Stories and Trials of Transported Convicts by James Donohoe

Nathaniel Lucas.

Among the first group of convicts put ashore in Sydney Cove on 26th January, 1788 was a young man from Thames Ditton in Surrey named Nathaniel Lucas. Nathaniel was a carpenter-joiner or ship-frame builder.

When Nathaniel was nineteen he was already a skilled tradesman. Unfortunately, during a stay in London some stolen clothes were found in the filling of the palias (matress) on which he was sleeping. Although he protested his innocence, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years transportation.

Nathaniel is held to have been the brother of Royal Courtesan, Fanny Lucas (born in the same Parish a few years earlier) who is claimed to have had a daughter, Francis "Fanny Lucas" with Prince George, later King George IV. Fanny was the mother of John Tooth, founder of Tooth’s Brewery, once one of Australia’s leading breweries.

Nathaniel arrived on the Scarborough in the First Fleet. Shortly afterwards he was sent to Norfolk Island along with a small number of other convicts and marines, led by Lt. Phillip Gidley King, R.N. Nathaniel and King got on very well and Nathaniel, in 1805, moved to Sydney on King’s invitation to build windmills. Nathaniel also took up the appointment of Superintendent of Carpenters. He constructed Sydney Hospital, now the New South Wales Parliamentary House and the Mint Building. He did get some of the rum for which the hospital is now more prominently recalled and his family traded at a location that is now No. 1 York Street which he patriotically called the Trafalgar Inn.

Nathaniel had married on Norfolk Island and had thirteen children.(two girls (twins) were tragically killed in 1792).  Tragically, Nathaniel was a builder of the "old school" and when the volatile perfectionist Francis Greenway was appointed Government Architect, Nathaniel’s work on the construction of St. Luke’s Church at Liverpool was questioned, he suicided. During the foundation stone laying ceremony on the 25th April 1818, Nathaniel and Greenway arguing overwhelmed Governor Macquarie’s speech. The argument culminated in Nathaniel jumping into the George’s River and drowning. The tragedy stunned Nathaniel’s large family particularly his wife Olivia.

Some Lucas families hold a strong religious attachment to St. Luke whom they assert was their ancestor, Nathaniel’s family was among the first settlers to arrive in Liverpool, so it seems that Governor Macquarie named St. Lukes Church there in commemoration of the affinity between Nathaniel and St. Luke. Lucien (St. Luke) was born in Antioch, Turkey about the same time as Christ and his descendants moved to all parts of Europe. Nathaniel could have been one of them. Nathaniel was buried in the Mulgoa Cemetery, Liverpool. His body is believed to be located under the steam roller in Apex Park. His original gravestone is situated at the front door of St. Lukes Church.

Olivia Gascoigne.

Shortly after she arrived in 1788 on the Lady Penhryn, Olivia Gascoigne formerly of Severn Stoke, Worcestershire, married fellow convict Nathaniel Lucas. Olivia’s name sounds French but she was not French. The name Olivia or Oliver has been traced back several centuries among Gascoignes. The Gascoignes of the English Mid-lands are not French or Norman origin. The first Gascoignes came from Italy entered England in the 9th Century. People were surnamed "Gascoigne" pronounced "Gaskins". Sir Crisp Gascoyne, Chief Justice of England and Lord Mayor of London in the 1750’s, was of this family. The Earls of Woodhouse in Yorkshire were also Gascon in origin. The Duke of Argyle c. 1700 married into this family.

Olivia lived on Norfolk Island along side of the Wentworth family (William Charles Wentworth’s). This family of Wentworths were a line off the family of Woodhouse. The transfer of his peerage to the Wentworths occurred in the fifteenth century through the marriage of a Wentworth to one, Margaret Gascoigne (The females did not assume an Earldom, but if they were entitled, had they been male, the earldom could pass to their husband). The Earls of Stafford, residents of Wentworth Castle reveal the one Olivia Gascoigne was baptised there in 1816. It appears that the two Olivias were Aunt and Niece.

Olivia’s story itself is fascinating. She may have been born in Glenorch, Argyleshire, Scotland, in 1761, the daughter of John Gascoigne and Ann Campbell. She may have come from a middle class family. Coincidental evidence points to her being the great-granddaughter of Sir Thomas Gascoigne, Baron Lasingcroft Parlington, and Lord John Campbell, Duke of Argyle. She was literate and musical and had knowledge of accounting.

In 1784 Olivia was working as a servant in Severn Stoke, Worcestershire when she was charged with stealing a small sum of money, believed to be one shilling (10c). she was found guilty and sentenced to death. Olivia was saved from the gallows when the Magistrate announced his retirement that day and as a parting gesture he commuted her sentence to seven years transportation. Four years later she arrived in Australia aboard the Lady Penhryn in the First Fleet in company with Ann Innet who became mistress to Phillip Gidley King.

Olivia, in her own right , developed properties in Longford and Launceston, Tasmania. She did this in collaboration with the famous colonial Merchant and entrepreneur, Robert Campbell. Campbell was related to the Duke of Argyle, a cousin of Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. Olivia's family retain documents which show that Robert Campbell and Olivia were cousins. This fact though is not supported by documents found among Robert Campbell's papers although there are contemporary records that record their close relationship. It was Robert Campbell who gave Olivia the 2000 acres of land in Longford. This suggests something more than friendship.

Letters held in the Colonial Secretary’s collection reveal a close friendship between Lachlan Macquarie and Olivia’s husband Nathaniel. Of course Macquarie’s mother and wife were Campbells and also related to the Duke of Argyle. Nathaniel and son John operated properties in Liverpool and Minto until Nathaniel died. Barley was grown by both operations for the Sydney brewer James Squire and wheat for their windmilling activities in Launceston, Liverpool and Sydney City. The tragic suicide of Nathaniel and the murder of her son William sometime later led to the failure of their enterprises. Only her land in Launceston survived her.

Olivia died in Longford, Tasmania in June, 1830 aged 69 years. There have been more children born in Australia and descended from her than any other person who has arrived since 1788. Viz 40,000 by 1988.