In his 1867 autobiography Days of Crime and Years of Suffering, Owen Hargraves Suffolk says he was born in ‘Finchley, in Middlesex, in 1832’. When he arrived in Geelong on the Joseph Somes as an 'exile' (i.e. convict), on 24 September 1847, his age was recorded as seventeen, suggesting a birth date of 1829 or 1830.
Suffolk was transported for forgery. In the Port Phillip District, he worked initially as a tutor, but encounters with the law saw him serving further sentences. He was placed variously in road gangs and confined to prison. Having gained his ticket-of-leave, Suffolk was again incarcerated after it was discovered he had forged prison records while jailed. His freedom, regained in 1857, was brief. In 1858, Suffolk was sentenced for horse-stealing and sent to Pentridge Prison, and it was here that he wrote his account of his life in crime. Suffolk was freed in 1866 and departed for England soon after. Prior to his departure, the Argus newspaper purchased the autobiography and it was published in serialised form in the Australasian between January and October 1867.
Various accounts exist of Suffolk’s life after his return to England. The Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) states that ‘his fate is unknown’, while David Dunstan, in the introduction to the book publication of Days of Crime and Years of Suffering (2000), cites a reference claiming that Suffolk ‘was returned to the English prison system where ... he died’ (xli). ADB also notes an article by 'Old Chum' (J. M. Forde), titled ‘Early Melbourne’ (Truth, March-June 1911), in which Forde refers to Suffolk being in trouble with the law in the English Midlands.
An entirely different version is provided in a report carried by the Melbourne Herald (and reproduced in several colonial newspapers) in 1868. That report claims that, taking up residence in England, Suffolk spruiked his ‘squatting and banking interest in Australia, also admitting that he had dabbled in journalism, and was part proprietor of the Melbourne Argus’. The newspaper column goes on to say that, having married a financially comfortable widow, Suffolk took his bride boating ‘in a wherry near Richmond’. Having orchestrated the capsising of the boat, ‘Suffolk got clear away, the police thinking he was drowned. A paragraph, evidently written by himself, headed “Melancholy Accident to an Australian Gentleman”, appeared in the papers, and regret was evinced that his body was lost in a “public river”.’ The account concludes that ‘it was ultimately discovered that he escaped to America with his wife’s moneys’ and ‘by the latest advices he was enjoying himself in New York’.
Several writers have suggested that Suffolk's life may have influenced the development of Marcus Clarke's character Rufus Dawes in His Natural Life; J. F. Hogan, in 'The Prison Poet of Australia', also draws parallels between Suffolk's experiences and those of Rolf Boldrewood's character Dick Marston in Robbery Under Arms: A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Goldfields of Australia
Sources: Eastwood, Jill. 'Suffolk, Owen Hargraves (1830–?)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Web: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/suffolk-owen-hargraves-4665/text7713
Sighted: 6 May 2014
and
'The Career of a Talented Scoundrel'. Empire 26 Sep 1868: 2. Web: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60827624
Sighted: 6 May 2014.
