50-Day Family History Blogging Challenge - Day 11
Fragments of Family History – Thomas Rose – Publican
Jennifer Jones from TRACKING DOWN THE FAMILY has initiated a 50-Day Family History Blogging Challenge. This is a big writing commitment but I have decided to participate. I have decided my topic will be “Fragments of Family History”. I will write short posts of newspaper items or single stories connected to my family history. This may expand over the 50 days.
Thomas Rose – Publican
My 3x Great grandfather, Thomas Rose, a former convict, was given a lease for 14 years on 22 August 1809 for 70 rods of land in Chapel Row, Sydney for 5 shillings a year.1 He was granted 70 acres of land in the District of Evan on 25 November 1809.2 These land grants were approved by the Lieutenant Governor of N.S.W. William Patterson who was appointed Acting Governor by the New South Wales Corps in January 1809 when Governor William Bligh [yes, that William Bligh] was deposed as Governor in the “Rum Rebellion”.
“The so-called Rum Rebellion was the first and only time in Australian history that military force has been used to overthrow a government.”3 “Bligh arrived in August 1806 with orders to control the use of alcohol as barter, restrict trade monopolies and end corruption among the [N.S.W.] Corps.“4 Bligh was a naval officer, and the N.S.W. Corps were Army. They clashed because the Corps would not give up their powerful monopoly. The commanding officer of the Corps was Major George Johnston. It came to a head on 26 January 1808 when Johnston and the Corps marched to Government House and arrested Bligh. A replacement Governor was sent, Lachlan Macquarie, a former British Army officer.
Thomas obtained a publican’s licence in 1810 to sell beer. This was in response to representations to the Governor.
“THE principal Brewers at Sydney having represented that it would be a great accommodation to the Labouring People and to the Lower Classes of the inhabitants in general, to have plenty of good wholesome Beer brewed for their drinking, and permitted to be retailed to them at a moderate Price”.5
In 1811, Thomas Rose received a licence to sell wines, spirits, liquors and beer at his premises in Castlereagh Street, Sydney.
Government House, Sydney, Saturday, 16th March, 1811. HIS EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR has been pleased to direct that the Names and Places of Residence of all those Persons who have been indulged with Licences in the Town of Sydney, as well as at the Out-settlements, for retailing and vending of Wines and Spirituous Liquors, and Beers and likewise for Brewing of Beer, shall be published in the Sydney Gazette for the Information of all those more immediately concerned, as well as the Public at large.6
His hotel was next to his bakery.7 He called it the Rose and Crown.8
Ancestry.com. New South Wales, Australia, Land Grants, 1788-1963 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Original data: New South Wales Government. New South Wales, Various Land Records. State Records Authority of New South Wales, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia.
Ibid.
Defining Moments, Governor William Bligh is deposed in the Rum Rebellion, National Museum of Australia, https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/rum-rebellion.
Ibid.
"Classified Advertising" The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) 21 July 1810: 1. Web. 22 Jun 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article628033>.
"GOVERNMENT AND GENERAL ORDERS." The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) 16 March 1811: 1. Web. 22 Jun 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article628206>.
"Classified Advertising" The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) 4 July 1812: 1. Web. 22 Jun 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article628504>.
"Classified Advertising" The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 - 1842) 19 February 1820: 3. Web. 23 Jun 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2179285>.