Arthur Hillier

Lived his life in Patterson Plains. Valuation Role, 1858, Arthur Hillier house and land; Paterson's Plains. Owner Martin Haydon

1887: 55 Acres across the river at St Leonards, in the name of Robert Hillier and a small corner of this is labelled Martin Haydon;

GEDCOM Note

Arthur Hillier a blacksmith by trade was convicted of assembling with other persons and breaking a threshing machine and an apple machine being the property of Jonathan Smallbones, at Enford, Wiltshire, England on the 22nd November 1830. Arthur was sentenced to 7 years transportation to Van Diemens Land.

Arthur aged 22 at the time of his conviction and was married to Sarah Harris and had three children. Conditions for agriculture workers were so bad at that time that riots broke our across southern England under the banner of Captain Swing and known as the 'Swing Riots'. When the momentum got to Enford the men gathered in the churchyard where the overseers were meeting to discuss wage rates. The mob presented a demand for two shillings a day with a gallon loaf and sixpence per week for each child. Although the overseers accepted the proposal the labourers proceeded to destroy threshing machines on adjacent farms and in a workshop where others were being built.

On the 21st. January 1831 Arthur was taken from Fisherton Gaol to the prison hulk 'York' at Portsmouth. 224 male convicts embarked on board the ship' Eliza 11' from the 28th. December 1830 to 27th. January 1831 at Portsmouth. They arrived in Hobart on the 25th. May 1831.

he term Swing riots refer to the general uprising of agricultural workers from the eastern and southern parts of England in 1830. Rioters, impoverished and landless peasants, sought to put an end to the wage reductions imposed by the advent of threshers on farms.

Interestingly he was working with a threshing machine when he had a heart attack and died.