Nathaniel LucasPrint Page

The plaque commemorates Nathaniel Lucas who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788, 

Nathaniel Lucas (1764 – 1818) was a convict transported to Australia on the First Fleet. His occupation was listed as carpenter. Lucas was tried at the Old Bailey, London, on 7 July 1784 for feloniously stealing clothing with a value of 40 shillings. Lucas was sentenced to transportation for seven years and left England on the Scarborough in May 1787.

In Sydney Lucas became a private builder, but in 1808 after the rebellion against William Bligh, he was appointed superintendent of carpenters at a salary of £50, with the extra privileges of victualling from the government stores and using assigned servants. In 1813 he was appointed superintendent of the government lumber yard, and had sixty-one men under him. In 1816 he was the builder of the parsonage at Liverpool and was associated with that at Parramatta (both demolished). In 1818 he gained the contract for building St Luke's Church, Liverpool, which Francis Greenway designed, and was present when Macquarie laid its foundation stone on 7 April. Greenway, who had quarrelled with Lucas over the hospital, quarrelled with him also over the foundations of the church, alleging that Lucas was much addicted to the bottle, and that he was using very poor stone at the church. On 5 May his body was found in the mud of the river at Liverpool; his death was said 'to have proceeded from his own act, owing to mental derangement'.

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