Burt, Samuel

Convict who was tried at London's Old Bailey for forgery in January 1787, a crime he committed after a rejected marriage proposal. He told the court: 'I now feel myself forever cut off from the union of a person that was most dear to me, death to me will be preferable to life'. While in prison his intended agreed to marry him, however, Burt was sentenced to transportation for life and his fiancée died of typhus before he was sent to Sydney. During the voyage he warned the ship's captain and officers of a convict group's plan for mutiny. For his role thwarting the mutiny he was granted 30 acres in Erskineville, known as Burt's Farm, on 8 January 1794 and given a full pardon by Governor Francis Grose. His land was later the site of Bakewell Brothers' Beulah Steam Brick and Pottery Works.