By Michaela Ann Cameron

Supported by a Create NSW Arts and Cultural Grant – Old Parramattans & Rogues

WARNING: This essay discusses suicide, which may be distressing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.

Bang!

Jack was very in tune with nature. He had seven stars, a sun, a half moon and a flowerpot tattooed on the inside of his arm from his younger days, woke with the birds, took his morning’s walk to Camellia to admire the camellias of Sir William Macarthur’s former gardener and nurseryman, Silas Sheather, and lovingly tended a few ‘pet plants’ of his own.[1] But every man has his limits. Jack was not a cat person. Indeed, his extreme devotion to his greenery was precisely what precluded even so much as a begrudging acceptance that he must coexist with felinity, all because the neighbouring cats had a terrible habit of scratching up his blooming beauties.

One morning, around seven o’clock, Jack found one of his tuberoses ‘smashed.’[2] ‘There he stood at [his] front door’ of The Star Inn, ‘with the broken flower in one hand, and a double-barrelled gun in the other,’ showing a friend his ‘broken treasure’ and ‘vowing vengeance on the tomcat that had wrought the mischief.’[3] Spying at that very moment ‘the delinquent cat—or a cat’—Jack took off after it, aimed, and “Bang!”: he blew that cat right out of existence.[4]

It was not the first time the Parramatta publican of The Star Inn had shown such extreme inconsistency in his regard for living things. In fact, John ‘Jack’ Holland had more or less lived his whole life with a flower in one hand, and a shotgun in the other.

An Inconstant Gardener

There was a good reason for Jack’s affinity with the plant world; he was not merely a publican with a bit of a green thumb, he was actually a gardener by trade.[5] Jack, born on Sadler Gate Street, Derby, Derbyshire, England, around 1820, had probably been apprenticed as a teenager to his own father, George Holland, who supported a large family of eleven children as a gardener.[6] It is not hard to see why Jack would later form a bond with Silas Sheather, then; Silas, too, had learnt his horticultural craft from his father, Henry Sheather. Perhaps Jack’s quiet morning walks to Sheather’s nursery at Camellia caused him to reflect on his early life in far-off Derbyshire, and made him feel a little closer to the father who had taught him everything he knew.

But while George Holland had nurtured life from the smallest seedlings to fully mature plants continuously for decades as a gardener, and his eldest son and protégé, Jack, evidently inherited his passion and skills, even as a very young man Jack also had that incongruously destructive, violent streak. In the early hours of Sunday 16 June 1839, for instance, nineteen-year-old Jack, who had never been convicted of anything before, participated in an ‘offence…of more than ordinary atrocity.’[7] A man named Samuel Fowke had been ‘going along the Morledge’ in Derby, just after midnight.[8] Strategically loitering within walking distance of the public house the ‘Coach and Horses’ at 5 Morledge, waiting for a thirsty-looking man to walk by, was one Mary Smith. Having clapped eyes on her target, Mary boldly approached Fowke and asked him ‘to give her a glass of ale.’[9] The tactic worked and the pair began walking together to the Coach and Horses, where the landlord turned them away as it was closing time.[10] It was at this point that Jack came up to the pair and declared he, too, ‘should like a glass of ale, but it was too late and he should go home to bed.’[11] While Jack was a stranger to Fowke he ‘seemed to be acquainted with Mary Smith,’ so he shook hands with Fowke and departed.[12] Fowke was also inclined to abandon the idea of a midnight drinking session and began making his way to the Market Place on his way home, only to find that his newly acquired female company was not so easily shaken off.

Mary Smith accompanied Fowke to the Market Place and continued to ‘press’ him ‘to turn back and go over the Long Bridge’ over the River Derwent, ‘into the Bridge Gate,’ in search of a public house that was still open, so she could have that ‘half a pint of ale’ he had been talked into buying for her.[13] Evidently Mary was persuasive, because Fowke was soon walking with her in the opposite direction along the Morledge once more, where they caught up with Jack again. Mary left Fowke ‘for a minute or two, went to an entry end where [Jack] stood, and spoke to him.’[14] While their conversation was inaudible, their interaction must have raised Fowke’s suspicions, because when Mary returned she found Fowke unwilling to grant her wish ‘to take his arm.’[15] Instead, he insisted she walk ahead of him—no doubt so he could keep a close eye on her. She walked painfully slowly over the wooden ‘Long Bridge,’ prompting Fowke to tell her to hurry up, ‘but she would not.’[16] Moments later it all became clear: Mary had been deliberately stalling.

‘[W]hilst passing over the bridge’ Fowke was ‘attacked by a man behind, who without speaking, struck [him] on the back of the head,’ causing Fowke to fall on the bridge.[17] The assailant ‘jumped upon’ Fowke, ‘swore that Mary Smith was his wife,’ and held him down ‘with great force, pressing one hand over [Fowke’s] mouth, and throttl[ing] him with the other.’[18] He was quickly joined by a second man, who shoved his hands into the various pockets of Fowke’s trousers and waistcoat, removing ‘sixpence in silver,…a penny piece,…and a fancy pipe.’[19] Both men ‘threatened to murder [Fowkes],’ while the second man ‘took off [Fowke’s] shoes, untied [his] handkerchief and took it, as well as [his] pocket handkerchief from [his] hat, [his] shoes and three other fancy pipes from the pocket of [his] jacket.’[20] Despite Fowke’s ordeal, as soon as his attackers made off towards the Holmes aqueduct with their ill-begotten gains, he went after them vowing, ‘I will have you taken up.’[21] The assailants turned around, and swore, ‘Follow us and we’ll murder you’ and, in the process, revealed their identities to their victim: the one who had been diving into his pockets was a fellow named John Stain, and the one who had so violently attacked Fowke from behind before pinning him to the ground and throttling him was none other than our ‘Jack.’

Threats of murder did nothing to dissuade Fowke from attempting to bring his attackers to justice once he knew who they were. He was going to see them ‘taken up’ even if he ‘should…los[e his] life by it.’[22] Holland and Stain, unfortunately, were prepared to hold him to his word:

They…struck [Fowke] with their fists and kicked [him] many times. They got [him] down and kicked [him] on different parts of [his] body, swearing they would kill [him] and throw [him] in the Derwent, towards which they carried [him.][23]

Instead of throwing him in the river, however, they threw him on the ground, at which point three more men by the names of John Lacey, Edward Groom and William Parker joined the apparently well-orchestrated mugging. Two assisted in holding Fowke down ‘whilst some of them pulled [his] coat, waistcoat, trowsers [sic], braces and shirt off.’[24] Jack and his fellow ruffians left Fowke there by the riverside, unconscious and ‘naked’ but for his stockings, all of his clothes having been carried off, with the exception of his coat and waistcoat, which they left beside their victim. When he came to ‘after several minutes,’ Fowke was ‘very ill’ from the vicious beating he had received; even so, he summoned the strength to get to the Police Office and report the violent robbery.[25]

The constables immediately searched the boats and wharves along the River Derwent near the crime scene and soon located Mary Smith. As the constables took her into custody she had the gall to ask what she had done, and was told: ‘You did enough.’[26] When questioned about where the assailants were, Mary claimed ignorance and even that she, too, had been ‘knocked…down and robbed…of 1s 6d’ by the same men.[27] But the constables were having none of it and informed her she would be taken to the lock-up, which had the miraculous effect of loosening Mary’s lips: “They are in a barn by the canal, about a mile and a half off,” she blurted.[28] Mary’s instinct for self-preservation went further still: she ‘conducted them near to the place,’ no doubt hoping her assistance might be looked upon favourably when it came to her sentencing.[29]

Upon entering the gang’s lair, the constables found Jack and Lacey lying in the barn. The other three, Stain, Groom and Parker, emerged ‘from behind a hay stack a few yards off.’[30] Evidence of their guilt was literally all over them. Parker was wearing the victim’s hat, Stain had one of Fowke’s fancy pipes in his pocket, Groom was wearing Fowke’s shoes and had even put on Fowke’s trousers over his own pants.[31]

A month later, when all this was dredged up at the Derby Borough Quarter Sessions held at Guildhall on 11 July 1839, John ‘Jack’ Holland made a statement, which was read aloud before the magistrates—not that it did him any good; then again, neither did Mary Smith’s assistance in the police investigation.[32] The Grand Jury gave full credit to the police for their prowess in detaining the prisoners, returned a verdict of ‘Guilty’ against Jack, Stain and Mary Smith for the initial attack on the Long Bridge, and sentenced all three to fifteen years transportation.[33] Groom received ten years transportation for his role in the second part of the attack at the riverside, while Parker and Lacey received nine months imprisonment with the first and last fortnight to be spent in solitary confinement.[34]

As a first-time offender, Jack probably did not take this news in his stride. Faced with the reality of being ripped from his large family and the world he knew to be sent to the Colony of New South Wales, the nineteen-year-old must have said to himself many a time, “If only I had been more like my father, and stuck to gardening.”

Fortitude

On 27 July 1839, a little over a fortnight after his trial and conviction, Jack was sent to the Fortitude hulk moored in the River Medway at Chatham, Kent, along with his accomplice, Stain.[35] Coincidentally, six years earlier, another convict and future Parramatta publican named John Williams had also been held on the Fortitude hulk.[36] Jack and Stain at least found the floating prison a somewhat healthier environment than it had been for Williams, who had been on board amidst a cholera outbreak.[37]

The hulk register reveals that while John Stain was an illiterate boatman, Jack, a skilled gardener, could read but not write.[38] Did their wicked alliance continue aboard the hulk? Unfortunately the hulk records do not provide such insights; even if they did stick together, the pair would have been split up on 12 March 1840 when Jack and 109 other convicts detained on the Fortitude were transferred to the Maitland (1) (1840) and sailed for the Colony of New South Wales on the 22^nd of the same month.[39] Stain’s days on the Fortitude, and in England generally, were also limited; he embarked on Asia I (9) (1840) on 21 April 1840 and sailed six days later, not for New South Wales but ‘Van Diemen’s Land,’ Lutruwita (Tasmania).[40]

Jack was one of a total of 305 convicts transported per Maitland (1) (1840) and, as convict voyages go, his seemed to be one of the better ones. Surgeon Superintendent Philip Toms described the 113-day journey in the ship’s medical journal as ‘a good passage’ in which the prisoners ‘enjoyed remarkable good health.’[41] Only fourteen convicts had been placed on the sick list and two had died when they were accidentally lost overboard in late April.[42] As the Maitland’s passengers neared their final destination in early July, however, ‘eight or ten of the prisoners presented themselves with symptoms of Scurvy, and one of that number…terminated fatally on the 14^th July, a few hours after…arrival at Sydney.’[43] Whatever trying conditions Jack might have experienced in gaol and then in the eight months he spent on the Fortitude hulk in England, they obviously were not as bad as those experienced by other convicts, because his name was not among the few who made it on to the Maitland’s sick list.[44] Perhaps his enduring good health was not so much owing to improved conditions on the formerly cholera-ridden Fortitude hulk but to the fact that, compared to many other convicts who had experienced life-long poverty, Jack did come from what appears to have been a stable, albeit ever-so-humble, home life, with better access to nutritious food during his formative years. Not only was his father a diligent worker who retained steady employment as a gardener over decades, it seems not one of Jack’s ten siblings ever got mixed up in criminal activities—all contributed by ‘earning their keep’ from a young age.[45]

Yet reports of the general conditions and health of prisoners do not, of course, give us a full picture of Jack’s personal experience. Jack was sporting ‘a long horizontal scar on [the] left side of [his] forehead’ on landing at Warrane (Sydney Cove), Cadigal Country, on 22 July 1840.[46] While we cannot know when or how he obtained this scar, given his documented antics along the Derwent, it may indicate that his thug life continued either on the Fortitude hulk or aboard the Maitland.

