Victualing Order for Convict James Belbin's wife and son from Lieutenant Governor Thomas Davey, 29th April 1814

Abstract

Victualing order for James Belbin's second wife and son James, from Lieutenant Governor Thomas Davey, 29th April, 1814. James was transported to N.S.W. in 1791. He later settled on Norfolk Island and received a grant of land. He and his first wife, Ann Meredith had six daughters and a son, James, between 1793 and 1803, but in 1805 his wife died in childbirth and one of his six year old twin daughters also died. In 1808 Belbin and his children, with the other Norfolk Islanders, were resettled in Van Diemen's Land, receiving supplies from the Government Stores. He was twice arrested for remaining loyal to Governor William Bligh. In 1811 he went to London to petition for the restoration of his rights as a Norfolk Island settler and was granted a free passage back to Van Diemen's Land in 1813, land at Cambridge and Government victuals for eighteen months for himself, son James and his new second wife.