John Warren

Who was John Warren?

John Vernon Warren was a convict transported to Western Australia. He was one of only 39 such convicts from the 9721 convicts transported to the colony to overcome the social stigma of convictism to become schoolteachers.

Born in 1826, Warren worked as a clerk in his youth, but in 1850 he was convicted of forging a bill of exchange, and sentenced to a lifetime of penal servitude. He was transported to Western Australia on board the William Jardine, arriving in August 1852. After receiving his ticket of leave, he taught at the Catholic school at York from 1860, and then at Newleyine from 1866 to 1868. He then moved to the Wicklow Hills school, prompting the closure of the Newleyine school. In 1870 he was dismissed for gross misconduct, but this did not stop him being appointed teacher at Dumbarton in 1872. In September 1874, Warren married Mary Ann Elizabeth Gould, a wealthy widow who owned a hotel and a farm. No longer needing to earn an income, he resigned as a teacher the following year. He sailed for Singapore in 1881.

The position of ex-convicts in the Australian penal colonies led to significant political conflict during the nineteenth century.