Convict connections

The church, orphan school, rectory and out buildings were built by convicts (1828-1831). Apart from those on site, convicts were used to cut timber and stone and make the furnishings.

Convicts in nearby probation stations and hulks as well as those assigned as servants to local masters were required to attend church services and musters, as were those who were directly employed at the orphan school as nurses and domestics.

Children who were admitted to the orphan school were mostly convicts' children, and were not released until their parent/s had their Tickets of Leave and could care for their children. Many children were never released to their parents and were apprenticed out until they were 18 years of age. Most of them were not orphans bereft of both parents.

Many locally born children who were admitted, were children of ex-convicts who had either come upon hard times or were imprisoned.
After the orphan school closed in 1879, the buildings became home to the aged, infirm and homeless ex-convicts and ex-Queen's Orphan inmates and known as the New Town Charitable Institute.