WILLIAM ROBERTS  

William Roberts was a Cornishman aged 30 years when he fell foul of the law. He was accused of ‘stealing 5 pounds and one half pound weight of yarn, valued at 9 shillings, the goods of William Moffett’. He was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation. He arrived in the Colony on Scarborough.  

He lived in a hut in Sydney Town and worked for Lt George Johnston. He formed an association with Kezia Brown, a convict who had arrived on Neptune in 1790. They had a son, William, who was baptised on 4 September 1791, the first of 10 children to be born to the couple. They were married on 14 August 1793, at St Phillip's Church in Sydney. 

 
By 1800 he had moved out of Sydney and become a farmer on the Hawkesbury with 13 acres of wheat and 15 acres of maize and 10 hogs. He now had four children. His farming activities increased when he received a further grant of 100 acres in 1804. He improved his land and his livestock increased, as did his family. By 1814, he was a substantial landowner, supporting his 10 children.

  
William Roberts died on 14 February 1820, and was buried at St Matthew's, Windsor.