Career
He was also one of the first convicts ever to receive a pardon from a life sentence after less than 5 years. Born on a Spittal farm in 1779, Ralph Hush was the youngest of five children. His family lived on a farm in Crookham, Northumberland to live where the family owned and worked on a farm about a mile from there called Crookham Eastfield.
He eventually secured a job as a farmer.
Ralph was imprisoned for stealing 20 ewes and 20 lambs, tried and convicted on 14 August 1819 in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where he was sentenced to life transportation to Australia. From the time of his trial until the sailing of his convict ship, Ralph Hush lived on a hulk of the ship, the Neptune I, which disembarked from The Downs, England on 23 March 1820.
The ship"s master was William McKissock and the surgeon was Jas Mitchell. The Neptune I arrived in Sydney Harbour on 17 July 1820 with 156 convicts on board after 114 days.
Ralph Hush was immediately taken to work at a farm and muster at Wingecarribee, New South Wales, now on the site of Bowral.
Hush was taken under the wing of Oxley and worked for four (4) years on the muster. On 25 April 1808 in Norham, Northumberland, Hush married 24-year-old Margaret Robinson. Their union would last 52 years, until his death in 1860.
They had four children:
Ralph Hush (1808–1876)
Phillis Hush (1809–1876), later Phyllis McCarthy.
Joseph Hush (1811–1850)
Sarah Hush (1818–1847), later Sarah Corbyn. Below is a transcript of her letter sent in 1823:
Ralph Hush was pardoned from his life sentence soon after his family joined him and became one of the first convicts to ever escape a life sentence after a term of only 4 years.
Farmer
In 1831, Ralph Hush purchased 640 acres (26 km2) of land in Mongarlowe, Braidwood, and moved his family there by 1839. The property was called Eastfield.
Foreign the rest of his life, Ralph Hush was a farmer on various properties around the general Mongarlowe area, on farms such as Eastfield, Marlowe, Charleyong and Saint Omer.
Licensee
in 1829 Margaret and Ralph Hush Junior. were the licensees of the inn The Traveller. lieutenant is now known as Tahmoor House and is an historic old inn built in 1824 and extended in 1835. lieutenant is the oldest building in the Shire of Wollondilly and one of the oldest coaching inns in Australia, at the gateway to the Southern Highlands.
Foreign a while in later life, Ralph Hush was a magistrate in Picton.
Ralph Hush died on the property of Durran Durra, Braidwood, aged 81. He was buried at Eastfield.
