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William Blue was a convict known as "The Old Commodore" and "Billy Blue". He ran Sydney's first ferry. [1] Blues Point in Sydney, NSW, Australia is named after him.
Billy Blue has a disputed background and date of birth, as can be seen in the Research Notes section below on "Disputed Origins and Earlier Life". Billy is reputed to have said he had been "his whole Lifetime in his Majesty's [military] Service", had fought with the British at Quebec in 1759, and was "Commodore" in the HMS Enterprise which was a receiving ship at Deptford for impressed sailors [citation needed]. (See 'Billy Blue's Background' below for more details)
By 1796 Billy was living at Deptford, London. He was a chocolate-maker and also worked as a labourer unloading merchant ships on the Thames.
The Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser, October 11th 1796, reported the following: 'Charged of stealing 20 lb weight of raw sugar from on board the Lady Jane Halliday, West Indiaman, the property of Sir Richard Neve, William Blue, a lumper, was ordered by the court to be transported to Botany Bay for seven years.'[2]
After serving over four years in the Prudentia, one of the convict hulks (ships used for housing criminals), he was transported to Sydney, Australia, in the convict ship Minorca which arrived in NSW in December 1801. [3]
In 1803 Billy was made "Free by servitude".
In 1804, records show him living in 'the Rocks', then a very tough part of the city of Sydney. There he met Elizabeth Williams , a 30-year-old convict from Hampshire, England, who had arrived in June 1804. Billy married Elizabeth on 27 April 1805 at the old St. Phillip's Anglican church in Sydney, where 5 of their 6 children were later christened: [4] Susannah Blue [5], William Blue [6], Elizabeth Blue [7] Mary Blue, [8] Robert Blue [9] and John Blue [10]
For the next few years Billy Blue made his living around Sydney Harbour; he transported passengers in his 'tight and clean boat' and traded oysters and other commodities to provide food for his growing family. He became known as the city's first 'water policeman'.
In 1808 Billy Blue was among those who supported the removal of Captain Bligh, of Bounty and breadfruit fame, as governor of the colony, and he soon came to the notice of the new Governor,Macquarie, who used Blue's services in getting himself and his family around the Harbour.
In 1811, Macquarie designated Blue as 'Watchman of the Heaving Down Place' where ships were careened, 'Constable,' and 'Water Bailiff,' thus giving him wide powers of supervision over ships and traffic in the Harbour. The jobs were not well paid, but he was provided with a small stone hexagonal watch house standing in what today are the grounds of Government House, and this allowed him to move his family out of 'The Rocks'. The house soon became known as 'Billy Blue's cottage'. Macquarie often used Billy's ferry service and mentions Billy in his diary as taking Macquarie's wife and son up to the Governor's house in Parramatta.
In 1817, Billy Blue received a grant of 80 acres of land on the north shore. The property, previously known as Murdering Point, was renamed Northampton Farm and the family were soon living there in a newly built house. The headland on the property became known as Blue's Point and proved an excellent base for extending his ferry operations. When his 'fleet' increased from one boat to eleven, Macquarie is supposed to have said "Why, Billy, you have a regular fleet. I'll have to name you Commodore", and ever after he was known as the "Old Commodore" (however Billy himself gave another explanation for this nickname - see below).
Part of Billy Blue's responsibilities was to keep an eye out for smugglers; Macquarie specifically set him to do so, allegedly joking, "You watch them, Billy, and I'll watch you." Unfortunately, in 1818 he was caught with two large casks of rum lashed to his boat. Though he claimed he found them floating in the harbour and was taking them back to shore, he was sentenced to a year in prison but was probably pardoned by Macquarie on recommendation of mercy by the magistrates. He was dismissed from his official positions, and evicted from his stone hexagonal house.[11]
Billy Blue continued to operate his farm and his ferry business, with the help of his family, especially his eldest son, William Blue, until the time of his death. He had to stave off attempts by neighbouring landowners to get him off his land and out of business, because they claimed that he was a smuggler and harboured criminals. After Governor Macquarie left the colony in 1822, Billy's business rivals were temporarily successful in shutting down Billy’s ferry service through various allegations, however he regained the right to run it again in 1825.
