George Barrington

A Voyage to Botany Bay (Dodo Press) George Barrington

George Waldron (1755-1804) aka George Barrington, was an Irish pickpocket and later a policeman. In 1771 he robbed his school-master at Dublin and ran away, becoming a member of a touring theatrical company under the assumed name of Barrington. At the Limerick races he joined the manager of the company in pocketpicking. At Covent Garden theatre he robbed a Russian Count of a snuff-box, said to be worth £30,000. He was detected and arrested, but as Count Orlov declined to prosecute, was discharged, though subsequently he was sentenced to three years hard labour for pocketpicking at Drury Lane theatre. On his release he was again caught at his old practices and sentenced to five years hard labour, but influence secured his release on the condition that he left England. He accordingly went for a short time to Dublin, and then returned to London, where he was once more detected pocket-picking, and, in 1790, sentenced to seven years transportation. His works include: A Voyage to Botany Bay (written as George Barrington) (1795), The History of New South Wales (1802), The History of New Holland (1808) and A Sequel to a Voyage to Botany Bay (1801).