By Lyn Forde – President/Research Officer of St Marys & District Historical Society Inc.

AUSTRALIAN Royalty family James Evans was born in 1802. He was one of 220 convicts transported on the ship “Batavia” in October 1817 after being convicted at Stafford Assizes for “privately stealing”. At the Assizes the total number of people tried amounted to 123 and of these 17 received the sentence of death. He was sentenced for a term of 14 years and arrived in April 1818. In the 1828 census he was a labourer for Henry Cox at “Littleborough”, Kelso where he met Mary Ann Lewis a widow born in the colony in 1792 and living in Bathurst. Her husband had died before 1825 and she was left with some cattle, sheep and a working ox. A letter was sent to the Governor asking permission for James and Mary to marry with the consent of Henry Cox who asked that he remove James “some distance from the district”.  The religious marriage of James and Mary Ann took place in 1829 in Kelso.  Mary’s original husband Richard Lewis, a grazier in Bathurst and  came on the” Coromandel” sentenced for 7 years.  His marriage with Mary was solemnized at St James church  in Sydney in January 1825. Mary Ann died in December 1868 in Sydney and is buried at Pioneers Memorial Park Leichhardt, Inner West Council, James is not buried with her. Their son James (Jnr) was born in 1830 at Richmond.  He married Sarah Mary Purcell in 1851 at Pitt Town, Wilberforce.  They resided in Penrith had nine children. He learnt the trade of blacksmith and it was believed he served his apprenticeship with Henry Hall of Emu Plains. For many years he carried on farming successfully at Castlereagh. Later he became a Government contractor building several public schools in the District as well as some of the best houses in the town of Penrith, but in his later years he was not as successful and finally gave it up and tried farming again at Castlereagh. The altered conditions of farming became somewhat new to him and he gave it up after a short trial. He then started again as a blacksmith of agricultural implements. Finally giving up when there was not enough business and assisted his son-in-law Alderman Easterbrook in the butchering business. James was highly respected throughout the district with the position of Alderman in the Penrith Municipal Council from 1876-81 then re-elected in 1883 and became Mayor in 1885 but didn’t stand for re-election in 1886.  He was a prominent Mason having been a Past Master in the old Queen’s Lodge E.C, his lectures were always perfect and he did more to advance the cause of Masonry in the Penrith district. He never occupied the position of Master in the new Nepean Lodge although he was ready to assist in the raisings, passing’s, and instruction as well as delivering charges, etc. He died in April 1895 at Penrith at the age of 65 in “mysterious” circumstances” his death  remaining a mystery. His inquest was held at Joyce’s Hotel before Mr J K Lethbridge, J.P., District Coroner and a jury of twelve. His daughter who lived at Mulgoa Road with her parents attended the inquest and said she was at home and saw her father last when he went to bed at a quarter to eight as he usually retired early and appeared to be in good health and spirits and was talking to us before bed. In the  morning she heard him come out into the dining room from his bedroom he came to her bedroom door as he usually did and called out  Eva and she replied that she was getting up and heard him winding up the clock  then went out and came back in again and was standing on the veranda talking to her about the fowls then she went into the dining-room and saw him lying on the couch.  She asked what the matter was and he replied he had a pain in his stomach that he had all night so she brought him a hot cup of tea and she heard no more until she  heard her mother ask him what’s the matter and he said he was ill and could not speak any more. They sent for Dr Shand who first noticed that there was no change in his breathing but sometime afterwards he appeared to be convulsed in pain. It was thought that he took a crystal substance of a reddish colour from a bottle in the house and at the time there was a half packet of Epsom salts on the shelf in the dining-room like what was produced at the inquest.  There was also two bottles of poison in a small box on the chest of drawers in her mother’s bedroom and something said to her that morning made her look where the poison was kept and she found the strychnine that had been in the house for ten or twelve years and that her father had not been able to get work for a long time and didn’t know if he had been pressed by anyone and it never seemed to trouble him about money matters or want of work and with her father being so long out of work the money was nearly all gone and there was not more than £3 or £4 owing to her knowledge as her father was a very steady man and lived happily with us. Several other people gave information at the inquest including a Small Debts Court bailiff who said he had a warrant to distrain on James’s goods and chattels for rent due amounting to £5/10s and was told he could not pay it but would settle with me today. The verdict was “The death was probably caused by an overdose of strychnine but that there is no evidence to show how, or by what means, such strychnine was administered.” His funeral was a Masonic one with about forty of the brethren taking part in the procession. The W.M. of the Lodge (Brother Colley) read the service at the grave. The procession was said to be the largest seen in Penrith for some time.  He was buried at St Stephen’s cemetery, Penrith. Photo of “Littleborough” courtesy of Sue Rosen Assoc.

Source: State Library of Queensland. Convict Transportation Registers Database 1787-1867, Bateson, Charles. The convict ships 1787-1868. 2nd ed. Glasgow : Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd., 1969, 1828 New South Wales, Australia Census, British Newspaper Archive, Ancestry, BDM, Nepean Times, 1825 muster (1823-1825), NSW and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806-1849, 1822 Muster,  Star (London) – Tuesday 25 March 1817, State Library of Queensland. Convict Transportation Registers Database 1787-1867, Bateson, Charles. The convict ships 1787-1868. Glasgow Brown, Son & Ferguson Ltd., 1985-1969, Ancestry.1828 New South Wales, Australia Census, British Newspaper Archive on-line, Australia Marriage Index, 1788-1950 on-line, BDM, Nepean Times, New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806-1849, Citation details 1822 Muster, Australia Death Index, 1787-1985.