EDWARD FISHER

The following material is reproduced from Exiled Three Times Over! by Irene Schaffer and Thelma McKay:  

"Edward Fisher arrived at Port Jackson in August 1791 on the convict ship “Matilda” [which was part of the Third Fleet]. He had appeared before the Oxford Assizes [in Stafford] on 30 July 1788 with four others for stealing two hempen sacks, value three shillings, and 275 lb of hops, value 20 pounds, belonging to Hugh Evans of the parish of Sedgeley, Staffordshire, England. He had given the goods to John Whitehouse, a licensed victualler, and was found guilty and sentenced to seven years' transportation. Edward was sent to Norfolk Island [aboard the Mary Ann], where ten years later he married Elizabeth Gregory on 26 July 1801.

 Elizabeth was born in England and came to New South Wales when only ten years old with her mother, Sarah Gregory, a convict on the Lady Juliana with the Second Fleet. Elizabeth 's father, Thomas Gregory, also arrived with the Second Fleet on the Neptune and the family was sent to Norfolk Island on the “Suprise.”   Sarah Gregory died just before the family left the island in 1807.

 Edward and Elizabeth Fisher had five children born to them on Norfolk Island and three more in Van Diemen's Land on the 85-acre farm at Sandy Bay , where today Fisher Avenue is named after the family. [Other sources also have the couple having a child Joseph on Norfolk Island who also died there.

Edward received an additional grant of 200 acres at Oatlands in 1824 along with his sons Thomas, Edward and John who received 100 acres each. When Edward Snr died in 1838, he left his Sandy Bay farm to his wife Elizabeth and upon her death to be divided up for his family, naming his sons and daughters and their husbands.