Joseph Walton (born 1830) was a 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 wou ...

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 ...

. The son of a watchmaker, Walton was born in British North America, but it was in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

on 19 July 1851 that he was convicted of

burglary Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder ...

and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. Walton was transported to Western Australia on , arriving in February 1853. After obtaining his ticket of leave, he worked as a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

. He received his conditional pardon in July 1856, and the following month he married Fanny Kenney. Over the next few years he worked in the Avon and Greenough districts; his wife did not accompany him and the fact that he was married was not known. Walton took up land at Greenough, and built a hotel there. Later he won a number of contracts to build government buildings, including a one-room school, a police station and a courthouse. In the late 1860s and early 1870s Greenough suffered severely from

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

, bushfire, wheat rust and

sheep scab ''Psoroptes'' is a genus of mites, including the agents that cause psoroptic mange. Psoroptic mange ''Psoroptes'' mites are responsible for causing psoroptic mange in various animals, leading to economic losses among farmers of cattle, sheep ...

. Correctly anticipating a

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, Walton sold his hotel in 1872, and purchased a small coastal trading boat, ''Alexandra''. In December the following year, he married Georgina Roe, daughter of

James Elphinstone Roe James Elphinstone Roe (c. 18 October 1818 – May 1897) was a convict transported to Western Australia. After serving his sentence he became one of the colony's ex-convict school teachers. Through his agitation for education reform, he played a ...

. The couple then sailed for

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, where they had a son. Eventually Georgina Roe discovered her husband's

bigamy In cultures where monogamy is mandated, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their marital status as married persons. I ...

, and in 1876 Walton left Singapore for

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. He did not return.

General references

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walton, Joseph 1830 births Pre-Confederation Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom Convicts transported to Western Australia People convicted of burglary Recipients of British royal pardons Year of death missing Immigrants to colonial Australia Settlers of Western Australia