Editing First Fleet (section)

==Legacy==
===Last survivors===
On Sat 26 January 1842 The [[Sydney Gazette|''Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'']] reported "The Government has ordered a pension of one shilling per diem to be paid to the survivors of those who came by the first vessel into the Colony. The number of these really 'old hands' is now reduced to three, of whom, two are now in the Benevolent Asylum, and the other is a fine hale old fellow, who can do a day's work with more spirit than many of the young fellows lately arrived in the Colony."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2555630|title=29 Jan 1842 – Anniversary Regatta.|work=nla.gov.au|date=29 January 1842 |access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref> The names of the three recipients were not given, and is academic as the notice turned out to be false, not having been authorised by the Governor. There were at least 25 persons still living who had arrived with the First Fleet, including several children born on the voyage. A number of these contacted the authorities to arrange their pension and all received a similar reply to the following received by John McCarty on 14 Mar 1842 "I am directed by His Excellency the Governor to inform you, that the paragraph which appeared in the Sydney Gazette relative to an allowance to the persons of the first expedition to New South Wales was not authorised by His Excellency nor has he any knowledge of such an allowance as that alluded to". [[Edward Deas Thomson|E. Deas Thomson]], [[Chief Secretary of New South Wales|Colonial Secretary]].{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

Following is a list of persons known to be living at the time the false pension notice was published, in order of their date of death. At this time New South Wales included the whole Eastern seaboard of present day Australia except for Van Diemen's Land which was declared a separate colony in 1825 and achieved self governing status in 1855-6. This list does not include marines or convicts who returned to England after completing their term in NSW and who may have lived past January 1842.

