John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley, Free Settler "Buffalo" 1802

John Oxley the Explorer.

From http://www.crampton.com.au/+20/+20.pdf:

"The Muster of 1822 shows :- John Oxley Liverpool Mrs Oxley Liverpool Louisa 1 1⁄2 yrs Oxley 9 yrs Daughter of E.Martin, Sydney (Registered as Elizabeth Marmon in NSW BDM‘s) Child of John Oxley (this was Jeanette, daughter of John and Charlotte Thorp) Acreage 1000 Cleared 500 Sown Wheat 40 Maize 25 Barley 8 Potatoes 1 Gdn/Orchard 2 Horses Cattle Sheep Hogs Bushels in storage: 25 450 500 25 150 wheat 100 maize In the same muster there are 22 convicts shown on the property as a clearing party. This was the same number of convicts as shown in John Harris‟ clearing party.1'

Following info from http://www.easystreetretreat.com.au/australianroyalty/individual.ph...

Midshipman in the British navy in 1799 on the 'Venerable'. Then Master's Mate on the "Buffalo" Nov 1801 to Australia, arrived Oct 1802.

Oxley then undertook coastal surveys including an expedition to Western Port in 1804-05.

1805, Governor Philip Gidley King appointed Oxley acting lieutenant in charge of the "Buffalo"

1806 commanded the 'Estramina' to Van Diemen's Land.

1807 returned to England. 25 Nov was commissioned lieutenant.

Returned to Sydney Nov 1808 on a convict ship,"Speke" as agent for the Transport Board. Appointed first lieutenant on 'H.M.S. Porpoise' and he sailed with Bligh to the Derwent. Next year he wrote a lengthy report on the settlements in Van Diemen's Land before sailing for England in the Porpoise in May. In London he applied for the post of Naval Officer in Sydney, and then, after paying Charles Grimes to resign, according to John Macarthur, he twice sought that of surveyor-general. Oxley denied that he had been a partisan of Macarthur when Bligh was deposed, but his letters show that he was on very intimate terms with the rebel leader. In 1812 he became engaged to Elizabeth Macarthur; this was broken off when her father discovered the extent of Oxley's debts. By that time, through the influence of Macarthur's friend Walter Davidson, Oxley's second application for the surveyor-generalship had been successful. In 1811 he had retired from the navy, and in May 1812 sailed for Sydney in the Minstrel to take up his new duties.

Oxley also had business interests. After he arrived in New South Wales in 1812 he acted as agent for Maude & Robinson of the Cape and Thomas & William Ward of London. He acted for the creditors of Garnham Blaxcell and Robert Campbell and of the firm of Lord, Kable & Underwood. He kept in touch with Walter Davidson at Canton, and acted for Jeffery Hart Bent with Alexander & Co. of Calcutta. In addition to these mercantile activities he was developing his properties and entered into partnership with Commissary David Allan in raising cattle for the stores.

John and Charlotte Thorpe didn't marry but had 2 daughters in 1813 and 1815.

Oxley obtained an order from the Colonial Office for a grant of 600 acres ‎(243 ha)‎ near the Nepean River, but Lieutenant-Governor William Paterson granted him 1000 acres ‎(405 ha)‎. Oxley had to surrender these in 1810, but Governor Lachlan Macquarie granted him 600 acres ‎(243 ha)‎ near Camden which he increased in 1815 to 1000 acres ‎(405 ha)‎ again. This he called Kirkham.

