Andrew was transported to Port Jackson for forgery on board the Rolla in 1803. He was sentenced for life, but nevertheless he was accompaned by his wife and three children. Sophia booked a cabin. When they arrived in Sydney Sophia bought a house in the Rocks and applied for a grant of land and to have Andrew assigned to her as her servant. His brother James was also convicted as Andrew’s accomplice. The story is the paper for forging the British pound notes Andrew had hidden in James house without telling James. Andrew hid the forging press in his own house in the privy. Andrew to say the least was colourful — he was a talented artist and did water colours for the Governor and he was quite literate and wrote many letters to Ireland. In one letter he wrote that the journey to Australia was the best holiday he ever had. Andrew had a taste for rum and stated his opinions, one being that Rev Samuel Marsden talked a lot of rubbish. That got him into gaol on bread and water. So he then wrote in a famous letter that the Rev Marsden was a waste of a good black smith. Andrew wrote that the Irish revolt in Sydney would not achieve anything, but that has not stopped some family and historians from claiming he was an Irish dissident. Andrew’s wife Sophia was Huguenot in descent, and other than when he was trying to get Fr Therry to get him out of goal, he was protestant in practice. James Doyle, on the other hand, was actively Roman Catholic and involved in the Roman Catholic church at Windsor.

Andrew Doyle was an opiniated person who said just what he thought particularly when he had been drinking which seems to be every day, and Sophia thought she was a cut above everyone else.

— Margaret Hardwick