People Australia

John Anderson, a former seaman, was found guilty, on 24 July 1785 at Exeter, Devon, of breaking into a house and stealing a linen handkerchief and other goods as well as £5/3 shillings. Sentenced to seven years transportation he was sent to the Dunkirk hulk in 1786. He arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Charlotte. After marrying Elizabeth Bunce on 16 March 1788 he went with her to Norfolk Island on the Golden Grove on 4 October. He was employed to help Thomas Webb and John Altree at Ball's Bay. On 14 December 1789 he was sentenced to 200 lashes after robbing a garden. He supported his family on a one acre lot at Sydney Town.

By the end of 1791 Anderson was a member of the night watch at Grenville, and was off stores and working for Owen Cavanough on 3 March 1791. At the end of 1792 he was selling his grain to the government. He was settled on 10 acres at mid March 1793. At mid June 1794 he and his wife were recorded as having three children and he was working Lot no 39. He then disappears from records. His wife began to live with Francis Flexmore.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 9