James Hardy Vaux

English, born 1782

BiographyJames Hardy Vaux was a self-confessed swindler and thief. He was also in his lifetime charged with forgery, assault, absconding from prison and likely married multiple times, at once. Yet he managed to evade the death penalty and survived three sentences of transportation to Australia. He also published a relatively successful book and was a colonial clerk for a judge, Governor King and taught literacy to Reverend Samuel Marsden’s children.

The variety of skills required for these efforts show Harvey was an intelligent man and contemporary records of him indicate he was courteous, eloquent, well dressed and clearly had some charm. Yet he had turned to thieving in his teens despite being educated and employed in a clerk's office in London at the time. Over the course of his life Harvey would have multiple opportunities to amend his ways and he clearly showed promise as he was consistently given more chances to do so. Yet despite these bouts of honest work, Harvey always seemed to have a foot in the criminal world - understanding their language and codes and sharing long years of hard labour alongside fellow convicts.

Escaping yet another life sentence in 1841, Harvey was pardoned and then disappeared. It is an unusual end for him as he was well known in Sydney and indicated he did not want to return to Britain. His legacy is his memoir and 'flash language' dictionary - the first of their kind published out of Australia.

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