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| Marriage |
14 Sep 1821, St Peters, Richmond, NSW44,85 |
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| Notes for James SIMMONS |
"Convict transported from England in 1815 for stealing jewellery from no less a personage than the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. He became a publican, auctioneer and eventually the owner of a well-stocked Sydney store. His brother Joseph came to Sydney as a free settler. He married a gentile."351
John T. Thorley notes: "For a time the couple remained in the Richmond area. They ran a farm and also operated a tavern at Richmond. Later they moved to Sydney where James established himself as a trader, becoming one of the wealthiest and most successful in the colony, even to the point of becoming one of Sydney's first Jewish aldermen with the prospect of becoming mayor."85
He was elected Alderman in 1848.86
"James Simmons was also a dedicated supporter of Jewish causes, helping to found the Great Synagogue in Sydney (although his wife continued to adhere to her Anglican faith). He invested shrewdly in land in NSW and ran a large emporium in Sydney's Hunter Street, dealing in imported goods.
A small (5' 3"), brown-eyed, ruddy-faced man, James Simmons had been born in London in 1795, the daughter of Nathan and Sarah Simmons, of Crown St, Soho. He had learned the trade of a calico glazier but was convicted of the crime of breaking and entering and theft at the Old Bailey in 1813, and transported to Sydney per the Marquis of Wellington in 1815. James was granted a convict ticket of leave in 1819 and is recorded as living in the Richmond district west of Sydney the following year, acquiring land and farming it (and meeting Agnes Thorley in the process). This enterprise provided him with the springboard to social respectability and subsequent wealth. James Simmons was granted an absolute pardon in 1842. He died on 2 May, 1849, in Sydney, and was buried in Sydney's Devonshire Street Cemetery. At the time of his death he was dwelling in O'Connell Street, Sydney." 85 |
| Misc. Notes |
| Reached Australia: in 1830. Departed from Australia in 1832 and married Nancy Cohen, daughter of Henry, a merchant in Edgeware Rd. London. |
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