Born in about 1826, Warren worked as a clerk in his youth, but in 1850 he was convicted of forging a bill of exchange, and sentenced to a lifetime of penal servitude.
In September 1874, Warren married Mary Ann Elizabeth Gould, a wealthy widow who owned a hotel and a farm.
The position of ex-convicts in the Australian penal colonies led to significant political conflict during the nineteenth century (cf.
Although most respectable occupations were closed to ex-convicts, the colony was desperately short of teachers, yet unable to pay a sufficient wage to attract them.
Erickson (1983) has suggested that the use of ex-convict school teachers played an important role in the gradual breaking down of the social stigma of convictism.