Elijah Swainson love token (front)

Elijah Swainson, 40, a ‘law writer’, was tried and convicted on 5 July 1817 for the assault and robbery of Thomas Taylor. Swainson and his two accomplices, William Drummond and Thomas Wainwright, were sentenced to death, but Swainson’s conviction was later commuted to transportation for life. He sailed for New South Wales on the Batavia in October 1817. He died at Parramatta in 1827 aged 49.