Date of Conviction: 22/01/1812 

Age at Conviction: 27

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the New Bailey, Salford)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Emu and then Broxbornebury

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 11/11/1812

Arrival Date: 28/07/1814

Biography: Isabella had stolen a silver watch at Manchester, she had already served an 18 month imprisonment sentence before.

Like all the women onboard the Emu, she was repatriated back to Woolwich after the ship had been captured at Cape Verde. The women were later put onboard the Broxbornebury which transported them to Australia, collectively resulting in the longest duration voyage for a convict. At some point during the voyage, Isabella became pregnant and gave birth at sea, to a girl called Jane.

Isabella had given her occupation initially as a cotton picker but was assigned the role of servant in Australia. Later in life, she described herself as a needlewoman.

At arrival, Isabella was sent to the female factory but soon began a common law relationship with convict Thomas Riley (ship- Boyd) and they had two, perhaps three children together though not all were necessarily Isabella’s, referring to each other as husband and wife though by 1825 the couple no longer appear together and the children remain with their father.

In 1825, Isabella was a housekeeper in Parramatta and in 1828 for William Smith at Castle Hill.

She had a number of sentences in Parramatta in the female factory or the local jail in the 1820-40s, often for drunkenness and disorderly behaviour. One on occasion in 1824 she had to sit in the stocks after failing to pay the fine.

The last court record for Isabella is in 1841. There is a death record of a 65 year old Isabella Anderson in St Mary Magdalene parish, South Creek in 1850, this could be our Isabella.