Thomas Edmunds was born in 1820 and lived in Longhope where he worked as a labourer. On 6 March 1839, at the age of 19, he was sentenced to be transported for 10 years for breaking into the Longhope house of John Dawe with Uriah Prout and stealing a silver watch a purse a handkerchief and a piece of ribbon. After a spell on the hulk, the Ganymede, he was transferred to the Maitland which set sail for New South Wales on 22 March 1840 and arrived on 14 July 1840.