Settlers’ Muster Book, 1800

Museums of History NSW is pleased to be part of a collaboration with the NSW Parliamentary Library to digitise the Settlers’ Muster Book of 1800, an invaluable record which has been inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.

The Settlers’ Muster Book is recognised as the earliest and most comprehensive surviving record of the colony of NSW. It provides a snapshot of life during this pivotal period of early European settlement, approximately a decade after the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788. The muster book provides insights into the inhabitants of the period, and the early administrative and economic workings of the colony.

Browse the records online

The Settlers’ Muster Book is in fact two manuscript volumes containing names and details of early European settlers in NSW in 1800–02. These volumes are comprised of several lists which record:

• land and stock held by free settlers and former convicts, 1800
• land and stock held by officers, 1800
• people who are off the government stores (not receiving rations), circa 1801
• lists of persons, circa 1801
• land and stock held by free settlers, officers, or former convicts, 1802
• list of convicts allowed (assigned) to officers and others for domestic purposes who were supported by the public, 1800
• servants employed by officers, 1800.