George Barrington
| George Barrington | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
May 14, 1755 Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland |
| Died | December 27, 1804 (aged 49) Parramatta, New South Wales |
| Occupation | Pick pocket |
| Criminal charge | Theft |
| Criminal penalty | Seven years transportation |
| Partner(s) | Yeariana |
George Barrington (14 May 1755 – 27 December 1804) was an Irish-born pickpocket, popular London socialite, Australian pioneer (following his transportation to Botany Bay), and author. His escapades, arrests, and trials, were widely chronicled in the London press of his day. For over a century following his death, and still perhaps today, he was most celebrated for the line "We left our country for our country's good." The attribution of the line to Barrington is considered apocryphal since the 1911 discovery by Sydney book collector Alfred Lee of the 1802 book in which the line first appeared.
Barrington was born at Maynooth, the son of a working silversmith named Waldron, or Captain Barrington, English troop commander.
At some point in the 1785–1787 period he married and the couple had a child, but the names of the wife and child, and their eventual fates, are not known.
While enjoying the beginnings of his prosperity in Australia, Barrington romanced and cohabited with a native woman, Yeariana, who soon left him to return to her family. Barrington said that Yeariana possessed "a form that might serve as a perfect model for the most scrupulous statuary."
In 1771 he robbed his schoolmaster at Dublin and ran away from school, becoming a member of a touring theatrical company at Drogheda under the assumed name of Barrington. At the Limerick races he joined the manager of the company in picking pockets. The manager was detected and sentenced to transportation, and Barrington fled to London, where he assumed clerical dress and continued his pickpocketing. At Covent Garden theatre he robbed the Russian Count Orlov of a snuffbox, 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 pocket-picking at Drury Lane theatre.
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