John Pascoe Fawkner - Early Years

Early Years

John Pascoe Fawkner was born near Cripplegate London in 1792 to John Fawkner (a metal refiner)and his wife Hannah née Pascoe, whose parents were Cornish. As a 10 year old, he accompanied his convict father, who had been sentenced to fourteen years gaol (jail) for receiving stolen goods, being transported as part of a two ship fleet to establish a new British colony in Bass Strait in 1803. The colony landed at Sullivan Bay, near modern day Sorrento, and the next day Fawkner turned 11. For several months the colony struggled to survive. There were some 27 convict escape attempts, including that of William Buckley. Lack of wood and fresh water eventually persuaded Lieutenant-Governor David Collins to abandon the colony in 1804 with the settlers and convicts departing for the new town of Hobart in Van Diemen's Land.

In 1806 the family obtained a farm, upon which he worked without horses, without capital, and with scarcely any other appliances than a spade and a hoe. At eighteen years of age he apprenticed himself to a builder and a sawyer, and laboured for some years in a saw-pit.

In Hobart the young Fawkner assisted his father (who had obtained a conditional pardon) in his bakery, timber business and brewery and soon afterwards fell into trouble. A letter dated 19 October 1814 from Lieut.-governor Davey to Lieutenant Jeffreys instructs him that he is to receive on board John Fawkner,

"one of those persons who lately absconded from the settlements after committing some most atrocious robberys and depredations, and is under sentence of transportation for five years; he proceeds to Sydney for the purpose of being sent to the Coal river during the period of his sentence, and also to break the chain of a very dangerous connection he has formed in this settlement".

This gives a misleading account of what had occurred. Fawkner's account of this incident, which appears to have been true, was that "a party of prisoners, determined to escape, sought his assistance and that in a moment of foolish sympathy he undertook to help them". (J. Bonwick, Port Phillip Settlement, pp. 281–2).

In December 1819 transported convict, Eliza Cobb, and John Pascoe Fawkner loaded up a cart and moved to Launceston. They were married on 5 December 1822, with a permit from Governor George Arthur. They established a bakery, timber business, bookshop, a newspaper The Launceston Advertiser in 1829, nursery and orchard. Soon after Eliza had received a pardon, Fawkner obtained a licence to run the Cornwall Hotel in 1826.