People Australia

George Clare (c.1732- ), a shoemaker, was found guilty on 26 February 1783 at the Old Bailey, London, of the theft of two pieces of corded dimity from a warehouse. His death sentence was commuted to 7 years transportation to America. He was among the prisoners who mutinied on the convict transport Mercury in April 1784. Recaptured, he was sent to the Dunkirk hulk. He arrived at Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Friendship as part of the First Fleet.

Clare mended shoes for some of the convicts at Port Jackson from slabs of wood. In June 1789 he was sentenced to 50 lashes for insolence to Lieutenant Robert Kellow. He married Catherine Smith on 12 July 1789 and was a witness at a wedding in 1790. No further records have been found for Clare.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 70