This is part two of the epic story of my ancestors, William Roberts and Jane Longhurst.
In part one (here), we met William at his home in Warwickshire, England, and followed him through his arrest for horse theft, his survival of the appalling prison hulk ships, and the even more appalling voyage on the ‘hell ship’ Neptune which sailed into Sydney harbour in June 1790.
He put his head down and worked diligently, seeing out the rest of his sentence until he was a free man in 1794.

Several years later he met the woman who would become his partner in the grand project of making a new life in the fledgling colony of NSW – my 4 x great grandmother, Jane Longhurst.
I have written previously about Jane – a woman I admire very much – however, in this and subsequent posts I’ll delve a little deeper into her story, drawing on more recent research which has revealed more intruiging details of her life in Australia.

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Part Two: An unknown crime

While William was adjusting to the unfamiliar seasons and landscapes of Sydney and its surrounds, Jane Longhurst (sometimes spelt Longest) was facing trial in England, at the Surrey Quarter Sessions, for the crime of larceny^.[i] She was eighteen years old.

She’d been born and raised in the small village of Ewhurst, southwest of London. Her family name was a reminder of how deeply she was connected to the area, harking back to a locality known as Longhurst Hill.^[ii] Longhursts had lived in Ewhurst and surrounding villages for at least two centuries: Jane’s great-grandparents, and their grandparents before them, had been baptised, married, or buried in one of the many churches around the district.^[iii]

Jane herself had been baptised in the Church of St Peter and St Paul and attended services there during her childhood. In the beautiful little churchyard, the graves of her father, grandparents and great-grandmother were sheltered by the branches of an ancient, spreading yew tree. ^[iv]  It was a reminder of the great forests that once covered that part of south-eastern England and which gave her village its name.^[v]

She was the second eldest of eight children, though her mother Hannah (née Jones) experienced the misery of burying at least one child in childhood.^[vi]

Ewhurst was in a part of the county badly served by roads, isolated and poor, and people were having a hard time making ends meet, so there were plenty who took their opportunities where they found them—including highway robbery, smuggling, or poaching. But Jane’s family had been a law-abiding one. By the time of her birth in 1783, her father John Longhurst owned land in the parish, so perhaps her family did not struggle, though owning land did not always equate to a comfortable standard of living.^[vii]

What did Jane steal to have her brought before the court? It’s not specified in the records, but whatever it was, on 11 July 1801 she was found guilty and sentenced to transportation for seven years.^[viii]After her sentence she was imprisoned for nearly eighteen months until it was time to leave England. If she longed to see her family, to say a last goodbye to her parents, her brother, and sisters, it was unlikely she had that opportunity. In September the following year, she was taken to London and put on board the transport ship Glatton, moored on the Thames.

For a woman who had spent all her young life in a land-locked part of Surrey, her first experience of the Thames would be astonishing. Used as she was to fields and woodlands, the river, crowded with barges, ships and small vessels, and the visible swirl of its currents, was a sight to see.

The ship spent time at Sheerness, at the river’s mouth, being fitted and victualled for the voyage. Each of the male and female convicts were allocated the rough prisoner clothing known as ‘slops’ and assigned quarters below decks. The ship’s master, Captain James Colnett, was under orders to pay strict attention to the separation of the men and women:

You are to be very careful to keep a sufficient guard upon the said convicts during the time they may remain on board the ship you command, so as to prevent the execution of any improper designs which they may form…^[ix]

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It’s unlikely that Jane, or any of her fellow prisoners, knew anything about New South Wales and its ragged little penal colony. Their destination was a complete unknown or may as well have been. All she knew was that it was across the seas.

When the ship drew anchor and set sail along England’s coast, she thought she’d seen the last of her native land. But no: the Glatton stopped at Portsmouth for three weeks, taking on convicts from hulks moored there.

Captain Colnett was obliged to sign bonds for the safe conveyance of the convicts—a legacy of the disasters of the Second Fleet, or as the Captain noted in his report: an Act of Parliament resulting from wanton cruelty by masters of merchant men.^[x] It may have been some comfort to William later, to learn that his suffering on the Neptune had led to more humane conditions on following voyages.

Colnett was a compassionate and diligent Master who took his responsibilities to his King, his ship and all those on board, very seriously. He had trained under the famous James Cook and when offered command of the Glatton, he wrote: …had it been an eggshell, I should not have refused it, so highly flattered as I had been…^[xi]

At a time when female convicts were routinely disdained and seen as prostitutes, no matter what their crimes or life situations, he considered the punishments they received for what were often small crimes to be severe; he was aware of their suffering in unhealthy and dangerous gaols and hulks, and their grief at leaving family and friends behind:

