Cable v Sinclair: the first court case in Australia
Six months after the First Fleet dropped anchor, two convicts walked into a colonial courtroom and sued a ship’s captain — and won. It sounds unlikely, and by the law of the day it should have been impossible. The case is remembered as Cable v Sinclair, and it is usually counted as the first civil action ever decided in Australia.
A parcel that went missing
The story starts in England. After the newspapers carried the tale of Susannah Holmes and her baby, sympathetic strangers raised a subscription of about £20 and bought the young family a parcel of goods to start life in the new colony — clothing, linen and books. The parcel was loaded aboard the transport Alexander, under her master Duncan Sinclair, to be carried out with the Fleet.
When it was finally handed over at Sydney Cove, most of it had vanished. Only a few pounds’ worth of books were left. For a family that owned almost nothing, it was a real loss — and Henry Kable decided to do something about it.
Two convicts, one courtroom
In July 1788, the colony’s Court of Civil Jurisdiction, under the judge-advocate David Collins, heard the Kables’ claim against Sinclair. The court found for them and ordered the captain to pay £15 in damages. On the face of it, an everyday dispute about lost luggage.
Except that Henry and Susannah were convicts. In England they were what the lawyers called “dead in law” — a person under sentence could not own property, sign a contract or bring a case to court. By that reasoning the Kables had no standing to sue at all. The court in Sydney heard them anyway.
Why a small case still matters
That decision quietly set a marker. If a convict could sue and recover their goods, then convicts in the colony had rights the law at home would have denied them — and once you can hold property and defend it, you can build something. Historians have long pointed to Cable v Sinclair as an early sign that New South Wales would not simply be England’s prison, but a society where emancipated convicts could own farms, run businesses and go to law like anyone else. Henry Kable himself went on to prove the point, ending his life as one of the wealthiest men in the colony.
Son of the First Fleet sets the case inside the wider Kable family history, showing how the missing parcel connects to the family whose story the book follows.
Common questions about Cable v Sinclair
What was Cable v Sinclair?
Cable v Sinclair was a civil case heard at Sydney in July 1788, in which the convict Henry Kable and his wife Susannah sued Duncan Sinclair, master of the transport Alexander, over a parcel of their goods that went missing on the voyage. The court found for the Kables and awarded them £15. It is generally regarded as the first civil action decided in Australia.
Why did it matter that a convict could sue?
Under English law of the time, convicts were treated as "dead in law" — they could not own property or bring an action in court. By hearing the Kables’ claim, the colonial court set an early precedent that emancipated convicts had legal and property rights, which became important to the economy and society of New South Wales.
Who decided the case?
It was heard by the colony’s Court of Civil Jurisdiction, presided over by the judge-advocate David Collins. The court ordered Duncan Sinclair to pay the Kables £15 for the missing goods.