In the census of 1823, Billy Blue is recorded as living at "Hunter's Hill."[12]
In July '1824,' Billy's 16 year old son William Blue was found guilty of manslaughter, after he threw a stone at a boy who was tormenting him and the youth later died. He was given a six-month sentence.[13][14] The Sydney Gazette published an editorial 10 June that year clarifying that it was not Billy Blue [senior] who threw the stone that killed Thomas Cox.[15]
In November 1824. Billy's wife Elizabeth Williams passed away and Billy was then left with 6 children to look after, four of them under the age of 15.
Billy's behaviour became increasingly eccentric. Wearing a battered coat, top hat, and cane, he was often seen in George Street or would board ships in the harbour, demanding people acknowledge him as 'the Commodore,' and abusing them if they did not. An article in the newspaper The Australian, 'WALK THROUGH SYDNEY IN 1828' mentions him:[16]
In 1829, Billy was again gaoled for sheltering a run-away convict but was released on paying a fine.
Billy Blue died in 1834 [17] [18] 09 May 1834 and there were several obituaries in Sydney newspapers.[19] [20] [21][22] [23]
A portrait of Billy painted by J B East was exhibited soon after Billy's death. [24]
In 1850, Billy's youngest son John Blue built the Old Commodore Hotel and his daughter Susannah owned the Billy Blue Inn, both near Blues Point. Various streets in the area are named after him and his children.
He was born in 1739 [20] Born in 'Jamaica, New York City' comes from the ADB (accessed 7 Aug 2019) and is probably a typo??
It is impossible to trace the history of William Blue, "the old Commodore," prior to advent in Sydney at the beginning of last century, but of this there can be no doubt he was an American colored man, from New York..... The [family] Bible was inspected by the writer at the residence of the late Mrs. Schofield, daughter of Mrs. Chutor by her first husband, George Lavender. The first entry was: 'William Blue; died May 29, 1834; aged 100 years.' The members of the family present expressed the belief that "Old Billy" died at the Round House, on Macquarie Point.
Meg Swords wrote 'Billy Blue, The Old Commodore' in 1979. She was limited in her sources because at that time researchers had difficulty accessing primary records. Meg Swords acknowledged this in the Foreword of her book: 'Perhaps somewhere, at some time, somebody will find the missing pieces of the jigsaw and put together a complete picture of Billy Blue.'
Unfortunately Meg Swords mistakenly thought she was quoting the convict indent when she wrote that Billy Blue was a 'Jamaican negro sailor' when it was actually from a publication 'History and Description of Sydney Harbour' by P. R. Stephensen. [Swords, p.10, addendum] There is nothing about him being a 'Jamaican negro sailor' in the indent.
Many of the 'missing pieces' mentioned in the Introduction and Addendum of Meg Swords's book have been found by Cassandra Pybus in her book 'Black Founders, The unknown story of Australia's first black settlers' (published UNSW Press 2006).
