Land indenture for the sale of 110 acres from Mary Bishop to James Squire, 1794 and then to John Palmer, 1801

MLMSS 8478

fonds

1794, 1801

976450

0.01 metres of textual material (1 folder)

James Squire, brewer and farmer came out to Australia as a convict on the Charlotte in the First Fleet. He was one of the earliest, if not the first, to brew beer in the colony and the first to cultivate the hop plant in Australia successfully. Squire became a successful and wealthy man through his brewing enterprise, but was also known for his philanthropy and support of the lower classes and the dispossessed. He died in 1822 and his funeral was the biggest the Colony had seen to that date.

This indenture records what is possibly Squire's first land purchase. The 110 acres, known as Bishop's Farm, at Hen and Chicken Bay on the south side of the Parramatta River near Concord had been granted to Thomas Bishop, a private in the Marines who had also arrived in the First Fleet. Bishop died in 1793 and Squire purchased the land from Bishop's widow Mary. The soil on the south side of the river in the area of his land proved to be of poor quality, unable to sustain agricultural endeavours. Squires sold the land in 1801 to John Palmer, Commissary-General of New South Walesm for the same sum he originally purchased it for (45 pounds).

Copyright status:: In copyright
Research & study copies allowed: Author has been deceased for more than 50 years