page_title: George Atkinson (convict)
section_title: Penal servitude
hierarchical_section_title: George Atkinson (convict) / Penal servitude
caption_attribution_description: English: An illustration from The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay Original caption: A View of Botany Bay
context_page_description: George Atkinson, also known as George Atkins, was an English convict sent to Australia aboard a ship of the First Fleet. He was a chimney sweeper.
  Convicted for the theft of clothing and a book from a London boarding-house in 1783, he was sentenced to seven years' transportation and sent to the Australian penal colony of New South Wales where he was put to work on a Norfolk Island farm. On expiry of his sentence Atkinson married and took up careers in farming, law enforcement and as a mariner. In 1811 he purchased a half-share in a seagoing sloop, becoming one of the colony's earliest ship owners.
  Bankrupted within three years, Atkinson resumed to work as a police constable, night watch and labourer. He died in 1834 and was buried near St James' Church, Sydney.
context_section_description: Penal transportation to the Americas having effectively ceased as a result of the American Revolutionary War, Atkinson spent the next three years confined aboard the prison hulk Censor. On 27 February 1787 he was transferred by wagon to Portsmouth for embarkation on the convict ship Scarborough, part of the First Fleet to New South Wales, Australia. Scarborough commenced her voyage in company with the rest of the Fleet on 13 May, arriving in Port Jackson, New South Wales in January 1788. Atkinson remained in Port Jackson for two years, before being transferred in 1790 to a government farm on Norfolk Island.
caption: The First Fleet at voyage's end in 1788. Engraving from The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay[3]
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