THE FIRST TREE

A summary of the life of Nathaniel Lucas, Ref. Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Lucas, Nathaniel (1764 ~ 1818). joiner. carpenter and builder. was living in Red Lion Street. Holborn. London. in July 1784 when he was convicted at the Old Bailey of having stolen clothing from his neighbour. he was sentenced to transportation for seven years and sailed in 1787 In the 'Scarborough` in the First Fleet. After his arrival In New South Wales, he and Olivia Gascoigne whom he later married were among fifteen convicts specially selected for their character and vocation to pioneer Norfolk Island. where they arrived In the 'Supply on the 6th of March 1788. In 1791 he received a grant of fifteen acres, which he farmed. and in 1793 purchased another sixty acres from Charles Heritage. a former marine.. apparently he was successful. for in August 1802 he sold wheat. maize and pork worth £450 to the Government. On the 11th of June 1795 he had succeeded William Peate as master carpenter. He was suspended from 5th September 1800 to 13th March 1802. He was re-appointed and held his post until the establishment was reduced In 1805. In April he returned with his family. to Sydney, in the 'Investigator". 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; by June 1805 he completed the first Post Mill to be erected in the settlement.

In Sydney, Lucas became a private builder. but in 1808 after the rebellion against Bligh. he was appointed Superintendent of Carpenters at a salary of £50. with the extra privileges of victualling from the government stores and using assigned servants. In 1813 he was appointed Superintendent of the government Lumber yard. and he had sixty-one men under him. Next year when Governor Macquarie published Bathurst’s order abolishing the privileges attached to this and many other offices. Lucas with many others petitioned the governor for their restoration, and Macquarie suspended the order. However. from this time Lucas gave increasing attention to building contracts. He had already been associated with the Rum Hospital In Sydney. In 1816 he was the builder of the parsonage at Liverpool and was associated with that at Parramatta (both demolished). In 1818 he gained the contract for building St Luke's Church. Liverpool. which Francis Greenway designed. and was present when Macquarie laid its foundation stone on the 7th April. Greenway, who had quarrelled with Lucas over the Hospital, quarrelled with him over the foundations of the Church, alleging that Lucas was much addicted to the bottle, and that he was using very poor stone at the church.

On the 5th May his body was found in the mud of the river at Liverpool; his death was said "to have proceeded from his own act. owing to mental derangement'".

Lucas contributed twenty years service to Australian building. None of his work remains today except an unidentifiable portion of the Rum Hospital. He had thirteen children, eleven at Norfolk Island between 1789 and 1803. of whom two (twins) died in infancy. and two more In Sydney In 1805 and 1807.

The Trial of Nathaniel Lucas, heard at the Old Bailey, by the London Jury, before Mr Rose.

719. Nathaniel Lucas was indicted for feloniously stealing. on the 6th of July 1784. one cotton apron, value 4s, one towel, value 2d, six muslin aprons, value 12s, nine muslin handkerchiefs, value 18s, three muslin caps, value 3s, a muslin shawl, value 5s. The property of Mary Davis, spinster.

Mary Davis (sworn)

I am a single woman, I live In Red Lion Street. Holborn, with my father, on Tuesday last I lost the things mentioned in the indictment from my father's house. I went out about five in the evening, I went to the drawer in the garret for an apron, and the draw was full as usual, the casement being left open by neglect, when 1 returned about eleven I went to put the same apron back, and the drawer was forced open and all the things gone, they were all in this drawer but the cotton apron and an old towel. I am sure I left it locked.

Court - Can you speak with precision to these identical things? - - I am sure I missed them all. As soon as I found I was robbed my father went to the next door, and I immediately recollected the things I had lost, and upon that recollection I now speak (The things were produced and deposed to). All the handkerchiefs are marked except one that Is worked by my sister. I am sure it is mine, and the shawl my sister worked, the cotton apron 1 marked, and one of the muslin ones, the others are worked ones. I know them particularly, the towel is not marked, I cannot speak so positively to that as to the rest I know nothing of the prisoner.

John Davis (sworn)

I am a painter, I suspected the prisoner, who lodged at the next door, at a public house. 1 got a constable and a beadle, and went up to the prisoners room along with the publican, the prisoner was in bed, we looked about the room and could see nothing, and we at last made him get up, and between the sacking and the feather bed there was this cotton apron, and the towel. I found nothing else in that room, and in an adjoining room, the door of which was latched not locked, and was an empty room, we found all the rest of the things doubled up in a feather bed. I knew the shawl particularly, because I drew the pattern for my daughter to work it; I took the prisoner next day to the justice, the things have been in my possession ever since.

Court - Is there a possibility of getting out of one garret window into another? - - by going along the parapet wall it is very easy, the parapet is even. - -could a man get in at the casement? - - very easy.

Waiter Carwardine (sworn)

I keep a public house in Red Lion Street. I have more lodgers besides the prisoner, and upon the same floor I have an infirm old lady in the back room, about eighty.

Court - Have you any other lodgers in the house? - -yes. in the two pair of stairs; I went up with Mr Davis, and he came in and asked me what lodgers I had; I said all were good but one I did not know, that my wife took in.--- Is this old lady very active?-- No sir, she goes double, she is three quarters of an hour going from the top of the house to the bottom.--- Did the prisoner say anything about the things? - - He said he did not know anything of the things; them are the things we found which are produced.

Prisoner. - - Why did not he like me?

Court - That Is not evidence, unless you choose to have it so, unless you choose to put, the question.

Prisoner - I choose to put the question. - - Because he had no box nor anything there, and I did not go after his character, and he seemed a rather surly kind of man. - - Because I did not go to his house to get drunk I always went to bed by nine o'clock, he did not like me for that, and his wife asked me for the money before it was due, and I was rather surly to her.

John Freeman (sworn)

It was my night to sit up at the watch-house, I went up stairs with Mr Davis; Mr Davis looked upon the wall to see if he could see any marks of footsteps, but we did note it was very dry weather; I made the man get up, and between the sacking and the bed there was this apron and towel; and I found the other things in the empty room, as they have been described:- the prisoner said he knew nothing of them but his countenance changed very much: he was not in bed though he pretended to be.

Court- Was he or not asleep?-- He pretended to be asleep, but it is a thing Impossible for him to be asleep, because there was so much noise in the room. - - How long was it before you woke him? - - about five minutes. - - Did he appear to be asleep during that time? - - Yes, we took him to the watch-house.

Court to Miss Davis - Are you sure the cotton apron is yours? - - yes my lord, it is marked.

Prisoner's Defence.

I am very innocent another person is as likely to go into the room where I slept as I was myself, the room was always open: there was a man slept with me at times.

Court to Mr Davis - When you went up. did you find his room locked? - - No the door was open.

Court to the Publican - What time did he go to bed? -- about nine, I did not see him after.

Court to the prisoner - Have you any witnesses? - -No. - What are you? - - A joiner and carpenter. - -have you not a master to speak for you?-- My master said he would come and speak for me at the justices, unknown to me, this gentleman here heard what character he gave me; there was a man slept with me, at times.

Mr Carwardine - The man had not slept with him for two nights, and nobody was in the room but the prisoner when I went up.

Guilty. Transported for seven years.

As the trial occurred In 1784. Nathaniel spent some months in Newgate gaol, and later was transferred to a hulk at Woolwich, where he remained until the First Fleet sailed In 1787.

Nathaniel was a literate man, this would have made it a little easier for him In dealing, not only with his business, but with the socially superior authorities who were his masters.