A Battle against the odds, Chapter 12, part 7

 A transcription of the NSW family history book A Battle against the odds, Chapter 12, part 7
This part deals with the subject of children on the Sydney-bound convict ship, Elizabeth I in 1818, and the distribution of the convicts on arrival. My GG Grandmother was on board, having been convicted in Dublin, Ireland.
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Children on the Ship

 
A feature of this voyage (and no doubt others as well) was the number of small children who accompanied their mothers. There is no mention in the shipping records of this but it is revealed when lists were drawn up in Sydney for the distribution of the arrivals. We quote a sample only to illustrate:
"Mary Carroll and 2 girls
Elizabeth Maher and 2 girls
Mary Coulter and i boy
Martha McElroy and 1 boy."
For a child to be left behind to endure the appalling conditions prevailing in Britain and Ireland then, is almost too dreadful to think about. One wonders how many family historians are unable to locate an ancestor who may have arrived as "and 1 boy"?

Distribution

 
A list dated 25th November, 1818 just six days after "Elizabeth" arrived, was sent by Secretary Campbell to H. McArthur Esq. J.P. Parramatta. It contained the names of "51 female convicts landed from the transport ship Elizabeth (2nd)". Five were assigned to individuals as follows:

Honora O'Hearne           for Mr. Moore, Liverpool
Ann Daly.......................for Capn. Brabyn
Ann McLoughlin...........for N. Bayly Esq.
Mary Bergin............ for N. Bayly Esq.
Ann Armstrong........for Mr. Williamson.

These five were unencumbered by children. The other 46 were "for teh Factory at Parramatta". All were "sent forward to Parramatta by water". Mary (no children) was listed No. 27 and her name appears as "Mary Tully".

So, exactly 20 months after John Smith was sent up the Parramatta River to the Rev. Samuel Marsden J.P. his future wife was sent the same way to the same town, this time to H. McArthur Esq. J.P.

Later she is recorded as "Maria Ellis" and in 1820 as "Mary Ellis" - "Govt. Factory". Surprisingly she appears in the Govt. Factory in 1821 even though she and John were married the year before. For her marriage on 4th September, 1820 Mary was shown as Mary Ennis. Her abode was recorded as Pitt Town. We can assume that she still had four years to serve before her sentence terminated; (Tickets of Leave were not issued to women) her name would have to appear on an official list even though she was not physically at that place.

Mary became "Free of Servitude" in September, 1824 exactly seven years after she was sentenced.
A feature of Mary's career up to her marriage is that time after time one is led to think the person researched is not our Mary, or that there are two or three different people being confused as one. But, every lead meets at the vital points and there is just no way other than one person only is involved.

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 Transcription of A Battle against the odds, Chapter 12 to be continued...