William Henry Groom (1833 - 1901)

Born 9 Mar 1833 in Plymouth, Devon, England, United Kingdom

Husband of Grace (Littleton) Groom — married 16 Mar 1859 (to about 1901) in Colony of Queensland

Descendants

Died 8 Aug 1901 at age 68 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

William Groom is Notable.

William Henry Groom was born in 1833 at Plymouth, England, the son of Thomas Groom a cordwainer, and his wife Maria (née Harkcom).

William Henry Groom was educated at St Andrew's College, Plymouth, and apprenticed to a baker. He was transported from England to the New South Wales Penal Colonies as a convict in December 1846 for seven years at the age of 15 years. Having been convicted of embezzlement when he was aged just 13. He arrived in Sydney on the Hashemy on the 8th of June 1849.

He later also spent time in a gaol on the Victorian Gold Fields before finding himself in Queensland. He would settle down there and go on to establish himself as a successful businessman and public official in the Colony of Queensland. As proprietor of The Toowoomba Chronicle newspaper and one of the founders of the Toowoomba Permanent Building Society (which later became the Heritage Building Society) and as a publican.

In March 1859 William Henry Groom married Grace Littleton, and they would go on to have at least 10 children:

Henry Littleton Groom (1860-1926)

Frederick William Groom (1861- ?)

Ernest Lyttleton Groom (1863- ?)

Amelia Margaret (Groom) Turner (1865- ?)

Littleton Ernest Groom (1867-1936)

William Blackall Groom (1870- ?)

Grace Groom (1872- ? )

Ellen Maud Groom (1874- ?)

Annie Littleton Groom (1877- ?)

Leslie Walter Groom (1879- ?)

William Henry Groom served as the first Mayor of Toowoomba, and then later was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly and finally the Australian House of Representatives. In fact William Henry Groom was elected as a Protectionist Member for the Darling Downs electorate at the inaugural Australian Federal election in 1901, becoming the only transported convict to ever sit as a member of the Australian Federal Parliament.

William Henry Groom MHR passed away in August 1901 in Melbourne while sitting in the first Federal Parliament. And at this time it was stated in The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930) of Friday 9 August 1901, that:

Mr Groom occupied a unique position, as far as the Parliaments of Australasia are concerned. He had an unbroken record of 40 years of Parliamentary life and had represented the same constituency In the Queensland Parliament the whole of that time until elected to the Federal Parliament. No other Parliamentarian in Australasia can show such a record.

His remains were returned to Queensland and he was laid to rest in the Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia;

Sources

• Queensland Births, Deaths & Marriages. MARRIAGE: William Henry Groom - Event date: 16/03/1859 - Event type: Marriage registration - Registration details: 1859/C/365 - Spouse: Grace Littleton. from the Queensland Government's Family History Research Service online. first accessed on the 9th of October, 2022 at: https://www.familyhistory.bdm.qld.gov.au/

• Victorian Births, Deaths & Marriages. DEATH: GROOM, Wm. Hy. - event: Death - mother: <Unknown Family Name>, Unknown - father: <Unknown Family Name>, Unknown - place of death: Melb E - spouse at death: <Unknown Family Name> - age at death: 68 - registration year: 1901 - registration no. 10641/1901. first accessed online on the 9th of October, 2022 from the Victorian Family History Search searchable database at: https://www.bdm.vic.gov.au/research-and-family-history/search-your-family-history

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/149331986/william-henry-groom: accessed 9 October 2022), memorial page for William Henry Groom (9 Mar 1833–8 Aug 1901), Find a Grave Memorial ID Find A Grave: Memorial #149331986, citing Drayton and Toowoomba Cemetery, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia; Maintained by jlong (contributor 48741020) .

• D. B. Waterson, Groom, William Henry (1833–1901), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/groom-william-henry-3675/text5741, published first in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 9 October 2022.

• William Henry Groom from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. first accessed online on the 9th of October, 2022 at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Groom

• Groom, William Henry his profile on the Queensland Parliament's FORMER MEMBER DETAILS website. first accessed online on the 11th of October, 2022.

• William Henry Groom, one of 236 convicts transported on the Hashemy, 02 December 1848 from the CONVICT RECORDS website. first accessed online on the 9th of October, 2022 at: https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/groom/william-henry/18562

• Details for the convict William Henry Groom (1849) from the CLAIM A CONVICT website. first accessed online on the 9th of October, 2022 at: http://www.hawkesbury.net.au/claimaconvict/convictDetails.php?convictId=126219

• DEATH OF MR. W. H. GROOM, M.H.R. from The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, Qld. : 1901 - 1921) of Thursday 8 August 1901, Page 2. first accessed on TROVE on the 9th of October, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/214169342?

• Hon. W.H. Groom, M.P. from The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947) of Thursday 8 August 1901, Page 5. first accessed on TROVE on the 9th of October, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/184153205?

• DEATH OF MR. GROOM, M.H.R. from The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930) of Friday 9 August 1901, Page 5. first accessed on TROVE on the 9th of October, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/237281211?

• WILLIAM HENRY GROOM. from The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939) of Saturday 17 August 1901, Page 341. first accessed on TROVE on the 9th of October, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/21265387?

• From the FREE SETTLER OR FELON website we see his Ticket of Leave details below:

Item: 58200

Surname: Groom

First Name: William Henry

Ship: Hashemy 1849

Date: 1849 15 September

Place: Scone

Source: MM

Details: Obtained ticket of leave

From the DIGITAL PANOPTICON website we see his prison/convict history below:

• The Digital Panopticon William Henry Groom, Prison registers (Millbank, Parkhurst, Pentonville), 1846, Record ID fpsTNA/CCC/2D/HO24/00024202 (https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/life?id=fpsTNA%2FCCC%2F2D%2FHO24%2F00024202). Version 1.2.1, consulted 9th October 2022.

• The Digital Panopticon William Henry Groom, Prison registers (Millbank, Parkhurst, Pentonville), 1846, Record ID fpsTNA/CCC/2D/HO24/00077992 (https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/life?id=fpsTNA%2FCCC%2F2D%2FHO24%2F00077992). Version 1.2.1, consulted 9th October 2022.

• The Digital Panopticon William Henry Groom, Home Office Prison Records, 1846, Record ID fprTNA/CCC/2B/PCOM2/00841924 (https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/life?id=fprTNA%2FCCC%2F2B%2FPCOM2%2F00841924). Version 1.2.1, consulted 9th October 2022.

• The Digital Panopticon William Henry Groom b. 1833, Life Archive ID btr18562 (https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/life?id=btr18562). Version 1.2.1, consulted 9th October 2022.

• The Digital Panopticon William Henry Groom, NSW Convicts Index, 13th May 1857, Record ID nci9331 (https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/life?id=nci9331). Version 1.2.1, consulted 9th October 2022.