HENRY BAKER

Eighteen year old Henry Baker received a sentence of death for stealing a mare from John Green in Cold-bath-lane in Hackney in 1817. Four witnesses gave him an excellent character and on account of this and his youth he was recommended for mercy.

By 1828 he was assigned to the Australian Agricultural Company at Port Stephens perhaps as a shepherd as he obtained a ticket of leave for the Patrick Plains district in 1835

He was granted a Conditional Pardon and found employment carrying the mails between Murrurundi and Tamworth.

In 1841 he was accused of stealing 4 mares belonging to John Single who owned Summerhill station near Weary's Creek and there must have been further accusations from other settlers also as early in January 1844 a £25 10s reward was offered by the Government and the Port Stephens bench for his apprehension for being 'concerned in committing depredations on the stock belonging to settlers in the district of the upper Hunter.'

The following week it was reported in the Maitland Mercury that he had been captured at the Peel River - 'and in endeavouring to escape got well pommelled for his pains by the police.'

Whoever this poor fellow was who was 'pommelled' by the police, is not known, however it was not Baker.

A month later P. G. King wrote to the Maitland Mercury with the news that Baker had not been taken at the Peel: -

'The effect (of the statement) must be that the police and other parties will take no further trouble to look after him; and as Baker has not been taken at the Peel, as above stated, he has by this time no doubt benefited by the report which has been circulated by your paper, and has now made his escape: thereby evading the punishment which would have been awarded to him when convicted, as he most probably would have been, of horse stealing. I have therefore to request that you will give the statement alluded to an immediate contradiction'.

William Baker must have learned a lot about living rough since his days as a London shoemaker. Certainly he would have known much of the territory as far as Tamworth from his days as a letter carrier, however the territory north would have been unknown to him. Nevertheless this former London shoemaker, conditional pardon holder and mailman became known  as 'a notorious horse stealer and bushranger' as for months he eluded the Division of Mounted Police sent in pursuit. In his desperate bid for freedom, he was pursued from station to station by dogged men who refused to give up and was finally captured at Bowen River within two days journey of Brisbane.

Corporal Grahame and private John Lamb were the two men who would claim the reward money and they returned with Baker to Stroud where on the 2nd of May, he appeared before P. G. King and J. B. Ebsworth of the Australian Agricultural Company who then committed him for trial. He was taken to Newcastle gaol and admitted on the 8th May. He was held there nearly five months awaiting his trial at the Quarter Sessions, and finally appeared before Justice a'Beckett at the Maitland Quarter Sessions on Tuesday 17th September 1844 when he was sentenced to transportation for ten years.

Maitland Mercury 24 September 1844

1828 Census