made the voyage to Sydney Cove on Charlotte as servant to Surgeon John White. Following his arrival he was appointed store-keeper at Parramatta, and received a 30 acre grant at Concord. In 1795 William and three NSW Corps privates were jointly granted 100 acres at North Bush in the Field of Mars district and it is assumed he took full control of the property naming in Chatham Farm. By 1800 he had sown wheat and was grazing live stock. He also purchased a house in Summer Row Sydney and in Continue Reading »
Thomas Lucas : Thomas O’Brien : Stephen Martin
Thomas Lucas was a private marine 23rd (Portsmouth) Company arriving at Port Jackson aboard Scarborough and there served in the company of Captain John Shea. Thomas also worked in the colony as a glazier, being his former profession. On 29 December 1791 a son by Ann Howard (Lady Juliana) was born and in December 1792 he enlisted in the NSW Corps and left for Norfolk Island. In April 1797 he was discharged from the corps and received a grant of 60 acres. On the Island he worked as a glazier Continue Reading »
John Martin : John Randall
John Randall a black American, was sentenced on 14 April 1785 at Manchester Quarter Sessions to transportation for seven years for stealing a steel watch chain. Aged 21 in 1786, he was sent to the Ceres hulk then on the 6 January 1787 to Alexander. John had two wives, Esther Howard who died in 1789 and Mary Butler (Neptune 1790). He had three children by Mary Butler, Lydia 1791-93, Mary 1793 and John 1797. John had received a grant of 60 acres at the Northern Boundary Farms. He later sold Continue Reading »
William Faddy
had a fair amount of sea service before being commissioned with the First Fleet as 2nd lieutenant of marines. He had married Martha Escott Johnson on 18 November 1784 and their children were born before he sailed aboard the Friendship. In 1790 William was sent to Norfolk Island and remained there until December 1791 when he returned to Port Jackson and then to England aboard Gorgon. On 18 April 1793 he was commission 1st lieutenant 76th Company and served on Royal Sovereign. He was promoted Continue Reading »
Thomas Arndell : Elizabeth Dalton
Thomas Arndell was appointed as an assistant surgeon to the settlement of NSW on 25 October 1786 and made the voyage aboard Friendship. Through an apprenticeship at a young age, Thomas would late practice apothecary in St Martin’s Le Grand. He had five legitimate child with his wife Susanna but neglected her for Isabella Francesca Foscari, a Jewish Italian singer. By this time he had qualified at the Royal College of Surgeons on 6 September 1781 he abandoned both women and signed on the East Continue Reading »
William Hambley : Mary Springham
Mary Springham was tried at the Old Bailey for feloniously stealing, on the 5 March 1786, two guineas, value 21. 2s. and nine shillings in monies numbered, and an iron japanned snuff box, value 1d being the property of William and Mary Reynolds. Found guilty, Mary received a sentence of 7 years transportation, and was delivered to Lady Penrhyn on 6 January 1787. In Sydney Cove on 15 January 1790 a child William, by convict Mary Springham and William Hambly was baptised. William Hambly was Continue Reading »
Ellen Wainwright
(alias Ester Eccles) was 17 years of age when she was tried at the Preston Quarter Sessions in January 1787, and found guilty, for having stolen a scarlet woollen cloak, a blue stuffed quilted petticoat and a black silk hat. Many years later Ellen’s daughter Mary Ann claims that her mother said very little about the Old Country, however she felt that her mother did not steal the goods at all, she felt that Mr Standen gave her mother the articles, but when the return on his investment was not Continue Reading »
Jacob Bellett
a Silk Weaver, made off with 51 ells of half-ell lining, one pound of unwound black silk, and 32 ounces of double black silk would, and was chased by the worker who missed them. Found later by searchers, he was sentenced at the Old Bailey on 12 January 1785 to seven year’s transportation. Following time spent in the prison hulks he embarked on 24 January 1787 on Scarborough. In March 1790, Jacob was sent to Norfolk Island, where he successfully farmed and was selling grain to the public Continue Reading »
Elizabeth Hayward
was the youngest female convict, at 13, on the First Fleet. She received seven years transportation at the Old Bailey in January 1787, for being accused of stealing clothes from the clog maker she was working for. Elizabeth was on board the Lady Penrhyn for about three and a half months before the Fleet set sail. Read more on Elizabeth’s life story under Stories Honouring her WW1 Descendants 5133 Ronald Davie Private 12th Infantry Battalion, 18th Reinforcements, 13th Rifts Continue Reading »
William Nash : Maria Haynes
William Nash was a Private Marine in the 58TH (Plymouth Company). He had served in 1784-86 on the Plymouth guard ship Bombay Castle, before embarking aboard Prince of Wales. William served at Port Jackson in the company of John Shea, Captain of the Marines. Maria Haynes / Nash accompanied William as his ‘common law wife, despite not being legally married to him at that time. As the baptismal record for their son William on 25 May 1788 indicate that she fell pregnant to William during the Continue Reading »