Convict Life

In the absence of any evidence to suggest otherwise it appears that, in spite of himself, Jack managed to keep a low profile for his first five years in the colony at least, as he left no trace in the record during this time. He re-emerges on 9 July 1845 when he and his Maitland shipmate George Lucas were ‘Returned to Government’ from Liverpool, Dharug Country, so it is likely that both men had been forwarded there on arrival and worked for the one master the whole time.[47] On this occasion there is no indication that either Jack or Lucas had committed any offence. It is probably simply the case that their master no longer had any need to employ them and, quite literally, returned them both to government to be reassigned. If continuity in Jack’s work assignment and his location in an inland settlement were in any way responsible for his lengthy period of good, or at least, satisfactory behaviour, though, then his transfer from Liverpool via Parramatta Gaol to Hyde Park Barracks in Cadi (Sydney) for reassignment on 10 July 1845 may have been a change for the worse, for there is good reason to believe the rougher side of Jack’s nature found fertile soil in the environment of Sydney Town and flourished.

When Jack and George Lucas reached Hyde Park Barracks in July 1845, they were reassigned to Samuel A. Bryant, Esquire, of ‘the respectable house of Bryant, Brothers, from London,’ successful ship and insurance brokers and general merchants and commercial agents.[48] At the time, Bryant was based at ‘Bank Court, King-Street,’ just a few minutes’ walk from the barracks on Macquarie Street, so Jack was now residing in the most populous part of the colony, with greater opportunity to mix with his fellow convicts including repeat offenders at the Barracks, and amidst a host of temptations that would have been previously unavailable or less accessible at Liverpool.

The first documented sign of trouble came on 27 March 1846, when Jack and a fellow convict (and eventual brother-in-law) named Samuel Morley per England (3) (1835) were arrested at Parramatta, Burramattagal Country, for an unrecorded offence—perhaps they had simply absconded from service. Whatever the reason, both men were admitted to Parramatta Gaol at North Parramatta to spend ‘seven days in cells’ as punishment, before being transferred to Hyde Park Barracks on 2 April.[49] The following month, on 21 May, a ‘John Holland’ appeared at the Police Court in Cadi (Sydney), charged with ‘stealing stone,’ only to be promptly discharged.[50] If this was ‘our Jack,’ then he was just ‘warming up.’

Two months later, a crime bearing all the hallmarks of Jack’s modus operandi was committed on Pitt Street, Cadi (Sydney), so there is less doubt about whether the ‘John Holland’ subsequently charged was ‘our Jack’ or not. A resident of Pitt Street named Mrs. Margaret O’Neil had been the subject of the ‘wanton and unprovoked assault upon her delicate person’ on the afternoon of Tuesday 21 July 1846.[51] Mrs. O’Neil, ‘relat[ing] her case with a good deal of angry vociferation’ two days later at the Police Office, George Street, Cadi (Sydney), accused two men named ‘John Blake’ and ‘John Holland’ of ‘striking her with their fists, kicking her in the side, and otherwise abusing her’—just as Jack and another male accomplice had done to Samuel Fowke in Derbyshire, seven years and one month earlier.[52] This time, however, it seems the five-foot-three-and-a-half-inch tall convicted highwayman John ‘Jack’ Holland had finally met his match in Mrs. O’Neil, whom the Sydney Chronicle described as ‘something approaching to gigantic dimensions.’[53] Two days after the attack, when Mrs. O’Neil pressed charges, she called her witness John Norman to fully corroborate her statements, which he ‘failed to do…in the most conclusive manner,’ as Norman’s relation of the attack made it clear that it was the defendants’ John Holland and John Blake who ‘had a very lucky escape in not having a few bones broken by a gentle squeeze or two from the capacious hand of Mrs. O’Neil. The case was dismissed, which so astonished the complainant, that she left the Court with a most indignant toss of her head at the Magistrate.’[54] As is sometimes the case with individuals who defend themselves too well, Mrs. O’Neil was, most unjustly, no longer viewed as the genuine victim of a real crime, leaving the unpunished Jack to no doubt roar laughing about how he had been thoroughly bested in broad daylight on the mean streets of Sydney by his poorly chosen Brobdingnagian victim—even with his usual accessory, an equally violent adult male accomplice in tow.

By December the same year, Jack was back in Liverpool, Dharug Country, whence he was again admitted to Parramatta Gaol on the third of the month and forwarded to Hyde Park Barracks the same day for an unknown transgression. The punishment this time was ‘2 C[alendar] Mo[nths on the] T[read]mill.’[55] These treadmills or ‘treadwheels’ ‘allow[ed] sufficient standing room for a row of from ten to twenty persons…By means of steps, the gang of prisoners ascend[ed] at one end, and when the requisite number range[d] themselves upon the wheel, it commence[d] its revolution. The effort, then, to every individual [wa]s simply that of ascending an endless flight of steps…’[56] At the time of its 1822 invention, the treadmill was considered a form of ‘effectual employment of Prisoners’ who, by powering the wheel, ground the grain they and their fellow convicts would later eat.[57] The monotony and the fatigue associated with this task, however, meant the ‘suitable employment’ doubled ‘as a species of preventive punishment.’[58] Jack was again recorded at this time as ‘assigned to S. A. Bryant.’[59]

A clear picture of John ‘Jack’ Holland’s persona is revealing itself through these criminal episodes and, fortunately, we know a few more details of the gardener’s physical appearance aside from his facial scar and his height, too. According to his convict indent, he had a ‘dark sallow’ complexion, brown hair, blue eyes, and a monobrow.[60] In addition to the stars, sun, half moon and flower pot tattoos, he had his own initials ‘J. H.’ and the initials of a mysterious ‘M. M.’ tattooed inside his lower right arm, along with the isolated letter ‘D.’[61] There was a second scar on the back of his left thumb and, despite stating he was ‘single’ on arrival in the colony, he was noted at the time as wearing a ring on the third finger of his left hand.[62] Was his Derby accomplice who called herself ‘Mary Smith’ actually ‘M. M’? And was the ring on his ‘marriage-finger’ a wedding band? Might Mary have really been ‘his wife’ as he claimed during the act of beating and kicking poor Fowke on that bridge over the Derwent? No marriage record has been located for John Holland in Derbyshire in the 1830s, but perhaps theirs was a more ‘unofficial’ arrangement. One thing is certain, ‘M. M.’ was not Jack’s mother: her maiden name was Sarah Wild.[63] Regardless of any claims the mysterious ‘M. M.’ may have still had on Jack, in early March 1849, almost nine years since his arrival in the colony, M. M. was supplanted in life, if not in tattoo, by an ‘H. H.’

Harriet

Harriet Holden was a widow of twenty-one years of age. Unlike Jack, she was not a convict. She had arrived free in the colony per Palmyra (1838) in September 1838 at age ten with her parents, the assisted immigrants John Watson, a farm labourer of Rolvenden, Kent and Sarah Watson née Catt, a laundress from Northiam, Sussex, as well as her two sisters, Sarah and Hannah.[64] There had been a third sister, Elizabeth, but she had died at five months old, on the passage.[65] Sadly, the surviving Watson girls would also soon lose their mother—she was dead and buried at St. John’s Cemetery, Parramatta by November the following year.[66]

Given the losses she had endured at such a young age, the fact she was raised by a single father in a penal colony where men outnumbered women, and educated, free women were a particular rarity, it is not surprising that the motherless Harriet became a mother herself at seventeen. She gave birth to a child named ‘Ellen’ out of wedlock and, three months later, married Edward Holden per Lord Melville II (2) (1830).[67] Holden was a thirty-seven-year-old tattooed convict with a life sentence for committing a well-planned robbery as part of a gang of four men.[68] Under the cover of darkness, the gang knocked down their unsuspecting victim, covered his mouth, and stole his money and pocket comb, before fleeing the scene.[69] Harriet clearly had a ‘type.’ Nine months after her two-and-half-year marriage to her first highwayman husband ended with his premature death, she was betrothed to John ‘Jack’ Holland who, as we know, had committed a markedly similar crime.[70]

Twenty-nine-year-old Jack was still a convict under sentence but, rather incredibly after his troublesome year of 1846, he had managed to secure a ticket of leave in the district of Parramatta on 26 October 1847, so when he met and took a shine to the recently widowed young woman, he was entitled to apply for permission to marry.[71] His application was granted and he married Harriet in her parish of Marsfield one week later on 13 March 1849 in the presence of Harriet’s father, John Watson, and her sister Sarah Watson.[72] Jack was recorded as a bachelor of the ‘parish of St. John’s, Parramatta,’ and signed his name with an X, as did the Watsons: the bride, alone, was able to sign her own name.[73]

It is unclear whether Harriet’s daughter Ellen was still living when Harriet married Jack, as Ellen disappeared from the records entirely after her September 1845 baptism at the age of three weeks in Marsfield.[74] If Ellen did not survive infancy, then the newlyweds were childless for the first eighteen years of their lives together, even though Harriet had obviously given birth successfully before and, at twenty-one, was still at the peak of her childbearing years at the time of their 1849 marriage. Jack and Harriet Holland would welcome children, eventually, but in the meantime, they began building a new life for themselves in the town of Parramatta.

As 1850 drew to a close, Jack absented himself from the district of Parramatta for undocumented reasons.[75] For a free man, this would not have been a problem, of course, but Jack was still a ‘Prisoner of the Crown’ who was slightly over eleven years into his fifteen-year sentence; his ticket of leave endowed him with certain freedoms solely within the district in which it was granted. Between 28 September 1850 and his apprehension on 10 December, therefore, he was ‘illegally at large’ and his ticket was accordingly cancelled.[76] Jack was subsequently listed as a recaptured ‘runaway’ in the Government Gazette a month later, yet three pages earlier in the same edition he was noted as receiving a ticket of leave for Parramatta—his ‘absence being explained,’ his ticket had been reissued with the same swiftness his original one had been voided.[77] Either the convict had actually absconded for wicked reasons and managed to craftily sweet-talk his way out of any consequences, or he really had been ‘at large’ for a legitimate reason. Could it be that married life had settled Jack down? Based on subsequent events, probably not quite; nevertheless, just over a year later, with greater freedoms in sight and his wife Harriet by his side, Jack began to make big plans for their future.

