GEORGE PORTER

Convict ship, loaded 259 male convicts, 73 died on voyage.  All these    convicts were sent to Norfolk Island .  

George Porter was born about 1768, in Middlesex, and when 20 years old was sentenced to death  on 25 February 1789 during the Sessions at the Justice Hall, Old Bailey. His crime was stealing six silk handkerchiefs and a single leather slipper in the burglary of a shop near the corner of The Terrace and Cross Street , Islington, just north of the City of London . At 6 pm on 21 January he was seen breaking a pane of glass in a shop window, and snatching the items from a display. It was already dark, but he was caught running through Islington Churchyard after someone cried, "Stop Thief!" William Cook was also arrested, because he had been seen acting suspiciously with Porter earlier. He was acquitted at the trial with a solemn warning from the judge: "Your life is spared. I hope the fate of your unfortunate companion will be a warning to you." Witnesses identified both young men as Islington residents known to them by sight. Porter claimed in court to have innocently picked up the goods off the ground.  

After Porter had spent seven months in the condemned cells, he was called to the bar of the Old Bailey with over a 100 other capital convicts in September 1787, and offered a pardon on condition of transportation for life group He accepted, and on 10 November he was sent from Newgate to the transport, Scarborough . So he became a Second Fleeter, arriving at Sydney Cove on 28 June 1790.

A year after landing, Porter was sent to Norfolk Island, where he worked quietly as a gardener, with James Warwick, and was still single when he was transferred to Van Diemen's Land on the City of Edinburgh in September 1808. Written alongside his name in the remarks column on the list of evacuees was recommended for a grant - a good character. The impression is that Porter was a fairly quiet sort of man, who kept out of trouble, and survived through the horrors of the Second Fleet and Norfolk Island by being as invisible as possible.  

On 21 November 1808, a month after arriving in Hobart Town , he married Susannah Mortimore, (who went under the name of O'Brien), who had sailed with her family from Norfolk Island on the same ship as Porter. Perhaps he proposed to her on board? She was 18, and he was by now 40. They were married by the Rev'd Robert Knopwood, with Thomas O'Brien, Susannah's step-father, and Francis Barnes as witnesses. The couple both signed with an X. It was the 34th marriage to take place in Tasmania .  

George farmed near New Norfolk, and for some years was a constable with the Hobart Town Police. In 1818 he was supplying wheat and meat to the government stores, and in 1819 held a grazing license at "Green Bottom", Broad Valley , Glenorchy. That year he was listed as farming 60 acres, of which 15 were in wheat, and 4 in beans and potatoes. He also had 5 cattle and 151 sheep. By then they had six children, and employed a government servant.  

In the December 1821 Hobart Town Gazette the following advertisement appeared:  

STRAYED, about three weeks ago, from the Black Snake, two Working Bullocks, branded G P on the near shoulder, one has a black mark with a star on the forehead, the other red colour with a white back - Whoever will give information where they are, to George Porter, the owner, as above, will receive 2 pounds for their trouble; but if found in any person's possession after this notice, they will be prosecuted agreeably to the Colonial regulations.  

The first seven children were baptised by Robert Knopwood, and George and Susannah's address was given as Hobart Town . The last two records give the address as Glenorchy, and George's occupation as farmer. But they were on their farm at Black Snake, Granton, long before 1825. In 1817 George was supplying the Government Stores, with 750 lbs of fresh meat, and 24 bushels of wheat.  In 1828 a Return of Juvenile Population of the Black Snake, Van Diemen's Land , requiring Education lists the Porter family, boys and girls separately, with the comment "Parents of good character". They were Protestants. Both George Porter and William Mansfield claimed that the school was too far off for their children to attend.  

George died on 8 September 1828, at the age of 60, leaving his wife responsible for a family of eight children. Susannah held them together on the farm, yet another remarkable pioneer woman. She died aged 45 on 7 May 1835, leaving her youngest child an orphan at only 6 years old. Perhaps her mother helped raise the children left behind.  

George was buried at Glenorchy Tasmania