People Australia

Jeremiah Hurley (c.1763- ) was found guilty on 22 July 1782 at Exeter, Devon, of two counts of theft of clothing from a dwelling house. Sentenced to 7 years transportation to Africa, he was sent to the Wood Street Compter in London where he occasionally received medication. On 9 October 1783 he was committed to Newgate Gaol for an assault and the theft of some goods. He was ordered to the Ceres hulk on 19 April 1785 and was discharged to the Scarborough in February 1787. He arrived at Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Hurley was ordered 100 lashes (and received 50) on 13 June 1788 for leaving work for two days with John Jeffries to gather greens — they were almost lost in the bush. On 4 April 1789 he was sentenced to 150 lashes and ordered to work with an iron on his leg for a year after being involved with several others in an attempted attack on Aboriginal people near Botany Bay on 6 March.

Hurley had left the colony by the end of 1791, his sentence having expired.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 186