Five First Fleet Ancestors
Five journeys · Three ships · Norfolk Island · One Tasmanian family
Five of my direct ancestors arrived at Sydney Cove with the First Fleet in January 1788.
They did not arrive as a family. They travelled on different ships, came from different parts of England and could have had no idea that, generations later, their descendants would become connected.
Four of those ancestral lines came together through families whose lives were shaped by Norfolk Island. The fifth followed its own path before eventually joining my family in Tasmania.
The Five
Nathaniel Lucas
Scarborough · First Fleet · Norfolk Island
A carpenter and joiner whose skills became important to the new settlement on Norfolk Island. There he formed a family with fellow First Fleeter Olivia Gascoigne.
Olivia Gascoigne
Lady Penrhyn · First Fleet · Norfolk Island
Transported separately from Nathaniel, Olivia was also selected for the first settlement of Norfolk Island. Their descendants eventually moved from Norfolk Island to Van Diemen’s Land.
William Saltmarsh
Alexander · First Fleet · Norfolk Island
A cooper who was sent to Norfolk Island in 1790. His son William Butler Saltmarsh was born there in 1792 and later became part of the Norfolk Plains community in Tasmania.
Mary Phillips
First Fleet · Norfolk Island
Mary’s life also took her from England to Sydney Cove and then Norfolk Island. Her daughter Elizabeth Riley Stevens eventually married William Butler Saltmarsh, bringing two First Fleet lines together.
Bartholomew Reardon
Scarborough · First Fleet · Norfolk Island
Bartholomew settled on Norfolk Island, where his daughter Frances was born. Although he died there in 1807, Frances and her mother continued the journey to Van Diemen’s Land.
Where the Lines Meet
Nathaniel Lucas + Olivia Gascoigne
↓
Olivia Lucas
↓
Elizabeth Letitia Hodgetts
↓
John Saltmarsh + Elizabeth Letitia Hodgetts
and alongside it:
William Saltmarsh → William Butler Saltmarsh
Mary Phillips → Elizabeth Riley Stevens
↓
William Butler Saltmarsh + Elizabeth Riley Stevens
↓
John Saltmarsh
John Saltmarsh + Elizabeth Letitia Hodgetts
↓
Emma Saltmarsh → Clara Elizabeth Saltmarsh → Pearl Mary Grace Neal → Lexie Pearl Atkinson → Shirley Fay Hyland → Peter
Bartholomew Reardon → Frances Reardon → Williams family → Wilson family → Atkinson family → Peter
From the First Fleet to Tasmania
Their stories began aboard ships sailing for an uncertain new colony. Norfolk Island became the meeting place for four of the five ancestral lines, while Tasmania eventually became home to all five lines of descent.
More than two centuries later, I travelled to Norfolk Island myself and photographed some of the places connected with their lives.
They travelled here. I travel from here.