People Australia

Richard Davis (c.1758- ), a printer, was found guilty on 10 September 1783 of the theft of a large quantity of clothing from a cart. Sentenced 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 aboard the Friendship in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.  

He was probably the Richard Davis who was Ralph Clark's servant in 1790. He received a 30 acre grant of land at Mulgrave Place in 1794. He had sold the land by 1800. Davis worked for H. Wild at Parramatta in 1806 and in 1814 his occupation was given as a labourer and his residence as Sydney. He was a resident at the Sydney Benevolent Asylum in 1822 and 1825. No further records have been found.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 99