Foreword

For the last twenty-five years, I have been compiling a history of Samuel Gilbert and his wife, Mary Amanet. It has now reached 350 manuscript pages, and I am still inserting data which has come to hand and, by the cut and stick method, it still reads like a novel, with everything in its correct place in the story.

But, only in February, 2001, I received a letter from Mr. Ian Brothers, of Grenfell, who was gathering data with a view to writing a book on the voyage of the convict transport LORD MELVILLE to New South Wales in 1816, and on the passengers and the 100 female convicts who were transported in that ship. He had been told that my Great Great Great Grandmother, Mary Gilbert, had arrived in that vessel as the wife of convict Samuel Gilbert, and had brought three of their five children with her. And he also pointed out that he had been told by one of my distant cousins that there was a Samuel Gilbert Primary School at Castle Hill, and he wondered whether my Samuel Gilbert had been so honoured. That was the first time that I had heard of this school.

So I wrote immediately to the Principal to find out what had happened, and he, Dr. Barry Schwarzer, replied advising me:

"The following appears in our school prospectus:

'Samuel Gilbert was born in London in 1788 where he married and had 12 children.

Unfortunately for him, he had a "brush with the law" when he was aged 27. He was found guilty at the Old Bailey of having possession of forged bank notes. Samuel was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment and transported to Australia, where he arrived aboard the Mariner on 11th October 1816. His wife and three children followed him.

In 1825 he was granted a conditional pardon. At this time he had become a baker in Parramatta. Governor Darling granted him 140 acres of land at Castle Hill on 19th October 1831. This grant borders the land on which our school stands.

Samuel Gilbert died on 20th June 1875. He was aged 87. He is buried in St. John's Cemetery in Parramatta, where his tombstone can be found.

I am encouraging students to research the story of Samuel."

I have been advised that the School opened in 1989, and Dr. Schwarzer states that, originally it was to be called Gilbert Road Public School, and that the name was changed on the request of the first Principal, John Dawson. The Department of Education and Training named the School on the basis of information which had been provided by Mr. Dawson who believed that Samuel Gilbert, the Parramatta baker, was the owner of Crown Grant of Section 144 in the Parish of Castle Hill.

It would seem that none of the Gilbert family were consulted on the use of the family name, and the school children were left with the vague data in the School prospectus, and that they were not told of the finer details of the life of Samuel Gilbert and his wife, Mary Amanet, in England.

I felt that I should now endeavour to write a School history, directed at the children in Grade V., so that they would be fully conversant with the circumstances under which my ancestor offended, and the part which was taken by his wife in obtaining assistance from the Bank of England by which to support her starving children, and how she was able to obtain free transport to Sydney in the convict transport LORD MELVILLE for herself and three of their five children.

So far as I know, no history has ever been written about Samuel Gilbert and his wife in England, his crime, and his successful career in Parramatta. In 1961, when I was touring the world, I was in Bermuda, where I read a short history of Bermuda which had been written for the school children by Canon Tucker. I was so intrigued that I transcribed the first few pages in full, hoping that I might use his method in securing the interest of the school children at Traralgon in Victoria, where I had been stationed as as Clerk of Courts for some years and, later, as the Stipendiary Magistrate for North Gippsland. I had become the local historian, because, in my office, I held all the Court records back to 1862.

Eventually, in 1970, when I was the Chief Stipendiary Magistrate for the State of Victoria, I compiled a complete history of Central Gippsland, written especially for Grade V. The local printer and I produced 1,000 copies, almost free of charge, and it proved to be a best seller. Now, after 30 years, it has been reproduced as a CD ROM for all of the local schools, and on the Internet, free of charge, the website address being:

I usually tell people that Sam was only trying to do a good turn for his mate, George Morris, who was forging the bank notes. He was trying to sell twenty forged £1 notes for £8, when he was arrested. He was charged with forgery, which incurred the death penalty , and with possession, which incurred a mere 14 years transportation, and he persuaded the Bank of England to the withdraw the forgery if he pleaded Guilty to possession. This was done, and he left for New South Wales in the transport MARINER on 26th May 1916, to serve 14 years transportation, leaving his wife and five children behind.

I have tried to tell the whole story, for so much is interconnected, for they were both of Huguenot descent. So the school children will be introduced to the Huguenots in France, their persecution and their migration to England to establish the weaving industry in London, the invention of the loom and the spinning jenny, the invention of engraving, the French invasion of Wales at Fishguard and the issue of the Bank notes by the Bank of England, the advent of forgery and its punishment, Mary Gilbert's petition to the Bank of England for help and her arrangements for transport here, how Gilbert became the town baker at Parramatta, and bought much property, short details on each of their children, and, last of all, details of George Morris, the forger, who caused all the trouble and who was caught and transported to Sydney in the MORLEY in 1817, and who changed his name to Ennever, to become an Inn Keeper in George Street, Sydney.

FOREWORD