Alexander Pearce

Alexander Pearce (1790 – 19 July 1824) was an Irish convict who was transported to the penal colony in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), Australia for seven years for theft.

[2] A Roman Catholic farm labourer, he was sentenced at Armagh in 1819 to penal transportation to Van Diemen's Land for "the theft of six pairs of shoes".

[3] He continued to commit various petty offences whilst in the penal colony in Van Diemen's Land, from which he soon escaped.

For this, he received a second sentence of transportation, this time to the new secondary penal establishment at Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour.

Greenhill, who had an axe, appointed himself leader, supported by his friend Travers, with whom he had been sent to Macquarie Harbour for stealing businessman Anthony Fenn Kemp's schooner in an attempt to escape.

Pearce was inducted into a sheep-stealing ring, and was eventually picked up with William Davis and Ralph Churton, who were both hanged for bushranging and escaping from a military escort.

In November of the subsequent year, Pearce managed to escape once again, this time accompanied by a fellow convict named Thomas Cox.

Despite his relatively small stature of 1.6 metres (5 feet 3 inches), which was below average for that era, he possessed a strong and wiry build.

[4] Alexander Pearce was hanged at the Hobart Town Gaol at 9 am on 19 July 1824, after receiving the last rites from Father Connolly.