{The women} had acquired a mark’d  countenance of despair, disappointment, anxiety etc…{They} I am sorry to say, had little mercy shown to them by their prosecutors or the jury at the Petty Assizes, being mostly condemned to death or long transportation …and had those who prosecuted them been present to observe the anguish of their minds in their present situation, it would have …left such a stamp as to disturb their peace ever after, some of their crimes being under forty shillings, and their age not fourteen…by this cruel prosecution not only the individual is completely ruined, but parents, families, etc…^[xii]

He was also aware that many of the women boarded the Glatton with the fear that they would be treated as sexual slaves by the crew and possibly by male convicts as well. He described the scene on the Quarterdeck on the first morning on board, when the women:

…wept most bitterly, looking around as I have seen a wild captured Indian, their attention fixed on me as their commander, as if imploring mercy, and then waving their hopes and expectations of the Officers and Petty Officers on the [deck]. I afterwards learned that they flattered themselves they should fall to the lot of one of them in preference to the common seamen who most times they glare at with contempt… They were not long on board till the treatment they received astonished them, and on being shown their Prisons [below deck], their hammocks being hung up and beds in, and ordered to go to sleep, it is impossible to paint their surprise, nor could they be persuaded their fears were groundless till morning.^[xiii]

Not yet twenty, Jane would share the women’s relief that whatever else might occur on board the Glatton, they should not be abused by crew or the male prisoners.

In late September they were away, on a voyage that would take 169 days, stopping at Madeira Island off Portugal and then at Rio de Janeiro, to refresh water and food supplies. The passengers endured the usual discomforts of sea sickness, dousing with salt water when seas were high, the saturating heat and humidity of the tropics and the icy winds and storms of the lower latitudes.

Within days of setting sail there was evidence of sickness, including the flux (dysentery) and scurvy. Captain Colnett was disgusted by the filth on the male prison deck and insisted that they wash their bodies and clothes regularly, and worked to break them of making use of their Prisons in every part as a Privy. ^[xiv]He also ensured that fresh supplies included oranges, lemons, vegetables such as cabbage, and fresh meat (in the form of live bullocks to be slaughtered on the voyage). The deck was a crowded and noisy space when prisoners were allowed there for fresh air and exercise.

The prisoners were probably amazed to learn that along with the four hundred prisoners, wives and children of some of them, and a crew of one hundred and eighty, the Glatton had over thirty people who had paid for their passage, keen to settle in the colony.^[xv] Who on earth, they would wonder, would willingly subject themselves to such an experience? —especially as people began to take sick or die. By the time they saw the rugged sandstone entry to Port Jackson in March 1803, around thirteen passengers had met their deaths from illness or accident.

Jane may have been among those taken ill, but if so, she recovered. In Sydney, she met William Roberts.

Though some years younger, she proved herself to be his equal in energy and resourcefulness. He had received his freedom in 1794, and she was assigned to him until she obtained her Ticket of Leave in 1806.^[xvi]

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An industrious couple

William and Jane worked hard, settling in Sydney Town.

By 1809 he had a wine and spirit licence, a profitable opportunity in a township as thirsty as Sydney.^[xvii] But the settlement’s reliance on alcohol, especially rum, was problematic. Many convicts were dependent on the stuff. It also distorted the economy of the colony, with farmers being paid in spirits because for years the colony had no currency of its own and little cash, consolidating money in the hands of the unscrupulous few.

The NSW Corps, a military regiment sent to guard the convicts and maintain order, had instead milked every advantage that the colony afforded them for money and power, resulting in a military coup against then-Governor Bligh in 1808: the so-called ‘Rum Rebellion’.

A new Governor arrived in 1810, with orders to bring the chaos and corruption of the previous few years under control.

Lachlan Macquarie’s mission was to restore government control. The NSW Corps were sent packing back to Britain, replaced by the new Governor’s own regiment. Macquarie set about an energetic program of improvements and building, with a vision of the colony as a productive outpost of Britain, and Sydney as its elegant centre.

The timing could not have been better for William. He took on building and maintenance tasks in and around Sydney. He’d been granted an allocation of 200 acres at ‘Bundye/Boondi’ (now known as Bondi) made by Lieutenant Governor Paterson in the period between the overthrow of Governor William Bligh and the arrival of Macquarie.^[xviii] The grant was payment for work he’d done overseeing the building of South Head Road (later Oxford Street/Old South Head Road).

This was land belonging to the Bidiagal (Bidjigal), Birrabirragal, and Gadigal people of the Eora Nation; it included almost all the beautiful beachfront and much of the land behind it.

Recipients of land granted by Bligh, the Rum Corps rebels, or Paterson, were nervous that the new governor would delete or disregard their allocations and they hastened to write to Macquarie to have them formally confirmed.

Early in 1810 William petitioned the Governor for confirmation of his Bondi allocation, which Macquarie granted.^[xix]

In his ‘memorial’ (as such petitions were called) William stated that his character and conduct in the colony were unimpeached and generally known to the officers and Gentlemen therein. The memorial was written on his behalf, probably by a professional clerk. Like many of his fellow emancipists, he could not read or write, but he could make his request of the Governor all the same.

