Laurence Hynes Halloran

Laurence Hynes Halloran (29 December 1765 – 8 March 1831) was a poet, unordained clergyman and felon who became a pioneer schoolteacher, journalist, and bigamist in Australia, founder of the Sydney Public Free Grammar School.

Claiming falsely to have been ordained by Thomas O'Beirne, Bishop of Ossory,[1] Halloran afterwards became a chaplain in the navy, and in 1805 was on the Britannia at the Battle of Trafalgar.

[1] Returning to England in 1811, he resumed his pose as a clergyman under half a dozen aliases in a variety of English parishes, also teaching and writing poetry.

[1] In November 1818 he was charged with forging a tenpenny frank, was found guilty, and was sentenced to seven years penal transportation to Australia.

When news of this reached London obstacles were put in his way by the English authorities, but Lachlan Macquarie and Thomas Brisbane successively supported him, and he established a high reputation as a teacher.

In 1828 Darling for the sake of his children gave him the office of coroner but he did not keep the position long, and in the same year was in trouble with Archdeacon Scott, who objected to Halloran's prefacing some public lectures he was giving with part of the Anglican church service.

In addition to the works mentioned Halloran, before leaving England, published four volumes of poems and a play, which are listed in Percival Serle's Bibliography of Australasian Poetry and Verse.