A MAN who damaged a fox cover (whatever that might be) and stole a bag or two of wheat, some hens and a cock would probably be subjected to a magistrate’s most severe frown and a conditional discharge these days.

Such was not the case in 1835. For Milnsbridge-born Richard Horsfall Hall, the punishment was transportation to New South Wales, Australia.

Richard’s story has been sent to us by Max Wilson, Richard’s great great grandson who still lives in Bathurst in New South Wales, the town where in 1849, Richard was married.

Richard’s story is a complex one. Though it’s dangerous to hypothesise, it may be that the youth who was transported at the age of 19, probably didn’t have much of a family to influence him, even though he was the youngest of five children.

His father Thomas Hall ( born 1778) died when he was 11 and his mother Martha Horsfall (born 1799) died in 1831 when Richard was just 16.

Thomas and Martha were married at Almondbury Parish Church and were buried at Longwood Parish Church.

Richard’s grandparents were long dead. On his mother’s side they were Richard Horsfall (1745-1831) and Sarah Hepworth, and on his father’s side, Joshua Hall (living in Stainland in 1778) and Mary Hitchin (1749-1792) from Elland.

Richard’s siblings were James, John, Elizabeth, Emily and Hannah Hall.

The punishment for criminal damage and theft was not a life sentence, though it was as good as one. For Richard, it was 14 years.

Richard arrived in New South Wales on July 15, 1835. The 1837 Convict Muster, a sort of census, showed that he was then working for a Thomas Hawkins of Bathurst.

Richard gained his ‘ticket of leave’ in 1841, which allowed him to work in the district almost as a free man.

Max Wilson, who lives in Bathurst, said he is not entirely convinced that Richard was on the straight and narrow in his first years in Australia.

“He seems to have adopted as number of aliases, the most prominent of which was John Jones,” said Max.

“On April 27, 1849 he became a free man and was married in Bathurst, though he may have been married to someone else earlier.”

On the baptismal records of his children, Richard was described as a timber splitter and carrier.

In 1864 records show he was a farmer at O’Brien’s Creek near Rockley, New South Wales, where he had built a stone house of reasonable proportions on an excess of 1,300 acres.

His sons – he eventually sired nine – and grandsons bought properties next to or nearby and the total of the family holdings at Rockley was more than 5,000 acres.

The local family names with connection to this former Huddersfield lad are obviously Hall and Horsfall, but Max’s researches have shown that Hitchins, Hepworths, Haworths, Ramsdens, Chadwicks, Horsfields, Rawlinsons, Taylors and Brierleys may have a direct connection with the family.

The slight matter of the damaged fox cover (see first paragraph) is curious.

This item belonged to one Sir George Dashwood, whose two family homes at that time were in Buckinghamshire.

What was young Richard doing so far from home? Can anyone enlighten us or fill in more of the family history?