appear as a depositor as there is no record of his signature in the bank’s signature book 1817-1848.

John, the captain and Elizabeth’s eldest son, who was left with his grandmother in Bristol in 1790, became a shipwright and carpenter in Liverpool, England, and there, in 1820, he married Mary Birkett, the daughter of a shipwright in Liverpool. Their son William was born there in 1824, and arrived with his parents in Port Jackson on the “Elizabeth” in 1827.

It seems most likely that there was no correspondence between John and his parents, but if for a time it was kept it has since disappeared, robbing history of much information portraying early colonial life. John settled at North Rocks (Maraylya) and plied his trade as a carpenter. It may be assumed he often assisted his father on the slipway at Grono Park. His children were christened in the Hawkesbury district, and his young son John, who was drowned, was buried at Ebenezer, and his daughter Jane was born at Caddai.
As in the record of his birth, the name of Surgeon Arndell’s home, Caddai, was often used in the early records to designate the district of Cattai. And as the districts of Cattai and Lower Pitt Town were often confused, Jane was probably bon at Grono Park which was on the boundary of the two districts.
The second son of Captain John and his wife Elizabeth was William, who married Esther Smallwood, daughter of Daniel Smallwood and Elizabeth Kelso, whose grant of 110 acres on the Wiseman’s Ferry Road at White’s Corner, adjoined the captain’s purchases, but had no access to the river. Part of this grant is now Singleton’s citrus orchard.

Here William built his home, which later became known as “Rose Cottage”. William joined his father in the shipyard, and after the latter’s death, continued to build small boats for the river trade, with the help of his brother Joel, his son William, and numerous nephews.
From an old diary of William’s it is apparent they had begun the construction of a vessel before 1866 as an entry of that year reads: “William and Joel …came here to work on the vessel.” William also employed two shipwrights at 12/- a week and keep, and when they were paid off a year later they got drunk at Mawson’s pub at Pitt Town, and were robbed of all their money.

Most of the timber for William’s ship was obtained from “Kile’s Arm” and Broadwater Swamp, where the logs were pit sawn into planks for the hull. William tells how he went up “Long Arm” (Broadwater) in search of masts. He found nothing suitable the first day, so he camped out that night, and finding a tree the next day, felled, squared, and drew it out with the horses.

The ship’s boat was made of cedar, pit sawn from Hawkesbury logs, the planks being half an inch thick. There were few farmers along the river who did not own one of these cedar boats, light and easy to pull. They served as a means of transport, and of escape in times of flood, and for the rescue of stock stranded in the river. They were also used for frequent fishing trips when two or three neighbours would go out at night with their nets and share the catch. On one occasion William Grono’s son William, his brother-in-law Joseph Brown and cousin George Grono caught 300 fish in one night in January 1866. One wonders how long the Grono families were eating salted and smoked fish.

On 7 October 1866 William launched the vessel, which he named “Esther Maria”. The district celebrated the launching with a sports meeting on the river bank at “Grono Farm”, the main features being foot racing, jumping, and rowing. A pavilion was erected on the river bank, where dancing continued until the early hours of the morning. Unfortunately the diary ends with the “Esther Maria” reaching Port Jackson for registration.
William made three small models of the boats he built, which are now in the possession of various descendants. From these it is clear he built three boats at least, one before the “Esther Maria”, and one after. The last was the “Irish Girl”, which was built at the head of Cattai Creek, no doubt to escape the high floods which devastated the Hawkesbury during the building of that vessel, and also to obviate the long haulage of the timber from “Grono Park”.

She was launched some time after the new Cattai bridge was built in 1865, as the hull would pass under it only at dead low tide. She was then towed down Cattai Creek and up the Hawkesbury to “Grono Park”, where the deck and masts were completed.

Due to the advent of steamers, one of which went aground at Windsor in March 1866, the days of the small sailing boats plying between the Hawkesbury and Port Jackson were over, and the Grono clan turned to other pursuits, even settling as far afield as Queensland and Western Australia.
The pioneer’s third son, John Joel, married Mary Ann Harrison, and after her death, Susannah Tumeth (Toomey) having children of both marriages. John Joel lived at Cattai farming, and working with his brother boatbuilding.

The fourth son, Alexander, who became a competent ship’s carpenter under his father’s tuition, died at “Grono Park” when only 19 years of age.

The fifth son, Thomas, married Catherine Byrnes, daughter of Patrick Byrne and Elizabeth Caffray. Thomas, like his brothers, learnt the carpenter’s trade, and then went to Mittagong where he worked for many years in the Fitzroy Ironworks. He died at Berrima, and was buried at Ebenezer, as were so many of the scattered sons of the pioneer families.

It was Thomas’s son Edwin who migrated to Western Australia, and another, Henry, went to Queensland. Only one daughter, Margaret, who married George Marr, a farmer on the Colo, remained on the Hawkesbury.
The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, who arrived in the Colony with her parents at the age of eight, married David Hartley, a convict by the “Duke of Portland” 1807. Neither Elizabeth nor David was able to sign the marriage register.

