I will now turn to my wife’s great great grandfather Joseph Lenton. Joseph (born in 1810), was convicted in 1828 in Coventry for sheep stealing, or for stealing a cloak (the records have two versions) and was sentenced to seven years jail. He was transported to Sydney in the sailing ship “Eliza”, shown in the above illustration (in fact I am not completely sure that this is the same “Eliza” because it was a popular name, but it makes a good picture anyway).
When Joseph lived in the city of Coventry he was a weaver like his father Thomas. After he arrived in Sydney it is likely that he was assigned to John Dight at Richmond on the Hawkesbury River.
He received a Ticket of Leave in 1833 and a Certificate of Freedom in 1835.
He married Mary Frost in 1838 and they had eight children, some of whom were born in Campbelltown but others were born in Kirkham and Narellan (see later).
It seems that Joseph grew wheat, according to family stories handed down, which was a far cry from his original occupation of weaver, however perhaps there would not have been much work for a weaver in the colony.
The colony in the 1830s
Returning to Joseph Lenton, when Joseph arrived in Sydney in 1833 it was for practical purposes no longer a penal colony in its original form. Although convicts were transported to Sydney until 1852 they were outnumbered considerably by emancipated convicts and their children, and by free settlers who had migrated to Sydney.
The interests of the colony seemed best served by sending well-behaved convicts to farms as assigned labourers, whereas intransigent convicts were placed in iron gangs.
In Sydney commerce, including shipbuilding, was booming and the wool industry was gaining momentum to keep up with the increasing demand for wool in England, until Australia became England’s biggest wool supplier. The plains west of the Blue Mountains proved to be ideal for sheep farming on a large scale, and the price of wool was high enough for it to be economical for the wool to be transported by bullock dray over the Blue Mountains to Sydney.
Meanwhile, the small farms on the coastal side of the Blue Mountains continued to be the food bowl for Sydney.
Abolition of land grant scheme
Unfortunately for Joseph the land grant scheme for convicts which had previously helped John Frost was removed in 1831. This meant that Joseph, who was pardoned in 1835 following expiry of his seven year term of imprisonment, did not qualify for a grant. Instead he would have had to buy or rent land for farming.
When the land grant scheme was abolished the lands were sold instead, the proceeds being used to set up a fund for assisted passages for migrants. This proved popular, to the extent that eventually the number of new free migrants overtook the number of new convicts. This, coupled with the high number of convicts who had been pardoned over the years, plus their children, meant that new convicts were heavily outnumbered and were therefore much more easily assimilated.
Gone were the days of chain gangs working on the roads and public floggings such as those endured by John Wild. Sydney was a much more respectable place, where hard work would be rewarded.
Problems encountered by Joseph
The life of a farmer was not easy. There was the severest drought in living memory between 1838 and 1842, when there was also an economic depression. There was another depression in the early 1860s, and in the late 1860s wheat crops were decimated by “rust”.
Locations of Joseph and his family
It appears from the places of birth of Joseph’s children that Joseph and Mary, who were married in 1838, stayed in Campbelltown for about eight years, then they stayed in Kirkham, a farming area about 12 km (8 miles) as the crow flies from Campbelltown, for about 10 years, and then possibly moved to Narellan (a farming area close to Kirkham) for about 10 years. Their children were:
John Joseph born 1838, Campbelltown
Thomas, born 1840 ditto
Henry, born 1843, ditto
William, born 1846, ditto
Elizabeth Hannah born 1848 Kirkham
Mary Ann born 1851 Kirkham
Susannah born 1853 Kirkham
Harriett born 1855
Charles Joseph born 1858
George born 1860 Narellan
Isabella born 1862
Alice Ann born 1865 Narellan
Joseph was listed in the Sands Directory (a business directory) as a farmer at Narellan in 1867, and a miller at Waterloo (a suburb of Sydney) in 1868-9.
There is a family story that he was the first miller at Narellan, indicating that he had been a wheat farmer (or at least his farming had included wheat growing).
Shifting from Campbelltown to Kirkham
At first I was puzzled as to why Joseph and his family moved from Campbelltown to Kirkham, then it became clearer when I examined the history of Kirkham.
Kirkham was the name of a large farm established by John Oxley, the explorer and (later) Deputy Surveyor General, who was granted 240 hectares (600 acres), which he named Kirkham after his birthplace in Yorkshire
Oxley died in 1828 and the property was passed on to his eldest son, John Norton. During John Norton’s minority, Kirkham was managed by Captain Coghill, who had previously worked part of the farm. Coghill grew wheat and maize, which was processed on site in a mill erected in 1828. Farmers from the surrounding area, including the Macarthurs of Camden Park, used this mill. It was used until the 1860s, after which time wheat rust (a fungus) destroyed the wheat crops and production ceased. The mill was demolished in the 1880s.
Establishing a mill would have been a costly exercise.
It seems likely to me that the existence of the mill would have encouraged farmers wishing to grow wheat (including Joseph) to come to the area.
