People Australia

James Richardson (c.1766- ), with two companions, was found guilty on 14 March 1785 at Maidstone, Kent, of (1) highway assault and theft of an ounce of tobacco and a halfpenny coin and (2) a violent assault with a bayonet and demanding money from another person. Sentenced to 7 years transportation, Richardson was sent to the Ceres hulk, 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.

Richardson was sent to Norfolk Island on the Golden Grove in October 1788 on the same voyage as Susannah Trippett; they lived together on the island. Ricardson received 50 lashes on 10 May 1790 for neglect of duty for not 'floggen' five men from the boat crew who concealed a fish catch. He returned to Port Jackson, with Trippett, and with no children, on the Atlantic in September 1792. The couple were still living together in Sydney, without children, in 1806. No further records have been found for Richardson.

He is probably the James Richardson who joined the New South Wales Corps in July 1792 at Port Jackson. This person is described as an ex-convict, arrived First Fleet, Scarborough. There was only James Richardson who arrived in either the First or Second Fleets. He was stationed on Norfok Island in 1802 and returned to Port Jackson the following year. He returned to England with the corps in 1810.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 306