Date of Conviction: 14/03/1835

Age at Conviction: 58

Crime Convicted of: Uttering base coins

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Assizes (held at Lancaster Castle)

Sentence Length: Life

Ship Transported on: Elizabeth*

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 20/06/1836

Arrival Date: 12/10/1836

Biography: Margaret uttered two base half crowns at Rochdale. This was her third conviction at the castle for the same crime. The newspaper describes her as ‘an incorrigible utterer’. Born in Belfast and a widow twice already, Margaret could both read and write and had had eight children in her life. Margaret was the oldest female convict to actually be transported from Lancaster to Australia; she was 60 upon arrival and offered as a plain cook or laundress

She was sent to the female factory at Parramatta on arrival and was still there the next year. She applied to marry fellow widower, and free man Timothy Watts (Ship- Coromandel) and they were married 1st December 1837 at Sydney. Margaret was more than twenty years his senior. Margaret and Timothy moved to Melbourne, Victoria before 1842 and by 1852, had been joined by her adult son from her first marriage, Richard Thomas. In 1854, Margaret was again widowed when her third husband Timothy died.

At 85, Margaret had a run with the law, though now as a complainant. She had taken issue with a cider manufactory and its waste waters on Lothian Street, where she lived. After complaining to the brewer, he launched a thirty minute tirade of abuse at her. The case was found in her favour (she was described as ‘of respectable appearance’) and the defendant was heavily fined. In 1865, she was robbed of £12 by her grandson, John Thomas who was found guilty, held for three days and paid her back most of the money. Sadly, she was again in court with her grandson as in 1867 he assaulted her and threatened her life and was bound over for six months and fined £20.

Margaret died 18th September, 1868, aged 90 and was buried at Melbourne Cemetery along with her husband, later joined by her son who had erected a large monument to his ‘beloved mother’ and her husband.

*Also of note- There were three enslaved Black women onboard the Elizabeth, transported for colonial crimes in the West Indies.