John Dell (1763-1866)
My 4x Great-grandfather was born in Reading Berkshire on 5 November 1763. He is thought to be the son of Elizabeth Dell, a First Fleet convict. John, a private in the 4th Dragoons, transferred to the 102nd Regiment (NSW Corps) and arrived in Sydney on the Surprise in June 1790. While serving on Norfolk Island, he met his first wife Mary Hounsett, my 4x Great-grandmother and a Second Fleet convict on the Lady Juliana. They married in Sydney in 1795 and their daughter Elizabeth was born on 16 November 1798, followed by a son Joseph c.1800. Mary died in 1800, John remarried, to Sarah Green, and had several more children: George (1805), Ann, Rebecca (1912) and John (1815). The family sailed to England in 1810 and John returned to Australia, this time to Launceston, as a free settler in 1818. A lively interview with John Dell, then aged 102, was published in The Illustrated Melbourne Post in 1866. Not all his assertions about his colourful life, including the claim that he was in the party that arrested Governor Bligh, can be confirmed but it makes interesting reading.
My 4x Great-grandfather was born in Reading Berkshire on 5 November 1763. He is thought to be the son of Elizabeth Dell, a First Fleet convict. John, a private in the 4th Dragoons, transferred to the 102nd Regiment (NSW Corps) and arrived in Sydney on the Surprise in June 1790. While serving on Norfolk Island, he met his first wife Mary Hounsett, my 4x Great-grandmother and a Second Fleet convict on the Lady Juliana. They married in Sydney in 1795 and their daughter Elizabeth was born on 16 November 1798, followed by a son Joseph c.1800. Mary died in 1800, John remarried, to Sarah Green, and had several more children: George (1805), Ann, Rebecca (1912) and John (1815). The family sailed to England in 1810 and John returned to Australia, this time to Launceston, as a free settler in 1818. A lively interview with John Dell, then aged 102, was published in The Illustrated Melbourne Post in 1866. Not all his assertions about his colourful life, including the claim that he was in the party that arrested Governor Bligh, can be confirmed but it makes interesting reading.