People Australia

Robert Stephens (c.1762- ) was a marine in the 30th (Portsmouth) Company when he arrived at Sydney aboard the Friendship in January 1788 as part of the First Fleet. He served in Captain John Shea's Company at Port Jackson. He worked as a labourer in the colony assisting the carpenters before going to Norfolk Island on the Supply in June 1789. Choosing to become a settler he received a 60 acre grant of land on the island in February 1792 and was sworn in as a constable in the Great Cascade Stream area in September 1793. By June 1794 he was living with Elizabeth Hippesley.

Stephens sold his land in November 1794 and left Norfolk Island with Hippesley for Port Jackson to join the New South Wales Corps. He shared a 150 acre grant of land at Mulgrave Place with five former marines. Stephens was described as being 5 feet 7 inches tall, with a round face, fair complexion, hazel eyes and sandy complexion. He returned to England with his wife in April 1810 aboard the Dromedary.

* information from Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), p 345