George Mealmaker was a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 radical

Radicalism (historical)

The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...

 organiser and writer, born in Dundee

Dundee

Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

, Scotland. Like his father before him he was a weaver by trade.

In the 1780s Mealmaker, along with Thomas Fyshe Palmer

Thomas Fyshe Palmer

Thomas Fyshe Palmer was an English-born Unitarian minister, political reformer and political exile.-Early life:Palmer was born in Ickwell, Bedfordshire, England, the son of Henry Fyshe who assumed the added name of Palmer because of an inheritance, and Elizabeth, daughter of James Ingram of...

 formed the Dundee Friends of Liberty group. In 1793 Mealmaker wrote Dundee Address to the Friends of Liberty in which he criticised the tyranny and despotism of the British government, for which Palmer was arrested as being the writer. Despite Mealmaker admitting that it was he, and not Palmer who had written the pamphlet the court found Palmer guilty om the grounds that he had prepared the text for publication and circulated it, and sentenced him to 14 years penal transportation

Penal transportation

Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...

. Other persons arrested in relations to the political activities of the Edinburgh Society of the Friends of the People and associated groups like The Dundee Friends of Liberty were Thomas Muir, William Skirving

William Skirving

William Skirving was one of the five Scottish Martyrs for Liberty. Active in the cause of universal franchise and other reforms inspired by the French Revolution, they were convicted of sedition in 1793-94, and sentenced to transportation to New South Wales.-Early life and farming:William Skirving...

, Maurice Margarot

Maurice Margarot

Maurice Margarot is most notable for being one of the founding members of the London Corresponding Society, a radical society demanding parliamentary reform in the late eighteenth century.-Early life:...

 and Joseph Gerrald

Joseph Gerrald

Joseph Gerrald was a political reformer, one of the "Scottish Martyrs".-Early life:Gerrald was born on Saint Kitts, in the West Indies, the only son of an Irish planter. Gerrald was brought to England whilst still a child and educated at Stanmore school, under Dr. Samuel Parr, where he showed...

. These five were transported to Australia in 1794 and 1795 and were collectively known as the Scottish Martyrs to Liberty.

Mealmaker continued his radical activities and became involved in the Society of the United Scotsmen

Society of the United Scotsmen

The Society of the United Scotsmen was an organisation formed in Scotland in the late 18th century and sought widespread political reform throughout the United Kingdom. It grew out of previous radical movements such as the Friends of the People Society, and was inspired by the events of the French...

. He continued to write treatises critical of the government and in 1797 he wrote The Moral and Political Catechism of Man for which he was arrested. Tried for sedition

Sedition

In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...

 and found guilty in 1798 he was transported for 14 years to Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Mealmaker's skills were needed in the colony, and he was put in charge of a weaving factory in Parramatta

Parramatta, New South Wales

Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...

by Governor King. For several years he did well, and was granted a conditional pardon and other rewards. The next Governor, Bligh, did not place the same value on developing weaving, a fire partly destroyed the factory in 1807, and Mealmaker died destitute in 1808, of alcoholic suffocation.