NameWhitfield, JacobBiographyWhen Jacob Whitfield was tried at County Tyrone and found guilty of stealing a horse in 1820 he was sentenced to hang. His sentence was later commuted to life in the Colony of NSW.
Jacob was transported aboard the 'Isabella' in 1822 and spent some time in the Hyde Park Barracks before being assigned to Mr. Cable of Windsor.
He left behind his wife Mary Gowrie, and their five or six children; those known are Mary born 1808, Catherine 1810, Judith 1811, and William 1812.
Jacob requested that four of his children be allowed to come to Australia and they arrived on board the 'Thames' in 1826 - Judith (Doyle) and Catherine (Aaron) were by that time married and came with their siblings William and Mary.
Jacob's daughter Mary Whitfield married Daniel Sweeney at St Matthews Church in Windsor in 1827. William Whitfield lived with Daniel Sweeney in Kent St Sydney in 1828, and by 1833 Jacob was assigned to Daniel Sweeney.
In 1832, Jacob married Jean Connell however she died from tuberculosis in the same year. In 1840 he married Elizabeth Smith. Jacob was by then 80 years old and Elizabeth 49.
Jacob was granted a Ticket of Leave in 1834 and was pardoned in 1841.
Jacob's son William Whitfield married Caroline Philadelphia West in 1836. Their son William Joseph John Whitfield married Elizabeth Ratcliffe at Picton in 1861. His brothers Jacob and Richard married Elizabeth Ratcliff’s sisters Eliza and Mary.
William Joseph John and Elizabeth Whitfield’s third child was Thomas Daniel Sweeney Whitfield, born at Picton in 1867.
Thomas moved to Shellharbour and worked as a carpenter on the interior of St Paul’s Anglican Church and built the old Dunmore Post Office. Thomas was an Alderman on Shellharbour Municipal Council.
Thomas married Henrietta Bursill in 1892. The Bursill family home was located where the Ocean Beach Hotel at Shellharbour is now. Henrietta's father Charles Bursill, was the Harbour Master at Shellharbour. Charles was also a builder, carpenter, undertaker and Sunday school teacher.
Another son of William Joseph John Whitfield, John, was a Policeman in Shellharbour.
Olympian Games Gold Medal Winner 1972 (Swimming) and Shellharbour resident Beverley Whitfield was the great-granddaughter of Thomas Whitfield.