The Star Inn

By early April 1852, Jack thought he would try his hand at being a Parramatta publican.  Undeterred by the sight of numerous public houses in close proximity to each other in the town generally and up Church Street, Parramatta specifically, he submitted an application for a publican’s license to the Annual Licensing Meeting held at the Parramatta Court House. Given the highly competitive arena Jack was seeking to enter, it was inevitable that he faced some opposition from a fellow publican, one William Wormleaton, who challenged the application ‘on the ground that [Jack] had not yet received his certificate of freedom.’[78] However, Jack was not without his respected supporters: ‘Mr. C. B. Lyons,’ the coroner for the district, pointed out that ‘Wormleighton [sic] was a rival publican of the next house,’ (the Talbot Inn, situated in Church Street, Parramatta) and, moreover, that Jack ‘held a certificate from Capt. Maclean, showing that his freedom had been a month in the colony, and would soon be gazetted.’[79] Lyons spoke the truth: on 15 March 1852, more than two years before his sentence was due to expire, and in spite of his earlier misconduct in the colony, Jack had received a conditional pardon by order of Governor Sir Charles FitzRoy and signed by Captain Alexander Grant Maclean, the Principal Superintendent of Convicts.[80] Without further ado, ‘their worships’ at the licensing meeting granted a publican’s license to one who had memorably mugged an innocent man walking near a public house in Derbyshire more than a decade earlier.[81] Coroner C. B. Lyons may have soon had cause to doubt whether he should have been so forthcoming in his advocacy of Holland’s publican application. The following year, in July 1853, Lyons appeared for the prosecution when a ‘John Holland,’ who may or may not have been Jack, was among a group of men who appeared at the Parramatta Police Court, charged with setting fire to a tree at the residence of Thomas Blackwell in Mogoailee (Castle Hill) and then running at him with an axe threatening to ‘chop him down’ when Blackwell objected to what they were doing.[82] During the hearing, Blackwell claimed that the offenders ‘always carry guns and go cannonading in the bush all Sunday’—a pastime that likely would have appealed to the shotgun-toting Holland who dispensed of a neighbourhood cat without a second thought and, as we know, did enjoy roughing people up as part of a gang of hoodlums.[83] The case was dismissed, and Jack’s pub continued to furnish alcoholic beverages to its customers.

Initially, ‘The Star Inn, by J. Holland’ traded out of a building that had to be demolished to make way for the Parramatta railway.[84] It was ‘around 1855,’ therefore, that Jack reopened his hostelry in a two-storey Georgian brick building, which then stood in a prime location, opposite St. John’s Church on Church Street, Parramatta, in Burramattagal Country.[85] The building had formerly been the bakery of Mr. James Stark, but following Stark’s insolvency around late 1842 or early 1843, another baker named Thomas Blake, who was already the publican of ‘The Baker’s Arms’ on Argyle and Marsden Streets, Parramatta, apparently took over Stark’s vacated Church Street premises and began dispensing the rival staffs of life (bread and rum)’ there.[86]

As the licensing dataset reveals, this transmission of licenses from one establishment or one person to another was common. While some publicans were rather transient beings, though, the same dataset also yields names that were consistently attached to certain establishments. The Hollands would prove to be of this latter sort; in fact, they even made their home above their inn. The familial nature of their business extended beyond the couple themselves with Harriet’s father, John Watson, also residing there, and Harriet’s siblings sustaining a close attachment to the property in some capacity, too—we know this, because even Jack and Harriet’s niece Elizabeth Watson was mentioned as being on the premises, if not something of a permanent fixture.[87] The Hollands and their extended family were, therefore, real ‘stayers,’ and this would have gone a long way towards building the sense of community that clearly existed around The Star Inn, by not only attracting patrons but also keeping them coming back for years on end.

Jack’s interesting and varied personality was unquestionably also a major drawcard for the business. Based on one writer’s personal recollections, Jack was literally ‘front of house,’ as pictured in the accompanying image of The Star Inn:

There he stands, as we always remember him, wearing his cabbage-tree hat, doeskin pants, frill shirt and velvet vest. What a natty, clean figure he always was. Jack was generally sitting on the water-trough in front. That was where politics was discussed, and the trough of the Star Inn was only second in importance as a rendezvous to “The Corner.”[88]

Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate

A bullet hole in The Star Inn’s old signboard out front, however, was all the proof that Jack and anyone else needed that his popularity among the Parramattans was not universal; then again, this was hardly surprising, given the polar extremes of his temperament and his documented history of violence. ‘A local volunteer, coming from a military outing one evening, halted [at The Star Inn] and he was excited — so excited that he intended to “blow Jack out.”[89] Jack, however, knocked up the barrel of the musket’ right as his would-be destroyer fired, sending the bullet intended for Jack through the sign instead, and leaving Jack with yet another enthralling tale to tell his regulars at the water-trough.[90] Here is another comical and interesting tale Jack very likely enjoyed relaying at the trough:

Rum ‘n’ Strychnine

What had to have been the most important conversation Jack ever had whilst perched on the water-trough in front of The Star Inn occurred between himself and his friend of ten years, George Jenkins Cavill. Not much is known about their friendship, except that they were united in their anti-felinity. Cavill ‘had been in the habit of keeping strychnine in his box for the purpose of killing cats’ and had killed at least two in this manner, to the knowledge of one who knew him well.[91] (Evidently, it was not an optimal time to be a cat in Parramatta). On this December morn in 1863, however, it was reportedly Cavill’s unwavering determination that the strychnine he hoarded should end a human life instead.

Early on the morning of Saturday 5 December 1863, Cavill rose from his bed and ‘seemed much as usual at breakfast — rational and composed.’[92] ‘No quarrel or words’ passed between himself and the woman he lived with, Amelia Bond, nor with their houseguest, Mary Hillyard.[93] He left his c.1819 timber cottage on Macquarie Street, and headed to The Star Inn. Yet, as Jack would later tell it, by the time Cavill arrived at The Star Inn moments later, around half-past eight o’clock, he was ‘rather flurried.’[94] He told Jack “I want you,” then handed the publican his gold watch and chain, prompting a perplexed Jack to ask him what he was going to do: “I am going away,” Cavill replied.[95] Jack claimed to have ‘remonstrated with him,’ refusing to accept the over-generous gift, upon which Cavill threatened, “If you don’t take my watch I will smash it against the wall.”[96] Jack took the watch, and Cavill allegedly implored, “Keep it for my sake, if for nothing else.”[97] He also handed Jack a memorandum book, alerting him to the fact that there was a memorandum in it, before departing. It is not clear whether Jack took the time to read what was recorded therein; perhaps he briefly glanced at it and, seeing that it contained ‘sundry letters, receipts, &c,’ without understanding the significance of it at that moment, concluded that whatever was in there would ‘keep’ until he was good and ready to take a closer look.

Cavill returned to the inn just a quarter of an hour later, where Jack was now in the bar. Jack claimed that he tried to make light conversation with his troubled friend, asking him if he had eaten breakfast: “Yes, a good breakfast.”[98] Seeing that something was still very much amiss, though, Jack advised him to go home: “Give me a drop of rum, and I’ll go home,” Cavill said.[99] Jack poured his old mate three parts of a glass and, when asked to ‘put a little cloves in it,’ catered to his every whim.[100] Obviously quite at home at The Star Inn, Cavill declared, “I want to make it hot, and will go into the kitchen to get some hot water.”[101] Jack gave him some sugar and left Cavill to make his own way to the kitchen and add the hot water to his liking. Jack’s niece Elizabeth Watson happened to be in the kitchen at the time and saw Cavill drinking his glass of rum before burning a small piece of paper.[102] Meanwhile, Jack had gone out the front door of the inn and assumed his usual position on the water-trough. He was soon joined there by Cavill, who now took some keys from his pocket and patted them in Jack’s hands: “Johnny,” he said, “when you unlock my chest, look into the till and you will find my spectacle case, and in the bottom of it you will find the key of the tin box.”[103] Cavill shook hands with his friend ‘and bid [Jack] good bye.’[104]

Another quarter of an hour passed by when Jack received word that he was ‘sent for’ by Cavill.[105] We can only wonder what thoughts passed through Jack’s mind on that brief walk from the inn to Cavill’s Macquarie Street cottage; perhaps he was beginning to find it all a bit tedious. Jack found his friend ‘apparently sick’ and immediately assumed he had ‘taken’ something.[106] In a grim twist on the old cliché of a barman asking ‘What’s your poison?’ the proprietor of The Star Inn asked his long-standing patron to tell him what he had taken, but he could get no answer from Cavill ‘for a long time.’[107] Jack stayed by Cavill’s side and sent a messenger to fetch Dr. Gordon Gwynne. When the doctor arrived, Cavill was ‘lying on a sofa, with his clothes on, apparently very much excited.’[108] The doctor ‘roused him’ and the patient recognised him, then answered a series of questions ‘coherently.’[109] Around half-past ten o’clock, Cavill appeared to improve, so Jack asked him again, ‘in the presence of several witnesses,’

Jack: “George, what have you taken?”

Cavill: “I have taken strychnine.”

Jack: “Where?”

Cavill: “In your kitchen, in the rum you gave me.”

Jack: “Why?”[110]

At this, the patient, who ‘seemed quite collected,’ stubbornly ‘shook his head and would not answer.’[111] Dr. Gwynne, now aware of what his patient had consumed, proceeded to search for the severe signs of strychnine poisoning, which can present within fifteen minutes of ingestion: agitation, fear, painful muscle spasms, violent contortions including uncontrollable arching of the neck and back, rigid and twisting arms and legs, jaw contractions that can leave the sufferer with a ghastly fixed grin, as well as difficulty breathing. Yet Dr. Gwynne found ‘no symptoms whatever of [his patient] having taken it; the limbs were perfectly placid, and no spasm appeared,’ so there were good indications in this case that medical intervention, namely the administration of an emetic, might counteract what had to have been only a very small dose of the highly toxic poison.[112] The doctor found his patient unwilling to accept treatment at first, which was to be expected in a case of poisoning that was apparently not accidental but the result of a deliberate attempt to end his own life. Nevertheless, Cavill did at last relent and the emetic ‘had its desired effect.’[113] In the meantime, Jack continued asking Cavill repeatedly for the reason, and though there was nothing physically preventing him from disclosing what had apparently driven him to suicide, ‘he persisted in not answering.’[114]

The doctor left, but Jack remained with Cavill in the hours that followed, during which time the previously almost asymptomatic Cavill had ‘about twenty or thirty…convulsive…fits.’[115] When Dr. Gwynne returned to examine the patient between two and three o’clock in the afternoon, he witnessed one of these ‘strong convulsive’ seizures firsthand and Cavill ‘died a short time afterwards,’ either from suffocation caused by the paralysis of breathing or sheer exhaustion from the intense convulsions.[116] Had he taken (or been given) another dose of strychnine?

Upon examining the receptacle containing the lethal concoction, the doctor noted that there was ‘enough strychnine left’ in the glass tumbler ‘to kill two persons,’ confirming that the amount Cavill had taken in the morning must have been ‘very small, infinitesimal in fact; had he taken the whole, death would have been instantaneous, and had he taken more the effects would have been sooner apparent,’ either of which would have limited his suffering.[117] It seems, then, that Cavill, who was very familiar with his chosen poison, not only had a death wish but also wanted to torture himself by prolonging his agony. He had certainly not done this to provide himself with ample time to make any deathbed confessions, for as protracted as his painful death was, he refused to offer a reason at any time, only saying he was ‘sorry for what he had done.’[118] But did he regret taking the strychnine, or had he been sorry for something else so unforgiveable and irreversible that self-murder had appeared to him to be his only option?