* Rachel Earley: (or Hirley), convict per ''Friendship'' and ''Prince of Wales'' died 27 April 1842 at Kangaroo Point, VDL (said to be aged 75).
* Roger Twyfield: convict per ''Friendship'' died 30 April 1842 at Windsor, aged 98 (NSW reg as Twifield).
* Thomas Chipp: marine private per ''Friendship'' died 3 July 1842, buried Parramatta, aged 81 (NSW Reg age 93).
* Anthony Rope: convict per ''Alexander'' died 20 April 1843 at Castlereagh NSW, aged 84 (NSW Reg age 89).
* William Hubbard: Hubbard was convicted in the Kingston Assizes in Surrey, England, on 24 March 1784 for theft.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.firstfleet.org.au/|title=Hubbard First Fleet|work=firstfleet.org.au|access-date=17 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017114857/http://firstfleet.org.au/|archive-date=17 October 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was transported to Australia on ''Scarborough'' in the First Fleet. He married Mary Goulding on 19 December 1790 in Rose Hill. In 1803 he received a land grant of 70 acres at Mulgrave Place. He died on 18 May 1843 at the Sydney Benevolent Asylum. His age was given as 76 when he was buried at Christ Church St. Lawrence, Sydney on 22 May 1843.
* Thomas Jones: convict per ''Alexander'' died October 1843 in NSW, aged 87.
* John Griffiths: marine private per ''Friendship'' who died 5 May 1844 at Hobart, aged 86.
* Benjamin Cusely: marine private per ''Friendship'' died 20 June 1845 at Windsor/Wilberforce, aged 86 (said to be 98).
* [[Henry Kable]]: convict per ''Friendship'' died 16 March 1846 at Windsor, aged 84.
* John McCarty: McCarty was a marine private who sailed on [[Friendship (1784)|''Friendship'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyaustralia.org.au/twconvic/1180|title=True Girt (The Unauthorised History of Australia #2) |publisher=Convict Stockade: A Wiki Site for Australian Convict Researchers|date=26 February 2008|access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref> McCarty claimed to have been born in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, ''circa'' Christmas 1745. He first served in the colony of New South Wales, then at Norfolk Island where he took up a land grant of 60 acres (Lot 71). He married first fleet convict Ann Beardsley on Norfolk Island in November 1791 after his marine discharge a month earlier. In 1808, at the impending closure of the Norfolk Island settlement, he resettled in Van Diemen's Land later taking a land grant (80 acres at Herdsman's Cove Melville) in lieu of the one forfeited on Norfolk Island. The last few years of his life were spent at the home of Mr. William H. Budd, at the Kinlochewe Inn near [[Donnybrook, Victoria]]. McCarty was buried on local land 24 July 1846,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4759692|title=28 Jul 1846 – Domestic Intelligence |work=nla.gov.au|date=28 July 1846 |access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref> six months past his 100 birthday, although this is very likely an exaggerated age.
* John Alexander Herbert: convict per ''Scarborough'' died 19 November 1846 at Westbury Van Diemen's Land, aged 79.
* Robert Nunn: convict per ''Scarborough'' died 20 November 1846 at Richmond, aged 86.
* John Howard: convict per ''Scarborough'' died 1 January 1847 at Sydney Benevolent Asylum, aged 94.
* John Limeburner: The ''South Australian Register'' reported, in an article dated Wednesday 3 November 1847: "John Limeburner, the oldest colonist in Sydney, died in September last, at the advanced age of 104 years. He helped to pitch the first tent in Sydney, and remembered the first display of the British flag there, which was hoisted on a swamp oak-tree, then growing on a spot now occupied as the Water-Police Court. He was the last of those called the 'first-fleeters' (arrivals by the first convict ships) and, notwithstanding his great age, retained his faculties to the last."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48544655|title=03 Nov 1847 – LONGEVITY.|work=nla.gov.au|date=3 November 1847 |access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref> John Limeburner was a [[List of convicts on the First Fleet#L|convict]] on ''Charlotte''. He was convicted on 9 July 1785 at New Sarum, Wiltshire of theft of a waistcoat, a shirt and stockings.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.historyaustralia.org.au/twconvic/tiki-index_p.php?page=Charlotte+1788|title=Charlotte 1788|author=Scott Brown – HistoryAustralia |access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref> He married Elizabeth Ireland in 1790 at Rosehill and together they establish a 50-acre farm at Prospect.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spathaky.name/prospecthill/history/settlement.htm|title=Prospect Hill – Settlement|work=spathaky.name|access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref> He died at Ashfield 4 September 1847 and is buried at [[St John's, Ashfield#Cemetery|St John's, Ashfield]], death reg. as Linburner aged 104.
