William Eggleton (alias Bones)
| Date of birth |
Place of conviction |
Date of conviction |
Sentence |
Transport ship |
| 1761 |
Kingston upon Thames |
23/3/1786 |
7 years |
Alexander |
Eggleton appeared at the Surrey Lent Assizes together with another man in connection with the theft of clothing, a chest, and a padlock from a house. He was convicted for stealing goods (value 39 shillings), though not of breaking and entering. Only some three weeks after arriving at Sydney Cove, Eggleton married fellow convict Mary Dickinson (see above). In 1791 he was one of a group of 26 men, chosen by Governor Arthur Phillip as being the most reliable convicts, who established a farming district around the area of Prospect Hill to help feed the starving colony. William went on to pursue a career in farming, receiving a 60 acre land grant at Prospect Hill in 1793, leasing land at Petersham, purchasing land at the Field of Mars, and farming at Windsor. By the mid-1810s he was working on land granted to him in the district of Airds (60 acres behind the modern Macarthur Shopping Square at Campbelltown). The 1822 NSW Muster shows him as being employed on the property of his son-in-law Robert Lack. In 1823 he received another grant of land at Bargo (50 acres).