Captain Robert William Hepburn, Free Settler "Greenock" 1828

Born at Wilkin's Estate, St Dorothy, Jamaica. (Wellekens Estate, in the parish of St Dorothy, which was owned by the Newells) Capt Robert William Hepburn was born in Jamaica to Lt William Hepburn and Mary Ann Roy, who was a slave girl on Newell’s Estate, and evidently the g granddaughter of Rob Roy through his grandson Gregor McGregor. Capt Hepburn was sent back to Scotland in 1790 to be educated; he joined the Royal Navy, and rose to command a revenue cutter off the coast of Fife, reaching the rank of captain when the Preventive Service came under the control of the Admiralty from 1816 – 1822. He commanded the Regent, which was apparently a large ship of 14 guns and 55 crew. He left the Service in 1824, and emigrated to Tasmania in 1828. He became an influential landowner and magistrate on the east coast of Tasmania, and was one of the pioneer settlers of the area. We are descended from his son Robert Hosie Hepburn.

Swanwick and the Hepburns Captain Robert William Hepburn emigrated with his wife and eight children to Tasmania in 1828 with the aim of acquiring land on the east coast to establish a shore-based whaling operation.  He acquired 565 ha of land at the mouth of the Swan River near to the present day town of Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula, and built his homestead ‘Swanwick’ there in the 1830s (the nearby point is still called Point Hepburn).  The original homestead, built of stone, is still standing, and is listed on the Tasmanian Heritage Register, and although it's private property, you can see it easily from the road if you are travelling through and it's worth a stop. Robert Hosie Hepburn (b. 1819 in Scotland) was one of the sons of Robert William Hepburn. He (Robert Hepburn Junior) was living at Swanwick between 1841-1850, but he later moved to Bellbrook (near Cranbrook) in 1854 with his new wife, Margaret Cameron, who had received the property as a wedding gift from her father.

From "The Diary of a Time Traveller" blog - http://vernsie.blogspot.com.au/'''

Extract from Letter from Archives Office of Tasmania to Mrs J Blackwell - 21 February 1968: Matthew Frederick Pearce, a clerk, was tried for Larceny at the Lancaster Liverpool Borough Quarter Sessions on 25 October 1841 and wa sentenced to seven years transportation. He was thirty-one years old and his place of birth was Battersea. The following description is given; height, 5 ft. 5 ins., fair complexion; medium head; oval face; brown hair, whiskers and eyebrows; grey eyes, small nose and moth and medium chin. He had a scar on his left eyebrow; a small scar on his upper lip and a bald patch on top of his head (CON33/35). Pearse was a Protestant, could both read and write, and was single. His crime was "pledging a watch belonging to my employers Premeley & Asburgh - Jewellers & Merchants at Liverpool". On the voyage out Pearce acted as "Chief Hospital Man & Clerk" and as such was "Specially recommd. Extremely Good". At the time of his trial Pearce's Father-in-law [i.e. stepfather] James Bleadley [?], his mother Charlotte and brother William were all living in London (CON14/14). He arrived in Van Diemen's Land on 14 january 1843 per "Earl Grey". After his arrival, he did commit a few minor offences but on the whole conducted himself very well and was released from the first stage of his probation on 7 August 1844. He received his ticket-of-leave on 20 July 1846 and was employed by Robert Hepburn of Great Swanport on 22 August 1844 (Con 83/35). Pearce's application for permission to marry Lillias Hepburn, free, was granted on 29 August 1846 (CON 52/2). According to the Hobart Town Census of 5 January 1848, Pearce and his family were living in a house owned by a Henry Hills, at 1 Devonshire Place, Murray Street. The occupants of the house were Pearce and his wife, aged twenty-one and under forty-five, a single male in the same group and a girl less than two years old. Apart from Pearce himself, the house consisted of free people and all were Church of England, except the single male, who was Roman Catholic (Con 1/88). From http://www.anniealanspringwood.net/Gedscape/3922.htm