Richard Dukes was a marine in the 55th Portsmouth Company. He arrived in Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Friendship as part of the First Fleet. He served in Captain James Campbell's company at Port Jackson.
Dukes was executed at Sydney Cove on 27 March 1789, along with five other marines, Richard Asky, James Baker, James Brown, Thomas Jones and Luke Haynes, for persistent theft from public stores, much of the loot being liquor. One of the group, Joseph Hunt, turned King's evidence and was pardoned.
* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 110
'Dukes, Richard (?–1789)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/dukes-richard-29895/text37008, accessed 6 December 2024.