William Broughton
- First Fleet - Charlotte - servant to Surgeon John White - storekeeper Parramatta - Norfolk Island - acting deputy commissary - Elizabeth Heathorn (alias Ann Glossop) - Van Diemans Land - City of Edinburgh - magistrate - Parramatta - Elizabeth Simpson - Acting Assistant Commissary General - Hobart -
William Broughton sailed on the First Fleet aboard Charlotte as servant to Surgeon John White.
On 20 February 1789 he was appointed storekeeper at Parramatta, and received a 30 acre grant at Concord in December 1793, then in July 1795 he and three N.S.W. Corps privates were jointly granted 100 acres at North Brush in the Field of Mars area. The property was named Chatham Farm and by mid 1800, under Broughton’s control was sown with 16 acres of wheat, grazing seven sheep three pigs, three goats and two horses. He also acquired other property in the Parramatta area.
In December 1800 Broughton was sent to Norfolk Island as storekeeper and acting deputy commissary where he had several small leases and sold provisions to the stores. He and Elizabeth Heathorn (alias Ann Glossop) had five children and they all left Norfolk Island for Van Diemans Land on 3 September 1808 on the City of Edinburgh.
In November 1809 Elizabeth Heathorn and the youngest child Betsey, sailed from Port Jackson on the Boyd, bound for the Cape of Good Hope. The ship called at New Zealand on the voyage and was captured by Maoris. Elizabeth and most of the passengers and crew were massacred, but two year old Betsey, a women and two other children were spared. They were rescued and taken on board the City of Edinburgh bound for England which was damaged at Cape Horn and diverted to Peru.
Betsey was looked after by a Spanish couple and sent back to Sydney via Rio and reunited with her father at Sydney in March 1812 when she would have been 5 years old. In gratitude Broughton had a portrait painted of the child and sent it to the couple in Peru which has survived along with Boughton ‘s letter.
Broughton was appointed a magistrate in 1809 and married Elizabeth Simpson in Parramatta in 1810 and she had five children by him.
Broughton became acting assistant commissary general in 1814 and was sent to Hobart for nearly two years.
He had received a grant of 1000 acres at Appin in 1811, known as Lachlan Valley, and it was there that he died in 1821, his age given as 53. His mother, who had joined him there, died in 1823 and his wife died in 1843.
In his will he stressed that all his children, whether illegitimate or legitimate were each to receive an equal share of the estate, urging the executors to "work together guided by the same parental feelings and lively and affectionate solicitude as led me to make this will providing for my numerous and dearly loved family.”