James Hasleby

James Hasleby (born 1833, Stamford Lincs UK; died 1903, Northampton, Western Australia), was an English convict transported to Western Australia. He was one of only 37 convicts transported to the colony to overcome the social stigma of convictism to become schoolteachers, and one of only four convicts to be elected a member of a local Education Board. Notably, given his previous conviction at the Old Bailey, in 1893 he was appointed Clerk of the Local Court at Northampton.

Little is known of James Hasleby's early life. Born in 1833, he worked as a clerk. At the Old Bailey in February 1864 he pleaded guilty to three indictments for embezzlement, after a former conviction at Preston in October, 1856 and was sentenced to eight years penal servitude.

Hasleby was transported to Western Australia on board the Norwood, arriving in July 1867. He received a ticket of leave in 1868, and taught at the Greenhills School, now Irishtown, near Northam until receiving a Conditional Pardon in 1870, when he resigned from teaching. He received his Certificate of Freedom in 1872. In 1873 he advertised himself as a storekeeper and in October 1873 leased the Avon Bridge Hotel. He employed a number of ticket of leave convicts in his businesses. In 1873 he married Eliza Barlow, with whom he would have seven children. Hasleby served as Honorary Secretary of the Northam Farmers' Club, and in 1874 was elected a member of the local Education Board. A prestigious and respected body, only three other convicts achieved membership of a local Education Board: Daniel Connor, Malachi Meagher and Herman Moll. He also became involved in a venture that intended to establish a second, co-operative, Northam flour mill. Hasleby's leasehold of the Avon Bridge Hotel unfortunately coincided with the rise of the temperance movement in Australia in general, and in Northam in particular, and by December 1875 he became insolvent. With the hotel sold by the owner, he returned to teaching. The new owner was no more successful and in 1881 the hotel was shut down.

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