Henry Kable

Infobox Person
name =Henry Kable
caption =
birth_date =1763
birth_place =Laxfield, Suffolk, England
death_date =16 March 1846
death_place =Pitt Town, Sydney, Australia
death_cause =
residence =Pitt Town
other_names =Henry Cable
occupation =Entrepreneur
spouse =Susannah Holmes
partner =
children =Henry, Dianna, Enoch, James, Susannah, George Esto (farmer), Eunice, William Nathaniel (publican), John, known as 'Young Kable', Charles Dickenson, Edgar James [http://members.optushome.com.au/ggaudry/Kable+Gaudry+Teale/wc01/wc01_288.htm Henry Kable & Susannah Holmes] Garth Gaudry's Genealogy]
parents =Henry Keable & Dianna Fuller

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Henry Kable (1763-1846), was born in Laxfield, Suffolk, England. Kable was known for being a businessman, but was convicted of burglary at Thetford, Norfolk, England, on 1 February 1783 and sentenced to death. This was commuted to transportation for fourteen years to America, but the American War meant that transportation to America was no longer possible. Henry was returned to the Norwich Castle gaol [http://law.anu.edu.au/criminet/neal.html David Neal, The Rule of Law in A Penal Colony -Law and Power in Early New South Wales (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991), Chapter 1.] ] until he embarked in the transport Friendship, in which he sailed in the First Fleet to New South Wales. [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A020028b.htm Australian Dictionary of Biography] ]

In Sydney town

Wife and Children

Susannah Holmes was sentenced to death after being found guilty of theft from the home of one Jabez Taylor. The judge who passed sentence then recommended that she be given a reprieve, which was granted by the king. She was then sentenced for transportation to the American colonies for a term of 14 years. Susannah and Henry commenced a relationship whilst prisoners in Norwich Castle Jail where she gave birth to a son, whom she called Henry. Susannah was then one of the women chosen to be sent to Botany Bay. [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~airliegenealogy/kable.htm The Ancestors (Kable)] ] On 10 February 1788 Kable married Susannah in Sydney in a group wedding, the first European wedding ceremony in the new colony.

Before the young couple left England, they attracted the attention of Lady Cadogan who organised a public subscription which yielded the substantial sum of £20 to buy them a parcel of goods which Rev. Richard Johnson was to give them on their arrival in the penal colony. The gift was plundered on the voyage, but Kable won damages of £15 against the captain (Duncan Sinclair) of the "Alexander", in the first civil suit heard in New South Wales. Convicts in Britain had no right to sue, and Sinclair had boasted that he could not be sued by them. Someone in Government obviously had a quiet word in Kable's ear, as the place where a writ would usually describe the plaintiffs' occupation, the words, "New Settlers of this place" had been crossed out and nothing had been substituted. To have described them as convicts would have been fatal to their case. Felons were regarded as if they had already been executed in English law and therefore unable to sue. The fact that Henry and Susannah were convicts and the legal consequences of that fact must have been obvious to some of those concerned; maybe the description "New Settlers" was too close to a fabrication, and hence this part of the writ was altered in order to maintain a discreet silence. When the court met and Sinclair challenged the prosecution on the ground that the Kable's were felons, the court required him to prove it. As all the convict records had been left behind in England, he could not do so, and the court ordered the captain to make restitution. [Arthur Phillip, Governor of New South Wales] The case is now available online, both as a transcription and as photographs of the original documents. [ [http://www.law.mq.edu.au/scnsw/html/Cable%20v%20Sinclair,%201788.htm| Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales, 1788-1899. Cable v. Sinclair. Court of Civil Jurisdiction. David Collins J.A., July 1788] ] Also