Cavill, who had arrived free as a bounty immigrant per Jane Gifford (1841) was known to be ‘in easy circumstances,’ thus none could ‘assign [any] reason for…such a rash act’: not the women who were residing in the cottage with him at the time, nor Jack, with whom Cavill either felt a great affinity or felt he owed, for Cavill’s generosity extended far beyond his valuable gold watch and chain.[119] Just as Cavill had instructed, aside from the ‘sundry letters, receipts, &c’ enclosed in Cavill’s new memorandum book, there was only ‘one leaf’ upon which anything was written: it was a description of the boundary of his Macquarie Street premises and the declaration: “I, George J Cavill, leave this to John Holland.”[120]

Considering that the strychnine had been administered in a glass of rum Jack had poured and handed to the deceased in his pub with a dash of sugar to help the notoriously bitter poison go down, not to mention all that he gained from his friend’s demise, or his personal history of self-serving violence for that matter, things could have looked rather bad for Jack. Imagine, for a moment, if Cavill had taken a higher dose of the strychnine and died instantly from respiratory failure at Jack’s pub, or had been quickly rendered incapable of confirming before witnesses that he was dying by his own hand. As it happened, the jury ‘returned a verdict of felo de se’ (suicide) based on the deceased man’s own statements and witnesses’ accounts.[121]

Whatever Cavill had done that made him think he deserved or had no option but to die such a horrible death, his last action, to bequeath to Jack a property that was conveniently located around the corner from his business, would have long-lasting benefits for the Hollands as a whole, if not for Jack himself.[122]

Jack would live another ten years after Cavill’s demise and, being a man who was still not advanced in years, he managed to pack a lot into that time—including a few more brushes with the law.

The Ring

In the early 1860s, a number of charges were brought against ‘John Holland’ at Parramatta, Burramattagal Country. Without any ship or occupation listed in the associated newspaper reports or the gaol admission records, however, in some of those cases it is impossible to verify if Jack was the offender. In April 1860, for instance, a ‘John Holland’ had been ‘fined 5 s., with 3 s. 6 d. costs’ at the Parramatta Police Court, ‘for suffering his lamp to go out during the night.’[123] There was some time spent in the cells of Parramatta Gaol for drunkenness in September that same year, and again in April 1861, although these incidents may have been another person with the same name, as the offender appears to have had little choice but to do time in gaol rather than pay the fine, which seems unlikely for Jack, given that he was running a business at the time.[124]

Jack, as we know, was rough and streetwise, so it is more certain that he was the John Holland charged alongside William Wilcockson (his brother-in-law), Nathaniel Payten, Jun., William Coshier, John Hilt, William Rutter, and Robert L. Dunn, ‘for being present when a breach of the peace was committed, namely, a prize fight’ in May 1863.[125] In this case, a sergeant named Kelly ‘did not proceed with charges as misdemeanours,’ instead treating them ‘merely as common assaults’: ‘[t]he six first-named defendants pleaded guilty, and were fined 40s.’[126] In spite of this penalty, Jack’s thirst for blood sports was still unquenched, so a mere fortnight later he faced another charge of being among a number of ‘publicans’ and others who ‘illegally and against the peace of our lady the Queen’ attended a prize fight at ‘Haslams Creek’ in Wangal Country.[127] A ‘riot’ ensued and a senior constable by the name of Toomey ‘was assaulted in the execution of his duty,’ having been ‘thrown down and stunned by a blow on the head,’ and flung out of the ring so the fight could proceed.[128] While it could have been anyone who assaulted the constable at this rough and tumble event, one cannot help noticing that these were ‘signature’ moves of the young Jack Holland, whose style was to loom up behind his victims, pin them to the ground, and rain down blows upon their head and other sensitive areas. Yet, when Holland defended himself at the subsequent hearing, he not only ‘denied being present at the fight,’ he even cross-examined Senior Constable Toomey ‘at length’ before a ‘filled’ courtroom, apparently with as much confidence as the lawyer who represented his co-accused.[129] Holland and the others were allowed bail to the sum of £20.[130] When the case went to trial at the Parramatta Quarter Sessions on 1 July 1863, the accused were ‘undefended,’ but Jack, ever-sure of himself, ‘brought two witnesses in support of an alibi.’[131](Perhaps he promised a couple of patrons some free drinks at The Star Inn if they perjured themselves for his sake). ‘The Judge, in summing up, pointed out to the jury that in law the spectators of a breach of the peace of this nature were equally offenders with the principals, and indictable for the assault.’[132] Even so, ‘after a long retirement,’ the jury ‘returned unable to agree to a verdict—being eleven to one—the foreman stating that they were not satisfied that the defendants went with the intention of committing a breach of the peace. A verdict of “Not guilty” was recorded, and’ Jack and his fellow defendants ‘were discharged.’[133]

Jack may have found himself ‘in the ring,’ so to speak, with his old adversary Sergeant Kelly at Parramatta’s Police Court again soon after anyway, as he was probably the ‘John Holland’ who, on account of some not altogether surprising thespian tendencies, was named in the case of Sergeant Kelly v John Holland in mid-December 1864. On this occasion, ‘John Holland’ was charged with ‘performing a stage play,’ perhaps of a yuletide nature given the time of year, ‘without the license of the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales’ in the house of James Ferris.[134] While Jack appears to have gotten away with participating in the play, Ferris was fined ‘for allowing a theatrical entertainment in his house, without the authority of the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales, contrary to the 14^th Victoria, No. 23, Section 2.’[135]

Just a few months later, the publican was back in his old cage at Parramatta Gaol under sentence of three months’ imprisonment for ‘stealing.’ His latest run-in with the legal system is verifiable, as the gaol admission book clearly identifies the publican per Maitland (1) (1840), and the newspaper accounts of the incident likewise name ‘John Holland, publican of Church-street, Parramatta,’ as the defendant.[136] According to the complainant Dennis Mullens, an elderly customer of The Star Inn as well as other local public houses, Mullens had arrived at Jack’s pub one Saturday evening, between 6 and 7 p.m., already a bit inebriated and with money in his pockets. He laid his money on the table in the sole presence of Jack and his father-in-law, John Watson, who still lived with Jack and Harriet above the inn. At once, Jack took ‘two half-crowns, and half-a-sovereign and walked out with it.’[137] Mullens protested, “[L]eave my money there, and don’t rob me,” to which Jack laughed and replied “You fool,” undoubtedly thinking that, historically, he had needed to knock a man down and deliver a few hard punches and kicks to his person before he got anything valuable off him, whereas this old-timer had simply laid it out for him on a silver platter.[138] When Mullens turned to John Watson and said, “I am robbed by your son-in-law,” he received an unsympathetic reply: “It served you right.”[139] Hardly believing he had been the victim of such brazen theft, Mullens refrained from making any official complaint for some time, reassuring himself that Jack ‘was only keeping it from me in joke.’[140] Asking to be reimbursed three times over the coming days, and each time being told by Jack’s father-in-law to ‘go away’ finally convinced Mullens to resort to legal measures. Senior Constable Ibbotson of the Parramatta Police made the arrest. Revealingly, Jack ‘declined to call any witnesses in his behalf,’ and ‘elected to be dealt with judicially by the Bench.’[141] ‘Subsequently he requested the case to be sent to a jury, but the application could not then be received,’ so ‘The Bench’ made a summary judgement: ‘from the direct and conclusive evidence of the prosecutor, they had no other course open to them than to find the prisoner guilty’ and sentenced the now forty-five-year-old Jack to ‘three months’ imprisonment in Parramatta Gaol.’[142] The gaol admission book reveals that Jack, who had always been able to read, had also acquired the ability to write, a development for which his literate wife Harriet was probably responsible.[143] Less than three weeks later, Jack’s publican’s license was cancelled.[144] It was hardly the end of it all, though; Jack swiftly brought a case of ‘wilful and corrupt perjury’ against Mullens, who was ‘arrested by Detective Broomfield, Sydney Police and remanded to Parramatta to be dealt with’ before the month was over.[145] When Mullens was tried at the Parramatta District General Sessions in early April 1865, he was found guilty of perjury and, despite ‘earnestly asseverat[ing] his innocence,’ was sentenced to six calendar months’ imprisonment [and labour] in Parramatta gaol…with a recommendation to mercy on account of [his] age, and him having been to some extent under the influence of drink at the time of the alleged stealing of his money.’[146] Mullens may have been an unreliable witness, but in light of Jack’s personal and criminal history it is hard to imagine that Mullens had told anything but the truth.

‘Their Worships’ Arthur Todd Holroyd (1806–1887), physician, explorer and jurist, and Dr. Richard Greenup. “Holroyd, Mr. Arthur Todd,” in Eminent Citizens [of] New South Wales, (1850–1900), PX*D 624 / FL16028458, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales; Dr. Richard Greenup, (1803–1866), Negative number: 161626, Courtesy of State Library of Queensland.

Jack could not revel in his (likely undeserved) legal victory over Mullens for long. When he resumed trading as a publican at The Star Inn, Jack was quickly entangled in another legal battle related to his previous stoush with Mullens. While his sentence of imprisonment had been overturned and he had been released, his publican’s license was not automatically ‘revived’; thus, he was illegally trading spirituous liquors without a license thereafter. Jack pleaded not guilty to the charge, arguing that he believed his pardon had nullified the cancellation of his license.[147] Members of the Bench, including the Mayor, were also in favour of an immediate dismissal of the charge. ‘Their Worships, Mr. [Arthur Todd] Holroyd and Dr. [Richard] Greenup, while concurring in the general opinion of the Bench that the circumstances had been of peculiar hardship to the defendant,’ however, were mindful that their role in the courts was to apply the law as it stood, not to create it to suit the needs of the current case; to avoid this, they suggested there should be a conviction and a fine recorded, which ‘the Bench might recommend to be remitted.’[148] In late July 1865, therefore, Jack was ‘convicted of selling spirits without a license, and fined £30 Levy and distress; in default of sufficient goods, 3 months imprisonment in Parramatta Gaol; four week’s [sic] allowed for payment.’[149] He either paid the fine or it was remitted, because within a fortnight, he was back in business, having been granted a new publican’s license for The Star Inn on 7 August.[150]

Family Man

For whatever reason, the first eighteen years of Jack and Harriet Holland’s marriage had been childless. All that changed on 11 October 1867, when a baby boy was born to the couple at The Star Inn. Both the thirty-nine-year-old mother and her newborn were recorded as ‘doing well’ when the birth was announced in the Sydney Morning Herald on 14 October, and he was baptised at St. John’s, Parramatta on 7 November: they called him John Henry Holland.[151] However, just eight days after his baptism, this long-awaited child who had been tasked with keeping his father’s name alive, passed away on 15 November, at The Star Inn, aged five weeks, and was buried in St. John’s Cemetery, Parramatta in Burramattagal Country the following day.[152]

Sixteen months after their loss, the Hollands welcomed another child. She arrived at The Star Inn on 13 March 1869, and at her baptism at St. John’s Church on 11 April they named her Harriet, after her mother, but she was affectionately known as ‘Harley.’[153] Baby Harley would be fifteen months old when her maternal grandfather, John Watson, passed away at The Star Inn on 5 June 1870, aged seventy-one.[154] With a little toddler taking some of her earliest steps, and another baby on the way, though, the inhabitants of The Star Inn could not wallow in their grief for long. John Alexander Holland was safely delivered at the inn on 31 December 1870, and baptised at St. John’s Church on 22 January 1871.[155] The Hollands’ youngest, Edith Emma, nicknamed ‘Edie,’ was also born at the inn on 1 December 1872 with mother and child reported to be ‘all well,’ the baptism occurring at St. John’s three days before Christmas.[156]

Family life may have tamed the wilder side of the inconstant gardener’s nature to an extent, because while there is no telling whether neighbourhood cats continued to be violently despatched, whether Jack ‘cannonaded’ through the bush every Sunday, or was targeted by any more gun-toting men swearing vengeance during these years, we do know Jack did not have any further court appearances once he became a parent. After the legal trouble following the Mullens affair was all straightened out, Jack consistently had his publican license renewed at the annual licensing meeting at Parramatta, which also points to a greater sense of stability. It was just as well he was no longer getting into scrapes that were serious enough to make it into the newspaper, for he was fifty-two years old, with a wife and three children under the age of three, and a popular public house to run. Not bad for an old rogue, not bad at all.

