Freemasonry has been associated with the British discovery and settlement of Australia from the very beginning. Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), the naturalist who sailed into Botany Bay with James Cook in 1770 became a Freemason prior to 1768 and was a member of the Old Horn Lodge No. 4 in England. Thomas Lucas (1759-1815) a Private in the 23rd Company Marine Corps and a member of Lodge of temperance No 225 in England, arrived with the First Fleet. Captain Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) Continue Reading »
First Fleet Scribes
How fortunate we are to have journals, diaries, letters, reports and logbooks written by officers who arrived with Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788. Without these scribes our knowledge of the voyage, the settlement, and its people would have passed into history unknown. David Blackburn (1753–1795) HMS Supply, Master A party of gentlemen with their servants and 4 soldiers were walking to Botany Bay … met with a body of 300 natives all armed with spears and targets. They did not seem too Continue Reading »
Maria Nash (Haynes)
Her story, told by descendant Rosemary SMITH Rosemary joined the First Fleet Fellowship in September 1987 and holds certificate number 181. When asked how and when she found out that she was a descendant of First Fleeters, she seemed a little surprised by the question and said “I guess it’s something we’ve always known.” Here is the story of her ancestor. "This is the story of my four times grandmother, as we, her descendants know it. A lot of Australian histories Continue Reading »
Henry Waterhouse
Midshipman Henry Waterhouse arrived with the First Fleet aboard HMS Sirius. He was the eldest son of William and Susanna (Brewer) Waterhouse, born 13 December 1770 and christened 28 December 1770 at St James Middlesex. William had be page to the Duke of Cumberland who was Henry’s god-father. He entered the navy at an early age (16) and on 20 November 1786 joined HMS Sirius as midshipman (having been recommended to Captain Phillip), raising to the rank of acting third lieutenant on 28 Continue Reading »
Laurence Richards and Family
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 »