David spent his life farming at Cattai, where one of the farms on my property is still known as “Hartley’s”. He was remembered by past generations as a good man and earnest worker.
The second daughter, Frances, born in England, and one year old on arrival in Sydney, married George Smith Hall, her neighbour from “Percy Place”, the eldest son of Gorge Hall and Mary Smith.

The third daughter, Maria, married William Mobbs, a farmer at Castle Hill.

The fourth daughter, Jane, when barely 15 years of age, married Robert McKenzie, who was a sailor and who died when only 33 years of age, not 53 as now appears on his renovated tomb at Ebenezer. Only one daughter, Elizabeth, has been traced to this couple, though no doubt there were more children in the short space of seven years.

Two years after Robert’s death, Jane married Michael Mitchell, who was a ship’s carpenter on the Williams River in 1832, and in Newcastle in 1833, but was back with Captain Grono as ship’s carpenter at “Grono Park” in 1836. In the church registers he is sometimes recorded as Malcolm, sometimes Michael, an example of the confusing way early writers had of spelling names the way they pronounced them.

The fifth daughter, Margaret, married Alexander Books, ship-builder and farmer on the Lower Branch (Macdonald River), though his home was on Webbs Creek, where the children were born between 1819-1845. Alexander was a free settler, and he and his wife were married in St. Matthew’s, Windsor, where their eldest son and two daughters were baptised. The youngest son and daughter were baptised at St. Albans Church of England, and the remaining children at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, where the parents are buried. Alexander was one of those Captain Grono rescued after being marooned for four years on the New Zealand coast.

The sixth daughter, Ann, married James Smallwood, a settler at Pitt Town, and brother of Esther Smallwood who married her brother William. They both signed the marriage register. Ann died aged 38, leaving her husband with even young children.

The youngest and seventh daughter, Matilda, married William, the eldest son of Solomon Wiseman, the emancipist of Wiseman’s Ferry, and his wife Jane Middleton. He arrived with his parents on the “Alexander” in 1806. Their marriage was the first known to be celebrated in Ebenezer Church. William at first was captain of the “Elizabeth”, while Captain Grono was busy fitting out the “Australian”.

He then transferred to the “Industry” on which he was captain when that vessel was wrecked in a terrific storm at Easy Harbour, New Zealand, on the 28th February 1831, when ten seamen and Captain Wiseman were drowned, leaving the young wife with one little daughter, Jane Matilda.

Two years later Matilda married Thomas Powell, also a ship’s captain, who took charge of the “Governor Burke” for his father-in-law. The record of the loss of the “Industry” states that six native women were also drowned. Presumably the sailors believed in the idea of having “a wife in every port”.

Indeed, William Wiseman had two children by a native New Zealand woman. They were baptised at St. Albans Church of England, one Sophia Petty on 30 September 1832 and the other Mary Ann at the same time. Who brought up these two little girls is not known, or what became of them.

Perhaps because Captain Grono was so much at sea, and so involved in farming and ship-building, he does not seem to have made any effort to have his children educated. From the quaint spelling of William’s diary it is evident he spelt phonetically, no doubt self-taught.

But he was determined that his children, and those living nearby, should have at least an elementary education, for he started a school at “Grono Park” where Mr. Humphrey James, a Victoria Cross winner, was teacher for the years 1865-1870. In 1871 James removed to the Macdonald River, where he would have taught among his pupils many descendants of Captain Grono.

Burial
Burial:
Date: 6 MAY 1847
Place: Ebenezer Churchyard, NSW, Australia

SOURCES

• NSW death registration #410/1847 V1847410 104, aged 80
• Kathleen WICKENS, Descendants of John GRONO and Elizabeth BRISTOW.
• Source: Type: Email Title: Descendants of John GRONO and Elizabeth BRISTOW Author: Kathleen WICKENS Abbreviation: Descendants of John GRONO and Elizabeth BRISTOW Master Listing Source: Y
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gronofamily/index_files/hi...
• Source: Repository: #R-1698015258 Title: Australia Death Index, 1787-1985 Author: Ancestry.com Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.Original data - Compiled from publicly available sources.Original data: Compiled from publicly available sources. Note: APID: 1,1779::0
• Repository:Name: Ancestry.com Address: http://www.Ancestry.com Note:
• Source: Repository: #R-2142153163 Title: Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created. Page: Ancestry Family Trees Data: Text: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tree/27115826/family
• Repository: Name: Ancestry.com.au Address: http://www.Ancestry.com.au
NSW Online Index to The Colonial Secretary's Papers 1788-1825, Ship per 'Buffalo' Citation [4/1819] p.33 Reel 6021start date 16 Jan 1814; INX-99-54734, Grono, John, Juror at inquest on John Boyd held in Sydney, remarks; came free mariner and ship owner

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