John Richards (c.1790 -1838) & Ann Hollis

Have just revisited the lovely old inn Riversdale at Goulburn, (National Trust of Australia (NSW), that was built by the ex-convict John Richards (1816 Mariner) after he bought land there in 1837 from Matthew Healy. Richards was James Gough's partner in the 1834 contract to build the Berrima Gaol that failed in 1836, and was an ambitious entrepreneur who was involved in several inns and a number of coaching businesses. When he died in 1838, his capable wife Ann, continued to run his several enterprises, including Riversdale, the brewery at the inn, and the coaching business. 

As Ann Hollis, she was no stranger to being a publican, and in 1828 had taken over the management of The White Hart inn on Windsor Road, (owned by William Cox) that had been built by James Gough about 1826 and managed by him until the end of 1827. Widowed, with three small sons, her partner was John Richards, who was still bonded and assigned to Cox. By 1833, Richards was offering a full coach service from Sydney to Windsor in his new coach, The Currency Lad, that ran three days a week.

Sydney Gazette 15 December 1838

 

 

 

 

John Richards full biography is included in the James Gough book

Sent to the Hawkesbury

On 14 October 1813, a letter was sent to William Cox from the Colonial Secretary's office informing him that 45 convicts recently arrived on the Earl Spencer, would be forwarded to Windsor to be distributed amongst the settlers by ballot, but only to those who had no Government men. One of these men, William Jones, would later be sent to Parramatta and assigned to James Gough in 1819 at the lumberyard. However Cox was to use his discretion to allocate those men left at the end of the ballot.  Another 35 men were to be sent to the Reverend Samuel Marsden at Parramatta and 16 were to be sent to Thomas Moore at Liverpool.

(SRNSW Col.Sec. Copies of letters sent 1809 -1813; NRS 935, item 4/3491, pp 558-9)

Isaac Bowers                     labourer

John Yorath                       labourer

Thomas Collicott              vendor

Richard Richards               servant

John Richardson               gilder

Samuel Andrew                 taylor

James Graham                  sailor

John Bowman                   carver & gilder

William Lewes                   glass manufacturer

John Parerio                      seaman

Stephen Hasketh               seaman

Jeremiah Butler                 shoemaker

William Hull                       taylor

James White                      dealer in horses

James McCoy                    weaver

David Weir                         labourer

William Thompson

Alex McMarvill                  labourer

John Barnes                       gun founder

John Crane                         ladies shoe maker

William Bryce                    tallow chandler

Thomas Bufford                labourer

James Ashton                    boot & shoemaker

Robert Rainey                   farmer

William Reine                    labourer

Thomas Goughley            labourer

Andrew Scott

William Jones                    taylor

Charles Johnson                driver

Benjamin Child                  butcher

Thomas Collard                 jeweller

John Rodgers                     labourer

James Westbrooke          butcher

John Wood/Leach            shopman

Henry Rodgers                  boot & shoemaker

Richard Lowndes              shoe maker

William Greenhough        weaver

John Haywood                  weaver

Thomas Jones                   goldsmith

John Bennett                     stableman

John Bradshaw                  weaver

George Fisher                    servant

Thomas Hoffnell               labourer

James Bennett                  hatter

Samuel Lees                       hatter