John Grono

John Grono (c.1767- 4 May 1847) was a settler, sailor, ship builder, ship captain, sealer, whaler and farmer who migrated to Australia in 1799 from Wales. Captaining the ship the Governor Bligh, he would later go on to be the first European to fully explore and name parts of the south-western coast of New Zealand's south island including Milford Sound, Bligh Sound and Elizabeth Island.

Very little is known of Grono's life prior to his migration to Australia. He was born in Newport, Pembrokeshire, Wales around 1767. Navy records show Grono was involved in a number of navy operations beginning in 1790 when he entered the HMS Royal William as an AB (Able Seaman), suggesting he was already an experienced sailor at this time. He was married to Elisabeth Bristowe on the 20th of July 1790 in Surrey, England. By 1793 he was promoted to the rank of Boatswain's Mate.

On the 7th of January 1798 Grono joined the crew of HMS Buffalo as an AB and later that year was again promoted to Boatswain's Mate. On this ship, John, his wife Elisabeth and his three children travelled to Australia, arriving in N.S.W. on the 4th of May 1799. That year he was transferred from the HMS Buffalo to the Colonial Vessel Francis (the first vessel built in Australia), where he served as First Officer.

By mid-1801 he had left the colonial vessels and gone into a farming partnership with James Ryan.

John Grono and his wife Elisabeth Bristowe along with their young family took up land on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney, where they grew wheat.

In November, 1803, an ugly incident occurred. "On Tuesday last John Wilkinson and Wm. Pendle were examined before Richard Atkins, Esq. Judge Advocate, on a charge of violently assaulting an infant daughter of John Grono ; but the most material witnesses being resident at Hawkesbury, where the offence was committed, the business was necessarily referred to the Magistrate of that Settlement."

As it transpired, neither Wilkinson nor Pendle were the offenders. 'The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser' (SG&NSWA) of Sunday 25 March 1804, page 2, said "Hen. Wright was shortly since convicted of a violent assault upon an infant, and it being his third heinous offence received a severe corporal punishment, and a sentence of three years hard labour for the Crown, during the whole term to be exposed in the stocks for the space of two hours upon every Saturday. Such is the nature of the crime, that the miscreant is precluded from every hope of commiseration, and lives the object of reproach and scorn."

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