On 7th July 1784 James Morrisby was sentenced in the Old Bailey to transportation for seven years for theft of a 10lb iron bar valued at 10 pence. He had been observed wrenching it from the window it secured.
James was a blacksmith and stated that he had serve about 10 years in the Guards and that he has a wife and five children. A James Morrisby from Cawood had enlisted in the Scots Guards on 3rd April 1776 he was aged 19, 5ft.7ins. tall and had brown eyes.
James was transferred from prison to the "Censor" hulk on 6th September 1787 and on 24th February 1787 he was transported by wagon for embarkation on the "Scarborough" three days later.
T he "Scarborough" was one of the convict transports of Australia's "First Fleet".
James was transferred to Norfolk Island aboard the "Sirius" in 1790.
In July 1791 James was living on a Sydney town lot and sharing a sow with Ann Brooks, also known as Ann Lavender, and her son William who had been transported aboard the "Lady Juliana" with his mother as part of the Second Fleet.
By early December James and Ann occupied 12 acres at Mt. Pitt Path (lot No. 57), this had increased to 34 acres by 1796. The family had increased by the birth of six children between 1791 and 1805.
James, Ann and five children left Norfolk Island to travel to Van Diemen's Land aboard the "Porpoise" in December 1807 as part of the demise of the first Norfolk Island settlement. They left behind them 55 acres of land, 14 of which were sown in grain, 10 in pasture and the rest fallow.
They owned 7 hogs and held 200 bushels of maize in store. Their buildings were valued at �90 included a house 12ft x 26ft, boarded floored and shingled, two floored barns and one outhouse.
In April 1809 James held 80 acres at Clarence Plains (now Rokeby) in Tasmania.

Ann Morrisby aged 51 was buried on 2nd February 1831. James married Eleanor Murphy, a convict who had arrived aboard the "Catheron" 18th November 1816 in Hobart. James Morrisby was buried at Clarence Plains on 29th May 1839. Eleanor, his wife, had been buried on 14th February 1821.