Stewart, John

Little is known of John Stewart and what is known comes mainly from a report in the Sydney Herald of 29 July 1840 and the Berrima gaol book of the same year. The newspaper report says Stewart, a shoemaker and holding a conditional pardon was sentenced to a year in an ironed gang for stealing a watch from James McCurdy, another Berrima’s resident. The gaol entry indicates he had arrived in 1832, aged 15 (17) aboard the Captain Cook. He was from Dublin and a shoemaker. But the date of the crime is not indicated and there are documents suggesting he might have been held in Parramatta gaol pending his trial. He had received his conditional pardon in March 1840.[1]

[1] SRNSW Convict Register Certificates of Freedom. 4/4357; Reel 1005