William Roberts, Convict "Scarborough" 1788

http://www.fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au/william_roberts.htm

Robert was a Cornishman of modest education who was convicted of stealing five and a half pounds of yarn at the Bodmin assizes in 1786. He was sentenced to 7 years and transported aboard the ship 'Scarborough' arriving in the colony in 1788 with the First Fleet. http://www.easystreetretreat.com.au/australianroyalty/individual.ph...

At Bodmin Assizes in August 1786 William Roberts was charged with stealing five pond and half weight of yarn, property of Wm Moffatt of Launceston resulting in a sentence of 7 years transportation. He was taken to the hulk, Dunkirk moored in Plymouth Harbour where he was kept with other prisoners until he was transferred initially to the convict ship Charlotte and finally to the convict ship Scarborough during March 1787. On the 13th May, 1787 the ships of the First Fleet left for Botany Bay.

Kezia Brown was born in Severn Stock, Worcester, in 1771, the daughter of Aaron and Mary Brown (nee Farley).

c 1779 Kezia left home and headed to Gloucester where she worked as a labourer in a garden belonging to James Wheeler. When she contracted smallpox she was was allowed to stay in the house to recover. On 20th August 1789 she left the house, taking with her items of clothing possibly belonging to the family of her employer. She was tried in Gloucester and sentenced to seven years transportation to New South Wales aboard the Neptune, part of the Second Fleet, arriving at Sydney Cove on 28th June, 1790.

In September 1791, William, the first son of William Roberts and Kezia Brown was baptised. A daughter, Mary, was born in June 1793. In August 1793, William Roberts and Kezia Brown were married at St Phillip's Church, Sydney, after the expiration of William's sentence suggesting that he may have been married in England.

Early records are unclear but William Roberts may have received a grant of 30 acres of land near Sydney in 1794. In 1796 he received a grant of 50 acres of land near Windsor which he let. He later purchased land from Thomas Hobby which was part of the property farmed by the family in the Windsor area until the 1950s.

William Roberts died at Richmond, NSW on 14 February 1820. Kezia Brown died at Richmond, NSW on 26 June 1854.

William and Kezia had ten children: -

   William 1791 - 1863

Mary 1793 - 1863
Sarah 1875 - 1815
James 1798 - 1877
John c1801 - 1880
Robert 1803 - 1873
Maria 1805 - 1868
Harriet c1807 - 1857
Ann 1809 - 1876
Edward 1813 -1890
Mary Roberts married Richard Holland.

In 1988 the William Roberts and Kezia Brown Family Association Inc published a two volume work - A Rich Inheritance: William Roberts and Kezia Brown - their background and their family.

GEDCOM Note

Arrived in NSW 26/01/1788 on the Scarborough

GEDCOM Note

Arrived in NSW 26/01/1788 on the Scarborough