General News
12 May, 2026
Phillip Gidley King: Ambition, Love and Betrayal
While absence makes the heart grow fonder, it is also the breeding ground for concern in matters of the heart. Ann Innett waited patiently for 18 months for the man who had offered her security, a family and hopefully, enduring love.
As the HMS Gorgon entered Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) in September 1791, Ann Inett waited patiently and expectantly ashore.
At her side was fourteen months old Sydney King and two and a half years old Norfolk King, the sons of the man they were waiting for, Phillip Gidley King.
It had been a long lonely wait of eighteen months at a time when the colony was on reduced rations and starvation was a serious problem.
Ann was confident that Phillip Gidley King had established a loving relationship with her but very much aware that she was a convict and he was a high ranking officer.
We can only imagine the pain that Ann Inett must have felt when she first spotted Gidley King on the deck of the Gorgon because at his side was a young woman who appeared to be pregnant.
Anna Josepha King (nee Coombe) was 26 years old as she stood alongside her husband Phillip Gidley King waiting expectantly to go ashore.
She was Gidley King’s cousin but had only known each other for a matter of weeks before the rushed marriage.
Both sets of parents were in favour of the relationship but Gidley King had failed to address the “elephant in the room” regarding his two young sons to his convict mistress.
When and how he addressed this delicate issue we cannot be sure but in Sue Williams’ book she writes that Gidley King had in fact not addressed the issue and if true the most awkward of meetings unfolded on the wharf at Sydney Cove.
What we know for sure is that Ann Inett definitely had no prior knowledge that King was now married as she waited for him to arrive.
As foolish as Gidley King was to create this predicament he was about to learn that the two women he had fallen in love with were remarkable, intelligent, mature women with a great capacity for forgiveness.
King had betrayed both women and they had ample reason to feel emotions ranging from anger, hatred, despair and certainly betrayal.
Anna Josepha could have caught the next ship back to England but she didn’t.
Ann Inett could have refused King permission to see his sons but she didn’t.
Gidley King had only four weeks in Sydney town before he was due to sail for Norfolk Island.
Against the odds in that time Ann Inett and Anna Josepha King met privately and somehow made arrangements to make the best from a bad situation.
These extraordinary women came up with extraordinary solutions to the problems.
Ann Inett would remain in Sydney town and Gidley King would arrange and pay for her accommodation and some living expenses.
However, the most extraordinary result of their meeting was that the oldest son, Norfolk, would return with King and Anna to Norfolk Island.
Here he would stay until old enough to go England where he could receive a better education than was available in Sydney or Norfolk Island.
Ann would have to give up her son after having been taken away from her other children, Thomas and Constance.
She must have been devastated but saw the advantages for her son.
This situation could only work because of the promise Anna Josepha gave to Ann that she would constantly write informing her of how Norfolk was progressing.
Anna Josepha was true to her word and over the next few years kept Ann up to date with Norfolk’s life on the island.
The regular communication between the women had an unexpected outcome in that their relationship began to develop into a strong friendship that interestingly lasted for the rest of their lives.
Gidley King was disappointed to learn that while away the situation on the island had deteriorated under the aggressive and divisive Major Ross.
In a letter to the Admiralty back in England he wrote:
“I found discord and strife on every person’s countenance and in every corner of the island. I am pestered with complaints, bitter revilings, back biting.”
While Gidley King worked to restore order on the island, Anna Josepha worked hard to make the almost three years old Norfolk feel at home and loved in his new surroundings.
One month after arriving at Norfolk Island, Anna gave birth to a healthy boy they named Phillip Parker.
Gidley King once again had a family with two sons and a loving wife to make his time on the island an enjoyable one.
He had much to thank for the generosity, compassion and understanding of his extraordinary wife.
Anna made friends on the island including Elizabeth Paterson the wife of Captain William Paterson the commander of the island’s soldiers who sailed with them from Sydney.
In testament to Anna’s total lack of jealousy she also befriended previous close friends of Ann Inett on the island.
One such friend was Olivia Gascoigne-Lucas a convict who came out with Ann Inett on the Lady Penrhyn.
Anna’s friendship with Olivia would prove to be a close and lasting one and highlights her lack of concern over class distinction.
Gidley King’s young secretary, William Chapman, described Anna as a pleasure for any person to be near her.
While Anna and Phillip Gidley King settled into life on Norfolk Island Ann Inett set about restoring her life after the disappointments of losing Gidley King and being separated from her son, Norfolk.
Throughout her life Ann displayed an enormous resilience to pick up the pieces and build a new life after major setbacks.
She was certainly due for some good luck and it came on 18th November 1792 when she married the convict Richard Robinson.
Robinson had been convicted of horse stealing in England and transported to New South Wales where he was a model convict.
Some historians suggest Gidley King may have helped arrange the marriage but as he was in Norfolk Island at the time it seems unlikely.
Regardless, the marriage appears to have been a successful and loving one and the couple eventually settled in Parramatta where they established a successful hotel while farming several acres in the area.
More joy, although short lived, came to Ann when her son, Norfolk, arrived by boat from Norfolk Island in December 1793.
Six years old Norfolk had four weeks staying with his mother before he was booked to sail to England to begin his education.
Ann had not seen him for two years and she surely packed as much motherly love into that short time as possible.
By 1796 the stress of working as Lieutenant Governor of Norfolk island and King’s love of a glass or two of port each night began to take its toll on his health.
King had developed gout which constantly racked his body in pain and they started to think about leaving Norfolk Island.
Finally in October 1796 Gidley King and Anna Josepha loaded their son, Phillip and new daughters Anna Maria and baby Utricia onto the store ship Britannia for the short sail back to Sydney town.
In Sydney they picked up Gidley King’s other son, Sydney, for the voyage to England where he would begin his education just like his brother, Norfolk.
Once again Ann was forced to see one of her children leave her without knowing when and if she might ever see him again.
Ann Inett the convict and Anna Josepha, the Governor’s wife had made the most of the cards that life had dealt them.
However, there were still many twists and turns to come in the years ahead for these two amazing women.
In next week’s Clifton Courier, Phillip Gidley King returns to the New South Wales colony but this time as Governor.
Ann and Richard Robinson open another hotel in Sydney and are given land grants for their continued hard work in the colony.
Ann and Anna Josepha find their relationship has developed into a strong friendship that neither would have thought possible when they met for the first time on the Sydney docksides.
