MOORE, Henry
HENRY MOORE
Per HOOGHLY 1825
The HOOGHLY, a fully-rigged Merchant Ship, arrived Port Jackson in 1825, with 61-year-old Henry Moore for disembarkation. Henry had been a soldier in the 64th (?) Regiment of Foot and was dispatched to these distant shores for an unspecified crime (felony) for a term of 7 years. Henry was one of the oldest convicts to arrive in the Illawarra and, given the conditions under which he toiled, amazingly lived another 2 decades in the area, dying at the ripe old age of 80.
Henry is described on his Indent as having a ‘shriveled’ complexion, ‘grey’ hair and eyes, and reaching a height of 5ft 4½ins - not a big man, but, apparently, a brave one.
On the 13th November, 1828 Henry, as a government servant to Messrs. Patrick and James Geraghty, found himself in middle of an attack by six armed Bushrangers upon the property and residence of his masters. A shot was fired by one of the bushrangers wounding Mr. Pat Geraghty so retaliation fire ensued resulting in the wounding of one bushranger and the capture of another. Following on, in December 1828, by command of the Government, the Colonial Secretary, a sum of One Pound was awarded to:
‘… the government servant [Henry] of James and Patrick Gareghty, at Illawarra, for the spirited and meritorious services rendered by him, when his master’s residence … was attacked …’
Henry achieved his Ticket of Leave on 24th August, 1829 as his behavior in the abovementioned event proved his trustworthiness, and his Certificate of Freedom was granted on 19th December, 1831, at the end of his sentence.
There is no record available of Henry marrying or having children prior to his conviction, and there is no evidence that he ‘acquired’ family in the colony. His life, after gaining his freedom, seems to have been generally a solitary and stable one, as there are no further mention of him in the archives.
Henry Moore died on the 12th November, 1844 and is buried in Wollongong.