* John Jones: Jones was a marine private on the First Fleet and sailed on [[Alexander (1783 ship)|''Alexander'']]. He is listed in the N.S.W. 1828 Census as aged 82 and living at the Sydney Benevolent Asylum.<ref>Census of NSW November 1828, published in ''1828 Census of New South Wales'', edited by Malcolm Sainty and Keith Johnson, revised edition published by Library of Australian History, Sydney, 2008 (CD-ROM); Book Entry# J0669</ref> He is said to have died at the Benevolent Asylum in 1848.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.australian-english-genealogy.com/Alexander.html|title=First Fleet Ship Alexander|work=australian-english-genealogy.com|access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref>
* Jane/Jenny Rose: (nee Jones), child of convict Elizabeth Evans per ''Lady Penrhyn'' died 29 August 1849 at Wollongong, aged 71.
* Samuel King: King was a scribbler (a worker in a [[carding|scribbling mill]]<ref>Also "slubbing mill": "A mill used for the preparation of raw fleece etc, for spinning by a coarse form of [[carding]]" ({{cite web|title=English Heritage Online thesaurus|url=http://thesaurus.historicengland.org.uk/thesaurus_term.asp?thes_no=1&term_no=69323|access-date=22 November 2015}})</ref>) before he became a marine. He was a marine with the First Fleet on board {{HMS|Sirius|1786|3}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au/ship_sirius.htm|title=Fellowship of First Fleeters|work=fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au|access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref> He shipped to Norfolk Island on ''Golden Grove'' in September 1788, where he lived with Mary Rolt, a convict who arrived with the First Fleet on [[Prince of Wales (1786 ship)|''Prince of Wales'']]. He received a grant of 60 acres (Lot No. 13) at Cascade Stream in 1791. Mary Rolt returned to England on ''Britannia'' in October 1796. King was resettled in Van Diemen's Land, boarding ''City of Edinburgh'' on 3 September 1808, and landed in Hobart on 3 October.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.htfs.org.au/norfolk_islanders.htm#ce1808|title=The Early Settlers from Norfolk Island|work=htfs.org.au|access-date=17 October 2015|archive-date=15 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015013112/http://www.htfs.org.au/norfolk_islanders.htm#ce1808|url-status=dead}}</ref> He married [[Elizabeth Thackery]] on 28 January 1810. He died on 21 October 1849 at 86 years of age and was buried in the Wesleyan cemetery at Lawitta Road, Back River.
* Mary Stevens: (nee Phillips), convict per ''Charlotte'' and ''Prince of Wales'' died 22 January 1850 at Longford Van Diemen's Land, aged 81.
* John Small: Convicted 14 March 1785 at the Devon Lent Assizes held at Exeter for Robbery King's Highway. Sentenced to hang, reprieved to 7 years' transportation. Arrived on [[Charlotte (1784 ship)|''Charlotte'']] in First Fleet 1788. Certificate of freedom 1792. Land Grant 1794, 30 acre "Small's Farm" at Eastern Farms (Ryde). Married October 1788 Mary Parker also a First Fleet convict who arrived on [[Lady Penrhyn (1786 ship)|''Lady Penrhyn'']]. John Small died on 2 October 1850 aged 90 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://illawarrasmallbradleyukfirstfleetfamilies.wordpress.com/about/the-small-family-in-australi-1788-1988-updated-1995/|title=The Small Family in Australia 1788 – 1988|date=19 November 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1792467 |title=The search for John Small, First Fleeter / Mollie Gillen |publisher=National Library of Australia |year=1985 |department=Library of Australian History |isbn=9780908120581 }}</ref>
* Edward Smith: aka Beckford, convict per ''Scarborough'' died 2 June 1851 at Balmain, aged 92.
* Ann Forbes: (m.Huxley), convict per ''Prince of Wales'' died 29 December 1851, Lower Portland NSW, aged 83.
* Henry Kable Jnr: aka Holmes, b. 1786 in [[Norwich Castle]] prison, son of convict Susannah Holmes per ''Friendship'' and ''Charlotte'', died 13 May 1852 at [[Picton, New South Wales]] aged 66.
* Lydia Munro: (m.Goodwin) per ''Prince of Wales'' died 29 June 1856 at Hobart, reg as Letitia Goodwin, aged 85.
* Elizabeth Thackery: [[Elizabeth Thackery|Elizabeth "Betty" King]] (née Thackery) was tried and convicted of theft on 4 May 1786 at Manchester Quarter Sessions, and sentenced to seven years' transportation. She sailed on [[Friendship (1784)|''Friendship'']], but was transferred to ''Charlotte'' at the Cape of Good Hope. She was shipped to Norfolk Island on {{HMS|Sirius|1786|3}} in 1790 and lived there with James Dodding. In August 1800 she bought 10 acres of land from Samuel King at Cascade Stream. Elizabeth and James were relocated to Van Diemen's Land in December 1807<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.htfs.org.au/norfolk_islanders.htm#2|title=The Early Settlers from Norfolk Island|work=htfs.org.au|access-date=17 October 2015|archive-date=15 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015013112/http://www.htfs.org.au/norfolk_islanders.htm#2|url-status=dead}}</ref> but parted company sometime afterwards. On 28 January 1810 Elizabeth married "First Fleeter" Private Samuel King (above) and lived with him until his death in 1849. Betty King died in New Norfolk, Tasmania on 7 August 1856, aged 89 years. She is buried in the churchyard of the Methodist Chapel, Lawitta Road, Back River, next to her husband, and the marked grave bears a First Fleet plaque.
* John Harmsworth: marine's child b.1788 per ''Prince of Wales'' died 21 July 1860 at Clarence Plains Tasmania, aged 73 years.

