There was a convict who could genuinely lay claim to be the King of Ipswich in Queensland. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

Edward Hartwell, I don’t know his crime, but he was convicted at the Liverpool Quarter Sessions then in Lancaster, England, and sentenced to seven years transportation. He arrived in New South Wales on the 27^th of July 1838 which is 188 years ago this month.

Hartwell went by many names and was always intriguing.

In 1847 he was arrested in Melbourne for tendering a bounced cheque. The public considered this a curious case because Hartwell was known to have had significant funds in the bank some time earlier.

The following year in 1848, the convict, now known by the fuller name of Edward Thomas Hartwell, was charged in Sydney with forging cheques and was committed to gaol at his own request. This was apparently so that a wound, received during his arrest and which had become infected, could in fact heal. People also thought this curious because Hartwell was very respectably connected with a relation on the surgical staff of the colony.

As a result of the forged cheques, Hartwell was sentenced to five years hard labour on Cockatoo Island which was the penal establishment for repeat offenders in the middle of Sydney Harbour. He was there at the same time as the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. Hartwell was clearly a recidivist, gaining and losing his ticket-of-leave while being convicted in Melbourne, Sydney, and Maitland, so he would continue to move between the colonies.

Released in late 1856, Hartwell went north to the Moreton Bay settlement going by the name of Charles Edwards. It was in the Burnett district that he was accused of horse stealing. The government resident for Moreton Bay was Captain John Wickham. Without any actual evidence for the horse stealing, Wickham summarily ruled that Hartwell or Edwards should be sent back to Cockatoo Island because it had been clearly proved that he was totally unfit to hold a ticket-of-leave.

Come 1858, Hartwell was again in the Moreton Bay district out in Ipswich when he was granted another ticket-of-leave. This meant he was effectively on parole but had to remain in the Ipswich region.

The following year in 1859, with Captain Wickham having recently left the colony, Hartwell assumed Wickham’s rank and was now going by the name of Captain Edwards.

Hartwell or Captain Edwards was again charged with forgery, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to another five years of penal servitude. The sentencing judge said that Hartwell was incorrigible and that reform for him was a hopeless idea.

The presiding judge was someone known to be a superior judge of men. He was none other than the first supreme court judge of Queensland, Mr Justice Alfred Lutwyche. Justice Lutwyche considered, as well as being incorrigible, that Hartwell appeared to be a person of education. So much so that Justice Lutwyche carefully listened to every word that Hartwell said in defence, although obviously disregarded him in the sentencing.

Throughout Hartwell’s curious career as a convict, he always had the air and carriage of a well-born man. As he aged, he was a fine-looking grey-haired man, who people said had the appearance of an individual who has seen better days.

So who was this Edward Hartwell or so-called Captain Edwards of the Ipswich and West Moreton district? Well, Hartwell claimed that he was the illegitimate son of King George IV.

King George IV was known for his indulgent lifestyle, extravagant parties, and a personal life marked by scandal. Hartwell would not have been the king’s only illegitimate child, and so the story could well have been true. None of Hartley’s contemporaries left a record that disputed the claim.

The last record I found of Edward Hartwell alias Captain Edwards was in 1864. That’s when he was released from His Majesty’s (His Father’s) Gaol for the last time. It could be entirely true that the mysterious forger Hartwell was indeed the son of King George, and so can rightfully be called the King of Ipswich where he ended his career.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
The Convict King of Ipswich – Harold Peacock with Copilot
Cockatoo Island prison barracks – Matthew Machado Wikipedia Commons.
Captain John Wickham in uniform, 1820 – Brisbane City Council.
Photograph of an oil painting of Judge Lutwyche – Queensland State Archives.
King George IV – Photo by The Lost Gallery on Flickr.