Scarborough was named after the town on the East Coast of England where it was built in 1782. She was a 430 ton, three-masted cargo ship; 111 feet 6 inches (34 m) long and 30 feet 2 inches (9.2 m) wide. The owners Thomas, George and John Hopper (or Hooper) charted her to the Admiralty, and after transporting convicts to New South Wales, Scarborough was under contract to work for the East India Company. On the voyage to Botany Bay, Scarborough was captained by Master John Marshall with Surgeon Continue Reading »
Elizabeth Hayward
Our story begins with the birth of a daughter to Samuel and Elizabeth Haywood, on 20 July 1773 in Stepney, of the Parish of St Mary White Chapel, whom they named Elizabeth. On Wednesday 10 January 1787, Elizabeth Haywood/Heywood/Hayward, aged 13 years, was tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr Recorder at Justice Hall in the Old Bailey. Her occupation at the time was a clog maker, and she was apprenticed to a Mr Thomas Cross. A month previous, on 19 December 1786, Elizabeth Continue Reading »
Andrew Goodwin : Lydia Munro
Thomas Warton observed two young men walking down Theobalds Road, London on a summers evening in June 1784, carrying a load of lead on their shoulders. Thinking it was an unreasonable hour for this type of activity, Warton reported them to a watchman on duty. Both gave chase and after a struggle the young men were taken into custody. A month later, on Wednesday 7 July 1784, William Butler and ANDREW GOODWIN stood accused in the Justice Hall of the Old Bailey court for feloniously Continue Reading »
Golden Grove
Built in Whitby in 1780, Golden Grove was one of the three store-ships that were owned by Leighton. She weighed 331 tons, with 5’6” height between decks afore, 5’5” midships and 5”1” abaft. The store-ships, Borrowdale, Fishburn and Golden Grove were men of war and transports; they had stored in every part, provisions, implements of agriculture, camp equipage, clothing for the convicts, baggage, provisions for two years and such other articles as were considered necessary to a Continue Reading »
Marines
The First Fleet Marines Marines were first raised in England in 1664 as the Lord Admiral’s Regiment. In 1703 three Marine regiments were raised, becoming the 30th, 31st and 32nd Regiments of Foot. Between 1740 and 1748, ten regiments of the line were detailed for marine service as the 1st and 10th Regiments of Marines. From 1755 and 1802, there were fifty independent companies of marines permanently in service. In 1802, the Marines became a Royal Corps and tradition has it that this honour was Continue Reading »
John White
First Fleet’s Surgeon-General John White, destined afterwards to play an important part in the founding of the Colony of New South Wales, was born in Sussex in 1750, possibly at Worthing, but we have no record of the exact place of his birth, of who or what his forefathers may have been. (Researchers have since discovered that John White was born around 1756, the son of John White of Drumaran, near Mullaghdun, County Fermanagh, Ireland. He had at least one brother Thomas and one sister Jane. Continue Reading »
John Palmer
The Colony’s First Principal Commissary John Palmer (1760 – 1833) the first Commissary-General of New South Wales, was born in England. Entering the navy, he had experience in the War of American Independence, during which he was for some time a prisoner, and while in New York in 1783 he married an American. In October 1786 he joined HMS Sirius as purser, voyaged in her to New South Wales with the First Fleet, and continued to serve in her until she was wrecked on Norfolk Island in 1790. Continue Reading »
Richard Johnson
There was not a more fitting place for First Fleet descendants to begin Australia Day 2012, than being seated in the beautiful Mission to Seafarers’ St Peter’s Chapel, with its maritime theme stain-glass windows and furnishings. The First Fleet Commemorative Service was conducted by the Reverend Jed Crispin, Port Chaplain and his reflections were on the life and ministry of Reverend Richard Johnson, First Chaplain to Australia. Richard Johnson – first Chaplain to Australia Just Continue Reading »
Norfolk Island Settlement
Some Facts about Norfolk Island Norfolk Island is an Australian Dependency, located at 28 deg. 58 min S., 168 deg. 03 min E. Consequently is about the same latitude as Lismore, NSW and several hundred kilometres east of the Australian coast, making it nearer to New Zealand than Australia by air. It sets its time 1 ½ hours ahead of East. Its area is 34 square kilometres and it is quite undulating with peaks 318 metres high. The population is mainly descendants of the Continue Reading »
Mary Cavanaugh : Edward Kimberley
On the 31st of March a young girl was seen loitering around the base of the London monument. Several times she was seen to walk past the linen-draper shop at No 42 Fish Street hill near London Bridge. Then she quickly snatched a length of printed cotton from a wooden display horse by the door of the shop. Perhaps, because of her age or inexperience she was unaware of being watched by a man standing on the opposite corner of the monument. The man we know as Philip Hammond from the court of Continue Reading »
