THE HISTORY
1810 – 1815 WILLIAM SHERRARD
William Sherrard is a person who appears to have changed his name between the time of his trial in England, and his arrival in Port Phillip Bay with Lieutenant Governor David Collins. No record of his crime and sentencing has been found, but his time in Van Diemen’s Land is well recorded in primary documents. In these he is noted as a convict who has trade skills as a stonemason and bricklayer, where his name is sometimes spelled as Sherrard or Sherard.
Receiving a conditional pardon from his sentence, he purchased and extended the building on the Bank Arcade site, before selling it to John Pearsall. Sherrard then purchased 50 acres of land in the Hobart Town region where he lived until his death.
In 1810, the window in the basement was at the front of the building, offering views across most of the settlement, down the rivulet and into the harbour. The only other remaining structure in 2020 from that time was the partly-constructed Commissariat, now at the site of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The cobbled ground outside the window sloped gently towards the rivulet where small boats carried goods as far as the crossing, near the point that would later become Elizabeth Street.
Looking south from the window was a cobbled path leading to a boat landing point on the rivulet. The rivulet had scattered trees and ti-tree scrub along its visible length.