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John Young (?–?)

John Young was sentenced, at the June 1788 Old Bailey sessions, to death, for stealing 23 men's leather shoes from a shop. He was held in Newgate Prison, London, under a temporary respite from execution until September 1789 when he was among more than 100 Old Bailey convicts whose sentences were commuted to life transportation. Young arrived in Sydney aboard the Scarborough on 28 June 1790. Two days later he married Mary Winspear. The next day the couple were among the 194 convicts sent on the Surprize to Norfolk Island.

In February 1791 the couple were issued with a sow which they shared with Humphrey Lynch, who was cultivating a small piece of land at Charlotte Field (Queenborough). In July Young was recorded living with one other person on an allotment at Queenborough with 102 rods cleared. He was still there in 1796. Young either died or left the island between 1797-1801.

* information from Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993), p 634

Citation details

'Young, John (?–?)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/young-john-29784/text36870, accessed 14 March 2025.

© Copyright People Australia, 2012

Life Summary [details]

Cultural Heritage

Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.

Passenger Ship
Occupation or Descriptor
Key Events
Key Places
Convict Record

Crime: theft
Sentence: life