Date of Conviction: 31/08/1816

Age at Conviction: 45

Crime Convicted of: Uttering Forged Notes

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

Sentence Length: 14 Years

Ship Transported on: Friendship (2)

Where Arrived: Port Jackson, New South Wales

Departure Date: 03/07/1818

Arrival Date: 14/01/1818

Biography: Mary, a cotton weaver, had uttered four forged £1 notes at Manchester. She was described by the ship’s surgeon as an “inoffensive deviant old woman”. Her husband Charles was also convicted at the the Lancaster Assizes and was transported in 1819 having also uttered a base coin (third conviction); they reunited in Australia the following year along with their two children who were transported with Mary. Their remaining son was left in England and in 1824, the couple appealed to the governor for a paid passage for him; suggesting if not granted he may break the law in order to be transported anyway. This was not granted and Charles died in September 1826 (buried as William Bridge at St Johns). Mary got her certificate of freedom in 1830 when she was described as 4ft 11 1/2 inches tall, grey haired, brown eyes (the right one weak), fair and freckled complexion and she was a native of County Tyrone. She died in August 1832 and is buried at St John’s Parramatta where her burial record states she was ‘Free. Weaver’s widow’, she was 61.