People Australia

Thomas Heddington (c.1763-1798), a labourer, was found guilty on 4 July 1785 at Abingdon, Berkshire, of breaking open a bureaux and stealing six or seven pounds in cash, a wooden dish containing a great many halfpence and farthings, and two large silver spoons. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, he had been sent to the Ceres hulk by mid 1786 and was discharged to the Alexander in January 1787. He arrived at Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Headington (as Thomas Eddington) was sent to Norfolk Island on the Supply in March 1790. He married Elizabeth Thompson in November 1791 in a mass wedding ceremony on the island conducted by Reverend Richard Johnson. In 1792 (as Thomas Addington) he was granted 12 acres; in 1794 the couple were recorded as having one child.

Thomas Headington died on 13 January 1798 at Norfolk Island, survived by his wife and two children.

information from

• Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 170
• Cathy Dunn, 'Thomas Eddington – Heddington – Headington, Convict Alexander 1788,' in HMS Sirius, https://hmssirius.com.au/thomas-eddington-heddington-headington-convict-alexander-1788/, — accessed 13 November 2020
• John Boyd, 'Thomas Headington Convict ''Alexander" (c1763?-1798)', Fellowship of First Fleeters website, http://www.fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au/thomasheadington.htm — accessed 13 November 2020