People Australia

Samuel Benear was found guilty on 26 May 1784 at the Old Bailey, London, of accosting a woman and demanding money with a knife. He was sentenced to 7 years transportation. He was sent to the Censor hulk until he embarked for New South Wales on the Scarborough in February 1787, arriving in January 1788, as part of the First Fleet.

 In March 1790 Benear was sent to Norfolk Island on the Sirius. In December he was sentenced to received 100 lashes for leaving his work at Charlotte Field; he could bear only 79. His sentence expired in 1791 but he remained on the island doing jobbing work for settlers. Samuel was recorded as living on the island in 1796. No further records have been found.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 33