Robert Sidaway

Born to John and Elizabeth Sidaway of Horse Shoe Alley, Robert was baptised 5 February at St Leonards, Shoreditch, London, England.

[2] In 1782 at the age of 24, Sidaway was indicted for having been convicted of grand larceny at the last sessions, and ordered by the Court to be sent and transported to America for the term of seven years, was afterwards on the 18th day of September last found at large within this realm of Great Britain, without any lawful cause, before the expiration of the said term of seven years, for which he had been so transported, against the form of the statute.

[1] On the Journey out to Australia Ralph Clark noted in his diary on two separate occasions that Sidaway was put in leg irons.

[7] 30 July 1796, by permission of His Excellency, John Hunter, the play Jane Shore, (written by the English playwright and poet laureate Nicholas Rowe in 1714), was put on for the benefit of J. Butler and W.

[5] Sidaway also had a shared 30 acres (0.12 km2) of property with James Roberts at Mulgrave Place in the Hawkesbury District.

[5] Hunter permitted Sidaway to buy goods at moderate prices from the Convict vessel Minerva when it arrived on 11 January 1800.

[12] The Sydney Gazette, dated 26 February 1809 has Sidaway on list of persons granted a renewal of licence to sell wine and spirits.

[13] Sidaway cared for an orphan named Elizabeth Mann, until her death in October 1806; Same day died at the house of Mr. Robert Sidaway, Elizabeth Mann, an orphan aged 17 years, during the latter 5 of which she had laboured under the joint afflictions of insanity and a severe paralytic affection by which she was deprived of speech, and rendered perfectly helpless.

Her long protracted sufferings have been subject of grievous contemplation to many, who but six years since remembered her no less remarkable for her vivacity and placid disposition than for her subsequent excessive toils upon the bed of anguish: And yet Providence did not totally relinquish its protection to an unfortunate daughter of adversity: in the benevolence of a friend she found an asylum, a careful guardian, and an ample ministration to her necessities, until it was the will of Heaven to terminate her sufferings.