Date of Conviction: 27/01/1817

Age at Conviction: 15

Crime Convicted of: Theft

Court Convicted at: Lancaster Quarter Sessions (held at the Old Moot Hall, Wigan)

Sentence Length: 7 Years

Ship Transported on: Friendship (2)

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 03/07/1817

Arrival Date: 14/01/1818

Biography: Mary Ann was a single woman of Liverpool. Along with Ruth Guest, Mary Sharpe and Sarah Robinson the women broke through locks in the castle’s dungeon tower and got onto the roof, claiming they ‘just wanted to see the fine prospect’. In punishment, they were kept in irons until departure.The surgeon’s notes onboard ship cryptically state that [Mary Ann had] “a good disposition but violent fraid of reflection?”

In February 1819, Mary Ann had committed a further crime and was sent to Newcastle penal colony for a year. She must have only just returned to Sydney when in March 1820 she was again returned to Newcastle for a further year. She was sent to the female factory in 1821. In 1822, Mary Ann requested in a petition that since her sentence would be completed in just a few years, that due to her ‘hardworking nature and conduct with propriety’ and that now, her health was suffering whilst based at Emu Plains, that she may be allowed to return home at the expiration of her sentence. The response was she was given an outfit of clothing and returned to the female factory. 1825 saw the Governor writing to Mrs Fulloon at the female factory in Parramatta to try and trace where Mary Ann had been placed in employment in the past. In 1826, still only aged 24, she was given permission to marry Joel Toll (Hindustan) though it doesn’t appear this marriage took place.