Howard's ancentors

Howard's secret criminal past By Melissa Stevens February 14, 2007 12:00 DURING his almost 11 years as Prime Minister, John Howard has had his fair share to say about law and order. But our nation's leader is among the many Australians who can lay claim to having ancestors in his family tree who arrived in Australia in chains. Mr Howard is descended from convicts through both his father and mother's lines. His father Lyall Howard's maternal great-great-grandfather William Tooley was convicted of complicity in the theft of a tortoiseshell watch and transported for life on the Fanny in 1816. Mr Howard's mother's maternal ancestry also began in Australia through a convict forebear – Thomas Barker was transported for life after being convicted of two counts of robbery, arriving on the Bengal Merchant in 1835.