A descendant's narrative family history of the Barber, Wyer, Avery and Davis families of colonial New South Wales, archived by the Wayback Machine from users.skynet.be/lancaster (the live site is gone). Compiled, so quality 1 by default — but unusually careful for its class: it quotes the Old Bailey sessions papers, Newgate prison calendars, certificate-of-freedom butts, English provincial newspapers and Australian musters at length and distinguishes what it has seen from what it has been told. Its transcriptions are used here as leads and as the only text for records that are paywalled or Chrome-only; where a primary record was reachable it is cited on its own.
At the Isle of Ely assizes last week, John Bentick, for stealing six lambs, the property of Mr T. Cave, of Witchford: and John Barber, for stealing a bay mare, the property of Mr R.Burgess, of Wainfleet: - were both capitally convicted, and received sentence of death, but were afterwards reprieved.
A compiled page's transcription of the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal of 25 February 1814, p. 3, which I have not seen: the British Newspaper Archive is paywalled and the paper is not on Trove. It is the fullest account of the conviction that already sits on this record through the England & Wales Criminal Registers row ("John Barber | Feb. 1814 | Cambridgeshire, England | Death"). The same page places the theft: the Stamford Mercury of 24 December 1813 advertises a bay mare stolen from a pasture at Wainfleet All Saints, Lincolnshire, on the night of 16 December, ten guineas' reward offered by Mr Robert Burgess; the Norfolk Chronicle of 15 January 1814 reports the offender committed to Ely gaol on 30 December by Robert Hardwick Esq. of Wisbech. The same page says he had been a stable hand and "was born about 1792 in Suffolk", but says explicitly that no record naming his parents is known and hedges the orphan tradition — so no birthplace is proposed here.
Jane Wyer or Wire is very hard to trace. She came to Australia free but as the child of a female convict who had a different surname (indeed, this female convict used two different ones), to be discussed below, and as a free child in shipping and census records she appears namelessly. What's more, when she is recorded, people frequently got her name wrong, writing Dwyer, Myer or Ware.
Evidence for the aka name rows added in this proposal. The spellings are not competing guesses at one true name but what the colonial clerks actually wrote, so each is recorded as its own row rather than being lost in prose. Wyer is the spelling in the 1821 marriage register and stays the primary name.
Cert. of Freedom - Notes: No.: 29/657 Date: 30th June 1829. Ship : Asia (2); Master : Reid; Year : 1822; Native Place : High Wickham, Buckinghamshire; Trade or Calling : Chimney Sweep; Offence : ---------; Place of Trial : Middlesex Goal Delivery; Date of Trial : 12 Sept 1821; Sentence : Seven Years; Year of Birth : 1802; 5 feet 5 inches; Complexion : Swarthy; Hair : Dark Brown; Eyes : Hazel.
Transcription, on a compiled family-history page, of the certificate-of-freedom butt. Quality 1 because I have not seen the butt: the register is Ancestry's NSW Certificates of Freedom and needs a browser. The same page transcribes the Old Bailey sessions paper for the trial ("JOHN AVERY was indicted for stealing, on the 4th August, one silver spoon, value 3s., the goods of Thomas Welch Hunt ... GUILTY. Aged 20. Transported for Seven Years") and the Newgate prison calendar entry of 12 September 1821. Note the internal conflict: a 1802 year of birth here, but "AGED 79 9/12 YEARS" on his monument, which would put it about April 1800. Neither the ship nor the native place has been confirmed against a record I have read.
Charlotte had already passed away 3 August 1874, aged 65, she was buried the next day in West Kempsey. John her widower was named as a sawyer in the death registration. Her birthplace is marked as London, and she had been 48 years in the colony.
Compiled page, reporting her NSW death registration, which I have not seen. Two facts here are worth chasing: a London birthplace and 48 years in the colony at 1874, i.e. an arrival about 1826 — consistent with the same page's transcript of her Old Bailey trial on 26 October 1826 ("CHARLOTTE DAVIS was indicted for stealing, on the 22nd of October, at St John at Hackney ... the property of Henry Pelling, her master ... GUILTY - DEATH. Aged 17"), a capital conviction that would have been commuted to transportation. Nothing here is asserted on the record; it is recorded so the trail is not lost.