William Henry Perrin (1831–1903) was a

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former convicts ...

transported ''Transported'' is an Australian convict melodrama film directed by W. J. Lincoln. It is considered a lost film. Plot In England, Jessie Grey is about to marry Leonard Lincoln but the evil Harold Hawk tries to force her to marry him and she ...

to colonial Western Australia, who later became one of the

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

's ex-convict school teachers. Born in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in 1831, Perrin was married with two children, and working as a

grocer A grocery store (American English, AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop (British English, BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food Product (business), products, which may be Fresh food, fresh or Food p ...

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts record keeping as well as general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include Records managem ...

, when he was convicted of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person ...

and sentenced to fifteen years' transportation. He arrived in Western Australia on board in February 1861, and received his

ticket of leave A ticket of leave was a document of parole issued to convicts who had shown they could now be trusted with some freedoms. Originally the ticket was issued in United Kingdom, Britain and later adapted by the United States, Canada, and Ireland. ...

the following year. He was employed by the Dempster family at their Wongamine farm, and later purchased a small block of land on the boundary of their estate. In 1868, Perrin began teaching a small class of children there. The following year he received a government grant of for a school site, and a small schoolhouse was built. He was officially appointed a government schoolmaster in 1871, and later that year he married Elizabeth Woolhouse. William Perrin ran his school for nearly thirty years, teaching his children and some of his grandchildren there. He eventually retired in 1899 or 1900, and died in 1903.

General references

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin, William Henry 1831 births 1903 deaths Convicts transported to Western Australia Settlers of Western Australia Australian schoolteachers