People Australia

George Egglestone (c.1763- ), alias George Brown, a barber, was found guilty on 13 March 1786 at Maidstone, Kent, of stealing a wooden tile and 9 shillings from a house. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, he was sent to the Censor hulk on 13 June 1786, where he remained until he embarked for New South Wales on the Alexander in January 1787, arriving in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Egglestone was sentenced to 50 lashes on 29 December 1789 for making use of improper expressions about the marines; he was overheard saying during a fight with a marine that 'all the bloody brogues' should be served the same way. On 13 April 1789 he was acquitted of stealing a gallon of pease with William Connelly and Samuel Midgley.

Egglestone was sent to Norfolk Island on the Sirius in March 1790, By July 1791 he had cleared 96 rods of a Sydney Town lot and was subsisting two people — Alice Fidoe, with whom he had shared a sow, was probably the other person. By May 1794 he was working as a labourer by the month for Aaron Davis and was recorded as a barber. He joined the New South Wales Corps on 12 July 1794 and left Norfolk Island for Port Jackson on 22 July, with Alice Fidoe. Fidoe remained at Port Jackson, however, when he returned to the island on the Supply in October 1795.

Egglestone served in the 102nd regiment in Captain John Townson's company at Norfolk Island until he was discharged on 24 June 1810. He left the island for Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) without family on the Lady Nelson in January 1813, settling on 50 acres at Port Dalrymple. No date of death has been traced for Egglestone.

information from

• Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 116-17
• 'George Egglestone, Convict, Alexander 1788', HMS Sirius 1786-1790, https://hmssirius.com.au/george-egglestone-convict-alexander-1788/ — accessed 23 September 2020