Many of the girls who arrived aboard the Lady Penrhyn became friends. They came from similar backgrounds and circumstances and supported each other during the long voyage and in Port Jackson. Two of these women were Frances Davis 22 and Mary Marshall 29, who is not to be confused with the other Mary Marshall, also on Lady Penrhyn. Early in the morning on 2 September 1785, Frances Davis, spinster, broke into the house of Agnes Bennett widow, and stole one Canvas Bag and Continue Reading »
Rebecca Boulton
Mother and child were buried within a week of each other at Sydney Cove in April 1788. The child Rebecca Bolton/Boulton was born in Lincoln Gaol around April 1786 as her mother Rebecca awaited embarkation on the Prince of Wales. It was stated at her trial, that as Rebecca Gibson, she had married Thomas Bolton at Panton Lincolnshire in 1778. Rebecca, was aged 23 when tried at Lindsey Quarter Session at Spilsby Lincolnshire on 16 July 1784. She gave a voluntary confession on 8 May Continue Reading »
First Fleeters – What did they do?
Some First Fleeters’ and the jobs they did: Augustus Alt, Surveyor Thomas Arndell, Assistant Surgeon Henry Lidgbird Ball, Captain of Supply William Balmain, Assistant Surgeon, later principal Surgeon Lieutenant William Bradley, author of journal, water colourist Henry Brewer, clerk to Phillip, Provost Marshall, administrator Ralph Clark, 2nd Lieutenant , author of journal David Collins, Judge Advocate, author Dennis Considen, assistant surgeon Lieutenant William Continue Reading »
Parramatta
About 24 km west of Sydney NSW. Parramatta is the second oldest settlement in Australia being established in 1788, only nine months after Sydney. Captain Phillip would probably have made it his chief base if he had found it earlier, because its fertile soil was vital to the infant colony. The original name Rose Hill, survives in a local racecourse. Continue Reading »
Missing Cattle
Listed on the manifest of the First Fleet were two bulls and five cows. These creatures were to form the basis of our cattle industry. Unfortunately only six months after arrival the herd escaped into the bush and were lost. It was to be another eleven years before the original herd was found grazing quietly at a site called Cowpasture. By 1878 the first set-back had well and truly been overcome and cattle numbers throughout the Australasian colonies exceeded seven million. Continue Reading »
Ship Hire
Nine of the eleven vessels which formed the First Fleet were hired at a cost of 10 shillings per ton per month. The merchant vessels hired by the Government were: Alexander, Lady Penrhyn, Charlotte, Scarborough, Friendship, Prince of Wales, Fishburn, Golden Grove and Borrowdale. The two naval vessels were, of course, Sirius and Supply. Continue Reading »
Ann Daly : John Seymour
Port Jackson November 1788, convict girls Ann Daly (Warburton) and Amelia Levy were sharing a hut together. A fire was kept lit between their hut and Ann Farmer; sometimes in the evenings John Ryan and Bartholomew Reardon took advantage of the warmth from the fire. During the evening of 11 November a man had come into the girl’s hut and taken some clothing. Ann claimed that she was lying awake in her hut when the door opened and a man came in. She thought the man had come in after Continue Reading »
Dorothy Handland / Gray
Dorothy Handland is claimed to be the oldest female convict to have sailed on the First Fleet and one of the most colourful. Arthur Bowes Smyth estimated Dorothy be 82 years old, but in Newgate Prison she was recorded as 60; another entry has her as 62, which is most likely correct. Bowes Smyth’s pen and ink side faced sketch of Mother Gray, depicts a woman with a very pointy nose and chin, wearing a bonnet. Shoemaker Robert Grey married Dorothy Coolley on 22 September 1766 Continue Reading »
Nancy Yates
Like many of his fellow officers, Captain David Collins who became the Colony’s Judge Advocate, took convict women as mistresses during his years in Sydney Cove and Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land. One of his mistresses was convict milliner Nancy / Ann Yates / Yeates. She was tried as a single-woman aged 17, at Yorkshire Summer Assizes held at York on 9 July 1785 with Jonathan Howard for burglary. Breaking and entering into the dwelling of John Strickland in the township of Milton Continue Reading »
Seamen
Seamen were are tough bunch of men. They crewed the First Fleet ships, fathered children to convict women, settled in the new colony, while others died on the inward and outward voyages. Life at sea during the age of sail was filled with dangers, even though these men were familiar with the discomfort and hardship of ship life. Seamen were separated from their homes and families for long periods at sea. They were crowded below decks in skimpy and cramped living conditions, Continue Reading »
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