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.
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