The convict who wrote a dictionary

Spread on the table in front of him were sheets of paper, a pot of ink, a small knife and a quill.

NIGHT HAD FALLEN on the new penal settlement north of Sydney town. It was June 1812 and its name, Newcastle, had just been proclaimed – or rather, borrowed from the coal port in northeastern England – as the permanent replacement for the earlier title of Coal River. The long, low wooden barracks was in darkness except for a flickering glow that could be seen through a small open window at one end.

The light was coming from a candle sputtering on the table at which the convict residents had eaten their evening meal. Still sitting there was a man of 30 wearing the grey flannel of a convict. Spread on the table in front of him were sheets of paper, a pot of ink, a small knife and a quill. This was James Hardy Vaux, and he was writing Australia’s first dictionary.

Born in 1782, Vaux grew up in the Shropshire market town of Shifnal. His father worked as a butler in a grand English house and his grandfather was a lawyer. He received a good education at a local grammar