Samuel Crabb

Samuel Crabb and his brother William were both transported to Sydney aboard the 'Portsea' in 1838. They were both sent from Sydney to Moreton Bay in July 1839 on the boat 'Curlew' as part of a group of 'ordinary' convicts sent to maintain the buildings, herds and crops at Moreton Bay until the district was opened to free settlement in 1842. The penal station (for convicts found guilty of committing an offence in New South Wales) had closed in May 1839, so the 'ordinary' convicts who arrived in July that year weren't being punished by being sent to Moreton Bay; it was just another convict assignment they were required to undertake while still under their original sentence of transportation.

After about six years at Moreton Bay, Samuel received a ticket of leave for the district in 1845 and a conditional pardon in 1850. From 1845 when he received a ticket of leave, Samuel was effectively on parole as a convict. That is, he had behaved well during the 7 years since he had been transported to NSW in 1838, so he was granted a ticket of leave allowing him to remain at Moreton Bay and, having continued to behave well in Queensland, was pardoned in 1850, thus ending his convict sentence. There were hundreds of other New South Wales convicts with tickets of leave for Moreton Bay at this time who were working on properties and in businesses in Brisbane, Ipswich, the Darling Downs, Wide Bay, etc., so this wasn't at all uncommon. 

Elizabeth Fitzpatrick applied to the Governor of New South Wales for permission to marry Samuel in 1844 but her application was refused. She was undeterred and sought permission to marry from Reverend Hanly of the Roman Catholic Church in Brisbane in December 1845. With this permission being granted the couple married in January 1846.

Samuel worked as an overseer for Richard Joseph Smith for sixteen years, working at the boiling down works at Kangaroo Point and at Town Marie. The Kangaroo Point operation which opened in 1847 was closed in December 1848 and Town Marie was established at Karalee by May 1849. Accounts in the local Ipswich newspaper report that Elizabeth was at Town Marie in 1857, so it appears that Samuel and Elizabeth lived at Town Marie before Samuel's death in 1863.

Samuel's death notice in June 1863, noted that:

He was a good and faithful servant, and much respected by all who knew him.

Elizabeth returned to Kangaroo Point, probably in 1863 after the death of Samuel. In 1874, she placed an advertisement in The Brisbane Courier looking for a housekeeper to take care of one or two children and this older woman also needed to have good needlework skills. Elizabeth died in April 1879 and friends invited people to attend the funeral which left from her home in Kangaroo Point. On 15 April of that year, Elizabeth's estate was to be auctioned in Main Street, Kangaroo Point. Items to be sold included a cedar chiffonier, bedsteads, bedding, crockery, pictures, a box of shoemaker's lasts, leather and tools, boxes of clothing, washstands, toilet set, firewood, cutlery and sundries.

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