People Australia

Thomas Hylids (c.1758- ), a ship's carpenter, was found guilty on 11 August 1784 at Guildford, Surrey, of stealing seven pieces of linen cloth from a wharf warehouse and was also found guilty of a second charge of stating that the goods belonged to another person. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, he was sent from Southwark Gaol (where he used the alias George Drake) to the Censor hulk and was dispatched to the Scarborough in February 1787, arriving at Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Hylids was sent (as Thomas Eylidd) to Norfolk Island on the Supply in January 1790, where he worked as a carpenter. On 28 March 1791 Ralph Clark reported that Chas. Illid received 50 lashes for the theft of scantling from the hospital.

Hylids is said to have left the colony by the end of 1791, his sentence having expired. As a ship's carpenter he would have had no difficulty in working a passage home.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 187