People Australia

Frederick Meredith was a steward aboard the Scarborough which landed in Sydney in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet. On 2 May he joined Sirius as an able seaman (baker). He had a child, Charlotte, with Mary Allen. After the wreck of the Sirius he returned to England by the Waaksamheid in March 1791.

He returned to Sydney as a settler by the Bellona in January 1793 and received a 60 acre grant of land at Liberty Plains. He had a daughter with Mary Martin in 1790, a daughter with Ann Case in 1793, a daughter with Mary Kirk in 1794, and a son with Sarah Mason; he and Sarah married on 17 January 1801.

In 1802 Meredith was a private in the Sydney Loyal Association and was a member of Governor Macquarie's constabulary in 1810. In 1809 he was granted 120 acres at Punchbowl. He operated as a baker from at least this time. In 1831 he was granted 60 acres on the Liverpool Road at Bankstown. Following his wife's death in 1832, Meredith married Ann Day, a widow, on 19 February 1833. He died on 23 June 1836 and was buried at St Luke's, Liverpool; his age was given as 73.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 243-44