AustLit

James Martin was a bricklayer and stonemason, from County Antrim, Ireland, who was transported to New South Wales for seven years for theft. He arrived aboard the Charlotte, one of the ships in the First Fleet.

In March 1791, Martin and eight other convicts including Mary Bryant escaped aboard a stolen row boat. On their journey, they masqueraded as survivors of a shipwreck, before being recaptured and sent back to England. They arrived back on the 18 June 1792. It is thought that Martin wrote his Memorandoms by James Martin while in Newgate Prison. This text is the only surviving first-hand account of a First Fleet convict. 

Martin and the other surviving escapees were sentenced to hanging as punishment for their crime; however, they received a reprieve, largely due to the intervention of lawyer James Boswell. Martin was released from Newgate Prison on 3 November 1793. Martin's fate after his release is unknown.