The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 British ships that took the first British colonists and convicts to Australia. It comprised two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, with over 1,400 people, left from Portsmouth, England and took a journey of over 24,000 kilometres (15,000 mi) and over 250 days to eventually arrive in Botany Bay, New South Wales, where a penal colony would become the first British settlement in Australia from 20 January 1788.
Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of England into their own law, where in many cases it remains in force.
Penal transportation was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony, for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their destination. While the prisoners may have been released once the sentences were served, they generally did not have the resources to return home.
The University of Wollongong (UOW) is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney. As of 2023, the university had an enrolment of more than 33,000 students, an alumni base of more than 176,000 [LC1] and over 2,400 staff members including 16 Distinguished professors.
Alexander was a merchant ship launched at Hull in 1783 or 1784. She was one of the vessels in the First Fleet, that the British government hired to transport convicts for the European colonisation of Australia in 1788. On her return voyage from Australia the British East India Company permitted her to carry a cargo from Canton back to Britain. Thereafter she traded out of London until 1809, when she is no longer listed.
Margaret Dawson, also known as Margaret Henderson, was a convict sentenced to transportation. She travelled on the Lady Penrhyn as a member of the First Fleet to establish a British colony in Australia. She had a long-term relationship with the surgeon, William Balmain, whose descendants still live in Australia.
An emancipist was a convict sentenced and transported under the convict system to Australia, who had been given a conditional or absolute pardon. The term was also used to refer to those convicts whose sentences had expired, and might sometimes be used of free settlers who supported full civil rights for emancipated convicts.
Esther Abrahams was a Londoner sent to Australia as a convict on the First Fleet. She was de facto wife of George Johnston, who was for six months acting Governor of New South Wales after leading the Rum Rebellion. They later married legally, in 1814.
Isaac "Ikey" Solomon was a British criminal who acted as a receiver of stolen property. His well-publicised crimes, escape from arrest, recapture and trial led to his transportation to the Australian penal colony of Van Diemen's Land.
Between 1788 and 1868 the British penal system transported about 162,000 convicts from Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, India, New Zealand, Hong Kong, the West Indies and Mauritius to various penal colonies in Australia.
James Dalton was "captain" of a street robbery gang in 18th-century London, England.
John Caesar, nicknamed "Black Caesar", was the first Australian bushranger and one of the first people of African descent to arrive in Australia.
Elizabeth Thackery is the last known survivor of the First Fleet, male or female, and was generally known throughout her long lifetime as the first female convict to land in Australia. Her husband, Samuel King, is thought to be the last male survivor of the First Fleet.
Robert Sidaway, a convict of the First Fleet, was transported to Australia for stealing in 1788. Robert is known for being baker for the British Marines of Sydney and opening the first theatre in Sydney in 1796.
James Hardy Vaux was an English-born convict transported to Australia on three separate occasions. He was the author of Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux including A Vocabulary of the Flash Language, first published in 1819, which is regarded as both the first full length autobiography and first dictionary written in Australia.
Subhash Kapoor is an Indian American art smuggler who was convicted for running a $100 million international smuggling racket. He was previously the owner of the Art of the Past gallery in Manhattan. His sister business, Nimbus Import/Exports, specialised in selling antiquities from across the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia to major museums around the world.
The Blackguard Children, sometimes also referred to as the Blackguard Youth, were known as gangs of mostly homeless orphans and runaways who, during the 17th and 18th centuries, dwelled in London's poorest neighbourhoods and made a living by begging and pilfering. Daniel Defoe's Colonel Jack and Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist are the most prominent examples of novels dealing with such reality.
Thomas Barrett was a convict transported on the First Fleet to the colony of New South Wales. He created Australia's first colonial art work, the Charlotte Medal, which depicts the arrival of Charlotte at Botany Bay. He was also the first person to be executed in the new colony.
Stories of Convicts on the First Fleet contains information about a number of convicts on the First Fleet to the penal colony of New South Wales who meet the following criteria:
