William Nash and Maria Haynes
First Fleeters and NSW Settlers
The First Fleet
sailed from England in May 1787 carrying marine William Nash and
his young common-law wife Maria Haynes (c1771-1844) who were to
become the progenitors of the Nash family in Australia. William
and Maria were married in Sydney on 13 February 1789, some nine
months after their eldest son was born. A further five
children were born over the following decade.
When the marines
returned to England in the early 1790’s William chose to
remain behind, enlisting in the NSW Corps in April 1792. He spent
five years with the Corps and was discharged in April 1797 to
become a free settler. William had received a grant of 25 acres
at Mulgrave Place [Windsor NSW] in December 1796 and was to
receive another neighbouring grant of 180 acres in November 1799.
He incurred large debts in the late 1790’s and early
1800’s, and sold both properties to officer Thomas Hobby
early in 1802.
Around the year
1802 Maria left her husband to live with Second Fleet convict,
Robert Guy (c1772-1820), who had been transported per Scarborough
1790. With the failure in June 1803 of William Nash's second
appeal to the Bench of Magistrates for Maria's return, he
apparently decided to leave the colony. A claims notice was
inserted in the Sydney Gazette in April 1804 - to inform
creditors of his intended departure from the colony - and he
presumably left the colony soon afterwards. No later
references to William Nash have been located to date.
[N.B. William did
not leave NSW on board the Brig Alert as many family
members believe - this vessel first visited the colony in 1817.
He was not raised to the rank of Captain nor was he recalled to
England to fight and die in the Battle of Waterloo as family
stories have reported.]
Maria Nash
remained with Robert Guy until his death in 1820. In
December 1803 Robert had received a gift of 30 acres of land at
the Nepean River [Castlereagh NSW] from fellow Second Fleet
convict John Harris. Robert and Maria settled there with
her youngest children, and successfully cleared and farmed the
land. Maria remained at the farm until her death in
1844.
In 1819 Robert
Guy signed a will bequeathing the Castlereagh farm to Maria and,
after her death, to her grandson Robert Williams [see Robert Williams and Susannah Tindall].
The property remained in the latter’s possession until 1863
although he had left the farm by the mid-1840's.
This is a brief
summary of the information contained in the first two chapters of
Nash: First Fleeters and
Founding Families - A Three Generational Biographical History.
Copyright 2004 - Carol Baxter
The
family of William Nash and Maria Haynes
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