Richard Siddins was an Australian Master Mariner, Harbour Pilot and Lighthouse Keeper.
18 Facts About Richard Siddins
1.
2.
Richard Siddins was born in 1770 in County Louth, Ireland and died on 2 July 1846 in New South Wales, Australia.
3.
Richard Siddins had three sons and ten daughters from three different wives.
4.
Richard Siddins had been married to Catherine Keenan and Eleanor Cooper becoming the father of William Keenan and Rebecca Cooper.
5.
At the time Siddins was 45, while Jane was 16, although in the Church register it had been written Siddins was 35, and Jane 22.
6.
In 1823 Richard Siddins applied for the position of harbour pilot in Sydney.
7.
Richard Siddins became superintendent of the South Head Lighthouse in 1832.
8.
Richard Siddins worked mainly for the Port Jackson merchants Lord, Kable and Underwood, ex-convicts who made their fortunes building Australia's export-import trade.
9.
The letters confirm that Captain Richard Siddins built the Greenwich Pier and after his death his son Joseph succeeded him as superintendent of the South Head lighthouse.
10.
Richard Siddins was one of the earliest and best known merchant sea captains sailing out of Port Jackson.
11.
From 1804 to 1822 Richard Siddins helped reap the vast harvest of seals and sandalwood on behalf of the Sydney traders.
12.
Richard Siddins took cargoes to China and India for them, and brought back Asian goods for the colonial stores.
13.
Richard Siddins arrived in Australia, to New South Wales, in 1804 aboard the English whaler Alexander.
14.
Richard Siddins was in Port Jackson in 1806 aboard the King George and at the end of 1807 he brought cargoes of sandalwood, seal oil and seal furs to Port Jackson.
15.
In Sydney, 1811, Richard Siddins was employed by ship owner Joseph Underwood as Captain of the Campbell Macquarie.
16.
In 1811 and in 1812 Richard Siddins returned to India on the Campbell Macquarie and later in that year arrived in Port Jackson with prisoners and a cargo of spirits.
17.
When Richard Siddins landed on Macquarie island in 1812, he met the Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen there.
18.
The letter states that Captain Richard Siddins built the home which later became the Greenwich Pier or Vaucluse Hotel.