'Henry Apperley was a sculptor who worked on the London Houses of Parliament prior to emigrating to Australia in 1854 as part of the gold rushes. He worked in Melbourne producing sculptures and in 1868 moved to Sydney where he worked on the Rookwood Mortuary Station. In 1871 and 1872 Apperley exhibited "The Visit of Hope to Sydney Cove, 1789" at the Academy of Art and at the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition respectively. Apperley gave one copy of the bas relief to The Free Public Library and the other is in the collection of the Australiana Fund. Apperley's bas relief of 1870 is an enlarged copy of the Wedgwood Sydney Cove medallion of 1789 modelled by Henry Webber. The Sydney Cove medallion was made from Sydney clay, dug at Sydney Cove in 1788 and sent by Governor Arthur Phillip to Sir Joseph Banks, who passed it onto Josiah Wedgwood of the Wedgwood company. ' Apperley died in Sydney in 1887.

After Henry Apperley's departure for Sydney in 1868, his brother-in-law, George Wellstead, became the owner of the cottages until 1874 when Frederick Hewlett purchased them. He remained the owner until at least 1890.