Barrington, GEORGE, pickpocket and author, was born in 1755 at Maynooth, Ireland, the son of a silversmith named Henry Waldron. In 1771 he ran away from school, and coming to London, turned pickpocket, on one occasion robbing Prince Orloff of a snuff-box, set with brilliants, valued at £30,000. Twice previously convicted, he was finally sentenced in 1790 to transportation to Botany Bay, but having on the voyage out frustrated a conspiracy amongst the convicts, he was emancipated in 1792. He became superintendent of the convicts, and high constable of Paramatta, New South Wales, where he died at a great age. His prologue, written for Young's tragedy, The Revenge, at its representation by convicts at the opening of a theatre at Sydney, January 16, 1796, is too witty to be forgotten:
From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come,
Though not with much éclat or beat of drum;
True patriots we, for be it understood,
We left our country for our country's good.
No private views disgraced our generous zeal,
What urged our travels was our country's weal;
And none will doubt, but that our emigration
Has proved most useful to the British nation.
He was author of A Voyage to Botany Bay (1801), The History of New South Wales (1802), and The History of New Holland (1808).