Thomas Hill (c.1758- ) a breeches maker, was found guilty on 13 March 1783 at Dorchester, Dorset, of stealing a silver watch from a shop. 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 Friendship in March 1787 and arrived in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.
Hill was sentenced to eight days at Pinchgut Island in irons, and on bread and water, on 12 February 1788, for the theft of a biscuit from another convict. He may have been the Thomas Hill who was overseer of tents on the west side of Sydney Cove (a man who was a breeches maker could well have done this job). No later, or more certain, information about which particular Thomas Hill he was has been located.
* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 175
'Hill, Thomas (c. 1758–?)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/hill-thomas-30814/text38164, accessed 21 September 2024.
c.
1758
Shrewsbury,
Shropshire,
England
Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.
Crime: theft
Sentence: 7 years
Court: Dorset
Trial Date: 13 March 1783
(1783)