John Gavin

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On the sixth of April, 1844, John Gavin was the first European hanged in the Swan River Colony. He was fifteen years old. His crime, trial, and execution still stir controversy and passions almost one hundred and eighty years after the event.

John Gavin was a convicted street thief in Birmingham and became incarcerated at Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight. In 1843 he made the voyage to the Swan River Colony on the barque the 'Shepherd'. Subsequently he became an assigned servant on the Pollard family farm in North Dandalup.

Significant personalities like Guardian John Schoales, Barrister Richard Nash, and the Reverend George King had important roles to play in the Parkhurst apprentice's life.

John Gavin's life spanned approximately five thousand, five hundred days. The one hundred and sixty-three days he spent in the Swan River Colony have been reimagined here.