1798-1881
Father
William York
Mother
Siblings
Harriet, Ann, Elizabeth, Mary, Thomas, Charles
Married
Children
Elizabeth, Maria, Harriet, Ann Mary (Annie), Mary Agatha, Elinor Mary Angela (Ellen), Thomas Henry, William Patrick, Honora Mary (Nora)
Henry’s Life
Henry was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire in 1798. His father William was a Carpenter/Cabinet maker. Henry was their first son and fourth child of seven children.
His mother, Mary, was sentenced at the Bristol Quarter Sessions of 1804 to 7 years transportation. She arrived in Sydney on the ‘William Pitt’ in April 1806 after departing England in July 1805. She was 37 at the time and had given birth to her son, Charles, just prior to embarking on the voyage to Australia. Mary travelled on the same ship as Gregory Blaxland and his family. She was then assigned to Blaxland at Brush Farm.
Henry would have been 7 at the time of his mother’s conviction with a younger sister and brother. His father died in April 1807, so it is then no surprise that Henry was convicted of larceny at the Bristol Quarter Sessions in April 1816 and also transported for 7 years arriving on the ‘Fame’ in March 1817. This was not Henry’s first conviction, he had been tried for theft and discharged in January 1816, seemingly both were on purpose in order to join his mother in Australia.
Henry was assigned on arrival to Thomas Cosgrove, an Irish Rebel who was convicted in Dublin in 1802, sentenced to seven years and transported to the Colony along with his brother William on the Rolla arriving in 1803. William had also been assigned to Gregory Blaxland of Blue Mountains fame.
By the time Henry arrived his mother, Mary, was dwelling with William Cosgrove, and they had three children. (There is no record of a marriage, when Mary applied for Probate after William’s murder by bushrangers, she applied as Mary Yorke). But, most importantly, Henry had been re-united with his mother.
In August 1819, Henry was granted 34 acres of land in Bringelly, by 1822 he had leased more land at Windsor.
In the early 1830’s Henry, his brother Charles and step-brother John Cosgrove took up country in Maneroo (now known as Monaro) with their assigned men Gillon, Robert and James Thomas. Their early holdings ‘Billy Lingera’, 16,640 acres and ‘Adaminadumee’ (now Adaminaby) of 16,000 acres and ‘Queeingallery’, 25,000 acres. The Yorks also had a holding at Bredbo called Black Springs. They ran sheep rather than cattle and it is estimated that 68,000 sheep were shorn in one season.
In 1835 Henry married Mary Murphy at Windsor. Mary had arrived on the ‘Sir Joseph Banks’ in October 1828 at the age of 11 with her mother 6 siblings to join her father, Patrick who had been transported on the ‘Brampton’ in 1823. They settled at South Creek.
They had nine children. Their first child was born at Emu Plains in 1836 but subsequent children were born at Adaminaby. Mary is thought to be the first white woman in the district. The youngest child was only twelve months old when Mary was accidently killed in a fire in 1856.
Henry moved his family back to Penrith soon after this tragedy and lived variously at Orchard Hills and Liverpool prior to his death. He never remarried. He died of senile decay in June 1881 at a grand age of 83 and buried at McCarthy’s Cemetery, Penrith. A remarkable life for a boy who was left on the streets of Bristol.
Written by Leah Burnheim in collaboration with Dianne Pells
Henry York was my/our 3x Great Grandfather, he was an illustrious character who prospered in the colony of New South Wales. He has many descendants in Australia. I have pieced together this story in collaboration with other descendants, (Thank you Dianne Pells). If you would like to discuss Henry’s story, I would certainly welcome a conversation with you.