1796: First Fleet Convict John Finlow Hanged in Sydney for Murder
John Fendlow (c.1768-1796), a tinsmith convicted at the Old Bailey in 1783 for highway robbery, arrived in Sydney with the First Fleet in January 1788. After time on Norfolk Island, he received a 30-acre land grant at Mulgrave Place in November 1794 and worked as a settler in the Hawkesbury region with his partner Eleanor Byrnes.
On 4 July 1796, Fendlow shot dead his servant David Lane after Lane attempted to assault Byrnes. Byrnes testified that all three had been drinking on a boat that evening, and that Lane had come after her in the house. Fendlow was hanged in Sydney on 8 August 1796.
