Henry Kable

Henry Kable (1763–16 March 1846), born in Laxfield, Suffolk, England, was an Englishman transported to Australia in the First Fleet and became a prominent business man.

[4] Mrs. Jackson, a well-known actress from Covent Garden, organised a public subscription which yielded a substantial sum[5] to buy Henry and Susannah a parcel of goods on their arrival in the new colony.

In the first civil suit heard in New South Wales, Henry and Susannah Kable won damages of £15 against the captain (Duncan Sinclair) of the Alexander, this despite the rule that prisoners who had been sentenced to death were unable to sue in English law.

[6] In 1798, Kable opened a hotel called the Ramping Horse, from which he ran the first stage coach in Australia, and he also owned a retail store.

Kable was dismissed 25 May 1802 for misbehaviour, after being convicted for breaches of the port regulations and illegally buying and importing pigs from a visiting ship.

[5] Kable did much to pioneer sealing and shipbuilding in New South Wales, working with Simeon Lord who marketed the skins and James Underwood who built the ships.

In 1811 Kable moved to Windsor where he operated a store and brewery, the latter in association with a partner, Richard Woodbury and his Sydney warehouse was let to Michael Hayes.

[6] In 1968, on the 180th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet, more than a hundred descendants of Henry and Susannah Kable met in Sydney at Crows Nest to honour them as one of Australia's founding families.

[citation needed] The 1977 folk opera The Transports by Peter Bellamy is based on the story of Henry Kable and his wife Susannah.