John Nicholls, Convict “Scarborough” 1788

John Nicholls, 1760-1822, worked as servant and porters assistant with a hair merchant and perfumer in London, from whom he stole a large quantity of goods, including 57 razors, 12 pairs of scissors, 22 boxes of soap and a looking glass glass, together with ribbon, combs , human hair, powder and powder puffs. These were tracked through Worcester Town Hall to his lodgings in Hertfordshire. "Has he a wife and family?" asked the Judge at the Old Bailey. "I believe he had at Leonminster," said a witness .Nicholls,who said he had bought the goods at various places, was sentenced to seven years transportation to Africa on 21.4.1784, and received on the Censor Hulk 6 September, aged 24. On 24 February 1787 he was sent by waggon to Portsmouth to embark on Scarborough on the 27th.

At Port Jackson on 24.3.1788 Nicholls married Mary Carroll who had been convicted in London as wife of James Carroll. He was settled on 18.7.1791 on a 30 acre grant at Prospect Hill (listed as unmarried, Mary Carroll having been sent to Norfolk Island in October 1788). Visited on 5 December by Watkin Tench, he was described as a former gardener, and had two of his acres cultivated. Tench commented that " All the settlers complain sadly of being frequently robbed by the runaway convicts who plunder them incessantly". Nicholls was a victim on runaway soldiers in August 1793, who entered his house, holding him prisoner with convict hutkeeper while they hid there overnight.

By mid 1800 Nicholls (off stores) on a 60 acre farm at Prospect which he had bought from William Parish. He had 40 acres sown in wheat with 12 ready for planting maize sown or ready for planting. He owned a horse and 34 hogs but not sheep were recorded. A successful farmer with 16 bushels of wheat and 50 of maize i hand, he supported a woman, one child, six free men and two convicts. On 25.8.1803 he married Ann Pugh, (Convict - Earl Cornwallis 1801) at Parramatta, and had several children in following years. In 1806 he held 59 acres by purchase, 53 fallow and six in grain, holding three bushels in hand. He was himself victualled from stores, but his wife and four children were not, nor were the one convict and one free man he employed. He was recorded in in subsequent years as landholder of various properties by grant and purchase and still a gardener. On 26.12.1822 he was buried at Sydney, age given as 67. 12 Children were recorded. (The Founders of Australia. A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet. Mollie Gillen)..................

Convicted 21/4/1784 at the Old Bailey, London and arrived 26/1/1788 aboard the "Scarborough" in Sydney, NSW.

John was born in 1755. He was tried and convicted on the 21st of April 1784 for stealing assorted barber’s tools and aids with a value of 295 shillings. At the time he was sentenced his occupation was listed as servant. He was sentenced to seven years transportation to Africa. Whilst waiting for his departure John was housed on the prison hulk Censor. Because of problems with the penal colony in Africa, Johns destination was changed to Botany Bay and he eventually sailed on the Scarborough, one of the First Fleet ships, on 13 May 1787. The first fleet arrived in Sydney Cove 26 January 1788.

He married Mary Carroll on 24 March 1788 but she was sent to Norfolk Island in October and did not return to him. He then met and married Ann Pugh.

"Scarborough" ship of the First Fleet;

Being a large 430 tons, the Scarborough carried 208 male convicts. She was built at Scarborough in1782. The Scarborough sailed back to England and returned to Port Jackson in the Second fleet. Apart from the 'Sirius' and 'Supply', she was the only other ship from the first fleet to return. She was skippered by Master Kohn Marshall.

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John Nichols was born in 1755. In 1784 he was tried at the Old Bailey court in London for stealing hairdressing goods. He was was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation to Africa. Whilst waiting for his departure John was housed on the prison hulk Censor. Because of problems with the penal colony in Africa, Johns destination was changed to Botany Bay and he eventually set sail on the Scarborough, one of the First Fleet ships, on 13 May 1787. The First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788.

Ann Pugh arrived in Sydney Cove on board the Earl Cornwallis on 12 June 1801. Ann had been found guilty of stealing and sentenced to seven years transportation. (Read a transcript of Ann's trial) By 1802 Ann was living with John. They married on 26 August 1803. They had Twelve children before John died on 24 December 1822. Ann passed away on 10 July 1849.

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On 11 August 1804 he was appointed one of three trustees of Prospect Common (now Blacktown). Appointment was disposed of by in 1810 by Governor Macquarie.

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http://www.australianroyalty.net.au/individual.php?pid=I8509&ged=pu...
http://www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/nicholls/john/61987

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John Nichols, was a First Fleeter, coming to Australia aboard the Scarborough in 1788 having been tried and found guilty of theft from his employers, West and Thomas, Wholesale Perfumers of 46 Gracechurch St, London, where he worked as a servant to the hair merchant and perfumer. From the list of items that he was charged with stealing, it could be assumed that he was going to set himself up in his own business, what with the many razors, scissors, soap, a mirror, ribbons, human hair with which to make wigs, powder and powder puffs. The total value added up to fifteen pounds and sixpence, a considerable amount of money for the time, when the average annual wage for a servant such as John, could be as low as two or three pounds per year, plus food, lodging and clothing. He was sentenced for transportation for seven years to Africa. However, the British outposts in Africa did not want felons, so some of the convicts had their sentences commuted giving them respites to join the British Army. However, this option also failed and as the American Revolution meant that no more convicts could be sent to America, the only way to overcome the overcrowding in the jails was to establish a penal colony in the land discovered by Captain James Cook. The convicts would be transported, never to return to Britain. From such humble beginnings, of John Nichol’s time spent on a prison hulk and his eventual transportation to Australia, John married a woman by the name of Mary Randell It is unclear what happened, however a couple of months after the marriage Mary was sent to Norfolk Island and did not return until many years later. It does not seems that John and Mary took up again on her return to Sydney.

Ann Pugh had arrived on the prison ship Earl Cornwallis on 12th June 1801 along with 297 other convicts. Ann had been tried on 16th July 1799 at the Hereford Summer Assizes for stealing goods to the value of two pounds twelve shillings and two pence. She was sentenced to seven years transportation. Ann was either assigned to or chosen by John and by 1802 was living with him at Prospect. They did not marry until 25 August 1803 after John’s wife Mary had died in June 1803. However, the children John and Ann were known by the name Pugh, until their father and mother married, from then taking on the surname Nichols. The Nichols family had grown in quick succession; John (b 1802), Ann (b 1803), Charles (b 1804), Sophia (b 1806), Mary (b 1808, d 1808), Martha (b 1809), Amelia (b 1811), Susannah (b 1814), Thomas (b 1814), Joseph (b 1816), Eliza (b 1819) and Sarah (b 1822). The Nichols family moved from Prospect when John Nichols applied for a grant of land in June 1820 and was granted land in the County of Cumberland, Parish of St. George. The 1822 muster shows John as holding 80 acres in the district of Sydney and working as a labourer. (3)

On 25th December 1822 John died and after a burial service at St. Philip's Sydney, was buried at the Devonshire St Cemetery, the present site of the central railway station. With John’s death, Ann was left to care for her eleven children, six of whom were younger than twelve years of age, and Susannah was not quite nine years of age. It would not have been a happy Christmas for the family that year. Ann died on 10 July 1849 at the age of 75 years, which was a good age for the time as she had lived for 27 years past John’s death.