People Australia

Henry Osborne Smeathman (c.1820-1864) arrived in Sydney aboard the Orelia in October 1827 with his father, Major Charles Thomas Smeathman, a former British officer and newly appointed New South Wales coroner, and mother Eliza. Following his father's death in January 1835 his mother married William Bland in February 1846.

Henry Smeathman attended Sydney College in 1835-36. He was living in Victoria in 1840 and in 1842 was reported in the newspapers as being declared insolvent in Brisbane. In 1843 he was back in New South Wales, preparing electoral lists. In April 1844 he was preparing to apply for his certificate of discharge from insolvency. It was allowed.

On 30 August 1845 he pronounced Peter Snodgrass, of Victoria, a former friend, a liar, scoundrel and coward. He married Sarah Rookes in 1848. In 1851, described as a writing clerk, he was again declared insolvent, with liabilities of £200 and assets of only £74. A certificate of discharge was granted later in the year.

In 1855 he took over the running of Parker's Family Hotel, in York Street, Sydney, with his wife. He later followed his wife and her two daughters to California, where he became an Episcopalian minister. By 1862 he was a prospector and was killed by Navajo Indians while searching for gold in Nevada.