Henry Browne Hayes

Sir Henry Browne Hayes (1762–1832) was a landowner and Sheriff of Cork City in Ireland. Convicted of the kidnap of a wealthy heiress in Cork, he was subject to penal transportation to New South Wales in 1802 where he built Vaucluse House near Sydney. He was pardoned in 1812 and returned to Ireland. Surviving a shipwreck at the Falkland Islands on the return journey, he retired in Cork where he died in 1832.

Early life and family
Hayes was born in Ireland, the son of Attiwell Hayes (d.1799) a wealthy brewer and miller. Henry Browne Hayes was admitted a freeman of the city of Cork in November 1782 and married Elizabeth Smyth in 1783. The couple had one son and three daughters. He was one of Cork's sheriffs in 1790 and was knighted in the same year.

Kidnapping and trial
Following the death of his wife, in 1794, he became acquainted with Miss Mary Pike, heiress to over £20,000. On 22 July 1797, he abducted her and took her to his house at Vernon Mount near Douglas. In spite of Miss Pike's protestations, a man dressed as a priest was brought in who went through a form of a marriage ceremony. Miss Pike refused to consider it a marriage, and was eventually rescued by some of her relatives. Hayes fled, and a reward of £1000 was offered for his apprehension.

Hayes was not found until two years later, when he walked into the shop of an old friend of the family who lived on Cork's Grand Parade. Hayes suggested that the family friend, a Mr. Coghlan, should claim the reward - which he reportedly did.

The trial which followed did not begin until April 1801. It created much interest being described as "one of the sensations of the day" and seeing Hayes accompanied by "numerous and influential friends". The prosecution was led by John Philpot Curran. After one hour's deliberation, Hayes was found guilty and recommended to mercy. At first condemned to death, his sentence was commuted to transportation for life.

Penal transportation and life in Australia
Sailing to Australia on the Atlas, Hayes arrived in New South Wales on 6 July 1802. Hayes was not short of money and had lightened the privations of the voyage by paying the captain a considerable sum so that he might mess with him. However, Hayes quarrelled with Surgeon Thomas Jamison who was on the same vessel, and when Hayes arrived he was sentenced to six months imprisonment "for his threatening and improper conduct".

Once in Sydney, Hayes made himself a nuisance to Governor Philip Gidley King by consorting with the "wilder spirits" among the Irish convicts, and by trying to form a freemason's lodge after permission to hold a meeting for this purpose had been refused. King called him "a restless, troublesome character". According to the Australian Dictionary of Biography, a meeting held by Hayes on 14 May 1803 is "regarded as the foundation day of Freemasonry in Australia".

In 1803, he purchased a property near the city and called it "Vaucluse". Vaucluse House was later purchased by William Wentworth. Hayes surrounded his property with turf from Ireland to keep out the snakes which were common in the area; the tactic appeared to work. When the troubles between the military and Governor William Bligh began, Hayes took the side of the governor and was sent to the coal mines at Newcastle. Bligh would have pardoned him if he could have obtained possession of the great seal and, after Lachlan Macquarie came, Hayes was pardoned in 1812.

Later life and legacy
Hayes sailed back to Europe in December 1812, surviving a shipwreck at the Falkland Islands. The vessel on which he sailed, the Isabella, also carried the United Irishman Joseph Holt and an account of their shipwreck can be found in the Memoirs of Joseph Holt.

Hayes lived in retirement in Ireland for nearly 20 years, and died in Cork in April or May 1832 aged 70 years. He was buried in the crypt of Christ Church, Cork.

A 2017 play, titled Sir Henry, was based on the life of Hayes.