William Hutchinson (1772 – 26 July 1846) was a British convict who was transported to the Australian colonies, ultimately to become a successful public servant and businessman.
[1] In June 1796, Hutchinson was convicted at the Old Bailey of stealing £ 40 worth of goods, and was sentenced to death, though this was later commuted to transportation for seven years.
[2] After spending three years in London on board the prison hulk Newgate, Hutchinson was transported to Australia on the Hillsborough, sometimes referred to as the "Fever Ship" since some ninety-five of the three hundred convicts aboard died from typhoid fever brought aboard from the prison hulks.
[2] Hutchinson acquired significant land holdings on the island, and did a handsome trade selling pork to the government.
[2] After 1803, there was a push for the settlement on Norfolk Island to be disbanded, mainly on the part of the then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies Lord Hobart; the military presence there was ultimately withdrawn in 1813, and Hutchinson, along with the boat-builder Thomas Ransom, was among the last of the settlers to leave the island in February 1814.
[3] However, Hutchinson had been recommended to the Governor of New South Wales, Lachlan Macquarie, by the former Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island, Joseph Foveaux, and so Hutchinson instead returned to Sydney, where Macquarie appointed him the superintendent of convicts and public works, to succeed Isaac Nichols from April 1814.