People Australia

Patrick Burn (c.1760-1791), a baker, was found guilty on 11 August 1783 at Exeter, Devon, of the theft of a silver watch and other goods in a highway robbery. His death sentence was commuted to 7 years transportation to America. He was among the group of convicts who mutinied on the Mercury transport in 1784 and, after being recaptured, was dispatched to the Dunkirk hulk. In March 1787 he embarked for New South Wales on the Friendship, arriving in the colony in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Burn was employed in the colony as a game keeper. In 1789 he had a child with Ann Smith, who had been on the Dunkirk hulk at the same time as him. He married Mary Newton on 29 July 1790. Burn was buried at Sydney on 13 July 1791.

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