Whimper

Reflecting on the life Jack lived, one might reasonably assume that his premature demise at age fifty-four was the result of one of his ‘excited’ victims, shot-gun in hand, finally catching up with him and succeeding where another had failed to ‘blow him out.’ In actuality, this life full of thrilling ‘bangs’ ended, most uncharacteristically, with a whimper.

At some point towards the close of December 1874, Jack’s lungs became infected with foreign microbes of unidentified origin and filled with fluid that solidified. He increasingly struggled to breathe and experienced chest pain, a cough, fatigue, as well as a fever, sweating, shaking chills, and probably anxiety and depression. On 27 December, a few weeks after his youngest daughter’s second birthday, two days after Christmas, and a few days before his son’s fourth birthday, John ‘Jack’ Holland breathed his last painful breaths at The Star Inn.[157] Dr. Isaac Waugh was the medical attendant who last examined Jack on 26 December and recorded the official cause of death as ‘pneumonia’ of ‘indefinite duration.’[158] Did Jack’s case of pneumonia prove fatal because of an underlying medical condition and a weakened immune system? If so, his cause of death might have been traceable to his misspent youth as a convict in a hulk, on a long sea-voyage in a prison ship, his multiple stints in grotty, poorly ventilated gaol cells and the Hyde Park Barracks for various offences, as opposed to the life of a steady and honest gardener, breathing the clean air of the great outdoors in his native land. Without knowing the cause of Jack’s pneumonia, such notions can only ever be pure speculation. Still, it is thought-provoking to note that, by good or foul means, John ‘Jack’ Holland’s life path in general, which had brought him more success than most convicts could have hoped to have achieved, had also brought him to his death bed at The Star Inn in Church Street, Parramatta, Burramattagal Country, having outlived his father, George, the ‘constant gardener’ of Derbyshire, by a mere two years and eight months.[159]

John ‘Jack’ Holland was buried on 28 December in the same St. John’s burial plot as the infant son who predeceased him, his first namesake, John Henry.[160] The headstone for the family vault was more than likely sourced from Mr. J. Craig’s Monumental Headstone business, which from January 1864 operated right next to the old brick Georgian building that had served the dual purpose of home and business to the Hollands.[161] Adding Jack’s name to the family memorial stone was only one of many responsibilities that would fall to Jack’s widow. The Star Inn, the raising of their three young children, and the Macquarie Street property Cavill had willed to Jack were all left to Harriet, who in the coming years handled her increased duties with aplomb.[162] Her ‘admirable business tact’ meant The Star Inn would be ‘celebrated for its comfort and good cheer.’[163]

The same vision that had compelled Harriet’s parents to take advantage of the opportunity to receive financial assistance for their whole family’s emigration to the colony was alive and well in her when she grasped the opportunity to buy the block neighbouring Cavill’s former residence. There, she built a pair of two-storey brick terraces as investment properties, naming them ‘Northiam,’ a nod to her birthplace in Sussex, and ‘Harleyville,’ after her eldest daughter. Despite being demolished and replaced by a 1960s Post Office, one archaeologist could report on site during excavations in late 2015 that Harriet’s properties retained the outlines of what appeared to be circular garden beds—if so, then these were no doubt once home to blooms the avid gardener Jack Holland himself would have been proud to call his own.[164] A decade after Jack’s death, Harriet replaced Cavill’s once humble timber cottage with a new home for herself called Cranbrook: a ‘spacious and well-built brick’ single-storey villa boasting a bay window, ‘slate roof,’ ‘tiled verandah,’ all the modern comforts, a ‘breakfast room’ and marble mantles in each of its four large bedrooms.

Over the course of six decades in the colony, the Hollands had grown from convict and migrant beginnings, and blossomed into bona fide members of the ‘affluent middle class,’ projecting an image that was more in keeping with the softer side of their departed convict patriarch, whom Harriet held ‘in fond…loving remembrance’ to her dying day.[165]

CITE THIS

Michaela Ann Cameron, “The Hollands: Guns ‘n’ Tuberoses,” St. John’s Online, (2021), https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/the-hollands, accessed [insert current date]

References

• British Newspaper Archive (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/)
• Casey & Lowe, “3 Parramatta Square,” Casey & Lowe Archaeology & Heritage, http://www.caseyandlowe.com.au/portfolio_page/3-parramatta-square-2/, accessed 25 May 2020.
• Derbyshire Record Office, Derbyshire Church of England Parish Registers, Diocese of Derbyshire, Matlock, Derbyshire, England.
• Amanda Dusting, “Parramatta Square PS3, 153 Macquarie Street, Parramatta: Preliminary Results of the Historical Archaeological Investigation,” Casey & Lowe Archaeology & Heritage, (Leichhardt: Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, March 2016).
• Home Office: Convict Prison Hulks: Registers and Letter Books, 1802–1849, Microfilm: HO9, 5 rolls, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England).
• Melanie Morris, “Derby Skyline Study, Part Two (A) Historic Images of the City,” Derby City Council, (Staffordshire: Mel Morris Conservation, 2019).
• New South Wales Government, Annotated Printed Indents (i.e., Office Copies), NRS 12189; Microfiche: 743, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).
• New South Wales Government, Certificates for Publicans’ Licences, 1853–1861, Series: NRS 14403, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).
• New South Wales Government, Copies of Conditional Pardons Registered, Series: 1172; Reel: 795; Roll Number: 3037, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).
• New South Wales Government, Entitlement Certificates of Persons on Bounty Ships, Series: NRS 5134; Reel: 1293, State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).
• New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).
• New South Wales Government, Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry, Series: NRS 12212, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).
• Parish Burial Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Anglican Church, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.
• William M. Rogerson, Map of Derby, 1819, a.k.a. This plan of the town of Derby and its environs is dedicated to the noblemen and gentlemen of the county as a testimony of respect by their most obedient humble servant, William M. Rogerson, land surveyor Derby (1819), Derby Maps No. 15, DLSLDA000027, Derby City Council, Derby Local Studies and Family History Library.
• Philip Toms, “Journal of His Majesty’s Convict Ship Maitland, Between the 3^rd March and 22^nd July 1840,” Admiralty and Predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and Predecessors: Medical Journals (ADM 101, 804 bundles and volumes). Records of Medical and Prisoner of War Departments. Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and Related Bodies, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England).
• Trove (www.trove.nla.gov.au)
• Sylvanus Urban (Edward Cave), “Description of the Tread Mill, Recommended by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline,” The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 92, Part 2, (July, 1822).
•  J. Cheyne Wharton (ed.), The Jubilee History of Parramatta: In Commemoration of the First Half-Century of Municipal Government, 1861–1911, (Parramatta: T. D. Little and R. S. Richardson, 1911).

NOTES

[1] The railway line and industrial sites at 181 James Ruse Drive, Camellia are a far cry from Silas Sheather’s “Camellia Grove Nursery,” which occupied the area from 1852. Regarding his tattoos, see “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland,” New South Wales Government, Annotated Printed Indents (i.e., Office Copies), NRS 12189; Microfiche: 743, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia) and “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland, Pardon Number: 52 / 124,” New South Wales Government, Card Index to Letters Received, Colonial Secretary, Roll: 1250; Reel: 795, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia); “The Star Inn,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Wednesday 19 December 1900, p. 7.

[2] “The Star Inn,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Wednesday 19 December 1900, p. 7.

[3] “The Star Inn,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Wednesday 19 December 1900, p. 7.

[4] “The Star Inn,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Wednesday 19 December 1900, p. 7.

[5] “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland,” New South Wales Government, Annotated Printed Indents (i.e., Office Copies), NRS 12189; Microfiche: 743, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[6] We know George Holland was quite the “constant gardener” from the baptism records of his eleven children over the decades. All state his occupation as “gardener.” For the Holland family’s abode at the time of John Holland’s baptism see “Baptism of JOHN HOLLAND, 7 June 1820, Derby, St. Werburgh, Derbyshire, England,” Derbyshire Record Office, Derbyshire Church of England Parish Registers, Diocese of Derbyshire, Matlock, Derbyshire, England. The Hollands would later move to 46 Devonshire Street, Derby, Derbyshire, England. Regarding the likelihood that Jack was apprenticed to his own father, a newspaper notes that George Holland had another young man as his apprentice: “Committed to the County House of Correction for two months, James Allen, for absconding from the service of George Holland, to whom he was an apprentice…” Derby Mercury, 10 December 1827, p. 3.

[7] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[8] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[9] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1. The address for the Coach and Horses was retrieved from “Coach & Horses, Derby” The Lost Pubs Project, accessed 25 May 2020. There is another Coach & Horses (est. c.1719) about a mile away on the corner of Mansfield and Old Chester roads but, given that the events described involved people on foot, after midnight, and around the Market Place, it is unlikely those involved walked over a mile looking for a public house when there was one by that name on the Morledge, where these events originally began.

[10] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[11] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[12] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[13] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[14] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[15] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[16] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[17] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[18] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[19] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[20] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[21] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[22] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[23] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[24] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[25] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[26] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[27] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[28] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[29] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[30] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[31] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[32] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[33] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[34] Derby Mercury, Wednesday 17 July 1839, p. 1.

[35] “JOHN HOLLAND; Age: 19; Crime: Stealg from the person & using Violence; Received: 27 July 1839; Ship: Fortitude; Anchored: Chatham; Convicted: 11 July 1839; Place Convicted: Derby; Sentence: 15 years; Status: Single; Read or Write: Reads; Trade: Gardener; Gaoler’s Report: Not known,” Home Office: Convict Prison Hulks: Registers and Letter Books, 1802–1849, Microfilm: HO9, 5 rolls, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England).

[36] See David Morgan, “John Williams: The Mayor of Reinvention,” St. John’s Online, (2020), https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/john-williams, accessed 25 May 2020. John Holland would later sign a petition against Parramatta being made a municipality: “Petition Under the Municipal Act,” New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Tuesday 27 August 1861, pp. 1825–1828.

[37] See David Morgan, “John Williams: The Mayor of Reinvention,” St. John’s Online, (2020), https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/john-williams, accessed 25 May 2020. John Holland would later sign a petition against Parramatta being made a municipality: “Petition Under the Municipal Act,” New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Tuesday 27 August 1861, pp. 1825–1828.

[38] “JOHN HOLLAND; Age: 19; Crime: Stealg from the person & using Violence; Received: 27 July 1839; Ship: Fortitude; Anchored: Chatham; Convicted: 11 July 1839; Place Convicted: Derby; Sentence: 15 years; Status: Single; Read or Write: Reads; Trade: Gardener; Gaoler’s Report: Not known,” and “JOHN STAIN; Age: 22; Crime: Stealg from the person & using Violence; Received: 27 July 1839; Ship: Fortitude; Anchored: Chatham; Convicted: 11 July 1839; Place Convicted: Derby; Sentence: 15 years; Status: Single; Read or Write: Neither; Trade: Boatman; Gaoler’s Report: Not Known,” Home Office: Convict Prison Hulks: Registers and Letter Books, 1802–1849, Microfilm: HO9, 5 rolls, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England).

