People Australia

Sarah Griggs was sentenced to seven years transportation for stealing a speckled apron. She arrived in Sydney aboard the Neptune in 1790 as part of the Second Fleet. On 1 August 1790 she was among 194 convicts sent to Norfolk Island aboard the Surprize. In May 1793 she had a child, Sarah with Lieutenant John Townson of the NSW Corps. Following his departure from the colony she formed a relationship with Ensign James Hunt Lucas. Their child James Hunt Griggs was born before they sailed to Sydney in November 1795. Ensign Lucas died in 1800.

By March 1800 Griggs was living with Edward Holt. In 1806 she was living with William Burgin, a constable at Parramatta. In June 1807 the transfer by deed of a gift of a house at The Rocks, Sydney, from Edward Holt to Sarah Griggs was registered and in March 1810 John Townson sold Brackenrig Farm to Griggs for a shilling – perhaps he had been continuing to support his daughter. Griggs's son James Hunt Lucas was living in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land by 1824. It is not known what became of Sarah Griggs.

*information from Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993)