A remarkable survival, only the second land grant ever issued in the new colony and one of the finest assemblages of First Fleet signatures on any single document. Although exhibiting some damage, it is remarkable that it has survived at all, doubly so as it is on thick laid paper rather than the more substantial vellum of later examples. The paper itself is of interest given the scarcity of materials in the new colony: with the watermark of Honig and Zoonen, papermakers active to 1787 in Zaandyk outside Amsterdam, it is likely to have made its way to New South Wales after being taken aboard either at the Cape or in Batavia.

A remarkable survival, only the second land grant ever issued in the new colony and one of the finest assemblages of First Fleet signatures on any single document. Although exhibiting some damage, it is remarkable that it has survived at all, doubly so as it is on thick laid paper rather than the more substantial vellum of later examples. The paper itself is of interest given the scarcity of materials in the new colony: with the watermark of Honig and Zoonen, papermakers active to 1787 in Zaandyk outside Amsterdam, it is likely to have made its way to New South Wales after being taken aboard either at the Cape or in Batavia.

Phillip arrived in Port Jackson with instructions to grant every emancipated convict thirty acres, or fifty should they be married. He proved quite selective with the whole process (unlike some of his successors), and by the end of his governorship had made only ninety-five grants. Very few of those original grants have survived intact, underlining their considerable rarity. Webb's, the second such grant, marked no. 2 on the official list, was preceded only by that given to James Ruse, who was allowed 30 acres while Webb received 60 acres "on the north side of the creek leading to Parramatta."

The signatories are a who's-who of the early colony's inner circle, as it is witnessed not only by the surgeon John White, but also by the senior officer George Johnston and the purser on board the Sirius, John Palmer, while it is also prominently signed by David Collins, Judge Advocate for the colony, here described as "secretary" to the governor. Only the earliest land grants feature such senior figures. None of the signatures are at all common (White's is notoriously rare), but that of Phillip is a black pearl of early Australia, only offered for sale a few times in decades.

Robert Webb had been a sailor on the Sirius but sold out after a stint at Norfolk Island, going into partnership with his brother Thomas. His small hut on the property was built for him at Phillip's order, and his farm is actually described in Tench's second book. They did not make a go of it: Thomas died on the Hawkesbury in 1795, and Robert sold up in 1798, dying on board the Reliance en route for England the following year. The property subsequently became the dowry which Jennett Melville brought to her marriage with George Evans, later the colony's surveyor-general.

Webb was one of the first four farmers (together with Ruse, Reid and Schaffer, the last of whom developed the famous property The Vineyard) who had actually had their plots assessed almost a year earlier on 30 March 1791.

Wikipedia, in the article on "Macarthur House":

The northern shore of the Parramatta River was originally inhabited by the Indigenous people of the Wallumedegal tribe, who spoke a dialect of the Darug language.

From the initial years of colonisation, the region of Parramatta was a much sought-after area due to the rich soil in the area and its promising potential for farming and growing crops.

On 22 February 1791 Robert Webb, a seaman who arrived in Sydney on the "Sirius" with the First Fleet in 1788, was granted 60 acres on the north side of the Parramatta River by Governor Phillip, which included the location of the current Macarthur House. This was the first land grant on the river's north side and only the second land grant issued in Australia, the other being James Ruse's "Experiment Farm" grant on the opposite side of the river, which Phillip made on the same day. The extent of Webb's grant is traced today by the river frontage, Isabella Street, Webb/Morton Streets and approximately Macarthur Street. Webb had used much of his Parramatta land for farming before conveying his grant to Captain Thomas Melville for 100 pounds in 1794. Melville's… daughter, Jennett, married the surveyor George Evans (1780–1852) in 1798 in London, and Webb's grant was the bride's dowry. The couple arrived in Sydney in October 1802. Evans was initially given the position of store-keeper in charge of receipt and issue of grain at Parramatta, but in August 1803 was appointed acting surveyor-general in the absence of Charles Grimes who was on leave in England. Between 1804 and 1809 Evans farmed another grant at the Hawkesbury settlement. From 1809 he was again engaged by the government on surveying tasks and travelled widely and frequently. In September 1812 he was sent to Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) and a sale notice in The Sydney Gazette 26 December 1812, 2 published about that time describing the Parramatta property as "garden, orchards" and "stabling".