Near his property, Kirkham, he received further grants of 820 acres ‎(332 ha)‎ at Minto in 1816 and 630 acres ‎(255 ha)‎ at Appin in 1817. After 1816 he sent cattle into the Bowral district and in June 1823 was granted 2300 acres ‎(931 ha)‎ there registered as Weston ‎(probably a mistake for Westow)‎. As a sheep breeder he took prizes at the shows of the Agricultural Society which he helped to found in 1822, though in 1824 John Macarthur criticized his 4000 crossbred sheep which, he said, Oxley sold as pure merinos to strangers; but Oxley and Macarthur were then on very bad terms. For a time Oxley was a director of the Bank of New South Wales, but in 1826 he was one of the founders and first directors of its 'exclusivist' rival, the Bank of Australia. He was a shareholder of the Australian Agricultural Co., which appears to have paid him for advice and assistance. During Governor Macquarie's administration Oxley was as much occupied with exploring as surveying. In 1815 his assistant, George Evans, discovered the Lachlan River and reported good country south-west of Bathurst. In March 1817 Macquarie appointed Oxley to lead an expedition to explore this region and if possible 'to ascertain the real course … of the Lachlan … and whether it falls into the sea, or into some inland lake'. Leaving Bathurst on 28 April the explorers followed the Lachlan for more than two months until in July impassable marshes prevented further progress. Oxley then struck northward to the Macquarie River, which he traced back to Bathurst, where he arrived on 29 August. Macquarie highly praised Oxley's 'Zealous, Indefatigable and Intelligent Exertions' and recommended that he be given £200 for his 'Meritorious Services', which the secretary of state approved. 28 May 1818 Oxley led another expedition from Bathurst and followed the Macquarie River until it too disappeared into 'an ocean of reeds' ‎(Macquarie marshes)‎. From 6 July Oxley's party proceeded north-east until they discovered the Castlereagh River, then turning east they found the rich Liverpool Plains, reached and named the Peel River, crossed the southern part of the New England Range near Walcha, found the Hastings River and followed it to its estuary which was named Port Macquarie. A hazardous journey down the coast ended at Newcastle in November, some six months after the party's departure from Bathurst. The rich pastoral lands of the Liverpool Plains were quickly taken up by pastoralists, but Oxley failed in his primary object of tracing the Macquarie and Lachlan Rivers and formulated the mistaken theory of an inland sea. 'I feel confident', he wrote, 'we were in the immediate vicinity of an inland sea, most probably a shoal one … being filled up by immense depositions from the waters flowing into it from the higher lands'. Nevertheless his reports aroused great interest, and not only did his Journals of Two Expeditions Into the Interior of New South Wales ‎(London, 1820)‎ give the first detailed description of the Australian inland, despite his grave doubts of the value of the lands he had traversed, but his discoveries paved the way for the later work of Charles Sturt and Sir Thomas Mitchell. Oxley's naval experience fitted him better for coastal survey work than for inland exploration. In September-December 1819 he made a trip by sea to Jervis Bay, where he thought the country did not offer 'the smallest inducement for the foundation of a Settlement on its shores, being … for the most part Barren and generally deficient in Water'. Earlier that year in the Lady Nelson, assisted by Phillip Parker King in the Mermaid, he had charted Port Macquarie, on which he reported favourably. In December 1820 he made a second survey of the district and reported in favour of establishing a new penal settlement there. In October 1823 he sailed north as far as Port Curtis, and on his return explored Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River, up which he sailed about fifty miles ‎(80 km)‎. His favourable report was again quickly followed by the formation of a penal settlement. n 1820 Oxley had made several suggestions to Commissioner John Thomas Bigge about the sale of land in New South Wales. Bigge accepted these and, when Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane received his report, Oxley drafted in July 1824 specific regulations for sales at 5s an acre, to be paid over three years; in 1825 and again in 1826 he drew up further regulations on land grants in accordance with the fluctuating orders of the Colonial Office. In 1825 he was appointed one of the three commissioners to carry out the thorough survey of the colony and its division into counties, shires and parishes which had been ordered from London; but this work was not easily accomplished. The duties of the survey office became very extensive as settlement expanded and Oxley was always handicapped by the lack of a sufficiently numerous trained staff. Governor ‎(Sir)‎ Ralph Darling thought him 'very clever' but a man who would 'never submit to the Drudgery of carrying on the details of his Department'. He constantly sought increases in fees, salary and staff, but though both Macquarie and Brisbane supported his requests, the secretary of state was reluctant to incur the extra expenditure. In 1823 his salary was increased from 15s. to £1 a day; his fees had been increased in 1818 and between 1823 and 1828 brought him an average of nearly £1500 a year. John and Elizabeth Marnon did not marry but had a daughter Louisa in 1821 John married Emma Norton at St Philips Church 31 Oct 1821 When he died at Kirkham on 26 May 1828, he was so 'much embarrassed in his pecuniary circumstances' that the Executive Council felt compelled to recommend special assistance to his widow and children. The British government refused to sanction a pension but agreed to permit a grant of 5000 acres ‎(2024 ha)‎ to Oxley's sons in recognition of their father's services.