FF JOHN LIMEBURNER Convict ‘Charlotte’(c1755-1847)

 this story is under review by Membership Team

John Limeburner received sentence of death at New Sarum( Salisbury,Wilts ) on 9th July 1785 for breaking into a house one morning and stealing a cloth coat and waistcoat, a linen shirt and two pairs of worsted stockings. Reprieved to transportation for seven years on 10th August, he was sent to the Dunkirk hulk, aged 30 years, where he was ‘tolerably decent and orderly’. On 11th March 1787 he was discharged to Charlotte.

 

At Port Jackson on 4th January 1789 Limeburner encountered Thomas Sanderson (qv) who had absconded after a robbery, and begged him to give himself up, without effect. Sanderson was tried on 10th and hanged that evening.

 

On 26th September Limeburner married Elizabeth Ireland (Neptune 1790) and by August 1792 they settled on a 50 acre grant at Prospect.

By mid 1800 Limeburner had four and a half acres sown in wheat and 15 more ready for planting maize. Owing seven pigs and one goat, he and his wife were off stores with no children or servants. The 1801 muster recorded him with 30 acres cleared, 26 and one half sown in grain and owning 36 hogs. On 4th February 1802 he assigned 30 acres known as Castle Farm to John Fenton and was not listed as a landholder for the muster in August.

In February 1805 Limeburner offered a reward of 20s for the recovery of a greyhound dog. In 1806 he was working as a self-employed labourer and on record for the sale at Sydney of some land and houses at No 4 Back Row (later Phillip Street) for 10 pounds 10 shillings and 34 pounds. He then ventured into shopkeeping and later became a baker. In December 1809 he leased a town lot in Chapel Row (Castlereagh Street) Sydney, where in 1828 he was still living as a householder, his age given as 70 years.

 

John Limeburner died at Ashfield on 2nd September 1847, and was buried at St John’s churchyard there, his age then given as 104, as in many cases, it was probably overestimated. It is more likely that he was about 92 years. Elizabeth had died on 12th November 1838, age given as 75 years. The couple has no children.

 

Obituary:

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. - John Limeburner, the last of the First Fleeters, as they are called in this Colony, died at Longbottom on Thursday week last, at the advanced age of 104 years. Poor old Jack retained his faculties to the last, and the day before his demise polished off two gills of Niech's pure Jamaica.

He helped to pitch the first tent in Sydney, and pointed out the precise spot, the corner of Hunter and George streets, now occupied as a shop, and formerly known as the sign of the Crooked Billet public house. Jack remembered the British Flag being first hoisted in Sydney on a swamp oak-tree, which was placed in the spot, at the rear of
Cadman's house, now occupied as the "Water Police Court. The tree stood until the government of General Darling, when it was ordered to be cut down. A remnant of this tree is now in the possession of one of Australia's sons, who intends to deposit the relic in our Colonial Museum when erected
.-Sydney and Sporting Reviewer, 11 September, 1847, page 2:

 

Complied by John Boyd 2020.

The Fellowship of First Fleeters installed a FFF Plaque on John Limeburner’s Grave on 4th November 1984

Refer FFF Web Site:http://www.fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au/graves.html

Under  see FFF Plaque 36 – Installed 4th November 1984 for

FF JOHN LIMEBURNER Convict‘Charlotte’(c1755-1847)

Source:-The Founders of Australia by Mollie Gillen p221.

 

 

Copyright Fellowship of First Fleeters