People Australia

Robert Kellow ( -1815?), 1st lieutenant of marines, 104th Company, arrived at Sydney aboard the Scarborough in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet. He performed the ordinary duties of his office at Port Jackson and was a member of the criminal court and of courts martial.

He had a son, Robert, with Catherine Hart in 1789. In March 1790 Kellow, Hart, their son and Hart's son from an earlier relationship went to Norfolk Island on the Sirius. There, he was involved in a dispute with a fellow officer which led, in the end, to him being suspended from all duties until further orders. He was to be sent home as soon as possible.

On 14 May 1791 Kellow left Norfolk Island on the Supply with his family, which now also included a daughter (another daughter was born in October 1791) for Port Jackson. He returned to England with his son Robert on the Gorgon in December 1791. As there are no further records for Hart or her other children, and her sentence would have expired just as the ship was leaving, it is likely that he also took them as well, providing for them from his own stores.

Kellow went on half pay after 1792 and disappeared from the list of marine officers after 1815.

information from

• Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 202-03
• HMS Sirius 1786-1790, https://hmssirius.com.au/robert-kellow-1st-lieutenant-marines-scarborough-1788-and-catherine-hart-convict-prince-of-wales-1788/ — accessed 16 September 2020