Amos Meek was born in 1787 and lived in Ruardean. He then moved to Monmouthshire where he worked as a shoemaker. On 17 Aug 1816, at the age of 29, he was sentenced to death commuted to transportation for life for the theft of a horse, the property of John Getten in the parish of Newland. After a spell on the Justitia at Woolwich, he was transferred to the Lord Eldon which set sail for New South Wales on 9 April 1917 and arrived on 30 September 1817.