Skip to main content

Sir Henry Jones' great-grandson discovers hidden history of one of Tasmania's most influential men


A great-grandson of Sir Henry Jones has been researching his family history and has uncovered startling new information about one of Tasmania's most influential men of the early 20th century.

Sir Henry was a successful businessman who specialised in manufacturing jams and spreads and at one stage, was the largest private employer in Australia.

He was also the first Tasmanian man to be knighted and was elected to the Tasmanian Legislative Council when it was first inaugurated.

Descendant Craig Sampson told Chris Wisbey on 936 ABC Hobart Weekends program that he thought he had "a pretty good knowledge of Sir Henry and the history of Henry Jones & Co".

During his quest to find out more, Mr Sampson was going to visit a small village in Wales where Sir Henry's parents were said to have come from. It turns out the village didn't exist.

The accepted record of Sir Henry's family line, written by John Reynolds for the Tasmanian Historical Research Association, claimed his parents were free settlers in Australia.

But the more Mr Sampson researched, the more he became sceptical about the family lineage.

"I'd say it was something that was made up," he said.

"The family — the mother [Emma] and father [John] of Sir Henry Jones — were both convicts.

"They came out two years apart as convicts and served their time separately. How they met I don't know, but they ended up as a married couple."

Mr Sampson said there were approximately 350 convicts with the same popular name of John Jones between 1804 and 1852.

"There were two convicts by the same name of John Jones on the same ship, one of which was Sir Henry's father," he said.

Mr Sampson said John initially served seven years in Bermuda for theft, before being sent back to the UK, but it was not long before he was transported to Tasmania.

"A lot of people that were convicted on the first occasion for petty theft usually got a short sentence and were let free, but those people that were repeat offenders were taught a more severe lesson," he said.

"He was transported twice, which was very unusual. Not many people had that happen to them."

Tracing the family names

Mr Sampson's doubts surfaced after he obtained birth records of all the Jones children.

He noticed there were various spellings of Emma's maiden name, Mappison, as well as one record listing her as a Smith.

This led him to the discover that Sir Henry's parents were convicts.

"Information in those days was really conveyed verbally. People didn't have to fill in forms in quadruplicate in those days," Mr Sampson said.

"I think possibly John Jones had gone to register the birth and in a strong Liverpudlian accent has said 'Mapperson'.

"The clerk at the time may have been a bit lazy and not understood what he said and just put down 'Smith' for convenience."

Mr Sampson also came across a photograph of John in a book called Exiled, which showed him in a different light to the one in which he has formerly been seen.

"It was this group of convicts called the Old Crawlers who were in Port Arthur right at the end of the convict system," Mr Sampson said.

"The government at the time had ordered all these convicts to be photographed and the photographs were put on to cigarette cards."

Mr Sampson said information that Sir Henry's father was incarcerated in Port Arthur had previously been hard to come by, and there may be more family secrets to discover.

"Somewhere along the line there it's been hushed up," he said.

"I don't know at what point but certainly, when I grew up in Hobart, there was no mention of any convict background, which is not surprising.

"To go out to work at the age of 12 to help support the family and to end up achieving what he did for Tasmania, I've got nothing but admiration for the man."


Just In