One of the convicts assigned to the Port Stephens estate of the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) was Matthew Hopwood.2
Matthew, a 21 year old, illiterate “hatters apprentice”, was convicted at the Chester Assizes in 1835 of “stealing coats”. This being his second recorded conviction, he was sentenced to transportation for life and spent a short time aboard the hulk “Ganymede” before arriving in NSW in December 1836 aboard the “Bengal Merchant”. He was then transferred to the AACo’s Port Stephens estate.3
In January 1845 he obtained a Ticket of Leave, only to have it cancelled a few years later for a gambling transgression.4 However, 1850 brought better news: in March of that year Matthew received a Conditional Pardon.5
According to a recent book, this same Matthew Hopwood subsequently became a member of the gang of Australians known as the Sydney Ducks who, for a short time during the California gold rush, terrorised the then frontier town of San Francisco, being responsible for acts of murder, robbery and arson.6 The lynching of four gang members (including other ex-convicts) by vigilantes in 1851 effectively destroyed the gang’s dominance and it’s here that I lose track of Matthew. Perhaps that is what he would have wanted!
Author: Penny Teerman
References:
1 View of San Francisco, California: taken from Telegraph Hill, April 1850, by Wm. B. McMurtrie, draughtsman of the U.S. Surveying Expedition. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540, USA, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002698129/
2 Convicts of the Australian Agricultural Company 1825-1850 by Yvonne Fraser and Marie Dial, published by Port Stephens Family History Society 2004
3 Convict records accessed via www.ancestry.co.au
4 Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser Wednesday 17 January 1849 P4
5 Convict records accessed via www.ancestry.com.au
6 Australian Desperadoes by Terry Smyth published by Penguin 2017
