People Australia

George Bannister, George Robinson, and John Nurse/Monroe were found guilty, on 21 April 1784 at the Old Bailey, London, of stealing from a house. Sent to the Censor hulk, Bannister arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Alexander as part of the First Fleet. On 15 March 1789, he received 50 lashes for stealing 3 lbs of flour. He was living with Ann Forbes. Later in the year their daughter, Sarah, was baptised. The couple (without Sarah) were sent to Norfolk Island in March 1790 where he was given a grant of land. By the end of 1792 he was selling wheat to the government.

Ann Forbes left him during his stay on the island. In March 1791 he received 50 lashes for a theft. In January 1792 he was settled on 12 acres of land at Morgan's Run, Queenborough, and was selling grain to the government by the end of the year.

Bannister left Norfolk Island for New South Wales in 1793 where he was employed as a fisherman. No trace has been found of him in the colony after 1794. He may have worked his passage from the colony as a sailor.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 22