Billy Blue's Background
Pybus's argument for the above is given in detail throughout her book: Two sources are:
• A petition in 1823 to Governor Brisbane,[30] where he states he:
• His evidence in the trial Martin v. Munn, Supreme Court of NSW 22 Oct 1832 reported in the Sydney Gazette 25 Oct 1832:
This implies that Blue was in charge of the press gang that operated in and around Deptford for the HMS 'Enterprise' which was a receiving ship for impressed sailors. [Pybus p.150] He was also a lumper (employed in unloading merchant ships in the Thames) and a chocolate-maker. Lumping was low paid employment supplemented by pilfering of the cargo, with merchants allowing up to 2 per cent to disappear as 'spillage'. Pybus writes: Doubtless Blue was employed at both jobs in September 1796, given that lumping was casual, seasonal work and since the beginning of 1796 there was a sharp drop in returns from the Impressment Service.' [Pybus p.151]
Sydney Morning Herald 22/11/1900:
Today we should spare a thought for the man who conducted the first ferry across the harbour, and whose name is perpetuated in Blue's Point. "Billy" Blue, as he was known was amongst the first arrivals in New South Wales, and in Macquarie's day he held the position of watchman of the heaving-down place in Sydney Cove. This was on the eastern side of the cove, and Mr. Blue occupied an octagonal-shaped house on the cliffs above. One of his duties was to keep a watch for smugglers. Alas, one night a smuggler was caught, and it was Billy Blue himself. Macquarie promptly dismissed Mr. Blue, but evidently bore him no grudge, for a year or two afterwards he gave the ex-watchman a grant of 80 acres on the North Shore. The grant comprised the whole of the point now know as Blue's and McMahon's Point as far back as Union-street. On his grant Billy Blue built a house and grew fruit and vegetables for the Sydney market. As settlement extended on the North Shore he instituted a ferry between Miller's Point and Blue's Point and his method of running this was far in advance of his time.
A writer of the twenties of last century has left us a reference to the ferry. returning from a walk to Lane Cove he says:—
By this time, we reach Billy Blue's. The old man who had a little grant of land at the water's edge opposite Sydney, given him, I believe, by one of the Governors in those early days when it was considered that a poor man was as much entitled to his small grant as the rich one to his proportionately larger was just come over from the Sydney side with a passenger. He told us with quite a fatherly sort of authority that he had been across a good many times that day; that we must pull him over to the other side, and he would take the boat back. The "Old Commodore" being considered to possess a sort of universal freedom of speech to everybody, no demur was made. We pulled him across in his own boat and paid him our fares for pulling himself back again.
The writer refers to Blue's "universal freedom of speech to everybody." In the latter years of his life he became one of the characters of Old Sydney, and this freedom was one of his charms. "The Commodore," as Blue was called, was respected by everyone, and could raise a smile on the dullest countenance.
On Monday last, at his residence Blue Point, Billy Blue, (better known in Sydney as " The Commodore,") aged 95 years. Billy will long be remembered by Australians for his eccentric though inoffensive disposition. He has left a family of 5 children, who, by his Will, have become the inheritors of an estate on the North Shore. The Commodore's remains were brought ashore yesterday and deposited in their final home.
Totally a long shot, but my ancestor Jan Blaw (John Blue) died in New Jersey in 1757 and owned 2 slaves at his death. At that time, they probably were freed after a set number of years. Could have been Billy ...
See Also:
Featured German connections: Billy is 25 degrees from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 28 degrees from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 25 degrees from Lucas Cranach, 28 degrees from Stefanie Graf, 24 degrees from Wilhelm Grimm, 25 degrees from Fanny Hensel, 31 degrees from Theodor Heuss, 23 degrees from Alexander Mack, 42 degrees from Carl Miele, 18 degrees from Nathan Rothschild, 24 degrees from Hermann Friedrich Albert von Ihering and 22 degrees from Ferdinand von Zeppelin on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
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edited by Shoshanah Luckie
If you would like to document the connection of John Blaw to Billy Blue, on this profile, The Australia Project and wikitree community would be most grateful Roger. Thank you for your kind offer to do this. Shoshanah
Gerry Moss
Regarding your connection to Billy Blue, here is a link for you to do that. It is the Connection Finder. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Help:Connection_Finder.
I hope that you find it helpful.
Thanks Shoshanah
We are featuring this profile in the Connection Finder this week. Between now and Wednesday is a good time to take a look at the sources and biography to see if there are updates and improvements that need made, especially those that will bring it up to WikiTree Style Guide standards. We know it's short notice, so don't fret too much. Just do what you can.
Thanks!
Abby
edited by Shoshanah Luckie
I have continued the tidy up and removed duplications.
I have moved 'Obituary' and 'Research' to the end
Heather
I am amending the birth location and adding a source. Send me a private message if you want to discuss. Heather