Free Settler or Felon



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Free Settler or Felon

Newcastle and Hunter Valley

Convict and Colonial History



Free Settler or Felon is an on-going project gathering details of the lives of people who resided in the Hunter Valley, Newcastle and Central Coast in the early days of settlement.

Use the Search box on the left to access information about Hunter Valley Convicts, Settlers, Soldiers and Townsfolk.

Use the Search Box below to search the whole site.

Follow the Links to find out more about Convict Ships, Medical Practitioners, Convict Ship Surgeons, Inns and Hotels, Bushrangers, Priests and Pastors, Hunter Valley Placenames, Australian Slang and more


Convict Ships to Australia


Convict Ships - Alphabetical list of Convict Ships arriving in New South Wales, Norfolk Island, Western Australia and Van Diemens Land between the years 1788 and 1862



Convict Ship Surgeons


Convict Ship Surgeons - Surgeons who were employed on convict ships to Australia in the years 1788 - 1862



Convict Ships By Year


Convict Ships by Year - Arrival of Convict Ships by Year



Free Settler and Immigrant Ships


Free Settler Ships - Free Settler and Immigrant Ships arriving 1821 - 1842



The First Fleet


The First Fleet - The First Fleet brought the first convict ships to Australia in 1788 in a voyage that took over eight months to complete



Early Settlers Introduction


Hunter Valley Settlers - Introduction to Early Settlers Index



Hunter Valley Settlers


Hunter Valley Settlers - Index to Settlers who took up land in the early days of the colony



Hunter Valley Bushranger Index


Bushrangers Index - Early bushrangers in the Hunter Valley were mostly men desperate to escape Newcastle penal settlement where they had been sent for colonial indiscretions. Later when the Penal Settlement closed and the Valley was opened for settlement the bushrangers were mostly convicts who escaped from estates and farms or from road gangs



Hunter Valley Inns and Hotels Index


Inns & Hotels - Newcastle and Hunter Valley Inns and Hotels Index and Publicans Index



Hunter River Steamers


Hunter River Steamers - Including the Sophie Jane and other famous steamers that plied between Sydney and Newcastle after 1831



Hunter Valley Medical Practitioners


Medical Practitioners Index of some of the men and women who worked as medical practitioners in the Hunter Valley prior to 1900



Horse Patrols and the Mounted Police in the Hunter Valley


Mounted Police - Horse patrols were the forerunners of the Mounted Police. They were established in the Hunter Valley and at Bathurst when Sir Thomas Brisbane was Governor in response to Bushrangers who terrorised the districts in 1825



Military Officers


Military Officers - Notes about some of the Officers who served or settled in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley in the first half of the 19th Century



Law and Order in the Hunter Valley


Law and Order - A list of men who served as Magistrates, Chief Constables and Constables in Newcastle, Hunter Valley and Brisbane Water



Scourgers in New South Wales


Scourgers - Names of some of the Scourgers employed in New South Wales in the convict years



Indigenous Notes


Indigenous Notes - Articles about customs and ceremonies of indigenous people in the Hunter Valley region as described by various explorers, clergymen, settlers



Hunter Valley Place Names


Placenames - Notes on the Origins and Locations of Place Names in Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley region



Female Convicts


Female Convicts - Over fifty-two years from 1788 to 1840 when transportation of convicts came to an end, more than 12,000 women were transported to New South Wales. A woman transported on the Charlotte in 1788 could potentially have been great grandmother to one of the last sent on the Surry in 1840



Convict Names


Convict Names - Unusual male and female convict names



Convict History


Convict History - Including The Battle of Castle Hill, Famous and Infamous Convicts, Pirates, Cockatoo Island



Convict Coal Miners at Newcastle


Convict Coal Miners - Convicts sent to Newcastle to work in the coal mines in the first years of the settlement



Newcastle History


Newcastle History - including Reminiscences, George Caley, Harbour Pilots, The First Anzac Day, Discovery and Early Settlement and Convicts



Maitland History


Maitland History - People and Places 1820s - 1850s



Lake Macquarie Links


Lake Macquarie - Links



Hunter Valley History


Hunter Valley History - Explorer Allan Cunningham, Diary of George Wyndham, Memoirs of Ellen Bundock, Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell



Colonial History


Colonial History - Australian Slang, Cabbage Tree Hats, Military Officers, Maritime Explorers, Moreton Bay



Obituaries


Obituaries of Newcastle and Hunter Valley folk before 1900



Site Links


Site Links



Latest Pages and Additions


Australian Inventions

Lady Jane Mason Barton - wife of the first Australian Prime Minister Sir Edmond Barton

Heritage Buildings in the Newcastle region


Australian Slang and Unique Phrases

Female Convicts

Hunter Valley Place Names

Living Conditions on Convict Ships

Heritage Buildings in Newcastle

Pastors and Priests in the Hunter Valley