Robert Ross was Major of a detachment of four companies of marines that sailed on the First Fleet ships. Marines aboard the Prince of Wales were 2 lieutenants, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, 24 privates, some accompanied with wives and children. Private Marine Thomas Chapman was attached to the 60th (Plymouth Company). On 17 August 1787, Sergeant of Marines James Scott also on Prince of Wales wrote, Private Thomas Chapman was promoted to Corporal to stand in for one who had lost his Continue Reading »
George Raper
Abel Seaman George Raper took his paint box with him, containing a larger set of paints than that of his captain John Hunter, who was also an artist, when he transferred on 22 December 1786 to HMS Sirius. His paintings of ports such as Teneriffe and Rio de Janeiro, were part of his evidence of competence for his later promotion to midshipman on 13 September 1787. When in boarded HMS Sirius, George Raper was seventeen years old, having been born on 19 September 1769, to Henry and Catherine Continue Reading »
They Came From Many Lands
Amongst the peoples of the First Fleet were many nationalities. These people embarked as convicts, able seamen, cooks, marines, officers and children. They are collectively known as Non English First Fleeters. You might ask, who were they? BLACKS – There were twelve black Africans, Americans or West Indians that sailed on the First Fleet. Eleven were convicts with cook George Nelson, off the Prince of Wales, who drowned in the harbour at Port Jackson on 16 February 1788. CHANNEL 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 »
Philip Gidley King
was born at Launceston Cornwall on 23 April 1758. He was commissioned lieutenant in the navy on 25 November 1778, having served in the East Indies and in American waters since 1770. In October 1786 he went on Sirius as 2nd lieutenant for the voyage to NSW. On arrival at Port Jackson King was appointed commandant of a group going to settle Norfolk Island. On the Island he formed an association with Ann Inett by whom he had two sons, Norfolk and Sydney. Both boys received a good education in 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 »
Philip Gidley King
Governor King's Headstone 180 years Later The Kings have played an eminent part in Australian history since the very early days of the colony. Many of them became closely linked with the district around St May's. It is now wonder, therefore, that some of their most distinguished family members, who included the Lethbridges and the Goldfinches, are buried in the graveyard of St Mary Magdalen's Anglican Church. The Church itself owes its very existence to the Kings. Dating back to 1840, it Continue Reading »
Faddy Naval Family
LIEUTENANT WILLIAM JOHN FADDY Born: 1746 Married: 17 November 1784 to Martha Escott Johnson at St Paul’s Exeter Died: 1 August 1798 on Admiral Horatio Nelson’s ship Vanguard at the Battle of the Nile William John Faddy was 2nd Lieutenant of Marines with the 88th Company serving on HMS Champion, Medway and Crescent then in 1783 on Continue Reading »