[39] “JOHN HOLLAND; Age: 19; Crime: Stealg from the person & using Violence; Received: 27 July 1839; Ship: Fortitude; Anchored: Chatham; Convicted: 11 July 1839; Place Convicted: Derby; Sentence: 15 years; Status: Single; Read or Write: Reads; Trade: Gardener; Gaoler’s Report: Not known,” Home Office: Convict Prison Hulks: Registers and Letter Books, 1802–1849, Microfilm: HO9, 5 rolls, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England).

[40] “JOHN STAIN; Age: 22; Crime: Stealg from the person & using Violence; Received: 27 July 1839; Ship: Fortitude; Anchored: Chatham; Convicted: 11 July 1839; Place Convicted: Derby; Sentence: 15 years; Status: Single; Read or Write: Neither; Trade: Boatman; Gaoler’s Report: Not Known,” Home Office: Convict Prison Hulks: Registers and Letter Books, 1802–1849, Microfilm: HO9, 5 rolls, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England).

[41] Philip Toms, “Journal of His Majesty’s Convict Ship Maitland, Between the 3^rd March and 22^nd July 1840,” Admiralty and Predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and Predecessors: Medical Journals (ADM 101, 804 bundles and volumes). Records of Medical and Prisoner of War Departments. Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and Related Bodies, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England), pp. 3, 20.

[42] Philip Toms, “Journal of His Majesty’s Convict Ship Maitland, Between the 3^rd March and 22^nd July 1840,” Admiralty and Predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and Predecessors: Medical Journals (ADM 101, 804 bundles and volumes). Records of Medical and Prisoner of War Departments. Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and Related Bodies, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England), pp. 3, 20–21.

[43] Philip Toms, “Journal of His Majesty’s Convict Ship Maitland, Between the 3^rd March and 22^nd July 1840,” Admiralty and Predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and Predecessors: Medical Journals (ADM 101, 804 bundles and volumes). Records of Medical and Prisoner of War Departments. Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and Related Bodies, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England), pp. 3, 20.

[44] Philip Toms, “Journal of His Majesty’s Convict Ship Maitland, Between the 3^rd March and 22^nd July 1840,” Admiralty and Predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and Predecessors: Medical Journals (ADM 101, 804 bundles and volumes). Records of Medical and Prisoner of War Departments. Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and Related Bodies, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England).

[45] For Jack Holland’s siblings’ employment status, see the 1851 Census: Census Returns of England and Wales, 1851, Class: HO107; Piece: 2143; Folio: 352; Page: 14; GSU Roll: 87773–87774, (The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1851, Kew, Surrey, England). 

[46] The landing date for the prisoners aboard the Maitland comes from Philip Toms, “Journal of His Majesty’s Convict Ship Maitland, Between the 3^rd March and 22^nd July 1840,” Admiralty and Predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and Predecessors: Medical Journals (ADM 101, 804 bundles and volumes). Records of Medical and Prisoner of War Departments. Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and Related Bodies, (The National Archives, Kew, Surrey, England), pp. 3, 21. For evidence of Jack’s facial scar, see “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland,” New South Wales Government, Annotated Printed Indents (i.e., Office Copies), NRS 12189; Microfiche: 743, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia) and “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland, Pardon Number: 52 / 124,” New South Wales Government, Card Index to Letters Received, Colonial Secretary, Roll: 1250; Reel: 795, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[47] “GEORGE LUCAS and JOHN HOLLAND; Date of Admission: 9 July 1845; Gaol: Parramatta,” New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Item: 4/6535; Roll: 175, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[48] “GEORGE LUCAS and JOHN HOLLAND; Date of Admission: 9 July 1845; Gaol: Parramatta,” New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Item: 4/6535; Roll: 175, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia). For identification of Bryant see “MESSRS. BRYANT, BROTHERS,” The Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 – 1842), Monday 23 June 1834, p. 3 and “No title,” The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), Tuesday 24 June 1834, p. 3.

[49] “SAMUEL MORLEY and JOHN HOLLAND; Date of Admission: 27 March 1846; Gaol: Parramatta,” New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Item: 4/6535; Roll: 175, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[50] “POLICE COURT BUSINESS,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 22 May 1846, p. 3.

[51] “CHARGE OF ASSAULT,” Sydney Chronicle (NSW : 1846 – 1848), Saturday 25 July 1846, p. 2.

[52] “CHARGE OF ASSAULT,” Sydney Chronicle (NSW : 1846 – 1848), Saturday 25 July 1846, p. 2.

[53] “CHARGE OF ASSAULT,” Sydney Chronicle (NSW : 1846 – 1848), Saturday 25 July 1846, p. 2. For Jack’s height, see “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland,” New South Wales Government, Annotated Printed Indents (i.e., Office Copies), NRS 12189; Microfiche: 743, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia) and “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland, Pardon Number: 52 / 124,” New South Wales Government, Card Index to Letters Received, Colonial Secretary, Roll: 1250; Reel: 795, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia). See also his various gaol admission records. The exact height measurement varies from record to record, but it is roughly the same.

[54] “CHARGE OF ASSAULT,” Sydney Chronicle (NSW : 1846 – 1848), Saturday 25 July 1846, p. 2.

[55] “JOHN HOLLAND; Date of Admission: 3 December 1846; Gaol: Parramatta,” New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Item: 4/6535; Roll: 176, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[56] “Description of the Tread Mill, Recommended by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline,” The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume 92, Part 2, (July, 1822): 9–10.

[57] “Description of the Tread Mill, Recommended by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline,” The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume 92, Part 2, (July, 1822): 9–10. For more on the treadmill, see Jennifer McLaren, “Sarah Bell: Female Factory Matron,” St. John’s Online, (2019), https://stjohnsonline.org/bio/sarah-bell/, accessed 25 May 2020 and Cameron Nunn, “An Analysis of Early Juvenile Prison Architecture in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land,” Journal of Australian Colonial History, Vol. 18 (2016): 48.

[58] “Description of the Tread Mill, Recommended by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline,” The Gentleman’s Magazine, Volume 92, Part 2, (July, 1822): 9–10.

[59] “JOHN HOLLAND; Date of Admission: 3 December 1846; Gaol: Parramatta,” New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Item: 4/6535; Roll: 176, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[60] “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland,” New South Wales Government, Annotated Printed Indents (i.e., Office Copies), NRS 12189; Microfiche: 743, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia) and “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland, Pardon Number: 52 / 124,” New South Wales Government, Card Index to Letters Received, Colonial Secretary, Roll: 1250; Reel: 795, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[61] “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland,” New South Wales Government, Annotated Printed Indents (i.e., Office Copies), NRS 12189; Microfiche: 743, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia) and “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland, Pardon Number: 52 / 124,” New South Wales Government, Card Index to Letters Received, Colonial Secretary, Roll: 1250; Reel: 795, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[62] “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland,” New South Wales Government, Annotated Printed Indents (i.e., Office Copies), NRS 12189; Microfiche: 743, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia) and “JOHN HOLLAND per Maitland, Pardon Number: 52 / 124,” New South Wales Government, Card Index to Letters Received, Colonial Secretary, Roll: 1250; Reel: 795, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[63] “Marriage of GEORGE HOLLAND and SARAH WILD, 3 November 1817, Derby, St. Peter, Derbyshire, England,” Derbyshire Church of England Parish Registers, Derbyshire Record Office, Matlock, Derbyshire, England. See also Jack’s death certificate, in which his mother’s full maiden name is again confirmed as ‘Sarah Wild.’ New South Wales Government, Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages (https://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/), “Death of JOHN HOLLAND,” Registration No. 7274/1874, (Chippendale NSW: NSW BDM, 2020), https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search?2, accessed 25 May 2020, transcribed by Joy Murrin, www.joymurrin.com.au, (2020).

[64] See “JOHN WATSON,” and “SARAH WATSON per Palmyra (1838)” in New South Wales Government, Entitlement Certificates of Persons on Bounty Ships, Series: NRS 5134; Reel: 1293, State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia). In the immigration records both John and Sarah claim to be literate, yet John would sign his name with an X at his daughter Harriet’s wedding a number of years later.

[65] Baby Elizabeth’s death on route to the colony highlights the risks assisted immigrants like the Watsons courageously accepted when they took advantage of the opportunity to, as historian Robin F. Haines notes, ‘exchange lives of underemployment at home…for the chance of full employment in the colonies,’ because some dangers did not discriminate between free and ‘involuntary passengers’ on the open sea, most especially the Vitamin C deficiency known as scorbutus, also known as scurvy, and contagious diseases. The Surgeon’s Journal of the Palmyra (1838) reveals an array of complaints, most of which seem to indicate that the highly infectious S. pyogenes (strep A) bacteria was rife on board the vessel, beginning with an early case of nephritis logged one week into the journey, which could have been Post-Streptococcal Glomerulonephritis (PSGN), followed by 34 clear cases of scarlatina (scarlet fever), but also ‘rheumatismus,’ ‘cynanche tonsil, ‘cynanche & rheumatismus,’ ‘debility,’ anasarca, and ‘adema [sic: oedema]. In a scarlatina-infected environment today, these would be recognised as symptoms of scarlatina or its sequela rheumatic fever rather than separate conditions, but in 1838 physicians did not have the benefit of a complete ‘clinical spectrum,’ nor had rheumatic fever even been identified yet, so when faced with scarlatina’s varied presentation they apparently erred on the side of caution. Harriet’s three-year-old sister Hannah, erroneously recorded as ‘Emma’ in the medical journal, was admitted to the surgeon’s care on 12 August 1838 presenting with one of these symptoms, namely anasarca, a general swelling of the whole body that can occur when the tissues of the body retain too much fluid. While Hannah was pronounced cured and discharged, baby Elizabeth had died from what the ship surgeon recorded as hydrocephalus just two weeks earlier on 28 July; he would give the same diagnosis to a number of other infants on board, indicating that this was perhaps not hydrocephalus as we currently know it, but involved some sort of fluid retention associated with a contagious infection, probably once again relating to strep A. Katherine Foxhall notes that another surgeon on an immigrant ship the Maitland (1838) which arrived two months after Palmyra had also diagnosed hydrocephalus among infant patients, but he expressed his doubts about the diagnosis at the time and then changed it to typhus. See Robin F. Haines, Emigration and the Labouring Poor: Australian Recruitment in Britain and Ireland, 1831–1860, (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997), p. 17; Charles Carter, “Journal of the “Palmyra” Emigrant Ship, between the 11 of May and 9^th Oct.r 1838, Charles Carter M.D. Surgeon,” Admiralty and Predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and predecessors: Medical Journals (ADM 101, 804 bundles and volumes), Records of Medical and Prisoner of War Departments, Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and Related Bodies, (The National Archives. Kew, Richmond, Surrey). See Katherine Foxhall, “Fever, Immigration and Quarantine in New South Wales, 1837–1840,” Social History of Medicine, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Dec., 2011): 632–633. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkq109

[66] For evidence of the death of ELIZABETH WATSON, the youngest Watson child, on the passage see Charles Carter, “Journal of the “Palmyra” Emigrant Ship, between the 11 of May and 9^th Oct.r 1838, Charles Carter M.D. Surgeon,” Admiralty and Predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and predecessors: Medical Journals (ADM 101, 804 bundles and volumes), Records of Medical and Prisoner of War Departments, Records of the Admiralty, Naval Forces, Royal Marines, Coastguard, and Related Bodies, (The National Archives. Kew, Richmond, Surrey) and “SARAH WATSON” in New South Wales Government, Entitlement Certificates of Persons on Bounty Ships, Series: NRS 5134; Reel: 1293, State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia). The Watson vault is located at Left Section, Row 1, Memorial O (2) (L.1.O(2)), St. John’s Cemetery, Parramatta, in very close proximity to the Holland vault, which is at Left Section, Row 1, Memorial O (L.1.O).

