People Australia

Elias Bishop was a marine in the 17th (Portsmouth) Company when he arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Alexander as part of the First Fleet. He served in the company of Watkin Tench at Port Jackson. Bishop was sent to Norfolk Island on the Sirius in March 1790. He was one of the leaders of a protest there by marines about short provision allowances. In December 1791 he left the island for Sydney to get his discharge and returned to Norfolk Island in January 1792 as a settler.

Bishop was granted 60 acres at Morgan's Run, Queenborough, In October 1793 he held 40 acres. In May 1793 he hired Samuel Benear for jobbing work. In mid-June he was shown as married to Catherine Smith; no records of any children have been found. Both Bishop and Catherine left Norfolk Island for Port Jackson on the Supply in November 1795 after Bishop sold his lease to Henry Hatheway.

Bishop purchase 30 acres at Mulgrave Place and was granted a further 100 acres in 1803. In 1828, aged 61, he held 30 acres at Richmond and was still living with Catherine. He died at Richmond and was buried on 11 November 1835; his age was given as 78.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 35-36