Henry Kable - in Sydney Town

In Sydney Town

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 who had been sentenced to death were regarded as dead in law, and thus had no right to sue, and Sinclair had boasted that he could not be sued by them. Probably from advice 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. The fact that Henry and Susannah were convicts and the legal consequences of that fact would have been obvious to all 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. The case is now available online, both as a transcription and as photographs of the original documents.

Henry and Susannah had 10 children. They were:

• Henry (17 February 1786, Norwich Castle gaol, England, – 13 May 1852, Picton). Henry is buried at St. Matthews, The Oaks.
• Dianna (5 December 1788, Sydney – 11 March 1854, Macquarie St, Windsor)
• Enoch (24 April 1791, Sydney – 27 February 1793, Sydney)
• James (19 August 1793, Sydney – 30 September 1809, At Sea, off the straits, Malacca)
• Susannah (23 October 1796, Sydney – 20 June 1885, `Vanderville', The Oaks)
• George Esto (28 September 1797, Sydney – 1853, Bathurst)
• Eunice (30 May 1799, Sydney – 21 December 1867, Windsor)
• William Nathaniel (22 March 1801, Sydney – 16 November 1837, Bathurst)
• John (12 November 1802, Sydney – 30 May 1859, Bairaba Hotel, Windsor)
• Charles Dickenson (5 October 1804, Sydney – date and place of death unknown)
• Edgar James (14 August 1806, Sydney – 28 April 1849, Windsor)

and five died before birth