[67] “Baptism of ELLEN WATSON, Illegitimate; Born: 14 August 1845; Baptised: 7 September 1845, Abode: Ross Street; Quality or Profession: Tenant,” Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney, Baptism, Burial, Confirmation, Marriage and Composite Registers in the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney Archives, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. “Marriage of EDWARD HOLDEN and HARRIET WATSON, 3 November 1845,” Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney, Baptism, Burial, Confirmation, Marriage and Composite Registers in the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney Archives, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

[68] “DANIEL MAUDE, JAMES WILKINSON, EDWARD HOLDEN, and JOHN CLARKE, charged with having robbed William Kitson, of Halifax, on the King’s highway. Mr. ALEXANDER stated that the prosecutor resides at Halifax, and is a cloth dresser. On the 3d of October, about nine o’clock at night, he was returning from Leeds to his own house, when he saw four men on the Old Bank. One of them asked him for money, and on his refusing to give them any, they rushed on him, knocked him down, covered his mouth, and took from him 14s. and a pocket comb. One of them exclaimed “Cut,” and they all ran off along the Bird Cage Walk. Prosecutor gave information to the police at Halifax, and described the persons of the men who had robbed him. He distinctly swore to all the prisoners, and identified a comb which was found in Clarke’s pocket, when he was apprehended, as the one of which he had been robbed. Maude, in his defence, declared he was innocent, Wilkinson, said he was at home, at the time of the robbery. The other two declined saying any thing.—The Jury found them GUILTY, and Judgement of death was recorded. The learned Judge informed the prisoners that they would certainly all of them be sent out of the country for the remainder of their lives.” “YORKSHIRE LENT ASSIZES. HIGHWAY ROBBERIES,” Leeds Intelligencer, Thursday 1 April 1830, p. 4. For evidence of his numerous tattoos, see “EDWARD HOLDEN per Lord Melville,” New South Wales Government, Bound Manuscript Indents, 1788–1842, Series: NRS 12188; Item: [4/4015]; Microfiche: 676, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[69] “YORKSHIRE LENT ASSIZES. HIGHWAY ROBBERIES,” Leeds Intelligencer, Thursday 1 April 1830, p. 4.

[70] “Burial of EDWARD HOLDEN, [of] Ross Street, Marsfield; Died: 17 June 1848; Buried: 19 June 1848; Age: 40 years; Quality or Profession: Miner,” Parish Burial Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Anglican Church, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.

[71] New South Wales Government, Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry, Series: NRS 12212; Item: 4/4514; Page: 158, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[72] New South Wales Government, Registers of Convicts’ Applications to Marry, Series: NRS 12212; Item: 4/4514; Page: 158, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia); “Marriage of JOHN HOLLAND and HARRIET HOLDEN, 13 March 1849, Marsfield,” Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney, Baptism, Burial, Confirmation, Marriage and Composite Registers in the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney Archives, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

[73] “Marriage of JOHN HOLLAND and HARRIET HOLDEN, 13 March 1849, Marsfield,” Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney, Baptism, Burial, Confirmation, Marriage and Composite Registers in the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney Archives, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

[74] “Baptism of ELLEN WATSON, Illegitimate; Born: 14 August 1845; Baptised: 7 September 1845, Abode: Ross Street; Quality or Profession: Tenant,” Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney, Baptism, Burial, Confirmation, Marriage and Composite Registers in the Anglican Church Diocese of Sydney Archives, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

[75] “RUNAWAYS apprehended with date of apprehension,” New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Friday 10 January 1851 [Issue No. 4], p. 44.

[76] “RUNAWAYS apprehended with date of apprehension,” New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Friday 10 January 1851 [Issue No. 4], p. 44; “JOHN HOLLAND, per Maitland, Ticket of Leave,” New South Wales Government, Tickets of Leave, 1810–1875, Series: NRS 12202; Item: [4/4214], (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales).

[77] “The undermentioned Prisoners of the Crown have obtained Tickets of Leave,” New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Friday 10 January 1851 [Issue No. 4], p. 40.

[78] Wormleighton aka Wormleaton, as per his Parramatta publican’s licenses of 1853 and 1854 for The Talbot Inn: New South Wales Government, Certificates for Publicans’ Licences, 1853–1861, Series: NRS 14403; Item: [4/84]; Reel: 5063, and Item: [4/87–88]; Reel: 5065, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[79] “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 23 April 1852, p. 2. For the Church Street, Parramatta address for Wormleighton’s Talbot Inn see New South Wales Government, Certificates for Publicans’ Licences, 1853–1861, Series: NRS 14403; Item: [4/84]; Reel: 5063, and Item: [4/87–88]; Reel: 5065, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[80] E. Deas Thomson, “CONDITIONAL PARDONS,” New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Tuesday 8 June 1852 [Issue No. 58], p. 904; “JOHN HOLLAND, per Maitland; Pardon Date: 15 March 1852; Pardon Number: 52/124,” New South Wales Government, Copies of Conditional Pardons Registered, Series: 1172; Reel: 795; Roll Number: 3037, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[81] “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 23 April 1852, p. 2.

[82] “Parramatta: Court of Petty Sessions,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 25 July 1853, p. 2.

[83] Aside from the similarities between this alleged crime against Blackwell and other episodes involving Jack, or even the fact that C. B. Lyons appeared for the prosecution in this instance, however, the absence of any additional identifying details in the article on the Blackwell incident makes it impossible to verify whether this was definitely Jack or another person with the same name. A number of convicts named ‘John Holland’ who arrived aboard different ships began to appear in the Parramatta Gaol admission records as time went on. “Parramatta: Court of Petty Sessions,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 25 July 1853, p. 2.

[84] “Old Parramatta. Glimpses at the Past, by Word and Picture,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, Saturday 1 November 1913, p. 13. We have publican’s licenses for John Holland’s Star Inn on “Church Street, Parramatta” specifically from as early as 1854 (see New South Wales Government, Certificates for Publicans’ Licences, 1853–1861, Series: NRS 14403; Item: [4/87-88]; Reel: 5065, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia). John Holland’s first “Star Inn” site was therefore also on Church Street, on the present site of Parramatta Station (which opened mid-1860), a stone’s throw from where he would subsequently move his business.

[85] “Publican License, John Holland, The Star Inn, Church Street, Parramatta,” New South Wales Government, Certificates for Publicans’ Licences, 1853–1861, Series: NRS 14403; Item: [7/1502]; Reel: 1236, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia). This is a list of the dates of John Holland’s publican licenses for The Star Inn, Parramatta: 1854: John Holland (18 Apr 1854) | 1855: John Holland (15 Apr 1855) | 1856: John Holland (15 Apr 1856) | 1857: John Holland (21 Apr 1857) | 1858: John Holland (20 Apr 1858) | 1860: John Holland (17 Apr 1860) | No license recorded for 1863 or 1864, but there are newspapers articles from this period attesting to him being a publican at Parramatta’s Star Inn at the time, although there are also articles indicating a ‘John Holland’ (which may or may not have been him) was having a few brushes with the law in this period in Parramatta, too. This ‘John Holland’ however was definitely not ‘our Jack,’ as this fellow was then a convict under sentence and employed by someone to chop wood: see “Parramatta. Police Office,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 4 February 1862, p. 5; our Jack was already an emancipated publican by this time | 1865: License cancelled at the Police Court, Parramatta Saturday 18 March 1865 and renewed 8 Aug 1865 (see “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Thursday 10 August 1865, p. 2 | 1866: John Holland (17 Aug 1866) | 1867: John Holland (13 Aug 1867) | 1868: John Holland (26 Aug 1868) | 1869: John Holland (24 Aug 1869) | 1870: John Holland (9 Sep 1870) | 1871: John Holland (1 Sep 1871) | 1872: John Holland (20 Sep 1872) | 1873: John Holland (9 Sep 1873) | 1874: John Holland (2 Sep 1874).

[86] “The Star Inn,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, Wednesday 19 Dec 1900, p. 7. James Stark, baker of Church Street, Parramatta, was the brother of Mrs. Ann Houison, the wife of Parramatta architect James Houison. James and Ann’s brother Richard Stark was also in the ‘bread and fancy biscuit line’: see “Classified Advertising. To the Public: Richard Stark…,” The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842), Thursday 24 April 1834, p. 1. Regarding James Stark’s insolvency see: “In the Insolvent Estate of James Stark, of Parramatta, Baker,” New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney, NSW : 1832 – 1900), Friday 4 March 1842 [Issue No. 18], p. 370 and “Meetings of Creditors,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW ; 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 4 January 1843, p. 2. A report from the late 1800s affirms that a “Mr. Blake” had sold both bread and liquor out of what later became ‘J. Holland’s Star Inn’: see “Old Landmarks,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Saturday 24 May 1902, p. 4. Another source also states that Thomas Blake had used the building as a bakery prior to Jack Holland taking over management: see An Old Resident, “Old Parramatta,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Saturday 26 December 1896, p. 10; An early 1840s map of an allotment where The Star Inn once stood bears the name “Blake.” See also Blake’s publican’s licenses for The Baker’s Arms between the years 1843 and 1846 when it was trading out of the earlier location on Argyle and Marsden Streets, Parramatta: New South Wales Government, Butts of Publicans’ Licences, 1830–1849, Series: NRS 14401; Items: [4/75–80]; Reels: 5058–5060, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[87] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8.

[88] “The Star Inn,” Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, Wednesday 19 Dec 1900, p. 7.

[89] “The Star Inn,” Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, Wednesday 19 Dec 1900, p. 7.

[90] “The Star Inn,” Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate, Wednesday 19 Dec 1900, p. 7.

[91] The same witness deposed that she had known him to have killed some cats with strychnine at Ashfield as well. “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[92] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[93] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[94] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60552657/5691963 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13089172/1478186

[95] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[96] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60552657/5691963 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13089172/1478186

[97] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[98] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[99] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60552657/5691963 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13089172/1478186

[100] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[101] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[102] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[103] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60552657/5691963 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13089172/1478186

[104] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[105] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[106] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[107] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60552657/5691963 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13089172/1478186

[108] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[109] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60552657/5691963 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13089172/1478186

[110] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60552657/5691963 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/13089172/1478186

[111] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[112] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[113] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[114] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[115] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[116] “Burial of GEORGE JENKINS CAVILL, 6 December 1863, Age 53,” Parish Burial Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Anglican Church, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia; “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[117] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[118] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[119] George Jenkins Cavill was the son of farm labourer Charles Cavill and Frances Cavill (née Jenkins). Despite the younger age recorded in the immigration record, George Jenkins Cavill was born in 1808 and baptised at Spaxton, Somerset, England. His mother died in 1826, and his father died in 1843, a couple of years after George’s emigration. See “GEORGE CAVILE [sic] per Jane Gifford (1841),” New South Wales Government, Entitlement Certificates of Persons on Bounty Ships, 1832–42, Series: NRS 5314; Reel: 1329, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia); “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 4; “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[120] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[121] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3.

