NATHANIEL LUCAS

    Nathaniel LUCAS was sentenced at the Old Bailey in 1784 to seven years for stealing some clothing. His skills as a carpenter and builder led to him being transported to Sydney on the 'Scarborough' in the First Fleet which arrived in January 1788. From there he was transferred to Norfolk Island on the HMS 'Supply' in March 1788, as part of the pioneering party which opened up the settlement there. In 1790 he married Olivia GASCOIGNE who was also a First Fleet convict, and they went on to have thirteen children. She was an entirely more serious offender having originally been sentenced to death for robbery at gunpoint.

• Mill - 1   LUCAS directed the building of a watermill at Arthurs Vale in 1795. See Water-Powered Flourmills - NORFOLK ISLAND - 1
• Mill - 2    Later that year in July he built a small windmill at Point Hunter for himself. See Wind-Powered Flourmills - NORFOLK ISLAND - 3.
  LUCAS served out his time on the island and in addition to being the small colonies master builder, acquired 30.4 hectares of land there which he farmed successfully. In 1804, with the death of the New South Wales colonies 'Superintendent of Carpenters', Governor KING invited him to return to Sydney where he was instructed to erect the Government windmill on Church Hill - [see - mill 4]. He arrived in Sydney with his family in early March 1805 on the 'Investigator'.
• Mill - 3    On completion of the Church Hill windmill, LUCAS was promised he could erect another small post mill for himself in the Government Domain, but actually completed his own mill earlier. This mill apparently began operating in 1805. Later LUCAS leased the Domain mill to Henry KABLE and UNDERWOOD. See Wind-Powered Flourmills - NEW SOUTH WALES - SYDNEY - DOMAIN - LUCAS, Nathaniel.
• Mill - 4    In February 1806, the frame of an octagon smock mill was erected by LUCAS, near the Esplanade of Fort Phillip for the use of the Government. See Wind-Powered Flourmills - NEW SOUTH WALES - SYDNEY - MILLERS POINT - OBSERVATORY HILL - 2
• Mill - 5    LUCAS announced in November 1812 that he had erected a post mill, behind the battery at Dawe's Point. See Wind-Powered Flourmills - NEW SOUTH WALES - SYDNEY - MILLERS POINT - 1. LUCAS was also employed as the superintendent of the government lumber yard with sixty men under his control and was responsible for building part of the Sydney Hospital. In 1818 he won the contract to build St Lukes church in Liverpool. This was an unhappy commission however, because soon after he started building there was a quarrel with the architect Francis GREENWAY, in which LUCAS was accused of drunkenness and supplying inferior stone for the construction. This event is thought to have led him to drown himself in the Georges River some days later in April 1818 aged 54.
• MILL - 6    At the time of his death he had also been in the course of constructing a windmill at Liverpool. See Wind-Powered Flourmills - NEW SOUTH WALES - LIVERPOOL.

His wife Olivia died in 1830. Nathaniel LUCAS's official biography can be read here

TOP