Rediscovering Ginninderra:
John Heley
Born: c. 1805
Twenty-year-old John Heley (sometimes 'Hurley', or 'Haley') arrived aboard the Mangles in 1825 to serve out a seven-year sentence for sheep stealing in Cork, Ireland. At Ginninderra in the 1828 census he is recorded as working as a shepherd for Palmer.
According to his 1833 certificate of freedom, Heley was a Jersey islander who was laboring at the time of his conviction. He is described as tall, with a gap between his two front teeth and a crucifix, stars and initials tattooed on his arms and hands.
Nothing more is known about him.
References
- Gillespie, L. L., Ginninderra: Forerunner to Canberra, Campbell, 1992
- Meyers D. (ed. K. Frawley), Lairds, Lags and Larrikins: an Early History of the Limestone Plains, Pearce, 2010
- 1828 NSW census and convict transportation records