People Australia

Samuel King (c.1768-1849) was a marine in the 50th (Portsmouth) Company when he arrived at Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Sirius as part of the First Fleet. He was sent to Norfolk Island on the Golden Grove in August 1788 to help with the first settlement of the island.

King decided to remain on the island as a settler and in 1791 received a 60 acre grant of land at Cascade Stream. By mid 1794 he was living with Mary Rolt. He was renting 4 acres of his land to Charles Allen in 1794, and sold 10 acres to both William Hambly and Elizabeth Thackery in 1800.

On September 1808, without wife or child, King left Norfolk Island for Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the City of Edinburgh, settling at New Norfolk, where he held 28 acres. He married Elizabeth Thackery at St David's, Hobart, on 28 January 1810.

Samuel King died at Back River, New Norfolk, on 21 October 1849. His age was given as 86, his occupation as farmer, and his cause of death as 'debilities'.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 208-09