===Smallpox===
{{main|Australian history wars#Controversy over smallpox in Australia| l1 = Controversy over smallpox in Australia|History_of_smallpox#Australia| l2 = History of smallpox in Australia}}

Historians have disagreed over whether those aboard the First Fleet were responsible for introducing smallpox to Australia's indigenous population, and if so, whether this was the consequence of deliberate action.

In 1914, [[John Cumpston|J.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;L. Cumpston]], director of the [[Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service|Australian Quarantine Service]], put forward the hypothesis that smallpox arrived in Australia with First Fleet.<ref name="autogenerated1908">Cumpston, JHL "The History of Small-Pox in Australia 1788–1908", Government Printer (1914) Melb.</ref> Some researchers have argued that any such release may have been a deliberate attempt to decimate the indigenous population.<ref>{{cite book|last=Day|first=David|title=Claiming a Continent|page=42|publisher=Harper Collins|year=2001|isbn=9780732269760}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Davis|first=Jack|editor1-last=Berndt|editor1-first=Ronald M.|editor2-last=Berndt|editor2-first=Catherine H.|title=Aborigines of the West: their Past and Their Present|publisher=University of Western Australia Press|page=58|year=1980}}</ref> Hypothetical scenarios for such an action might have included: an act of revenge by an aggrieved individual, a response to attacks by indigenous people,<ref name="Bennett, MJ 2009, pg 48">Bennett, MJ, "Smallpox and Cowpox under the Southern Cross: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1789 ...", ''Bulletin of the History of Medicine'', 83(1), Spring 2009, pg 48.</ref> or part of an orchestrated assault by the [[New South Wales Marine Corps]], intended to clear the path for colonial expansion.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Smallpox at Sydney Cove – who, when, why?|journal=Journal of Australian Studies|first=Christopher|last=Warren|date=2 January 2014|volume=38|issue=1|pages=68–86|doi=10.1080/14443058.2013.849750|s2cid=143644513}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/smallpox-outbreak-of-sydney27s-past/5375394#transcript |title= Smallpox outbreak of Sydney's past|author= Chris Warren (radio transcript) ''Ockham's Razor'' (presenter: Robin Williams) |publisher=Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) |date= 13 April 2014 |access-date= 28 October 2015}}</ref> Seth Carus, a former Deputy Director of the [[National Defense University (Washington, D.C.)|National Defense University]] in the United States wrote in 2015 that there was a "strong circumstantial case supporting the theory that someone deliberately introduced smallpox in the Aboriginal population."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Carus|first=W. Seth|title=The History of Biological Weapons Use: What We Know and What We Don't|journal =Health Security|volume=13|issue=4|pages=219–255|date=August 2015|doi=10.1089/hs.2014.0092|pmid=26221997}}</ref>
[[File:First Fleet Smallpox.ogg|thumb|Chris Warren, "Was Sydney's smallpox outbreak of 1789 an act of biological warfare against Aboriginal tribes?", ABC Radio National – ''Ockhams Razor'' (podcast) (2014); 13 minutes.]]

Other historians have disputed the idea that there was a deliberate release of smallpox virus and/or suggest that it arrived with visitors to Australia other than the First Fleet.<ref>{{cite book|first=Peter|last=Biskup|chapter=Aboriginal History|title=New History: Studying Australia Today|editor1-last=Osborne|editor1-first=G.|editor2-last=Mandle|editor2-first=W.F.|publisher=Allen & Unwin|year=1982|page=30}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Macknight, C. C. |title=Macassans and the Aboriginal past in ''Archaeologia Oceania'' | date=1986 | volume=21 | pages=69–75}}</ref><ref name="campbell"/><ref name="willis 2010">{{Cite journal| author1=Willis, H. A | title=Poxy history [Smallpox and Aboriginal history.] | journal=Quadrant | date=September 2010 | volume=54 | issue=9 | pages=70–73 | issn=0033-5002 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal| author1=Willis, H.A. | title=Bringing Smallpox with the First Fleet | journal=Quadrant |year=2011 | volume=55 | issue=7–8 | page=2 | issn=0033-5002}}</ref> It has been suggested that live smallpox virus may have been introduced accidentally when Aboriginal people came into contact with [[variolation|variolous matter]] brought by the First Fleet for use in anti-smallpox inoculations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/smallpox-in-sydney-1789/3145560|title=Smallpox in Sydney: 1789|publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|date=30 April 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Warren|first=C.|title=Could First Fleet smallpox infect Aborigines? – A note|journal=Aboriginal History|date=January 2007 |volume=31 |issue=31|pages=152–164|url=https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=382267759356262;res=IELAPA}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Mear|first=C.| title   = The origin of the smallpox in Sydney in 1789
  | journal = Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society
  | volume  = 94
  | issue   = 1
  | pages   = 1–22
  }}</ref>