Henry and Susannah had 11 children. [http://members.optushome.com.au/ggaudry/ Garth Gaudry (Descendant)] ] They were:
*Henry (b. 17 Feb 1786, Norwich Castle Gaol, England, - d. 13 May 1852, Picton). Henry is buried at St. Matthews, The Oaks.
*Dianna (b. 5 Dec 1788, Sydney Cove - d. 11 Mar 1854, Macquarie St, Windsor)
*Enoch (b. 24 Apr 1791, Sydney Cove - d. 27 Feb 1793, Sydney)
*James (b. 19 Aug 1793, Sydney Cove - d. 30 Sep 1809, At Sea, off the straits, Malacca)
*Susannah (b. 23 Oct 1796, Sydney Cove - d. 20 Jun 1885, `Vanderville', The Oaks)
*George Esto (b. 28 Sep 1797, Sydney Cove - d. 1853, Bathurst)
*Eunice (b. 30 May 1799, Sydney Cove - d. 21 Dec 1867, Windsor)
*William Nathaniel (b. 22 Mar 1801, Sydney - d. 16 Nov 1837, Bathurst)
*John (b. 12 Nov 1802, Sydney - d. 30 May 1859, Bairaba Hotel, Windsor)
*Charles Dickenson (b. 5 Oct 1804, Sydney - d. ????)
*Edgar James (b. 14 Aug 1806, Sydney - d. 28 Apr 1849, Windsor)

Career

The oddity of the first civil suit won by a convict, may have brought Kable to the governor's notice, although Kable later claimed to have had influential letters of recommendation, for soon afterwards Governor Phillip appointed him an overseer.

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. [http://www.bens.connectfree.co.uk/pb/TRANSP.HTM The Transports] ]

Henry became a constable of police, and later chief constable in the new colony and was involved on the prosecution side in criminal cases. Kable was dismissed May 25, 1802 for misbehaviour, after being convicted for breaches of the port regulations and illegally buying and importing pigs from a visiting ship. After a stint in the police, he moved on to even better things as a merchant and ship owner. Like others in the colony, and perhaps because of his early success, Henry used the courts to ruin his opponents. He seems to have prospered; in 1808 shipping records show Kable and two partners, boat builder James Underwood and the other Simeon Lord, as principal ship owners in the expanding commerce of acquiring and exporting sealskins to the colony. [http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/indexes/colsec/k/f30c%5Fka%2Dke.htm Colonial Secretary Index, 1788 - 1825] ] Kable was one of 70 signatories to a petition to Governor Hunter from creditors who were anxious to prevent debtors from frustrating their demands by legal delays. The partnership dissolved in some bitterness shortly afterwards but not before Henry had managed to divest himself of a good deal of his property to his son, in order to avoid the consequences of any court order. Kable did much to pioneer sealing and shipbuilding in New South Wales, but it was Simeon Lord who marketed the skins and James Underwood who built the ships; yet Kable's achievements were remarkable for a man who could barely sign his name and had no other claim to literacy than his ability to add a column of figures.

Like Lord and other early Sydney entrepreneurs, Kable always had a substantial landholding as a kind of 'sheet anchor'. He had been granted farms at Petersham Hill in 1794 and 1795, and in the latter year bought out four near-by grantees within a week of their grants being signed. In 1807 he owned at least four farms of about 170 acres (69 ha); in 1809 in addition he held five farms at the Hawkesbury and 300 acres (121 ha) at the Cowpastures, with a variety of real estate in Sydney itself including his comfortable house and extensive stores. He also had 40 horned cattle, 9 horses and 40 pigs. His business reputation seems to have been dubious, for he was regarded with distrust by Governor King and with active hostility by Governor Bligh who thought him and his partners fraudulent and had them imprisoned for a month and fined each £100 for sending him a letter "couched in improper terms". It is certain that Kable played no part in public life comparable with Simeon Lord's multifarious activities. His commercial career in Sydney seems to have ended soon after Lord & Co. broke up, for as early as February 1810 he announced that his son Henry Junior had taken over the entire management of his Sydney affairs. 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.

Death

Henry died on the 16 Apr 1846, Pitt Town near Windsor and was buried on 18 Apr 1846, at St. Mathews Church of England, Windsor.

Legacy

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 to honour them as the heads of one of Australia's founding families. It was the first reunion to acknowledge convict ancestry.

References

Persondata
NAME= Henry Kable
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Henry Cable
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Australian convict
DATE OF BIRTH= 1763
PLACE OF BIRTH= Laxfield, Norfolk, England
DATE OF DEATH= 16 March 1846
PLACE OF DEATH= Pitt Town, New South Wales, Australia

External links

* [http://www.henrykable.com/ Henry and Susannah Kable]
* [http://www.kablemob.com/ Kable Mob]