The Face of a Third Fleet Convict

Portraits of convicts who arrived in the early years of the settlement are rare – two definite for the First Fleet, one for the Second Fleet, two for the Third Fleet. So, it is noteworthy when another is found.

The State Library of NSW has recently discovered that it holds a portrait, drawn by Charles Rodius, of the emancipated convict, Francis Cox, blacksmith and locksmith, who arrived on the Britannia in 1791 (along with one of his wife Frances Morton, who arrived several years later).

The assumption had always been that it was a drawing of William Cox, the soldier settler who supervised the construction of the first road across the Blue Mountains. But in researching an exhibition on Charles Rodius at the State Library (which ran from 17 June 2023 to 12 May 2024), the art historian and curator, David Hanson, concluded that it was much more likely to be Francis Cox.

The portrait came to the library from Robert Henry Hill, who was descended from Francis and Frances Cox (as was the family of William Charles Wentworth, who married their daughter). It was made in 1830, the year before Cox’s death in Sydney at the age of 86, by which time he had become a respectable tradesman living close to the waterfront (where Circular Quay now stands).

The catalogue for the exhibition identifies the sitter as Francis Cox, but Hanson passed away suddenly in January this year, and there has been a delay in updating the library’s catalogue, which at the time of posting still described the subject of the portrait as William Cox.