Australian Royalty: Genealogy of the colony of NSW

John was a convict. He was sentenced to imprisonment for life and arrived in the colony aboard the ship 'Prince of Orange' in 1821 and was described as of pale complexion, brown hair, grey eyes, height 5'5". He left behind him in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, his wife Sarah and two young sons.

Two years after his arrival, John's name was in a list of convicts who were considered by Governor Brisbane to be capable of maintaining their families in the colony; so Sarah and the two boys were sent for. Sarah had apparently died by this time, and the boys remained in England. One of them, Henry, came to Australia with his family in 1859. The other came to the colony with his family in 1860.

The 1828 census shows John Pogson with his wife Mary as having 45 acres of land at Baulkham Hills. 30 acres were cleared, 22 classified as running 1 horse and 13 cattle and was cultivated. He was described as a 'government servant'. The 45 acres was purchased and was part of the Halfpenny grant int he area of New Line and Gumnut Roads, and later he bought further land along Gumnut Road, and on Purchase Road (including Powell's grant and portions of McAloney's).

John was granted his ticket of leave in 1837. Cinditional pardon 1841.

John was granted a conditional pardon in 1841.

John died without having made a will. His son Henry was granted administration. He received goods and effects to the value of £630, after paying a consideration to John's widow Mary.

During the 1830's Wesleyan prayer meetings were being held on the homes of settlers in Castle Hill, and John Pogson is named as one of these.

In 1845 John and Mary Ann deeded to the 13 trustees of the Methodist Church, for a consideration of ten shillings, two roods (half an acre) of land opposite their home on New Line Road. In the conveyance, this road was named 'The New Public Northern Road' and was a realignment of the former 'New North Road' of 1828. This latter was so named to distinguish it from the 'Great North Road' of the same year which ran through Castle Hill and today is called 'Old Northern Road'.

In 1845 John was living on land which had been a 50 acre grant to Laurence Halfpenny in 1823, and of this, he and his wife Mary gave half an acre for the building of the Castle Hill (West Pennant Hills) Wesleyan Chapel and a burial ground. The deed of conveyance described its location as having its south eastern corner 7 cahins 3 links from Thomas Thompson's grant, and its south western boundary was on the new public northern road (ie, New Line Road). John was a foundation trustee of the burial ground and was buried there.

John applied for a slaughterhouse licence in 1849 and renewed it in 1854.

In September 1850 John purchased a 60 acre block of land running north-east and south-west across the junction of the present (1979) Gumnut Road (which was known as Pogson's Lane until the 1920's) and New Line Road. He paid £80 for it to the owner John Purchase, a timber merchant of Pennant Hills, who had bought it the month before from Isaac Shepherd of Kissing Point. This particular block (now described as at South Colah on Lands Dept maps) had earlier changed hands: Isaac Shepherd in June 1821 had paid £25 for it from the first owner, John Powell of Sydney, described as a 'master mariner and gentleman', who had received it as a grant from Governor Macquarie in September 1819.

John put his signature to the Fruitgrowers' Petition of 1851 - spelled 'John Pogston'.

In 1854 and 185 John acquired another 180 acres in 4 portions in an area at the northern end of the present (1979) Purchase Road. Either he, or his son Henry, bought the 39 acre lot originally granted to James McAloney in 1823 (around Holly and Gumnut Roads (1979)). These acquisitions made two large areas of Pogson land.