In 2002, historian Judy Campbell offered a further theory, that smallpox had arrived in Australia through contact with fishermen from [[Makassar]] in Indonesia, where smallpox was endemic.<ref name="campbell">Judy Campbell, '' Invisible Invaders: Smallpox and Other Diseases in Aboriginal Australia 1780–1880'', Melbourne University Press, 2002, Foreword & pp 55, 61, 73–74, 181</ref><ref>During the writing of her book, Campbell consulted [[Frank Fenner]], the head in 1977–1980 of a successful campaign by the [[World Health Organization]] to eradicate smallpox internationally.</ref> In 2011, Macknight stated: "The overwhelming probability must be that it [smallpox] was introduced, like the later epidemics, by [Indonesian] [[Trepanging|trepang]]ers ... and spread across the continent to arrive in Sydney quite independently of the new settlement there."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Macknight|first=Campbell|title=The view from Marege': Australian knowledge of Makassar and the impact of the trepang industry across two centuries|journal=Aboriginal History|year=2011|volume=3|pages=121–143}}</ref>

There is a fourth theory, that the 1789 epidemic was not smallpox but [[chickenpox]] – to which indigenous Australians also had no inherited resistance – that happened to be affecting, or was carried by, members of the First Fleet.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/chickenpox-blamed-for-aboriginal-deaths-20130807-2rh3m.html|title=Chickenpox blamed for Aboriginal deaths|work=The Canberra Times|date=7 August 2013 |access-date=17 October 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://caepr.anu.edu.au/Seminars/13/Seminar-Topics%E2%80%94Series-2/07_8_Seminar.php |title=The 'myth' of smallpox at Sydney Cove in April 1789 - CAEPR - ANU |access-date=27 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202101013/http://caepr.anu.edu.au/Seminars/13/Seminar-Topics%E2%80%94Series-2/07_8_Seminar.php |archive-date=2 February 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This theory has also been disputed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kociumbas |first=Jan |title=Genocide and Settler Society: Frontier Violence and Stolen Indigenous Children in Australian History |date=2012 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-78238-169-3 |pages=79 |chapter=Chapter 3 Genocide and Modernity in Colonial Australia, 1788-1850 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qdg7m.8}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Letters page |journal=United Service|volume=65|issue=1|date=March 2014|page=7|url=http://www.rusinsw.org.au/Papers/2014AU05.pdf}}</ref>

===Commemoration Garden===
[[File:Wallabadah.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The First Fleet Memorial Garden, [[Wallabadah, New South Wales]]]]

After Ray Collins, a stonemason, completed years of research into the First Fleet, he sought approval from about nine councils to construct a commemorative garden in recognition of these immigrants. [[Liverpool Plains Shire|Liverpool Plains Shire Council]] was ultimately the only council to accept his offer to supply the materials and construct the garden free of charge. The site chosen was a disused caravan park on the banks of [[Quirindi]] Creek at [[Wallabadah, New South Wales]]. In September 2002 Collins commenced work on the project. Additional support was later provided by Neil McGarry in the form of some signs and the council contributed $28,000 for pathways and fencing. Collins hand-chiselled the names of all those who came to Australia on the eleven ships in 1788 on stone tablets along the garden pathways. The stories of those who arrived on the ships, their life, and first encounters with the Australian country are presented throughout the garden.<ref>[http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-factsheet/wallabadah--places-to-see-20081126-6i43.html Wallabadah – Places to See] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090706220348/http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-factsheet/wallabadah--places-to-see-20081126-6i43.html |date=6 July 2009 }} Retrieved on 4 May 2009</ref> On 26 January 2005, the First Fleet Garden was opened as the major memorial to the First Fleet immigrants. Previously the only other specific memorial to the First Fleeters was an obelisk at [[Brighton-Le-Sands, New South Wales]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/landscape/settlement/display/101546-first-fleet--monument-bicentennial-monument-|access-date=20 February 2017|title=First Fleet Monument (Bicentennial Monument)|website=Monuments Australia}}</ref> The surrounding area has a barbecue, tables, and amenities.

=== First Fleet Park ===
First Fleet Park is situated in [[The Rocks, New South Wales|The Rocks]], near the site of the First Fleet's landing. The area has remained in public ownership continually since 1788, under the control of various agencies. It was previously used for a hospital, Queen's Wharf, shops and houses, the first Commissariat Store and the first post office.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=First Fleet Park |url=http://www.shfa.nsw.gov.au/sydney-About_us-Heritage_role-Heritage_and_Conservation_Register.htm&objectid=120 |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=Heritage and Conservation Register |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Commissariat Stores |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/commissariat_stores |access-date=2022-06-28 |website=The Dictionary of Sydney}}</ref> Archaeological remains are extant on the site dating back to the earliest days of settlement.<ref name=":0" />