Private Marine Laurence Richards from Tiverton Devon, and his pregnant wife Mary, boarded the Prince of Wales for their voyage to Sydney Cove. Son Samuel was born on 9 October 1787 five days out from the ship’s arrival at the Cape of Good Hope. At Port Jackson, Richards was amongst a number of Marines who served in the detachment of Captain John Shea. In 1791 he decided to become a settler, sailing to Norfolk Island by Atlantic in October 1791 with Mary, Samuel and a second son Continue Reading »
First Fleet Surgeons
John WHITE (c1757–1832)–Surgeon-General Entered the Navy in 1778 as third Surgeon’s mate, receiving his promotion to Surgeon on 9 October 1780, aged 23. He held Surgeon’s appointments in numerous Naval ships until being appointed Surgeon-General of the expedition to Botany Bay under Captain Arthur Phillip: his salary was £182.10s a year. White had three Assistant Surgeons, each on half his salary. A hospital built on the west side of Sydney was described by White as very Continue Reading »
Rachel Early
Variations of her surname on official records are Hurley, Earley, Harley, Arily. Rachel was born on 23 April 1769 at Lambourne Berkshire England. Her mothers’ name is given as Christian Early, no fathers’ name is recorded. Rachel was unemployed of St Giles London, when she was tried at Reading on 24 July 1786 for stealing an ounce of tea, tabacco and sugar, 3 yards of silk ribband and a linen cap with a value of 3 Shillings, (30 cents today). Sentenced to 7 years Continue Reading »
Munday Family
John Munday was a private marine in the 18th (Plymouth) Company who came to New South Wales on the First Fleet, bringing with him his wife Ann and son Edward. John was a cloth worker from Berkeley, Gloucestershire, before joining the Marine Corps at Plymouth. It is uncertain which ship the family sailed on to New South Wales, suggestions being the Sirius or Alexander. At Port Jackson John served in the company of Captain Shea. Ann Munday had a daughter Elizabeth at Port Jackson, Continue Reading »
Watkin Tench
was a soldier and writer, who was born at Chester on 6 October 1758 in the county of Cheshire in England. He joined the Royal Marine Corps, Plymouth division, as a Second Lieutenant in 1776, and served in the American War of Independence, during which he was a prisoner-of-war for some months. In December 1786, Tench’s offer to re-enter the Corps for a three-year tour of Botany Bay was accepted, and he sailed aboard Charlotte. Before sailing with the Fleet, he arranged with a London Continue Reading »
Nancy Yates
Like many of his fellow officers, Captain David Collins who became the Colony’s Judge Advocate, took convict women as mistresses during his years in Sydney Cove and Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land. One of his mistresses was convict milliner Nancy / Ann Yates / Yeates. She was tried as a single-woman aged 17, at Yorkshire Summer Assizes held at York on 9 July 1785 with Jonathan Howard for burglary. Breaking and entering into the dwelling of John Strickland in the township of Milton Continue Reading »
Chapman Family
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 »
Alexander John Ross
Before Major Robert Ross sailed aboard Scarborough, he left written instructions for the care of his wife and children in the event of his death, but he took with him his 8 year-old son Alexander John Ross, known as Little John. Arthur Bowes Smyth surgeon on Lady Penrhyn, wrote in his journal on 3 May 1787, Little John Ross, Capt. Campbell’s Nephew & Servt, came on board. Little John Ross, a Volunteer Marine, and James Duncan Campbell, became constant companions being of similar 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 »