A rollocking tale!

I have started on the research into the ancestors on the Parry side of my family and have immediately run off on a side track that has nothing to do with my project! 

I was following up the sources in some other family histories when my attention was grabbed by a link to a person who was on the First Fleet. While the family link was not a direct one, I was intrigued by the story and wonder why we were not taught this at school!

The person in the story is Peter Hibbs, an early settler on the Hawkesbury River. Peter told his children some extraordinary stories, which if true, place him right in the middle of many historical events that we in the establishment of the British Colony in New South Wales.

• He claimed to have sailed on the Endeavour with Captain Cook and landed at Botany Bay with Joseph Banks.
• He was a crew member on the Sirius when she acted as flagship of the First Fleet.
• He was with Captain Phillip when he explored Broken Bay, Brisbane Water and the Hawkesbury river six weeks after the establishment of the Colony at Sydney Cove.
• He was aboard the Siruis when she completed the first circumnavigation of the globe in Antarctic waters - she had been sent for urgent supplies from Capetown.
• He was aboard the Sirius when she was wrecked at Norfolk Island in 1790.
• He helped build one of the first ships built in the Colony (the Norfolk) and was her master when she made her first voyage from Norfolk Island to Sydney.
• He was with Bass and Flinders when the circumnavigated Tasmania for the first time and was also with Flinders when he explored Moreton Bay. (Peter was master of the Norfolk when she carried the explorers on these journeys).

It all seems a tall tale at first glance - how could one man have done all that. But many of these things can be verified from official records of the time. He certainly was on the First Fleet and the voyages of the Norfolk just as he said he was. Flinders also named at least four landmarks in Tasmania after Peter.

There is also some hints that he may have been on the Endeavour. Captain Phillip wrote that Hibbs had been selected for the first fleet partially because he had 'visited these shores before'. Hibbs would have to have been very young to have sailed on the Endeavour, so would probably have been a cabin boy - that would explain why he was not listed among the crew, only the adults were listed in the ship's logs.

There is no verification of Peter being with Arthur Phillip on his 1788 expedition up the Hawkesbury, but given the rest of the story, that is not an outlandish claim on Peter's behalf.

Peter Hibbs lived to the age of 90 and was buried at Wiseman's Ferry in 1847.

The family connection? Peter Hibb's grandson was James Byrnes. James married twice. He first married Harriet Watkins, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Watkins of Mangrove Creek. After Harriet died, James married Eliza Parry, daughter of Griffith and Mary Parry, also of Mangrove Creek. Both Harriet and Eliza were my great-great-grandaunt. Harriet's sister, Sarah-Jane Parry, married Eliza's brother Griffith Parry Jr and they were my great-great-grandparents. James Byrnes was a witness at Griffith and Sarah's wedding in 1854.

The link is too obscure to include in the family history, which is a great pity, because it is such a good tale!

You can read the Peter Hibbs story on Wikipedia.