John Fitzgerald appeared at the Old Bailey in London in September 1818, accused of “feloniously assaulting” a man in company with two others, and stealing from him a watch, three seals and a key. The court record says that “The prisoner being deaf and dumb, had the evidence communicated to him by an interpreter”. He was sentenced to transportation for life. He appears fairly regularly in the records of the colony – when he arrived in Sydney, when he ran away from his master, and when he asked for a pardon.

In 1848 he was finally granted a Conditional Pardon, which meant that he was free but not allowed to return to England or Ireland.

After the pardon, there is silence. No other information has been found. There were no marriage bans, no land grants, no date of death, and no cemetery records that we’ve been able to find so far – we’ve checked in the area around Singleton where he was last known to be.

What do you think? Where else could we look? You might like to read more about John Fitzgerald on this site (just search his name above) and try to find some of your own clues to follow.

You may find several convicts called John Fitzgerald. You can make sure that you have the right one by checking that the source mentions he was ‘deaf and dumb’, or mentions the name of the ship he arrived on (the ‘Baring’).