Nathaniel Lucas (1764–1818) was a

convict A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". Convicts are often also known as " prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", while a common label for former conv ...

transported to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

on the

First Fleet The First Fleet was a fleet of 11 ships that brought the first European and African settlers to Australia. It was made up of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports. On 13 May 1787 the fleet under the command o ...

. His occupation was listed as

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters t ...

Life

Lucas was born in

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leathe ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, to parents John Lucas & Mary Bradford in 1764. Lucas was tried at the

Old Bailey The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly referred to as the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is a criminal court building in central London, one of several that house the Crown Court of England and Wales. The s ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 7 July 1784 for feloniously stealing clothing with a value of 40 shillings. Lucas was sentenced to

transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

for seven years and left

on the ''Scarborough'' in May 1787.He left behind a wife in England when transported to Australia who was illiterate based on her signing an 'X' in place of her name on a marriage certificate located.

Norfolk Island

After the First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson in January 1788,

Phillip Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

ordered

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

Philip Gidley King Captain Philip Gidley King (23 April 1758 – 3 September 1808) was a British politician who was the third Governor of New South Wales. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, King was detailed to colonise Norfolk Island for defence ...

to lead a party of fifteen convicts (9 men and 6 women) and seven free men to take control of

Norfolk Island Norfolk Island (, ; Norfuk: ''Norf'k Ailen'') is an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia, directly east of Australia's Evans Head and about from Lord Howe Island. Together wit ...

and prepare for its commercial development. Lucas was aboard , which arrived at Norfolk on 6 March 1788. On board ''Supply'' Nathaniel met Olivia Gascoigne (''b. 1763 - d. 12 Jun 1830'') whom he married on 5 November 1791, on Norfolk Island. Nathaniel and Olivia had thirteen children, although twins (Sarah and Mary) were killed at the age of two years when a large Norfolk Island Pine fell on the Lucas house. In 1791 he received a grant of and in 1793 purchased another from Charles Heritage, a former marine. Lucas took up farming and in August 1802 sold

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American English, North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous ...

and

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved ...

worth £450 to the government stores on the island. On 22 May 1802, Lucas was appointed Master Carpenter at Norfolk Island.

New South Wales

In April 1805, Lucas returned with his family to

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

in the . The ship carried materials for a government windmill which Lucas was to erect in Sydney, and he was allowed to carry materials for another windmill for himself. Nathaniel also brought several pairs of capital mill stones.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. Dated 23 June 1805.
An excellent Post Mill, the first that has been erected in the settlement is now completed by Mr Nathaniel Lucas, behind Back Row East. It was undertaken and finished within the space of six weeks; has been for several weeks at work, is capable of grinding, with a sufficiency of wind, upwards of six bushels per hour, which was last week accomplished for 12 hours successively.

In 1808, Nathaniel was appointed superintendent of carpenters in Sydney and held this position until his retirement in December 1814. 3 Jan 1810 Nathaniel was noted to be on the list of persons holding civil and military employment at Sydney and settlements adjacent, as Superintendent of Carpenters. From 1810 until his death, Nathaniel appears on numerous Colonial Secretary's documents. The majority of these documents refer to Nathaniel surveying land or property and constructing or repairing various structures. 1812, saw the completion of a Post Windmill behind the Battery at Dawes Point. The price of grinding wheat into flour was fifteen pence per bushel, if brought and taken away by the owners of the wheat, or eighteen pence per bushel if brought and taken away by the owners of the Mill. During the construction of the St Luke's Church in 1818, which was designed by

Francis Greenway Francis Howard Greenway (20 November 1777 – September 1837) was an English-born architect who was transported to Australia as a convict for the crime of forgery. In New South Wales he worked for the Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, as Australia' ...

, Greenway alleged that Lucas was much addicted to the bottle and that he was using very poor stone at the church.

Death

After some days of being noticed absent, his body was discovered on the bank of a local river. It was determined he had been there about six days.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucas, Nathaniel 1764 births 1818 deaths Convicts transported to Australia on the First Fleet Suicides by drowning in Australia Suicides in New South Wales People from Leatherhead English emigrants to colonial Australia Burials in New South Wales 1810s suicides