St. John’s First Fleeters is a collection of peer-reviewed essays on the First Fleeters buried at St. John’s Cemetery, Parramatta and/or registered in the St. John’s Parish burial register, as well as two feature essays about the history and significance of the cemetery.
The biographies in this collection have been selected and edited by Dr. Michaela Ann Cameron, with a number of historians contributing individual essays. The biographical essays are being published gradually from early 2016 onwards.
Over 50 First Fleeters are registered in the St. John’s Parish burials register, but the majority have no memorial plaques and lie in unmarked graves, exact location unknown. For the complete list of St. John’s First Fleeters see the First Fleet dataset here.
The full-length essays that are currently available and links to interactive 3D photogrammetry models of all 17 extant First Fleet Memorials at the cemetery can be accessed below.
Augustus Alt: The Baron** [Memorial]
The Killing and Keening of Simon Burn* [Reported Grave]
Frances Hannah Clements: The Convict’s Child [Memorial]
Thomas Daveney: The Tyrant of Toongabbie* [Probable Grave]
Henry Dodd: The Faithful Servant** [Memorial, Marker]
Elizabeth Eccles: The Dairy Maid [Probable Grave]
Thomas Eccles: The Swine Connoisseur** [Memorial]
Edward Elliott: The Husbandman** [Memorial]
Thomas Freeman: Minding the Store* [Memorial]
Deborah Herbert: A Prigger of Toggery [Memorial]
John Herbert: From Felon to Farmer** [Memorial]
Hugh Hughes: The Wheelwright Made Right** [Memorial]
John Irving: The Best Surgeon Amongst Them* [Recorded Grave: Old Sydney Burial Ground]
Mary Kelly: The ‘First Lady’ of Kellyville*** [Memorial]
David Killpack: The Merry Mutineer** [Memorial]
Isaac Knight: The Trusty Sergeant** [Memorial]
The Wretched, Rascally and Depraved Magees, and the Story of St. John’s First Burial”* [Memorial]
John Martin: The Self-Freed Slave*** [Memorial Plaque]
Thomas Martin: Ripples of a Revolution*
Jane McManus: The Maid Freed from the Gallows*** [Memorial]
Lives Left Behind: The Forsaken Families of First Fleeters*
Christopher Palmer: Perils of a Purser* [Memorial]
John Palmer: The Purser, The P.O.W** [Memorial]
Richard Partridge: The Left-Handed Flogger
James Wright: The Highwayman*** [Memorial]
CREDITS
This project was supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW. (Essays are marked*)
This project has been supported through a Parramatta City Council Community Grant. (Essays are marked **)
This project has been assisted by funds allocated to the Royal Australian Historical Society through the Heritage Branch of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. (Essays are marked ***)
Essays without an asterisk were voluntary contributions.
Will Andrews’s 3D Photogrammetry Models, accessed via the links above, are part of the Sensing the Dead collection, which was privately commissioned by Dr. Michaela Ann Cameron (2024).
Collection Design, Research Assistance, Editing, Multimedia and Publishing: Michaela Ann Cameron
Authors: Caitlin Adams, Michaela Ann Cameron, Alexander Cameron-Smith, Judith Dunn, Penny Edwell, David Morgan, Danielle Thyer, Ben Vine.
Research Assistance: Jennifer Follers, The Fellowship of First Fleeters
3D Photogrammetry: Will Andrews (Heritage Spatial), private commissioned by Michaela Ann Cameron. See Sensing the Dead for full details.
© Copyright Michaela Ann Cameron 2015–2020
St. John's 