People Australia

Edward Jones (c.1763-1842), who was said at his trial to have a wife and three children, was found guilty on 15 September 1784 at the Old Bailey, London, of the theft of a quantity of goods. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, he was sent to the Ceres hulk on 5 April 1785, where he remained until he embarked for New South Wales on the Alexander in January 1787, arriving in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet.

Jones was employed in the public store at Port Jackson and shared a tent with George Whitaker and Joseph Carver. He married Martha Eaton on 23 March 1788. He received a 30 acre grant of land at Toongabbie in 1794; five acres were sown in wheat by 1800 and six acres were ready for maize. By 1802 the family was off stores and was employing a convict on a 50 acre farm at Prospect.

From at least 1806 Edward Jones worked mainly as a baker; he was still recorded as such at Sydney in 1825. He died at Sydney on 3 October 1842 and was buried the next day at St Laurence Church; his age was given as 80.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 197-98