The Hodgson Clan

Jane Hodgson was convicted at a Lancaster Quarter Session. She was one of 99 convicts transported on the Speke, departing in March 1808 for New South Wales (http://www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/hodgson). Other transported Hodgsons are detailed on that webpage. Jane was the earliest female.

Benjamin Thomas Hodgson (1811-1865) was convicted at a York (Leeds Borough) Quarter Session for a term of 7 years. He was one of 176 convicts transported on the Lord Melville on 29 May 1830 which arrived in New South Wales in 1831. (http://www.convictrecords.com.au/convicts/hodgson). He married Sarah Ann Say and they had children Rebecca, Martha, Benjamin, Joseph, Jane and Mary.

John Hodgson (1799-?) was born in Studley, Wadworth, Yorkshire in 1799. He and his wife, Annie Buckley Hodgson, and four children sailed from London and arrived in Sydney, Australia in 23 July 1837, on board the Abel Gower. Later that year they settled in Port Phillip (now Melbourne), where John Hodgson was to become Mayor and a member of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Victoria. His parents were William and Mary Hodgson. (Sources: Genealogical Society of Victoria, files of shipping lists from the Sydney Morning Herald; family records.)

Sir Arthur Hodgson (1818-1902) was a politician and squire. He was born on 29 June 1818 at Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England, the second son of Rev. Edward Hodgson (1776-1854) and his third wife Charlotte, daughter of Francis William Pemberton. In 1839 Arthur Hodgson went to Sydney in Australia. He entered political life as the prime mover of the Moreton Bay and Northern Districts Separation Association, but his trenchant advocacy of convict labour, colonial peerages, national education and a restricted franchise was unpopular with many. Hodgson won the Clarence and Darling Downs seat in the New South Wales parliament in 1858 and Newcastle in 1859. In 1868-69 he represented Warrego in the Queensland Legislative Assembly and served in Sir Robert's Mackenzie's ministry as secretary for public works and goldfields in September-November 1868 and as colonial secretary in the Lilley ministry from January to November 1869, when Hodgson left the colony. While travelling in England and Europe in 1862-67 he had represented Queensland at exhibitions in London and Paris; he played the same role at Vienna in 1874, Paris in 1878 and London in 1886. For these services he was appointed C.M.G. in 1878 and K.C.M.G. in 1886. (Sources: F. H. Hodgson, In Memory of Sir Arthur Hodgson (1904); https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hodgson-sir-arthur-1155.)

John Hodgson (1821-?) was born in February 1821, Carlisle, Cumberland, England. He arrived in Sydney on the Walter Morrice in 1849 and married Elizabeth Thompson in Parramatta. For further information see G. M. Hodgson Hodgson Saga, pp. 78-82.

James Charles Hodgson (1855-?) was born in Manchester, England. He attended the Quaker College in Pontefract in Yorkshire. He went to Australia as a sailor on the Thunderbolt from 26 Mar 1878 to 17 Aug 1878. He settled in Berwick, Victoria, married Kate Fraser 13 Apr 1881 and then moved to Wellington, New Zealand. (Source: Dorothy Stumer, a descendant. dotstumer@yahoo.com.au.)

Margaret Hodgson (1827-1909).was born in North Shields, Northumberland, England. She was the daughter of William Hodgson (born 1796) and Mary Ann from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland. She arrived in Australia on 23 July 1880 on the Ganmee. She died in 1909 in Jesmond, New South Wales, Australia.

Further information on the earliest Hodgsons to emigrate to Australia will be gratefully received and presented on this website.