Gregory, Thomas (c1741-1809)
(father of Elizabeth)
Thomas Gregory was sentenced to sentences to seven years transportation at the 22 October 1788 Old Bailey Sessions for the theft of two live pigs found in his possession. He was held in Newgate Gaol until late May 1789 when he was sent with a group of London Convicts to the Dunkirk hulk at Plymouth, age given as 47. In late November he was embarked on the Neptune [our edit Lady Juliana] transport.
On 1 August 1790, five weeks after landing at Sydney cove, Thomas Gregory was among 194 convicts, mostly women, which were transferred to Norfolk Island. Sarah Gregory (b.c1743, tried Hertford, qv) and her child Elizabeth (qv), who had also been on the Neptune, were sent to the island at the same time. Sarah and her child lived with Thomas almost from the start. Although Sarah had been convicted separately at Hertford, it seems almost certain that they had been married in England; both had been convicted of pigstealing and although the exact place of Thomas’s crime has not been traced, it may well have been near the Hertfordshire border in rural Middlesex. From early 1791 Gregory, his wife and child, were living on a small piece of land at Charlotte Field (Queenborough) which they cultivated in their spare time. In February they were issued with three sows and by 1 July they had cleared one acre and 34 rods of the land. Gregory was one of the fist of the Second Fleet convicts to be allowed to settle as an independent farmer. He seems to have been well behaved and his farm flourished. As early as June 1792 he was allowed 4 acres of land. By this time he was self-supporting and was probably exempted from government labour. Soon afterwards he was settled on 12 acres at Creswell Bay. In 1796 the couple were on 60 acre farm (lot no. 72) on the SW side of the island near the modern aerodrome. Sarah died there in April 1807 and was described as Sarah Gregory wife of Thomas Gregory on her tombstone. Thomas was a landholder in 1805 but by 1808 he had sold his land. He owned a house and several other buildings for which he was paid $20 when he was among the settlers who sailed for Van Diemens Land on the Estramina in May 1808. He was accompanied by an unnamed woman and child. Thomas died at Hobart in February 1809 and was buried on the 5th at St Davids, Hobart, age given as 60. In October 1810 Governor Macquarie received a letter and other documents from Thomas’s son, James Gregory of Sheffield, Yorkshire, who wrote from England enquiring about his late father’s property. The Colonial Secretary instructed Hobart officials to send for the parties named in those papers and make strict enquiry respecting the effects of the deceased. In November 1811 a silver watch and three small silver teaspoons from his intestate estate were advertised for sale in Sydney

Source: "The Second Fleet Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790" by Michael Flynn Mitchell Library Ref 994.02/51A

http://www.gregory-fisher.com/Fisher/1777_1842.htm