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Heard's boatshed
William Heard arrived in 1830 with his first wife Sara on one of Thomas Peel's ships as part of that unlucky man's ambitious but unsuccessful venture. They had no children, and she died aged 38. He married again, one year later, to Eliza, and they had three children. Once freed from his indentures to Peel, he was briefly an innkeeper, He took over the licence of Robert Collins's Commercial Hotel (later the Waterman's Arms) at Lot 41 Mouat Street. Heard offered the Waterman's Arms for sale in 1844. He then set up in business as a boatbuilder and sailmaker, so it suited him to have premises right on the river waterfront, at the end of Henry Street (before Phillimore Street existed). In 1848 his wife and children left the Swan colony for VDL. Perhaps Heard had died.
William Heard was noted by Hitchcock as the earliest known owner of Lot 56 (and Lot 55), in Henry Street.
Burke:
In 1844, William Heard and his second wife Eliza owned Fremantle town lots 55 and 56. Heard – a boat builder/sail maker – saw the riverside lots as the ideal location to ply his trade from a shed measuring 58 by 34 links (11.6 by 6.8 metres). (Burke, 2007.)
Lot 55 is now occupied by Notre Dame's building ND46: Health Sciences Research, designed by Marcus Collins. Lot 56 is an NDU carpark, but Lodge's Castle Hotel (later the Fremantle Club, then the Workers Club) stood there from c. 1860s.
Erickson:
HEARD, William, b. c. 1793, arr. 13.2.1830 per Hooghly with 1st wife Sara b. 1799 d. 30.4.1837, m. 2nd 14.6.1838 Eliza READ b. 1818 d. 31.8.1861 (SA), dtr. of James & Ruth. Chd. William b. 1840, Rosanna b. 1843, Eliza Selina b. 1845. Freed from his indentures with Peel, he became licensee of an inn at Fremantle, later setting up business as a sail- maker & storekeeper 1843. His wife & chd. dep. 25.11.1848 per Waterlily for Tasmania.
References and Links
Burke, Shane 2007, 'Fremantle's hidden history', Fremantle Studies, 5: 63-73.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 21 March, 2019 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/heard.html (it was last updated on 31 March, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.