People Australia

William Field (c.1761-1826) was found guilty on 29 July 1783 at Winchester, Hampshire, of a highway robbery that netted him a metal watch, other goods, and half a guinea. 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 in June 1784. He was discharged to the Friendship in March 1787 and arrived in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Field married Elizabeth Robinson on 14 July 1790. He was settled at The Ponds by July 1791; holding 50 acres by February 1792. By 1806 he had left his grant and moved to Mulgrave Place where he rented 19 acres from William Addy. He was now living with Mary Cawthorne.

He is almost certainly the William Field who was buried at Wilberforce on 22 October 1826; his age was given as 64.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 126