Stephen King (abt. 1813 - 1859)

Born about 1813 in Warwickshire, England

Husband of Sarah (Puttock) King — married 1836 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 1 Oct 1859 at about age 46 in Ballina, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Stephen King was a convict after the Third Fleet transported to New South Wales

Stephen was born about 1813, likely in Warwickshire, England.

Stephen King was arrested for shopbreaking and theft, convicted in the Warwickshire Quarter Sessions and sentenced for 7 years in Australia. He shipped aboard the "John" as one of 188 convicts. He landed at Sydney, New South Wales, on 22 Jan 1830. He is often recorded as being 17 years old when convicted on 14 July 1828 but the evidence provided before the court suggests that he was 15. That he was detained two years prior to transportation supports the assertion he was actually born 1813. A boy, named George Chdlow, was his accomplice and he, being 11 years old, was sent to the county asylum. In the evidence it was stated that he was a native of Canterbury, England, but this can be doubted.

On his arrival in Australia he was assigned to Thomas Develin (stepson of Thomas Small), where he worked in the timber yard at Kissing Point, Paramatta, New South Wales - as well as on Small's schooners. (Thomas Small was a son of Sergeant John Small, who came to the colonies as Doctor's dispenser on Govenor Phillip's flag ship, the Sirius, in 1788). Stephen became one of the "trusted men" and by the time he married Sarah in 1836, he already had the reputation and respect of his colleagues as the best all round workman and saw keeper of the day. In 1838, Stephen was involved in an exploratory trip on the schooner, the Susan, to the Clarence, in search of timber. The "Susan" was a schooner of 52 tons and was named by Thomas Small after his second daughter - who became the wife of Capt. Henry Alderson. In the "Susan" were a number of sawyers, amongst them one known as Steve King. It is highly probable that King's Island was named for this Steve King.

He was granted a ticket of leave in 1834. This meant Stephen could choose his own employer within the Pennant Hills district. After another 2 years he gained his ticket of freedom. He married his wife, Sarah Puttock, in 1836.

Stephen was on on of the first boats to go to the Clarence river and in 1841 he secured a timber lease and built a slab home for his young family. It is sometimes stated that his son, James John, was the first white boy born at the Clarence, but he seems to have been born in Sydney in 1840; his other son Richard was born at the Clarence in 1843.

In 1842, after stories of a large river further north, told to him by the local aboriginals with whom he had a strong relationship, Steve and colleagues, including James Maguire, went north from the Clarence. They cut an overland track through the scrub to the Richmond River area. King and Maguire(McGuire) used a whale boat, which they had carted on Joe Maguire's bullock dray, to investigate the waterways and terrain of the area. They found an abundance of cedar all along the river and creek banks. Steven King returned to the Clarence River to take his family and other cedar getters like Thomas Chilcott, George Cooper, Joseph Shelley, and others to the Richmond River onboard the "SALLY", which had been equipped by Mr.Small and another ship called "Northumberland", arriving at a point called Codrington, on the Lower Richmond River, Northern New South Wales.

The area along the Richmond River where he first made his home still bears his name - Steve King's Plain. By 1843, Steve had cattle on the plain, but his family had to come by boat, and Sarah did not join him till after the birth of Robert in April of that year.

Although his home was at Ballina, he was always on the move (the timber licences never gave the cedar cutters permanency), following the cedar. He was at Tintenbar in 1851 and Brunswick Heads in 1852. He explored and logged up to the Brunswick River with Johnny Boyd, Tom Boyd, Tom Ainsworth and Joe White.

Steve was on the Brunswick sawing when the great hurricane and flood occurred on the 7th & 8th of May, 1849. Stephen King & friend Johnny Boyd went down to the beach for a break and came across an upturned ship. It was the wreck of the ‘George’. When Johnny Boyd knocked on it with a stick they were amazed to hear knocking from inside. They smashed the hull and found two men (Brown & Green). The men had spent two days and two nights in the upturned boat. The Captain stayed several weeks with the hospitable King and his wife, Sarah where his injuries were kindly attended to.

He died, likely of Tuberculosis (inflammation) on 1 Oct 1859 and is remembered at the Ballina Pioneer Cemetery.

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Sources

See also:

• The Ballina & Richmond River GenWeb service provides excellent source material for the early European Pioneers of the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.

• Convict Records of Australia; Stephen King, transported 1829