David Dickinson Mann (1775 - 1811)

David Dickinson Mann was an English clerk and convict. He had been transported to the Sydney penal colony after being found guilty of defrauding Lord Charles Somerset and his baker, Thomas Farmer, in 1799. On his arrival at Sydney, he appears to have taken up a post as schoolmaster at Parramatta before pursuing a career as a clerk in various government offices. He received a full pardon in 1802 and by 1804 was serving under the Secretary, William Neate Chapman. The following year, he was dismissed from the post but retained his government-funded home. This brought him into conflict with the governor, William Bligh in 1807 and he supported the rebel faction which removed Bligh from office in 1808 (Mann then served as clerk to the rebel-appointed government). He returned to Britain in 1809.