He had not lived on the extensive Bondi land; rather advertised it as land suitable for grazing cattle, at sixpence a week per herd.^[xx]

William’s focus was elsewhere and his star in the colony was well and truly about to rise.

William and Jane’s story will be continued in my next post.
If you’d like to follow along, you can subscribe to the blog if you’ve not already done so.

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[i] Australian Convict Transportation Registers – Other Fleets & Ships, 1791-1868, Class: HO 11; Piece: 1
Via Ancestry.com, accessed 10 Dec 2025

[ii] A brief history of Ewhurst – Ewhurst History Society Accessed 14 Dec 2025

[iii] Source title: FreeREG – St Peter and St Paul, Ewhurst, Surrey Citation detail: Baptism Walter Longhurst 17 Jun 1674: https://www.freereg.org.uk/searchrecords/5aece80ef493fd466ba505; UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current, Record for Walter Longhurst Death Date 6 May 1735, Surrey, England Cemetery St James Churchyard Burial or Cremation Place Abinger, Mole Valley District, Surrey, England; Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: EWH/1/2, Burial record for Sarah Longhurst June 1740; UK and Ireland, Find a Grave Index, 1300s-Current, Burial record for Joseph Longhurst, Birth Date 1643 Birth Place Ewhurst, Surrey, England Death Date 1 Feb. 1698 Death Place Ewhurst, Surrey, England Cemetery St Peter & St Paul Ewhurst, Surrey, England; UK and Ireland, Find a Grave Index, 1300s-Current Burial record for Margaret Longhurst, Maiden Name Steere Birth Date 1648, Birth Place Ewhurst, Surrey, Death Date 9 Mar. 1697, Death Place Ewhurst, Surrey, Cemetery St Peter & St Paul Churchyard Ewhurst, Surrey, England.
Via Ancestry, accessed 11 Dec 2025

[iv] Surrey, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 for John Longhurst 1793; James Longhurst 1780 burial record in FreeREG – St Peter and St Paul, Ewhurst, Surrey Repository; Surrey, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 for Sarah Longhurst 1740.
Via Ancestry.com, accessed 11 Jan 2026

[v] A brief history of Ewhurst – Ewhurst History Society Accessed 19 June 2019

[vi] Surrey, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 Burial record for Ann Longhurst Death Age 16, Birth Date abt 1795, Death Date abt 1811, Burial Date 29 Mar. 1811.
Via Ancestry.com, accessed 11 Dec 2025

[vii] UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893, UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893, John Longhurst, 1774, Hundred of Blackheath, Parish Ewhurst, County Surrey. Via Ancestry.com, accessed 13 Dec 2025

[viii] Source: Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 87, Class and Piece Number HO11/1, Page Number 329 (164) Via Ancestry.com, accessed 11 Dec 2025

[ix] Admiralty to Captain James Colnett 2 September 1802. [3], on Convict Ship Glatton 1803 (freesettlerorfelon.com) Accessed 12 Dec 2025

[x] Colnett, James. 1802, Journal of a voyage round the world in his Majesty’s ship Glatton,  http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3921369108,  accessed 11 Dec 2025, p44

[xi] Colnett, James. 1802, Journal of a voyage round the world in his Majesty’s ship Glatton, p10

[xii] Colnett, James. 1802, Journal of a voyage round the world in his Majesty’s ship Glatton, pp21-25

[xiii] Colnett, James. 1802, Journal of a voyage round the world in his Majesty’s ship Glatton, pp26-27

[xiv] Colnett, James. 1802, Journal of a voyage round the world in his Majesty’s ship Glatton, pp 36-38

[xv] Convict Ship Glatton 1803 (freesettlerorfelon.com) accessed 12 Dec 2025

[xvi] State Records Authority of New South Wales; Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia; Title: Muster of Prisoners in the Colony, 1810-1820; Volume: 4/1237; New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806-1849, Class: HO 10; Piece: 37. Via Ancestry.com, accessed 13 Dec 2025

[xvii] Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain’s Grim Convict Armada of 1790, p 502

[xviii] State Records Authority of New South Wales; Registers of Land Grants and Leases; Series: NRS 13836; Item: 7/447; Reel: 2561. Via Ancestry.com, accessed 9 Dec 2025

[xix] Memorial to Governor Lachlan Macquarie by William Roberts. No reference for this document (Copy in author’s collection) was found in NSW State Archives; however a report An Archival and Paleographic Analysis of the William Roberts Memorial: Identifying the Provenance, Context and Significance of the 1810 Bondi Land Grant Petition was prepared on 24 Jan 2026 by Google Gemini  for Denise Newton. It suggests Jan 1810 as the most likely date for the memorial.

[xx] 1811 ‘Classified Advertising’, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW: 1803 – 1842), 31 August, p. 2. Via Trove  http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article628308  Accessed 9 Dec 2025