People Australia

James Neale (c.1769- ) and William Farley were found guilty on 10 February 1785 at Bristol, England, of stealing sugar from a warehouse. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, the men were sent to the Dunkirk hulk and discharged to the Friendship in March 1787, arriving at Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Neale and six other convicts were ordered 150 lashes and to wear leg irons for a year after they left the brick kiln on 6 March 1789 where they were working and "marched to Botany Bay... to attack the natives and to plunder them of their fishing-tackle and spears". One of the convicts was killed and seven were injured. Initially the men claimed the attack was unprovoked but they were forced to admit the truth. The flogging was witnessed by a local Aboriginal man, Arabanoo, who was present at the initial incident and was told why the punishment was being administered. He "displayed ... symptoms of disgust and terror only".

No other colonial record of Neale has been found.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 262