Cirrus@Austlit

Born in Canada and raised in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, William Redfern passed the examination of the London Company of Surgeons in 1797, and began working as a surgeon's mate on sailing vessels.

After the mutiny on the HMS Standard in 1797, in which Redfern was found to have sympathised with and encouraged the sailors, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death, with the sentence commuted to transportation in consideration of his age.

Redfern served four years in an English prison, before being transported to New South Wales in 1801. He was granted a conditional pardon on his arrival in Sydney and a full pardon in 1803. He worked as a surgeon and physician, apparently with a large private practice, until his retirement in 1826.

He went to Edinburgh in 1828, and died there sometime in July 1833.