[122] “Parramatta. Death through Poison,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 7 December 1863, p. 8 ; “Parramatta. Suicide,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 8 December 1863, p. 3. George Jenkins Cavill was buried in the parish of St. John’s, Parramatta, but his grave today is unmarked. “Burial of George Jenkins Cavill; Died 5 December 1863; When Buried: 6 December 1863; Age: 53 years,” Parish Burial Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Anglican Church, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.

[123] “Parramatta. Police Court,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 3 April 1860, p. 3.

[124] “Parramatta. Police,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 28 September 1860, p. 2 ; “Parramatta. Police Office,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Friday 28 September 1860, p. 3; New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930; Item: 4/6536; Roll: 176, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[125] “Parramatta. Police Court,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Tuesday 19 May 1863, p. 8.

[126] “Robert L. Dunn pleaded not guilty, and applied for a postponement, for the purpose of getting witnesses to prove that he was not present [at the prize fight].” “Parramatta. Police Court,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Tuesday 19 May 1863, p. 8.

[127] “Parramatta. Prize Fighting,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 16 June 1863, p. 5.

[128] “Parramatta. Prize Fighting,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 16 June 1863, p. 5.

[129] “Parramatta. Prize Fighting,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 16 June 1863, p. 5.

[130] “The Ring. Fancy Scrapes,” Bell’s Life in Sydney and Sporting Chronicle (NSW : 1860 – 1870), Saturday 20 June 1863, p. 2.

[131] “Parramatta District General Sessions,” Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 – 1871), Saturday 11 July 1863, p. 11.

[132] “Parramatta District General Sessions,” Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 – 1871), Saturday 11 July 1863, p. 11.

[133] “Parramatta District General Sessions,” Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 – 1871), Saturday 11 July 1863, p. 11; New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Series: 2375; Item: 782; Roll: 296, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia); New South Wales Government, Clerk of the Peace, Index to Quarter Sessions, Criminal Cases, 1839–1888; Series Number: NRS 846; Reel: 2728, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia); New South Wales Government, Clerk of the Peace: Registers of Criminal Cases Tried at Country Quarter Sessions: Parramatta: 1839-1876, Windsor 1839–1843; Series Number: 848; Reel: 2757, (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[134] “Parramatta. Police Court,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Tuesday 13 December 1864, p. 8.

[135] “Parramatta. Police Court,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Tuesday 13 December 1864, p. 8.

[136] “John Holland, per Maitland (1840); Admission Date: 1 March 1865; Gaol: Parramatta Gaol,” New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Items: 4/6537, 4/6659; Rolls: 176, 182 (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia); “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 3 March 1865, p. 5; “Parramatta. Police Court,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 6 March 1865, p. 5; “Extraordinary Charge of Felony,” The Toowoomba Chronicle and Queensland Advertiser (Qld. : 1861 – 1875), Thursday 9 March 1865, p. 3; “Apprehensions,” New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 – 1930), Wednesday 8 March 1865 [Issue No. 10], p. 89. 

[137] “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 3 March 1865, p. 5.

[138] “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 3 March 1865, p. 5.

[139] “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 3 March 1865, p. 5.

[140] “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 3 March 1865, p. 5.

[141] “Apprehensions,” New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 – 1930), Wednesday 8 March 1865 [Issue No. 10], p. 89; “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 3 March 1865, p. 5.

[142] “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 3 March 1865, p. 5.

[143] “John Holland, per Maitland (1840); Admission Date: 1 March 1865; Gaol: Parramatta Gaol,” New South Wales Government, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Items: 4/6537, 4/6659; Rolls: 176, 182 (State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia).

[144] “Parramatta,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 21 March 1865, p. 3.

[145] “Apprehensions,” New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 – 1930), Wednesday 29 March 1865 [Issue No. 13], p. 123.

[146] “Parramatta District General Sessions, Wednesday, 5^th April,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Thursday 6 April 1865, p. 8; “Dennis Mullens, per Middlesex (1840); Admission Date: 23 March 1865; Gaol: Parramatta Gaol,” Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Item: 4/6537; Roll: 176, (State Records of Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia); “Dennis Mullens, per Middlesex (1840); Admission Date: 8 April 1865; Gaol: Parramatta Gaol,” Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818–1930; Series: 2375; Item: 782; Roll: 296.

[147] “Parramatta. Police Court,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 19 June 1865, p. 5; “Police Court, 17^th June,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Saturday 24 June 1865, p. 3.

[148] “Parramatta. Police Court,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 19 June 1865, p. 5.

[149] “Miscellaneous Information,” New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime (Sydney : 1860 – 1930), Wednesday 26 July 1865 [Issue No. 30], p. 272.

[150] “Parramatta. Police Court, 7^th August,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Thursday 10 August 1865, p. 2.

[151] “Baptism of JOHN HENRY HOLLAND, 7 November 1867,” Parish Baptism Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Church of England, New South Wales, Australia; “Births,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 14 October 1867, p. 1; “Births,” Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 – 1871), Saturday 19 October 1867, p. 10; “Births,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 23 October 1867, p. 8.

[152] “Deaths,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Saturday 16 November 1867, p. 1; “Burial of JOHN HENRY HOLLAND, 16 November 1867,” Parish Burial Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Church of England, New South Wales, Australia; “Deaths,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Monday 18 November 1867, p. 1; “Deaths,” Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 – 1871), Saturday 23 November 1867, p. 11; “Deaths,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Saturday 23 November 1867, p. 7.

[153] “Baptism of HARRIET HOLLAND, 11 April 1869,” Parish Baptism Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Church of England, New South Wales, Australia; “Births,” Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 – 1871), Saturday 20 March 1869, p. 15; “Births,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Thursday 25 March 1869, p. 9. To verify this nickname, see G. W. H., “Looking Back. Memories of Parramatta,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Thursday 19 September 1935, p. 4.

[154] “Deaths,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 6 June 1870, p. 1; “Funerals,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 7 June 1870, p. 8.

[155] “Baptism of JOHN ALEXANDER HOLLAND, 22 January 1871,” Parish Baptism Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Church of England, New South Wales, Australia; “Births,” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931), Wednesday 4 January 1871, p. 2; “Births,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 4 January 1871, p. 1; “Births,” Sydney Mail (NSW : 1860 – 1871), Saturday 7 January 1871, p. 13; “Births,” Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 – 1907), Saturday 7 January 1871, p. 33; “Births,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Friday 27 January 1871, p. 8.    

[156] “Births,” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931), Wednesday 4 December 1872, p. 2; “Births,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Wednesday 4 December 1872, p. 1; “Births,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Thursday 5 December 1872, p. 1; “Births,” Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 – 1907), Saturday 7 December 1872, p. 28; “Births,” The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 – 1912), Saturday 7 December 1872, p. 733; “Births,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 30 December 1872, p. 10; “Baptism of EDITH EMMA HOLLAND, 22 December 1872,” Parish Baptism Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Church of England, New South Wales, Australia. To verify this nickname, see G. W. H., “Looking Back. Memories of Parramatta,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Thursday 19 September 1935, p. 4.

[157] “Deaths,” Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 – 1931), Monday 28 December 1874, p. 2; “Deaths,” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875), Tuesday 29 December 1874, p. 1; “Deaths,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 28 December 1874, p. 1; “Deaths,” Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 – 1907), Saturday 2 January 1875, p. 35; “Funerals,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 28 December 1874, p. 8.

[158] Only a few years earlier, Dr. Isaac Waugh was part of the medical team that saved Prince Alfred following an assassination attempt at Clontarf. For Jack’s official cause of death, see New South Wales Government, Registry of Births Deaths & Marriages (https://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/), “Death of JOHN HOLLAND,” Registration No. 7274/1874, (Chippendale NSW: NSW BDM, 2020), https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search?2, accessed 25 May 2020, transcribed by Joy Murrin, www.joymurrin.com.au, (2020).

[159] Jack’s father George Holland died in Derby, Derbyshire in April 1872, aged eighty. “Death of GEORGE HOLLAND; Age at Death: 80; Registration District: Derby; Inferred County: Derbyshire,” General Register Office, England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, Vol. 7b, p. 285, (London, England: General Register Office).

[160] “Holland Memorial, Left Section, Row 1, Memorial O (L.1.O), St. John’s Cemetery, Parramatta.”

[161] “Advertising. MR. J. CRAIG begs to inform the inhabitants of Parramatta and the district generally, that he has opened a Stone Yard in Church-street South, opposite St. John’s. P. S. Head stones, monuments, and other building materials upon the shortest notice.” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Saturday 16 January 1864, p. 9.

[162] “Early in the year [1888] Mrs. Holland retired from the Star Inn, Parramatta, a hostelry which her admirable business tact had made celebrated for its comfort and good cheer.” “Industrial,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Saturday 29 December 1888, p. 4.

[163] “Industrial,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Saturday 29 December 1888, p. 4.

[164] Casey & Lowe, “3 Parramatta Square,” Casey & Lowe Archaeology & Heritage, http://www.caseyandlowe.com.au/portfolio_page/3-parramatta-square-2/, accessed 25 May 2020. The comment about the outline of circular garden beds was made on site during an archaeology open day held on 7 November 2015, but there is no mention of them in the archaeological report of preliminary findings: Amanda Dusting, “Parramatta Square PS3, 153 Macquarie Street, Parramatta: Preliminary Results of the Historical Archaeological Investigation,” Casey & Lowe Archaeology & Heritage, (Leichhardt: Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, March 2016), https://caseyandlowe.com.au, accessed 25 May 2020.

[165] “Auction Sales, Cranbrook, Macquarie Street, Parramatta,” The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate (Parramatta, NSW : 1888 – 1950), Friday 11 June 1926, p. 5; Amanda Dusting, “Parramatta Square PS3, 153 Macquarie Street, Parramatta: Preliminary Results of the Historical Archaeological Investigation,” Casey & Lowe Archaeology & Heritage, (Leichhardt: Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, March 2016), pp. 33–5, accessed 25 May 2020; “Death,” HOLLAND. In loving remembrance of my dear husband, John Holland, who died on December 26, 1874. Native of Derby, England,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Saturday 29 December 1883, p. 5; “In Memoriam. HOLLAND. In fond remembrance of my dear husband, who died at his residence, Star Inn, Parramatta, December 26, 1874,” The Cumberland Mercury (Parramatta, NSW : 1875 – 1895), Wednesday 31 December 1884, p. 2. Harriet died at Cranbrook on 1 May 1898, aged 68 years, and was laid to rest in the same vault as her husband and baby son, John Henry Holland, and was later joined by her son John Alexander Holland too, in the Holland Memorial, Left Section, Row 1, Memorial O (L.1.O), St. John’s Cemetery, Parramatta.” See also “Deaths,” The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Monday 2 May 1898, p. 1; “Funerals,” The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 – 1930), Tuesday 3 May 1898, p. 8; “Burial of HARRIET HOLLAND, Macquarie Street; Died: 1 May 1898; Buried: 3 May 1898, Aged 69 years, St. John’s Burial Ground,” Parish Burial Registers, Textual Records, St. John’s Anglican Church, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia.

© Copyright 2020 Michaela Ann Cameron