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William Bryant (c. 17571791) was a Cornish fisherman and convict who was transported to Australia on the First Fleet. He is remembered for his daring escape from the penal colony with his wife, two small children and seven convicts in the governor's cutter, sailing to Timor in a voyage that would come to rank alongside that of fellow Cornishman William Bligh as one of the most incredible ever made in an open boat.〔Cook 1993, 3〕 ==Convict== Little is known about Bryant's life before his appearance at Launceston assizes in March 1784. He is believed to be the William Bryant who was baptised in the church of St Uny, in the village of Lelant near St Ives, Cornwall, to parents William and Jane, in April 1757. Bryant worked, like the rest of his family, as a fisherman and mariner, but also became involved in smuggling and other illegal activities. In December 1783 he was apprehended at Bodmin and committed by the Mayor of St Ives for impersonating two Royal Navy seamen in order to obtain their wages. At the March assizes in Launceston he was sentenced to death, a sentence which was commuted to seven years transportation. He was taken to the prison hulk ''Dunkirk'' at Plymouth. His age at that time was given as 26.〔Gillen 1989, 57〕 Following the American War of Independence it was no longer possible to transport convicts to colonies in America and prisoners sentenced to transportation were held on the prison hulks while the government decided on a new destination. Bryant was to serve 3 years of his sentence on the ''Dunkirk'' before departing for Australia on the first fleet of ships taking convicts to Botany Bay. During these three years on the hulk he was described as behaving "remarkably well".〔Gillen 1989, 57〕 The ''Dunkirk'' held women convicts as well as men, and in March 1786 Bryant's future wife Mary Broad arrived on board. Mary Broad, who was a fisherman's daughter from Fowey in Cornwall but lived in Plymouth, had been convicted of highway robbery at the Lent Assizes at Exeter and sentenced to death. Reprieved, she was then sentenced to seven years' transportation "beyond the seas". Also with the prisoners from Exeter was James Martin who was to join the Bryants on their escape attempt. Martin's behaviour on the Dunkirk was described as "tolerably decent and orderly".〔Gillen 1989, 238-9〕 On the ''Dunkirk'' the quarters of the men and women were separated by an iron grille and it is unlikely that Bryant was the father of Mary Broad's first child, Charlotte, who was born on the voyage to Australia. More probably Charlotte resulted from a relationship with a gaoler or marine - unusually for a child born to a transported woman the name of her father was not registered.〔Cook 1993, 56-7〕 Another convict who would eventually form part of the escape party was James Cox. He arrived on the ''Dunkirk'' aged 24, already the veteran on one escape attempt. He had been sentenced to death at the Old Bailey for theft from a haberdashers, reprieved and sentenced to transportation. He had escaped from the ''Mercury'', bound for Canada, when bad weather had forced the ship to put into Torbay and the convicts had overpowered the crew. Recaptured, he had again been sentenced to death and again reprieved. On the ''Dunkirk'' he was described as behaving "remarkably well".〔Gillen 1989, 84〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Bryant (convict)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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