People Australia

Moses Moses was sentenced to life transportation for stealing a pocket book containing £7. He arrived in Sydney in 1815 aboard the Marquis of Wellington. His occupation was given as glass cutter and height as 164 cm.

He was assigned to work on the farm of Mr Hovell. After absconding he was sent to work at the Brickfields. In May 1817 he was caught trying to stow away on a ship about to leave Sydney and was sentenced to work on the roads for a month. Later that year he was sent to Van Diemen's Land penal settlement. On 6 January 1818 he tried to escape again and was sentenced to six months in the gaol gang. For being repeatedly disorderly he received 50 lashes in March. He received another 50 lashes in September 1819 for disobeying the orders of his master, Mr T. Florence. He married Sarah Brown, a fellow convict, in 1821.

By 1820 Moses was working as a baker and in 1824 was charged with overcharging for bread. In 1825 he was charged with having an illegal weight and in 1827 he was fined £1 for travelling with a cart of the Lord's Day (Sunday). He was given a conditional pardon in 1832.

He returned to the mainland and settled at Yass where in 1837 he was appointed Keeper of the Pound. In 1840 he opened the Yass Hotel and in 1846 the Yass Inn. He died in 1858.

Moses achieved notoriety in 1842 after single-handedly catching the bushranger Massey in the dinging-room of his hotel at Yass.

* information from John S. Levi, These Are the Names: Jewish Lives in Australia, 1788-1850 (2013)