William Brown (abt. 1761 - 1787)

Born about 1761 in England [uncertain]

Died 19 Sep 1787 at about age 26 in At Sea

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Biography

William Brown was a convict on the First Fleet.

William was born about 1761. He passed away in 1787.

William Brown was tried on 29 July 1783 at Southampton Gaol Delivery at Winchester Castle, Hampshire,

For feloniously assaulting John Oram in a field and open place near the King’s Highway feloniously putting him in corporal fear and danger of his life in the said field and feloniously and violently taking from his person and against his will in the said field one Silver Watch value £3 the goods of the said John Oram. ^[1]

Found guilty, he was sentenced to death, commuted to 7 years transportation to America.

On 26 March 1784, he was ordered from a Thames hulk to the Mercury transport for America. Brown was among the prisoners who mutinied on the Mercury in April 1784. Recaptured in Devon, he was tried by the Special Commission at Exeter on 24 May, once again evading death by reprieve to 7 transportation on 28 August.^[2]

He was sent to the Dunkirk hulk, his age recorded as 23, and was described as 'troublesome at times' during his three years on board the hulk. He was discharged to the Charlotte on 11 March 1787, to be sent to New South Wales, part of the First Fleet.^[2]

On the Charlotte he was described as a 'very well behaved convict' by Surgeon John White.^[2]

Brown fell overboard at sea on 19 September 1787, two weeks after leaving Rio de Janeiro. When bringing back some clothing he had hung to dry at the bowsprit end of the ship, he slipped and fell overboard. Though the ship was hove to and a boat hoisted out to retrieve him, he could not be saved. 'The ship went directly over him'.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ John Cobley, The Crimes of the First Fleet Convicts, (1970), p.39.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Mollie Gillen, The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet (1989), pp 402-03.

See also:

• 'Brown, William (c. 1761–1787)', People Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/brown-william-30796/text38146, accessed 25 January 2024.