John Murgatroyd Hubbard (born 1839, died 29th Oct 1899 ref**) was a

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convict ...

transported ''Transported'' is an Australian convict melodrama film directed by W. J. Lincoln. It is considered a lost film. Plot In England, Jessie Grey is about to marry Leonard Lincoln but the evil Harold Hawk tries to force her to marry him and she w ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, and later became one of the

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

's ex-convict school teachers. Born in 1839, Hubbard was working as a clerk in 1863 when he was convicted of

forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbidd ...

and sentenced to twenty years' penal servitude. He was transported to Western Australia on board the ''Racehorse'', arriving in August 1865. After receiving his

ticket of leave A ticket of leave was a document of parole issued to convicts who had shown they could now be trusted with some freedoms. Originally the ticket was issued in Britain and later adapted by the United States, Canada, and Ireland. Jurisdictions ...

, he worked for

Daniel Connor Daniel Connor (1831–12 January 1898) was an Irish convict transported to the colony in western Australia, who would go on to become one of the wealthiest, and most successful men in the region. Daniel Connor was born in County Kerry, Ireland ...

for a while, then briefly taught at

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...

school. In 1873 he was appointed school master at Newcastle (now Toodyay). During this time he also employed other ticket-of-leave convicts to dig out

sandalwood Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...

stumps from land that had been previously cut over. In March 1875, Hubbard married Amelia Cockburn, the daughter of an early settlers. That he married outside the "bond" class was highly unusual for the time. He then resigned his teaching post and moved to

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

where he worked as an accountant. From 1879 until 1884 he was secretary at the Boys' Orphanage, and for a short time he also taught there. In 1888 he was appointed clerk to the Guildford Municipal Council. Hubbard died in hospital from the effects of poison, a Coronial Inquiry held on the 7th November 1899 by Acting District Coroner Dr E Black, found the cause of death was asphyxia caused by strychnine that was administered by the deceased.

References

* **Western Australia Police Gazette No 46 Wednesday, November 15, 1899 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbard, James Murgatroyd 1839 births Convicts transported to Western Australia Australian schoolteachers Year of death missing