Robert married Irish born, Bridget Heslin, on 30th October,1815. He was then aged 52. Bridget was 49. they went on to have 9 children.
Robert died 23rd February,1839 and was buried 25th February,1839, in the C of E cemetery, Pitt Town. His will was dated Feb. 6th,1834. It was appropriated by his daughter, Sarah who died on the 31st July, 1895. It was later discovered by Mrs. Mary A.M. Brown in 1897. It was delivered to J.P.Abbott for registration, but was again lost in 1897-8. It was then found supposedly by Deane& Deane in 1930, but was not registered till after April 1931.
Source... Bev Woodman who purchased Bridget's Certificate of Emancipation ....
Note for all Hobbs/Heslin descendants......some of the grandchildren's surnames are as follows............(source Hobbs group)
BOOTLE, BOWD, BROWN, BUCKRIDGE, CELEY, CLARKE, CROSS, DOUGLASS, DOWDEN, GREENTREE, GRONO, HARTLEY, HURST, KILPATRICK, LEET, MAHONY, MITCHELL, MONAHAN, MURRAY, NEAL, ROSE, SIMON, SLANEY, SMITH, STUBBS, SULLIVAN, SWADLING, WALKER, WILBOW
THE FOLLOWING IS COURTESY OF BEV WOODMAN, HOBBS GROUP
" Robert would have spent about five months in prison, on a hulk or onboard the Active waiting to depart Portsmouth so he was probably one of the luckier prisoners in that he didn't spend years waiting his fate. He did though travel on the Active and on that particular trip that took 183 days, they lost 21 during the trip to the colony. So Robert probably wasn't in a very fit condition on arrival to start with. The ship arrived on the 26th September 1791 and then three and a half month s later on the 9th January 1792 he was charged with stealing a hat and shoes and received 150 lashes (although no record has been found of this actually being carried out and he did plead guilty and beg for mercy). I can only imagine how he felt , he was weak from the long journey on a far from perfect trip, possibly suffering some form of illness with little food to build his resistance up.
Sometime in 1793 he joined the NSW Corps 102nd Regiment and served ten years, more than likely in the Hawkesbury region. He would have received a pardon by serving in the military and was allowed to choose land to farm on the Hawkesbury where he is found renting property in 1800 and farming (as well as carrying out his military duties that would have mainly been to keep law and order in the community). He then received his official grant of 60 acres on leaving the Corp in 1803.
Bridget was tried in July 1792 in Dublin Ireland and was then transported to Cork by ship to await transportation aboard the Sugar Cane. The ship sailed on 13th April 1793 so she would have been in custody for about 9 months waiting to sail. She was only 18 years old but at least had a friend or relative, Mary Hughes on board with her, along with Joseph Kearns who would have also been known to the family. Bridget's brother, Patrick, was aboard another ship of that fleet, The Boddingtons, but whether Bridget knew this or not is unknown. Unlike Robert's trip, all aboard the Sugar Cane arrived on the 17th September 1793 in good health with the loss of one life (execution) on the trip.
Never-the-less Bridget was only 18, her father had been executed, her mother and another brother (John) had been transported elsewhere and she and Patrick were now in a new colony just over five years after it had been first settled. Things would have looked so alien, I can only feel that she felt scared and frightened at what lay ahead of her. At this stage we can only guess that she was either sent to the Female Factory at Parramatta or to the farms at Toongabbie, however sometime possibly in in late 1795 she met Robert Hobbs and their first of nine children was born (registered Sydney) on the 19th September 1796. All other children after that were born in the Hawkesbury area, most of them at Pitt Town.
What is known after that is that she lived the rest of her life with Robert, raised nine children, lived and laboured at Pitt Town on their own land and died in on the 25th October, 1843, four and a half years after Robert who died on the 23rd Feb ruary 1839. They are both buried together in Pitt Town Cemetery although there is no mention of Bridget on Robert's well preserved head stone. We should all feel very proud of what this couple endured and that they fought hard to survive and rais e a family in the harshest of times in a strange land, far from their birth families.
Bev"
In summary: “Known gang members were Patrick Haslin (father), executed, his wife involved but her name not given, their known children were Patrick (transported to NSW per Boddingtons 1793), Bridget (transported to NSW per Sugar Cane 1793), John (involved in the gang also and possibly transported), Joseph Kearns alias Dungan (transported to NSW per Boddingtons), Mary Hughes (transported to NSW per Sugar Cane), Michael Dooley probably executed, Thomas Hughes (fate unknown).
The Muster of 1802 shows Robert Hobbs of the "Active", free, and was shown as having 25 acres, 20 cleared, 6.5 acres under wheat & maize, 1 hog and one person "off: the Government Stores”.
The first formal grant to Robert, and the site of the subsequent home for he and Bridget and their growing family was "Grant No. 1139 of the 20th August 1803" granted by Governor Phillip King – a grant of sixty acres in the district of Mulgrave Place. Rent 2 shillings per year commencing after 5 years. It was somewhere near the Hawkesbury Lagoon and (according to the book "Early Days of Windsor" by James Steele) when Governor Macquarie laid out five towns in the Hawkesbury area in 1810 , he had to resume portion of Robert's grant for the Town of Pitt Town. Robert must have had a lean year in 1804, as a notice in the Sydney Gazette of 20 January, 1805 advises that the Provost Marshall will sell by Public Auction the effects of various persons unless the Claims due from them are settled promptly. There were 36 settlers listed from Parramatta and along the Hawkesbury, and Robert Hobbs was one of them.
The 1806 Muster shows Robert Hobbs, settler, at the Lagoon on 60 acres. In this same year Robert Hobbs was among 244 settlers of the Hawkesbury who sent an address to Governor Bligh.
Robert's land is marked with an arrow...you can click on the image to enlarge.
In January 1807 his signature appears on correspondence to the Rev. Samuel Marsden. Amongst the crosses of so many other settlers it is noted that Robert can sign his name in a manner of someone who is used to writing.
In June 1809 it is recorded that Robert obtained his wheat seed from HM Stores. The region suffered a major flood that same year in August where the river rose 48 feet and 8 lives were lost, so Robert probably lost his crop
.
The Muster of 1811 lists Robert Hobbs with Bridget Eslin with Bridget receiving her Certificate of Freedom in September that same year.
In the Muster of 1814 the family is recorded as Robert Hobbs (invalid on Government Stores), Bridget Eslin (wife), Robert Jnr, Elizabeth Hobbs (single) and five other children independent of Government Stores. There is also a John Randall, convict to Robert Hobbs living with them."
# Acknowledgements to Robyn McNamara, and Bev Woodman... cousins and member and founder of the Hobbs Reunion Group. Thanks also go to all the descendants who have so willingly shared information.
A while back it was discovered that there remained in the care of the Public Trustee's Office, the seals as pictured below which had formed part of Robert's estate. They are now on permanent loan to the Hawkesbury Library and can be viewed by appointment. The unsolved mysteries refers to the missing Hobbs millions... another post for another time.
