People Australia

James Burley/Burleigh and George Barland were found guilty, on 1 July 1784 at Old Bailey, London, of the theft of a great coat. Sentenced to 7 years transportation both were placed in the Censor hulk. Burley arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Alexander as part of the First Fleet. On 26 January 1789, with Barland and Robert Morgan, he was charged with being out of quarantine after hours. Barland was acquitted but the other two each received 25 lashes.

In September 1791 he witnessed a marriage at St John's Church of England, Parramatta. No further information has been found about Burley. As his sentence expired in 1791 it is likely that he left the colony in that year.

information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 59