CONVICT BIOGRAPHIES
Convict Number 1014:
JOSEPH LUCAS HORROCKS
‘Not all convicts were inherently villainous
or hapless vagabonds. In time many of them
commanded respect and even admiration
for their achievements.’1 Joseph Lucas
Horrocks is an example of a convict who
made the most of being transported
across the world.
Horrocks was convicted of forgery in
London in 1851. Sentenced to fourteen years
transportation he arrived at Fremantle on the
Marion in 1852. Horrocks differed from most
of the other convicts. He was well educated
and could read and write. He was also much
older than the other convicts at 35 years.
During the first year of his sentence he
worked on the construction of the Convict
Establishment. By 1853 he earned his ticket of
leave and travelled north to the convict depot at
Port Gregory where he worked as a doctor.
Remains of Lynton Convict Hiring Depot, Port Gregory c1930s
State Library of Western Australia
FREMANTLE PRISON
When the Lynton depot at Port Gregory was
abandoned in 1857, Horrocks received his
conditional pardon and settled in the district
of Wanerenooka north of Geraldton. There
he started a copper mine which he named
Gwalla. The copper mine was successful and
between 1862 and 1865 he employed sixty
ticket of leave men. Very soon a community
sprang up around the mine.
Horrocks encouraged the settlers to grow
wheat and he built a mill powered by a steam
engine which drew ore from the Gwalla mine.
He built the Gwalla Church between 1861 and
1864, and had carved on the foundation stone a
quote from Isaiah, ‘My house shall be called a
house of Prayer for all People.’
Gwalla Church built in Northampton c1860s
State Library of Western Australia
2 www.fremantleprison.com.au
Prison-ship (known as hulks) in Portsmouth Harbour, convicts
going aboard c1829, Edward William Cooke (1811-1880)
National Library of Australia
Many newly released convicts headed north
to the mine with the hope of employment.
The community with its ‘curving stone-
walled road, its neat row of cottages and
carefully tended gardens’2 was named
Northampton in 1864.
Despite failing health, Joseph Horrocks
continued working to build the community.
He successfully applied for a government
grant to set up a schoolhouse in 1863. He
asked the government to build the State’s
first public railway between his mine and
Geraldton port, thirty miles to the south.
While he did not live to see the railway
built, his request was accepted and the
railway opened in 1879.
Horrocks died on 7 October 1865 and
was buried in the Gwalla Cemetery near
his church.
1
Erickson, R. The Brand on his Coat – Biographies of some
Western Australian convicts, University of Western Australia
Press, 1983. p 224.
2
Ibid., p.226.