Cirrus@Austlit

Corbyn was transported to Australia for stealing watches and other valuables from wealthy acquaintances in London. The report of his trial at the Old Bailey, which appeared in the Sydney Gazette on 18 June, 1835, describes him as 'a fine young man of about 18 years of age, the son of a captain in the navy'. Corbyn was pardoned in 1848, and during the 1850s worked as a journalist at the Empire and Bell's Life in Sydney. Corbyn appears to have remained at Bell's Life in Sydney until ca. 1859. He then spent a brief period working at the Goulburn Herald and the Wagga Wagga Express. At the time of his death he was employed as a tutor at Albury. Marriage records indicate that he married Charlotte Harper in 1852.

Corbyn is perhaps best known for his Sydney Revels of Bacchus, Cupid and Momus (1854), a collection of witty newspaper reports which he wrote whilst working as a court reporter for the Empire and Bell's Life in Sydney.