People Australia

Thomas Halfpenny ( -1809) was a marine in the 35th (Portsmouth) Company when he arrived at Sydney aboard the Sirius as part of the First Fleet. Halfpenny decided to settle and was granted 60 acres at Arthur's Vale on Norfolk Island in 1791. He was elected a member of the Norfolk Island Settlers Society in 1793 and was selling grain to stores from the beginning of 1794. He had married Catharine Wilmot in a mass wedding ceremony on the island in November 1791. The couple left the island (without any children) for Port Jackson on the Supply in April 1796.

Halfpenny was renting land at Parramatta in mid 1800; five acres were ready for planting. In 1802 he rented 10 acres at Mulgrave Place; he was also operating as a grain merchant. In 1809 he held a wine and spirit licence in Parramatta.

Halfpenny died on 5 Sepember 1809 shortly after making his will, leaving 'a very good and substantial dwelling house' at Windsor, as well as other properties, to his wife for her maintenance and that of their son Joseph. 

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 154