Murderers on one side and thieves and convicts on the other

What a family the Hughes and Martins are

I have been trying to track down the convict connection in the Hughes side of the family. The apocryphal story from Jan’s grandfather ‘Pop’ (Charles Roberts (1892-1983)) was that his father Charles Henry Roberts (1853-1915) was born in Port Jackson (the original name for Sydney), NSW in about 1853. Certainly on the English Census of 1901 he claims this (aged 48). To date I can find no corroboration in birth certificates, or travel warrants or ships records from Australia to England. More to do, but...

In the meantime, I was tracking the other side of Jan’s family from her maternal grandmother Louisa Roberts (née Burnett) (1892-1964). Again there are stories that either her grandfather William Andrew Burnett (b. 1825) or her great grandfather Andrew Burnett (1797-1873) came to Australia during the gold rush era, and had a creek named after him (Burnett’s Creek in Victoria). Again after considerable work I have drawn a blank on this. More to do, but...

Intriguingly, Louisa Robert’s mother, William Andrew’s wife Mary Ann (née Roberts b. 1835) was the daughter of Mercy Payne (1805-1886). Mercy (who was married to John Roberts (1809-1867) was born in Stockbury, Kent and died in Strood in Kent. But....

Mercy’s father John Payne (born in Stockbury, Kent in 1776) arrived in Sydney, Australia in 1819, and died in 1820. He was convicted with his sons Thomas and Richard of stealing a sheep (presumably to feed a large family), his death sentence was commuted to 7 years of imprisonment and he was deported to Australia, dying one year after his arrival in Australia.

Another son Edward Payne (born in Stockbury, Kent in 1802) was deported in 1824, gained a pardon in 1841, and set up in Wollombi, NSW with Ann Hanratty (born in Ireland in 1823), who herself was a deported convict. They started a dynasty....

Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that Grandma Jan (née Hughes, b. 1944) is the great great great granddaughter of John Payne. Which makes Hannah, Ben, Rory, Maia, Jimmy and Ollie the great great great great great great grandchildren of convict stock.

A small caveat: This is based on the best research I have been able to do to date with confirmations I could gain. My hope is that the information is correct.

Graham Martin