Richard Webb Reserve - What's in a Name?

Our convict legacy is often found in geographical places name. For example Gladesville in Sydney, New South Wales is named after the convict John Glade; Redfern after William Redfern, mutineer, convict and surgeon; the Cotter Dam, Cotter River and Cotter Flats in the Australian  Capital Territory after the convict Garret (George) Cotter; and Thompson Square at Windsor after the convict Andrew Thompson.*

Richard Webb Reserve in West Pennant Hills in the shire of Baulkham Hills is named after Richard Webb. But who was Richard Webb? 

Richard Webb Reserve, Aitken Road West Pennant Hills.
 Photo taken March 2014

Richard Webb Reserve, West Pennant Hills - Deakin Place entrance.
 Photo taken March 2014

From the records of History Services NSW, Richard Webb was an English convict who was sentenced at Norfolk Assize to life on 20 March 1813, aged 17 years. His crime was burgulary. His occupation was a labourer.

• He arrived at Port Jackson in the colony of New South Wales on 7 February 1814 in  the  convict ship General Hewitt; 
• On arrival he was assiged to John Blaxland at Parramatta;
• Webb was granted a Ticket of Leave. In the General Muster & Land & Stock Muster of 1822 he was listed as a sawyer living at Parramatta.  
• 5 September 1826 He married Johannah (Hannah) Mocklar (nee Willdinson). They had nine children;
• in the Census of 1828, Richard Webb was listed as a shopkeeper of Parramatta, aged 28 years, with a Ticket of Leave. His wife Hannah and son Richard were also listed;
• He was granted a conditional pardon on 28 February 1834; and
• an absolute pardon of his sentence on 14 October 1840.

After he was granted his conditional pardon, Richard Webb had a timber yard at Parramatta and then purchased land in the West Pennant Hills Valley. By 1840, he owned 260 acres of land  known as Webbs farms.

The bullock track which he made to connect his farm to Pennant Hills Road is today Aitken Road.

In 1989, in recognition of his success as a business man and farmer in the community, Baulkham Hills Shire Coucil named a reserve and playground in Aitken Road, West Pennant Hills, Richard Webb Reserve, after him.

Richard Webb died on 2 October 1881 aged 86 years and was buried in the historic St Johns Cemetery at Parramatta. He is interred in a family grave, with a distinctive white marble pedestal, in Section Two of the cemetery near the grave of John Blaxland.

Grave of Richard Webb, his wife Hannah Webb and other family members
at St Johns Cemetery, Parramatta.
Photo taken 16 March 2014

Headstone of the Webb family grave at St Johns Cemetery,
Parramatta.
Photo taken 16 March 2014

If you would like more detailed information on Richard Webb or are researching your own convict ancestor, you should go to the History Services NSW website at: 

http://www.historyservices.com.au/convicts.htm

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* History Services NSW has detailed records for all of these convicts. Go to the website  at: 

http://www.historyservices.com.au/convicts.htm

Blog prepared by Mary McGuinness 

All photos taken taken  in March 2014