People Australia

William Baxter was a marine in the 32nd (Portsmouth) Company. He arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Alexander as part of the First Fleet. He was served at Port Jackson in the company of Captain James Meredith.  He was sent to Norfolk island in March 1790 on the Supply where he remained until April 1792. He then joined the NSW Corps. His son, John Matthew Hunter, with his partner Mary Watts was baptised on 11 November. In February 1793 he returned, unaccompanied, to Norfolk Island on the Kitty. He served as a private on the island until November 1794 when he returned to Sydney.

In March 1795 Baxter received a 25 acre grant of land at the Field of Mars. Two years later he was discharged from the NSW Corps. In 1799 he received a grant of 60 acres at Bankstown and in June 1803 he was granted 80 acres at Evan. He sold this grant shortly afterwards. On 11 July 1803 he had married Mary Weir. The 1806 muster shows him farming only 4 acres at Austin Creek. He was working as a labourer in 1814 and 1822 in Windsor, and was described as a pauper in 1825.

Baxter was buried at St Peter's Richmond on 13 August 1830; his age was given as 73.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 28-29