People Australia

John Hall (c.1757-1817), a former seaman, was found guilty on 14 January 1784 at the Old Bailey, London, of the theft of a cask containing 60 pounds of butter. Sentenced 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 Charlotte in March 1787 and arrived in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Hall was sent to Norfolk Island on the Supply in March 1790. Hall, and four other men, received 50 lashes in May 1790 for concealing fish they had caught. He married Elizabeth Farrell at the mass wedding ceremony held on the island in November 1791. By September 1791 Hall was working a 12 acre lease in First Settlers Vale, Phillimore's Run, Buckingham Township. In December 1801 he paid £200 with another man for a 24 acre lease.

John and Elizabeth Hall left Norfolk Island — without any children — for Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in December 1807 on the Porpoise, settling on 30 acres at Sandy Bay.

John Hall died at Hobart on 20 November 1817; his age was given as 61.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 155