is said to have been born in Devon in 1772.
Arrival in the Colony
He arrived in the colony as a surgeon on the Earl Cornwallis
on 10 June 1801. He was accompanied by his wife Hannah and their infant daughter Sarah, who had been born the previous year.
John and Hannah Dight settled at Richmond and had five sons, George
, Charles, John and Arthur and eight daughters - Sarah, Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Jane, Frances, Susan and Sophia; all except Sarah, the eldest of the family, were born in New South Wales.
John Dight was promised by Governor Macquarie, 100 acres on 16th January 1816 and 300 acres on 31 March 1821 in the Parish of Warkworth. He was promised by Sir Thomas Brisbane on 12th November 1825, 450 acres at Warkworth. (Sydney Gazette 2 May 1835) The estates were called 'Stafford' and 'Clifford'. One of his sons, George, went to 'Stafford' and another, Samuel, to 'Clifford'.
On 12th November 1825 his son John Dight junior was promised 300 acres at Warkworth by Sir Thomas Brisbane.
John Dight senior died on 2 July 1837.
married Elizabeth Moore Howe daughter of John and Jane Howe
in 1841. George Dight died of consumption aged 40 on 26th February 1851 at his mother's residence at Richmond.
As well as the marriage of George and Elizabeth, the Dight family were linked by marriage with other members of the family of John and Jane Howe - Ann married James Howe, and Samuel married Sophia Howe, who died some years later: Samuel then married her sister Emma Howe.
Notes and Links
1). More about some of the descendants of John Dight -
On February 2nd, 1926, there died at his residence, Kamilaroi, Prior-avenue, Cremorne, Sydney, in the person Of Mr. James George Dight, the last descendant of the second generation of a well-known pastoral family descended from John Dight, who arrived in Sydney as surgeon of the ship Earl Cornwallis, on 10th June, 1801. The pioneer ; and his wife settled in Richmond, on the Hawkesbury. Many of the latter's sons and grandsons took up new country as pastoralists, and have helped to make this country what it is. The late Mr. James G. Dight was 85 years of age. He was the second son of the late Mr. Samuel Billingsley Dight, his mother (Miss Sophia Howe, of Windsor) being one of the daughters of pioneer John Howe, who came out by the Coromandel in 1802. It was a party from Windsor, led by that gentleman, during the years 1819 and 1820 (two trips) that discovered the beautiful country on the Upper Hunter River, which was taken up soon after. The late Mr. J G. Dight was born at Singleton in 1841, near the estate of Clifford, which his father owned, and which is still in the possession of the family
.... Windsor and Richmond Gazette 2 April 1926
(2) John Dight.....
(3) Singleton of Other Days
- The Dight Family - Singleton Argus 20 May 1935