People Australia

William Hogg, a silversmith, was found guilty on 21 April 1784 at the Old Bailey of counterfeiting offences. Sentenced to 14 years transportation he was sent to the Censor hulk at London. He arrived at Sydney in January 1788 aboard the Scarborough as part of the First Fleet.

In March 1790 he was sent to Norfolk Island on the Supply. In February 1791 Hogg, Mary Lammerman, and George Robinson were jointly issued with a government sow. The sow littered in June making the three independent of meat.

Hogg hanged himself on 8 August 1795. David Collins wrote about the incident in his An Account of the English Colony of NSW, volume 1

William Hogg, a prisoner well known and approved at this place for his abilities as a silversmith, and an actor in the walk of low comedy, put an end to his existence in a very deliberate manner a few days before the Fancy sailed. Spirits being in circulation after her arrival, he went to the 'Grog-shop' as long as he had money; but, finding that he had no credit, he could no longer endure the loss of character which he thought attached to it; and though he did not 'make his quietus with a bare bodkin,' yet he found a convenient rope that put him out of the world.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 176-77